Thanks. I notice Johnny's has Sakura. I will try it.

I tried Sakura last year and I wasn't impressed. It also is much larger than the other cherry tomatoes that I was growing. It was more like Mountain Magic in size, large marble to golfball. It didn't fit in very well with the others in the mix.

Just my thoughts,

Jay

I've grow yellow mini, nature bites, sweet olive, indigo and sun gold. I was very impressed with yellow mini. It's taste and quality was great. It also had the highest yields and produced the longest. Sun Gold was the sweetest in fact I had some customers tell me that they were to sweet for them. The indigo was a little to large to mix with the other cherry's and they were slow to come on and hard to sell. The yellow and orange varieties always sold before the red.

I disagree with Jrslick on Sakura size. I've had plants next to Favorita for the last few years and they are almost identical in size.
The Sweet Treats (pink) are larger and yet still not as large as Mt Magic. Just be careful in selecting some of these new artisan varieties as some are more like saladette tomatoes, a bit on the large side to mix with other cherry/grape types.
I have tried Jasper this year before realizing that how tiny those are. I also dislike picking tiny ones. Of the 24 varieties I grow I can only say that I like the percent of each that I've settled on over that last 2 years. You won't regret a few green types but I wouldn't plant more than 5% of them. I've ordered a few Bumblebee varieties but they may be so similar to Red, Black Zebra that I may regret the investment; those heirloom varieties aren't very tasty, they are as hard as rocks and Red Zebra is my all time Blossom End Rot leader.

With the mix on Johnny's , it seems like a good way to go, but I am wondering if people will like the torpedo shaped ones and green ones, or be put off because they are not used to those things in cherry tomatoes.

Bmoser: I am glad to hear someone who had a different experience than me. I still have some seed from last year, so I will try them again and hope for a different outcome.

I agree on your side about disliking picking small cherry tomatoes. The past two years I have planted a second planting to kick in around early September. That helps me keep the size up and then I can tear out the first planting and prep the ground for our fall transplants for winter.

Jay

Don't get me wrong about Favorita- its my all-time favorite cherry tomato and I'd pay the 1$/seed price of yesteryear although I noticed that Johnnys dropped the price. Sakura is right up there in its ability to maintain fruit size throughout the season. Others who have purchased plants from me of both of these have given comments of praise.

I think that most of the cherry/grape types should be in the 14-24 gram range (28grams/oz) to nicely mix in boxes for marketability. In the case of these new entries that range might be tested so they might be better if presented seperately- sort of what one might do with the saladette or cocktail tomatoes. I'm just curious as to what others do?

If growing cherry sized tomatoes, the one that must be on my list every single year is Yellow Pear. People will pick those out, if given a chance, versus any other. It's a heirloom that tastes wonderful, even to non-tomato eaters.

I have also grown Isis, very pretty whitish tomato with good taste. Snow white has done good for me.

Black Cherry grows very sweet for us, but I've tasted it from other farms and it wasn't worth eating. Possibly our ground. Black Cherry is different that Chocolate Cherry to my taste, so don't confuse them. Many seed companies say that they are the same thing, but not for my experience.

I have a grandson that has become a tomato tasting expert. His favorites are Black Cherry, then Yellow Pear, everything else comes in lower in his thoughts. Both the Black Cherry (I always bought from Tomato Growers) and Yellow Pear will produce more than you want to pick, and sell very well.

I've grown both Mountain Magic and Sakura in the same year and they were definitely not the same size here.

Well, I'm throwing a few of the artisan cherries in my cherry tomato row. We should have this conversation again at the end of the season.

Been doting on this a little , I really like the way ek's and Jays tomatoes look in the photos than the Johhny's collection. Much more interesting , the pears look nice.

I have grown a lot of those, or similar but not so much in the same season to mix them....looks good though. That's said I'll do a few from the types that are in the "artisan" collection to see how the are firsthand...good thread!

A friend brought some of the orange jelly beans over this weekend, she still has them producing in her back yard...those were really good. Only $2.99 @ botanical interests.

