I have sown 10 tomato varieties. 4 of these, Alicante, Gardeners Delight, Moneymaker and Sungold are in the top 5 tomatoes chosen by home gardeners to grow from seed. I profile them all (and Shirley) in the Tomato Lover’s Top 5 Tomato Seed Guide.
However as yet I haven’t said much about the other 6 tomato varieties. Time to put that right.
My other seed choices were Black Cherry, Carbon, Garden Pearl ( Gartenperle), Red Robin, Tigerella and Tumbler.
Starting today, over the next week or so I will profile each variety. Today’s profile is of Black Cherry.
To eat, Black Cherry is:
- Sweet, rich complex, very sweet, rich smoky flavour, sweet and juicy flavour, very rich and sweet
- Cherry size, round, perfect round cherry
- Purple skin, deep red blackish hue, dark red flesh, purple skin, dusky purplish black, deep mahogany brown
To Grow, Black Cherry is:
- Cordon Interderminate
- Glasshouse or outdoors
- High yield, huge yield, abundant, huge clusters, large clusters, prolific
- Vigorous, tall, large, sprawling
- Early maturing, early season
- Crack/spilt resistant
- Very easy to grow
To buy Black Cherry:
Available packet size tended to be between 15 and 25 seeds. Average seed priced worked out at 8 pence per seed. Seeds are stocked by Nicky’s Nursery, Thompson & Morgan and Ready to Grow
All my research on Black Cherry makes me very excited to be growing it. It seems the perfect combination of exotic, delicious fruit AND an easy to grow plant.
Have you grown Black Cherry? Am I right to feel excited about its dark mystery and sweet promise?
Photo by old tasty
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Hello, I’m enjoying your website. I grew Black Cherry this year from Thomson and Morgan seeds. Mine were deep red to purple with green shoulders when ripe. Mine weren’t quite as productive or as quick to ripen as Gardener’s Delight, but I germinated them a month later. well worth it. They have a sweet, tangy and subtly nutty taste, not as sharp as G.D. They also keep well; the last few of mine are on the windowsill. A definite for next year and well worth the wait.
Thanks for the feedback – glad you are enjoying the site.
Great to hear that you still have some from this year to eat fresh . So much better ( & cheaper) than what’s avaliable in the supermarket right now !
I’ve just come across your website whilst looking for info. on costoluto fiorentino. This year I found loads of old seeds that we brought from England when we moved to Greece 4 years ago. These included Tiny Tim, Sub-Arctic Plenty, San Marrano and the Costoluto. Although old and, in some cases, opened packets, they have all germinated well with only the Arctic Plenty seemingly reluctant to grow on. I must have over 200 plants either in the ground or still in the greenhouse and most of the produce will end up on friends’ tables or in our local taverna.
The Black Cherry sounds interesting but I’m not sure how the tourists would take to the colour in a Greek salad.
Thanks for the website as it’s nice to know there is someone dafter than me about growing toms.
Dave
Zakynthos, Greece.
Hello
Thank you for stopping by and getting in touch. I was trying to count on my fingers how many years it is since I found myself eating a Greek Salad on Zakynthos – and when I had counted on both hands, twice over I stopped – before depressing myself any further !
But I tell you if I was served one that had Black Cherry tomatoes in – I would be so impressed !! Perhaps it can become the Taverna’s signature dish !
However on the other hand, maybe you’re right to be cautious – when I grew them last year someone did say to me that they couldn’t eat a black tomato as it didn’t seem ‘right’. On the other hand all the adventurous types who gave it a try – loved its flavour.
I love the idea of having 200 plants ( apart maybe from all that pinching out) and as Summer shows absolutely no sign of arriving here in England anytime soon, pls keep in touch and let us know how yours flourish !