Planting tomatoes now - Husky Cherry Red

16 years ago

The only small, bush, cherry type that I can find right now is Husky Cherry Red.

Has anyone else planted them at this time of the year in zone 10-11, and how did they do for you?

All day sun?

Afternoon shade?

I'm planting in 100% Promix in 7gal nursery pots and mixing time release veg fertilizer in the top 3 inches, should I also add lime?

Any help you guys can offer would be greatly appreciated. I've never planted tomatoes this time of the year before.

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Comments (9)

cindeea
16 years ago
Hi Corrie, My Husky's are about done now. In zone 10 it is starting to get pretty hot for tomatoes. They easily get blight and bugs and loose their leaves. They may do ok if you have them in a screen enclosure or in some partial shade. They are one of my fav tasting cherries and are nice and firm. My other favorite small tomatoes are Sweet 100s and Yellow Pear. But rarely do them last into summer. Generally I plant fall, winter or early spring tomatoes.
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ladyaustin96
16 years ago
Cindeea,

I just planted my toms end of march...should I not have bothered?

Kim
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Sid, I generally see it called Husky Cherry Red; afaik, that and Husky Red Cherry are its only two names. It is a hybrid dwarf, growing to about 4'. [It is not the same tomato as Husky Red.] Large Red Cherry is open-pollinated; the vine will probably grow to at least 8'; and its fruit are usually slightly larger (either a large cherry or up to 2", depending who's describing it). Husky Cherry Red is one of the varieties available at our Walmart, grown by Bonnie Plants (their pots usually have green plastic ring label along the top edge, if that sounds familiar to you). Our Lowe's and Home Depot usually have Bonnie tomatoes, so you might try looking there if there are any stores close to you. [Be aware that Bonnie doesn't ship all the varieties it sells to every part of the country.] If you'd like to buy some seeds and grow your own next year, Tomato Growers Supply and Totally Tomatoes probably carry it.
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Likely just the heat causing the plant to be unable to get water to the top new growth. My plants (in Southern Cal) did that during our recent heat wave. Most recovered with watering and the arrival of evenings but a few of the leafs wilted/died permanently, probably because it took me too long to notice-- in the triple digit dry heat + wind here that took about 6-8 hours. Unless the rest of the plant starts showing more symptoms now that we've cool down a bit, I would just chalk it up to the heat and maybe to remember checking on the plants a little meow often during the next hear wave and offer some shade and/or water.
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Thanks seysonn. Back to the topic at hand, I actually have a Husky Cherry Red tomato and the Bonnie tag said Indeterminate. I planted it in a raised 4x8 bed. 4x6 was allocated to 6 indeterminates in 2 rows of 3 all outfitted with Texas Tomato cages. When I noticed the Husky Cheery Red was a lot shorter than the others, I went to the Bonnie site and it said it was a dwarf indeterminate. It too was stocky in nature and removed the TTC and added one 1x1 stake. Should have left the cage. One branch split from the maturing fruit but was able to add a bamboo stake and it survived. It's currently about 3' high and has multiple stakes. I like the "tangy" Husky Cheery Red, but prefer the sweeter little Sun Sugars (pictured) though it's a monster plant that is over 8' tall. I added another 2' TTC extension the other day. Poor Husky has to fend for itself between a zucchini and a Gold Medal even though I thought I had allowed enough room between plants. I chuck this year as a learning experience and hope to give everyone more room next year with wider spacing and additional beds.
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We've grown Husky Cherry Red F1 (in 2014, outdoors), and I've grown out some F2 through F5 seeds, too. The taste for me was good and well-balanced, but fairly normal. It was a lot like the taste of our Roma tomatoes that we grew the same year (but softer fruits). The fruits split easily (when picked). They were early (exactly as early as Early Girl F1, which was early as advertised for us). It's a dwarf indeterminate, which is a rare plant habit (almost all dwarfs are determinate). Dwarf indeterminate basically means it's small, but it keeps growing and fruiting all season (it can get pretty big, but it takes a while doing it; ours did not stop growing at around 4 feet; the older it got, the faster and more it grew, and the more it produced). It's not a tree-type dwarf (it crawls if you don't stake it). It has rugose foliage. The fruits are a good size for a cherry (definitely not a currant tomato). They are practically white (or a light green) when unripe. It's prolific, heat-tolerant, drought-tolerant, and cold-tolerant. Two of my relatives seemed to like the taste. They made good squirt guns (if I squeezed the fruit, they would squirt seeds very far in the intended direction). Our plant was transplanted a few weeks early (probably around April 25th), I think, with green tomato Wall O' Waters. Our last frost is usually about May 10th, and I think that year it was around then. Early Girl F1 (x 2), Roma (x 2), Lemon Boy F1, Bush Goliath F1, and Park's Whopper F1 had the same treatment. They were in compact soil. Bush Goliath F1 and Park's Whopper F1 didn't do so well (even if Park's Whopper was a joy to eat, texture/skin-wise). Lemon Boy F1 did okay. The others were all prolific. I started some Husky Cherry Red F2 plants for 2015 and kept them indoors too long before the transplant. They didn't fruit indoors like some tomatoes (e.g. Solanum cheesmaniae) did. If the F1 is anything like that, I would think other kinds of tomatoes would be a better fit for indoor production. Anyway, the F2s I started indoors didn't turn out very well after the transplant, but some of those that volunteered did very well and had excellent very sweet and somewhat acidic taste (they tasted kind of like sweet tarts candies), while being excellent, firm storage tomatoes (without any splitting). The F3s, F4s, and F5s all tasted good (some sweeter than others) and weren't prone to splitting until the F5 where it turned yellow (probably crossed with Sweet Orange Cherry from the year before, due to similar double-fruits in both plants), but the F2s and one miniature F4 had the best taste, IMO. I preferred most of them flavor-wise to the F1 (but others might think the reverse, except for the F2). Well, I preferred the red ones to the yellow F5s. Most of the plants were prolific, except for the F3s and the F2s that I started indoors. The volunteer F2s were early (one I started indoors was super late, though), but subsequent generations were not early (but kind of midseason-ish). I'm guessing the F1 can taste like the F2 did for me in certain other growing conditions, based on what I know about it. The F2 tasted a lot like a good Sugar Lump (AKA Gardener's Delight) tomato.
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treefrog_fl
16 years ago
I just pulled the last of my tomatoes today.
It's been a pretty good season, not the best. My fault.
But by May, tomatoes are pretty much done here. The spidermites have taken over. Stinkbugs are here big time. Nematodes have taken their toll.
Time to plant them in New Jersey or Ohio IMO.
Start seeds in Aug/Sept for a winter crop. Beware of a freeze though.
Start some more seeds around the first of January for a spring crop.
Best advice I can give.
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cindeea
16 years ago
Kim...what Froggy said! Still, if your plants bear fruit, hang on. My greenery will go Kaputz and still I can get a few doz more tomatoes before they completely go under. depends on where you have them planted too. If they are in a somewhat shady or sheltered area, you still may get more mileage. Keep us posted, you guys, err, um...gals, on how yours do.
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ladyaustin96
16 years ago
Ok...but I have three plants flowering and I have been babying about 25-30 seedling plants in the veggie garden. Am I wasting my time with these??