I bought the Sunrise and Pink Bumble bees. I was afraid either other vendors would have the plants and fruit or customers would ask and I wouldn't have them. I bought 100 seeds of each because cherry tomato plants always sell well.

deleted, possible thread-jack.

This post was edited by rustico_2009 on Thu, Jan 23, 14 at 19:44

I started Dr. Carolyn and Galinas for yellow cherries (Ester Hess doesn't look like she's going to survive - CAES told me it might be powdery mildew). SS100, Gardner's Delight, Camp Joy for reds, Cheeseman's for a grape. Green Doctor and I might pick up a Black Cherry but I've got so many "salad" varieties this year on top of the slicers and beefsteaks (trying Orange Minsk and Golden Queen along with blacks/pinks/reds) that I don't know if I have room for more cherry tomatoes.

I hate the taste of Yellow Pear, Sweet Beverley is a good alternative.

When Myfamily posted about Yellow Pear I wondered too but I do know that kids like the bland flavor. Never tried Sweet Beverly but there has to be a limit since I'm at over 30 small fruited varieties already and everyone must agree that they do take longer to pick.

Myfamily, you didn't mention about the Isis Candy yield. I just planted 2 plants of them this year b/c they are pittiful producers for a small fruited type. The one criteria for any small fruited type is that it must produce hundreds of tomatoes per plant.

The Chang Li is called a Chinese yellow pear, but the fruit are oblong. It's my favorite cherry tomato to eat. It grows like a weed, too, seems to have the vigor of a hybrid. It's the first heirloom tomato that has made me question the idea that heirlooms are for hobby gardeners and hybrids are for market gardeners. I still think that is generally true, but there are obviously still heirloom varieties that can be profitable to grow on a small farm.

It always amazes me to see how many people dislike yellow pear, but every year people want to buy the plants, they ask for them in the mixed baskets or even if I would sell them a whole baskets. This year, I planted a few more (5 or 6). I even had a person ask me in January if I was going to have any of those little yellow light bulb tomatoes.

IsIs Candy has a terrible yield. I grew it for two years and never again.

It does take time to pick, but we usually always sell out of the Cherry tomatoes every week, so it does make it worthwhile. Also we are the only person at our market who sells such a wide variety and it sure helps with sales!

Jay

Yes those are the people that don't know there is anything better. Like the people that don't realize there are other gold potatoes besides Yukon.

But Yukon actually tastes good...

I planted two varieties of the Artisan cherrys. They are nice sturdy vigorous plants but they are about half the height of the rest in my row of mixed cherries. So much so that I went back to revisit the catalog to make sure they were actually indeterminate. They are....so time will tell.

Same here, mine are short, too. My white cherry seedlings are twice as tall, so are my sungolds, which I am happy to have just found. They will be the orange cherry in my mix.

I think they are actually semi determinate depending who you ask.

As for Yukon Golds, they taste fine but are known to produce much less than other golds and yes I have tested this.

I'm confused as to what "artisan cherries" are... Are we talking heirloom/open pollinated varieties, or something else?

I grew 3 open pollinated varieties last year - Black Cherry, White Cherry, and Chadwick Cherry. Mixed them all together in the same basket, and they were my best selling item. People love cherry tomatoes, and if you mix varieties for stunning aesthetic effect, people will literally eat it up.

Out of the 3, Chadwick (Peaceful Valley) produced the best, although they were rather large sometimes (up to golf ball size). Black Cherry (Seedsavers Exchange) was the sweetest and almost as prolific as Chadwick. I highly recommend both these varieties. White Cherry (Seedsavers) was rarely white, mostly yellow (unless grown in extreme shade), not a great producer, prone to cracking, and the least productive of the 3. But I do think the contrasting color made the variety pack more appealing.

fire80, In this case "artisan" is just what Johnny's is calling their latest new tomatoes. They're striped. They say they are trademarked, and as far as I can tell they are open pollinated. I decided to give two of them a try this year.

