Hi there! I'm growing ICC for the first time this year - I ordered my seeds from SSE, and I've enjoyed them so far.

- It seems like one in every five tomatoes is that great sunset/fuchsia marble-y color pictured in most examples. The rest are a deep, true coral/fuchsia, very solid and opaque. After reading this forum, I bet this is due to my soil/climate, etc, not the seeds.

- They're sweet and zippy and fun - I like them better than most cherry tomatoes I've eaten (this is my first year growing any at all).

- They are a monster of a bush. I had no idea, didn't think about cages (though I would, when I grow them again next year) and the paltry stake situation I was setting up for most of my tomatoes didn't work for them at all. Now they're just sprawling, and it makes picking frustrating at times.

But that is about it - sprawling, mostly hot pink tomatoes that are a treat to eat.

Hi.

I'm a huge fan of cherries in general and have grown Isis twice in the past few years. Seeds were purchased from Territorial Seed Co. and from Baker's. Virtually none of the fruits had that marbelized appearance midgette describes and I found them insipid when compared to Sungold.

As is so oftened pointed out, taste is subjective and growing conditions can greatly alter the same. I love a zippy tomato and Isis just ain't it -- at least for me in my garden in the PNW(!)

Rain

I am growing IC this year, for the first time, and seems have the same plant as midgette!!

I am a fan, although my plant seemed diseased early on and I almost yanked it. I planted mid-March and finally got ripe fruit a few months ago.

I love the flavor. I think the marbled ones taste better then the solid colored, but that could be just in my mind.

I also grew IC this year for the first time. Got all of 6 cherries off the plant - none of which had the marbling - and I pulled it awhile back. The rest of my cherries have been prolific this year, so don't know what happened to the IC. I'll probably try it again in a year or two, from a different seed source.

I grew it this year, and the fruit that ripened fully on the vine were exquisite. Problem was, there weren't many of them on this huge, gangly plant.

Pretty mixed reviews, too bad.

Tough to beat Sungold i guess.

I, too, am a first year Isis Candy grower, thanks to Trudi at WinterSown.org. Wow! Huge, vigorous plants but you must be patient and wait for these delicious fruits. It seemed as if we were only going to get vegetative growth until I peeked inside the cage, and spied the little oblong golden fruits. Our tomatoes were a mix of plain orange and the classic marbling. Great taste with a bit of acid, won rave reviews and were highly prized by friends who shared our harvest. It also has hung on late in the year, despite late blight. We are also great fans of SunGold, having grown this hybrid for years. Although we love the sweet tropical fruit taste, beauty, and productivity of SunGold, I find their tendency to crack a drawback. Isis Candy is delicious, has more crack resistance than SunGold, and worth the space in your garden if you want to grow a variety of tomatoes. I prefer it to the Yellow Pear that we also grew this year, and I will be planting it again.

You're right coffeehaus, the splitting is a problem with SunGold. I might give Isis a try if i come by some seeds. Thx for the nudge.

Joe BRatka bred Isis Candy and I grew it from seeds he sent me years ago. Sometimes it has the marbling, sometimes not.

I didn't have any problems with splitting, I usually don't for most cherries and that includes Sungold F1 as well.

I also grew it again, seeds for it and Snow White, another one bred by Joe, from Territorial Seeds b'c the histories there for those two varieties initially indicated both were heirlooms, which they weren't, someone saw what I wrote online and I was contacted by Territorial and asked to grow both and confirm they were what they were supposed to be, I did, and the histories there were changed for both to indicate that both were bred by Joe.

Taste? Depends on the season as I see it as well as where it's grown and how grown. For me it's sometimes been very good tsting and sometimes not, which is true for almost all varieties as I see it. ( smile)

Since taste is so personal and subjective I think it's best to grow it and see what it does and how it tastes for each person who is considering it.

Carolyn

As I see it, the only reason to plant Isis Candy is the unusual color. I got much better flavor and production from Gardener's Delight, aka Sugar Lump--but that's on the University of Arizona's short list of varieties for our climate. Just wonderful flavor. For me, it was right up there with Sun Gold. Next season I want to try Green Grape--it will replace Isis and/or Black Cherry. I loved Green Grape at Tomatofest 2008; it may taste way different here, but I'll give it a try.

Carolyn i am amazed that you don't get splitting with SunGold. i experienced at least 50% split in my garden this year including pre and post harvest. Local conditions i guess ; )

AZ i'll probably replace Black Cherry this year too. Can't really work myself up about that one either way and i'd prefer to grow something that rises above mediocrity.

Maybe i should try a green cherry?

Oops, did i just hi-jacked my own thread?

I can't speak from growing experience, but I can speak from eating experience. I thought they were great. They have a nice, bright, fruity flavor, and are sweet, juicy - but not overly so, and with just enough acid to make them interesting.

The farm stand from which I bought them had rather bland offerings of other tomatoes (Cherokee Purple wasn't particularly sweet nor flavorful, and I have had some AMAZING CP's from other places...), so I figured that if, amongst their mediocre tomatoes, Isis Candy stood out and tasted nice, it could taste even better grown/cared for if in a different environment/with a different gardener. I saved a lot of seeds from the ones I purchased, and hope to grow them next year.

For the record, if you're wondering how my tastes run so that you can compare to your own, Cherokee Purple is, hands down, my favorite tomato. Sungold is my favorite cherry (but it seems to be everyone else's too, lol), with Isis Candy coming in second - but to be fair, there are a lot of cherry varieties that I've never had the pleasure of putting in my mouth.