Kim
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corrie22
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks you guys and gals. I was afraid of that.
I had just pulled all of my winter plants and was hoping maybe a cherry type might make it.
Looks like I'm going to have to go through tomato withdrawal for a few months!

Is there a support group for this!
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karen_florida
16 years ago
I planted a whole bunch of tomatoes, peppers and eggplants deliberately too close together in a raised bed, thinking they'd shade each other when the heat came. Well, they were going gangbusters and are covered with baby green fruits - and getting yellowed and saggy and blightey from having their leaves all mashed together and no air circulation. I'm frantically squirting Daconil with one one hand and crossing the fingers on the other one, just hoping to get one dang tomato out of it before they all gasp their last. Live and learn, I guess! I'm planting next years tomatoes on the damn couch in my living room - evidently the wimpy little farts need even more air conditioning than I do!
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atreelady
16 years ago
I have tomatoes on a trellis almost up to the roof. They were planted from seed last fall. Yesterday I saw little tiny worms on them so I am trying spraying with lemon dish soap - Just a little smig in a spray container with water. I am going to try and see how long I can keep them going. They look so pretty on the trellis.

I have tomatoes in another garden (from saved seed again) that are doing fine so far. However the watermelon and cantalope near them have what looks like aphids. I am spraying the aphids with neem and lemon soap mixed.

Spraying is a pain because those bugs are smart and stay on the under side of the leaves so they are hard to get to. My stuff has so many leaves that I really can't get all of them. My past experience with this organic spraying is that you have to keep doing it every few days because even if you get all the bugs (which I don't) more will hatch. And of course I pick off the leaves that are really infected. But I overcame bugs earlier with my potatoes and strawberries this way so I am hoping.
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corrie22
Original Author
16 years ago
"I'm planting next years tomatoes on the damn couch in my living room - evidently the wimpy little farts need even more air conditioning than I do!"

Karen that cracked me up! and it's so true.

How many of you guys have already figured out that I went on and bought two of the Husky's and planted them?

I can't help it!
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Planting tomatoes now - Husky Cherry Red

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Planting tomatoes now - Husky Cherry Red

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