Artisan series tomatoes are the new OP line from Baia Nicchia farm in CA. Several seed companies are carrying them. Johnny's did not develop them.

I was confused at first, too. Artisan is the name of the seed company that developed them. Johnny's contributed to Artisan, and is now the main seller of the varieties.

I've exchanged messages with the Artisan owner on another forum, and he is by all indications a great guy. I feel like I am lucky to get to talk to him, and that it shows a lot of character on his part that he will answer questions from someone as small-time as me. I asked him if the plants were indeterminate and would get big, and he said yes, although they start out slow.

That is an interesting finding. I too noticed considerably shorter transplants and decided to give them a try in an outer row in a high tunnel, 6 1/2 ft. from the truss. So far other cherry/grape varieties are arounf 4 ft tall and Artisan types around 2 foot tall. There are differences in foliage growth- the Tiger series appear to carry the "Whispy" gene; Bumble Bee types almost seem to have dwarf plant compactness. If they do decide to start growing at a catch-up pace I'd be very surprised.

The wispyness isnt so good for me with the high winds and excessive heat and humidity. They seem more delicate than the other cherry plants we have. They were hardened off and had been out in full sun for a month and one day that was windy and high 80's I came home from work to find the tigers had shriveled right up. The bumblebees not as bad. They have been protected and recovering for about 10 days now and should make it but none of the other plants were even affected. I had younger smaller plants of several different varieties that were in the same environment and were fine.

So I'm not sure my artisans will make it through the summer here but thats whay I only germinated one seed of each type. If yhey dont make it I will try again in fall when conditions are more favorable here.

Has anyone tasted any of the artisan tomatoes?

Ginny

My artisan cherries have caught up to the other varieties. The row in this pic is all non-red cherries; the half closest to the camera are the artisans.

Picked a few ripe ones, mostly Sunrise Bumble Bee and the flavor is good. But my Bumble Bee plants are still quite short and another issue is the profuse suckers on various leaf positions has me disliking the plants more than before. The Purple Bumble Bee fruits so far are notably larger than Sunrise or Pink. I'll admit the "Catseye" color scheme makes the box of tomatoes very attractive for market sales.

Just a small comment. When I've seen boxes of cherry tomatoes in mixed colors in the grocery store, I wanted it until I saw the green cherry tomatoes in it, then I left it there. I realized that it was probably ripe, but I don't grow green tomatoes in my own garden and I don't eat fried green tomatoes and I just would prefer a mix of yellow's, reds, purples, orange. Just one person's opinion. :-)

Anyone have any updates on the bumblebees and tigers?

Ginny

I've picked a few, just enough to eat. The pic below includes some other varieties like White Cherry and Pink Egg.

I think the green ones are actually my favorite to eat. They would be fun to give to customers who tell me they won't like them.

Here is a link that might be useful:

I'm not too impressed with them yet. I'll be taking my first cherries to market next week but the Artisans won't be ready for at least another two weeks. The shortness of the plant and the profuse suckers are annoying. So it remains to be seen if the taste is worth it. If they do taste good I think it would be a good plant for the home garden, something to consider if you grow starts to sell.

I have the green tiger (torpedo) and the red bumble bee they both are really nice and taste good. I am not selling them but if I did they would accent pints of mixed cherries not go as stand alone baskets, or maybe do 1/2 pints and charge almost as much or as much as a pint of more prolific types. They just are making a good amount of tomatoes but not like many others. Also my first time seeing such wispy kinds of plants.

My favorite eating cherry this year is the red jelly bean. really neat looking egg like shape and great taste a little crunchy which is different.

The yellow pears are coming out almost orange and taste better this year than in previous years and are not cracking. These were plants I bought at a hardware store! Yep, I held water back. The plants are not as vigorous but the tomatoes are way better.

All my tomatoes taste great this year, I gave them a lot less fertilizer( compost) and didn't spoil them with water.

My only update after picking hundreds is that the yield is so-so, fruit size is variable and longitudinal splitting with Green Tiger is a bit of an issue.
Would I plant them again next year? Probably, but sparingly. I do notice customers seem to prefer them, often refering to them as "Heirloom" varieties.

I took my first batch to market last Saturday and sold them all. They were a hit. I put a sign on them that said "Artisan Cherry Tomatoes." I didn't get any flack over the green when ripe being included in the mix, which surprised me.

My 81 y/o grandma loves them. She kept saying how pretty they were. She tried a purple bumble bee and said she loved the taste, and that is coming from a fellow tomato snob like me. We're used to great-tasting tomatoes, so we are not easy to please.

I had thought there would be lower yield from the Artisans, but I think it's about the same as my other varieties. They do ripen about 1-2 weeks later than the others though.

I did get blossom end rot from not watering enough, but my other cherry varieties in the same row got it just as badly, even Chang Li, which I thought was invincible to BER. Next year, I am going to run two pieces of drip tape on each row and also buy a timer for watering to try to get more consistent moisture levels.

Another thing I have to get better at for next year is pruning to a single stem. My seedlings had the top freeze out in the greenhouse, and grew into bushes that flop onto the ground. Picking is more difficult, and stink bugs are bad. Pruning to a single stem and getting all fruit as far as possible from the ground is definitely the way to go.

Overall, I'm happy with the Artisans, and I will include them in my cherry mix for next year.

Here is a link that might be useful:

This post was edited by Cole_Robbie on Sun, Jul 13, 14 at 14:09

barrie2m_(6a, central PA) What is the difference between sakura and favorita in terms of yield and taste? Which one would be a better commercial variety? I asked johnny's and they said sakura is the best tasting red tomato for GH. What's ur opinion about that.

Good question. They are both good yielding and both with similar disease resistances but I like the fact that Favorita produces 4- 5 slightly smaller 20-22g ripe tomatoes on a cluster to 1-2 of the larger 24-26 g Sakura. IMO Sakura fruit size is right at the upper limit for a cherry and that does differ from what I had written in an earlier statement but it is more correct. Note that Sakura fruit size is still notably smaller than the artisan Bumblebee tomato sizes. Since they also both hold their size well throughout the season I just lean more toward Favorita. And dispute Favorita's slightly smaller fruit size one can fill a gallon container in about the same time with either. It's not like with Jasper where the jelly bean size fruit are scattered randomly on the plant and it takes twice as long to fill a gallon container.

Johnny's might know more about taste but there is something to be said for mouth feel and I slightly prefer to pop a Favorita in my mouth than a Sakura. I believe that many of the female students that buy them from me in half-pint containers feel the same. I'll grant that Sakura has a beautiful glossy appearance and quite a few customers who buy plants keep asking for them again every year. You won't be disappointed with either choice when it comes to these two.

Barrie, (Central PA, zone 6a) Thanks barrie for the detailed response. Actually i'm starting a commercial hydroponic farm on small scale (600sq meter) after winter and am very undecided about these two varieties. I will grow 1000 cherry plants (500 sakura/Favorita and 500 sun sugar/sun gold) in the farm bcz of very high demand and great price. So taste is as important as yield for me as a wanna be commercial grower. Can you please describe the taste of both the cherries since you have good growing experience of these two varieties. And will growing 2 or three stems decrease the size of sakura and favorita fruit, and how many stems you grow on ur plants?

P.S. Which yellow cherry (sun sugar or sun gold) would you prefer as a better commercial variety?

I retasted a few as I picked today and I can't really tell a difference, neither can I tell a difference between Sun Sugar and Sun Gold. I can tell that Sun Gold will crack in our current damp weather far more than Sun Sugar. That is why I have far more Sun Sugar plants.

I doubt that allowing multiple stems would affect fruit size if plant nutrition is maintained. I usually see a much greater difference with the varieties that produce large tomatoes as the season progresses.

If you are undecided why not plant a portion of each. I have favorites but I still plant 28 cherry and grape varieties. I have different reasons for the selections and proportions of each and I'm so pleased with my current plan that I will only adjust slightly to try a new variety.

Barrie, I plan to grow around 30 varieties as a trial. But my main two varieties will be sun sugar and Sakura since its more of a "looker" and tastes same as favorita. But selecting good varieties seems to be a daunting task for now. Happy gardening.

from my experience with sun gold, I wouldn't grow it again. I can't get it to color without it cracking. If you sweat in the high tunnel, they crack! I'm doing a grape tomato, gold, not orange, from Ball seed, called golden honey bunches. It's a hybrid, but I've saved seed from it to f4 so far and they mostly come true. the few that don't just grow round instead of oval.

Sandy, hows your experience with snow white cherry, its yield, taste, disease resistance and is it really white as we see in pics? And how many lbs should we expect from a cherry tomato plant under a high tunnel?

Having mixed cherry/grape varieties has worked very well for my farmers' market sales but I wonder how customers perceive the suttle color change from light yellow to deeper yellow to Orange. If not careful it may appear that fruit is unripe. My lightest is Esterina, a hybrid substitute for Snow White. A bright yellow I admire for consistent yields is Yellow Mini. They can appear almost orange when ripe. I also like the yellow grape varieties Solid Gold and Golden Sweet. Again these are almost orange when ripe. Then there are the Bumble Bee striped cherries , Purple, Sunrise and Pink, that are stunning. The Indigo Kumquat is a beautiful orange grape with a purple blush. I find that when I name the varieties making up my mixed boxes of cherry tomatoes the customers are more willing to deviate from requesting all Sun Gold and Sun Sugar. In fact I no longer make special boxes. Instead I just encourage customers to choose boxes that they prefer as they are mixed.

KK, I am a retired researcher but I don't collect yield data on my crops nor conduct sensory evaluations. Those days are over, thankfully. So best I can offer is my SWAG on these.

Barrie, It doesn't matter if you are a retired researcher or not, your experience is extremely valuable to us. It saves us from a lot of trial and error.

When i asked about the best yellow cherry from johnny's they recommended me the esterina. Does esterina has visibly different color than sun sugar as a third cherry color (red, orange, and yellow)? And how's the taste as compared to sun sugar?

I keep seeing this thread pop up in my email. Still going strong with the Artisan Cherry tomato discussion. I guess you are growers in a warmer part of the country than I am. We only had Sungold this year, and as usual, they were great. We had so many I got sick of them.

KK, Esterina is a light yellow cherry, a close looking hybrid replacement for Snow White Cherry. Esterina has a milder flavor and less sweet than Sun Sugar. Compared to Snow White Cherry the yields are better, but I don't thing yields are as good as red cherry varieties we discussed earlier.

I grow for personal use and to sell a few extra. My main cherries are the two Suns and Sweet Baby Girl (stocked up on its seed for the future). Variety is added by Black Cherry, Snow White, Coyote, and Mexico Midget. The currents have very few fruit per bract, and have to be cut off, stem and all, to avoid splitting, sometimes I cut the whole bract. MM is probably the best OP cherry I ever tasted, very comparable to Sun Gold. A few tiny MM on top of a basket makes it appealing. Coyote does not add appeal because it looks like a weaked Snow White. May stop it. Although I detest its bad taste, may add a Yellow Pear next year based on discussions in this thread.

I found this thread while researching hybrid alternatives to Black Cherry and Snow White. Based on information here, I will try Esterina. However, have any of you tried Black Pearl or Italian Ice? Would you grow one of them instead of the OPs? I hate the long DTM of Black Cherry and Snow White. You lose a month of production at the beginning of the season, then they are absolutely loaded with unripe cherries when frost comes (Ohio-6a).

Also considering Orange Zinger. Ball advertises that it produces more "usable" fruit than Sun Gold because it resists cracking. Don't know if adds a new color to a basket. Is it more orange than gold? No reviews available on Internet. When I posted a question about it, one person responded to its taste negatively.

Also planning to test Sun Green (by Takita) for taste, possibly to add a green to a basket.