Grow the sweetest cherry tomatoes

Have you ever wanted to grow the sweetest cherry tomatoes?

Since my granddaughter loves all tomatoes and enjoys picking cherry tomatoes best I became excited about growing the sweetest cherry tomatoes I could find.

Last winter, I also fell in love with Sugar Bombs, those extra sweet cherry tomatoes you can buy at certain times of the year in your local grocery store.

Since I can’t buy seeds for Sugar Bombs, I’m testing out several varieties to see which grow the sweetest cherry tomatoes. I enlisted the help of Carol Michel who is my co-host on our podcast, the Gardenangelists, to help me choose.

If you’d like to listen to our latest episode on seeds, you can on all the best services. Online, you can listen to Tea, Seeds and Have You Heard on Buzzsprout. A new episode drops each week on Wednesdays, but you can listen a day early if you subscribe to our free Substack newsletter.

So far, I’ve bought seeds for the following sweet cherry tomato varieties.

• Candyland Red. (Red tomato.) I’ve never grown this one, but it is supposed to have a “rich concentrated currant flavor that is absolutely tantalizing.” I bought these from Territorial Seeds.
• Sweet Aperitif (Red tomato) are “bite-sized delicacies bursting with a complex, wine-like taste and tropical aroma. From Territorial Seeds.
• Sunset Torch, (Bi-color gold tomato) a 2022 AAS Winner, has “a mild flavor with a distinct finish, and are easy to harvest.” Received from National Garden Bureau.

• Purple Zebra, (Dark red and green striped tomato) a 2022 AAS Winner, “[t]he taste is sweet and acidic leaning to sweet. Overall, this tomato has a better taste and thinner skin than comparisons with excellent disease resistance.” Received from National Garden Bureau.
• Sweetie (Red tomato) has “High sugar content in a cherry-sized tomato.” Eden Bros Seeds.
• Sungold. (Gold tomato.) According to Eden Bros, this is “Your new, favorite, super sweet cherry tomato.” I’ve grown Sungold before, and it is very sweet and beautiful.
• Sunsugar. (Gold tomato.) This is another one I’ve grown before that is very sweet.
• Edox. (Dark red tomato.) “Very early, with even ripening for whole-cluster harvest. A standout in this class for its rich, sweet flavor.” From Johnny’s Selected Seeds. I’m intrigued by the whole-cluster harvest.
• Sunrise Bumblebee. (Orange and yellow bicolor tomato.) “The sweetest cherry in the Artisan™ collection.” From Johnny’s Selected Seeds. I’ve grown this one before. It is beautiful and pretty sweet.
• Isis Candy. (Red tomato.) From Baker Creek Seeds.
• Blue Cream Berries. (Yellow and purple tomato.) From Baker Creek Seeds.

In the past, I’ve also grown a lot of other cherry tomatoes including Black Cherry which I don’t think is that sweet. It’s a great tomato, but it sometimes has tough skin. I’ve also grown Sweet Million and Supersweet 100. Both are good tomatoes, but not as sweet as say Sungold.

For the sweetest cherry tomatoes, let them ripen on the vine.

One of the best ways to get the sweetest cherry tomatoes is to leave them on the vine until they are fully ripe. If you simply must pick them early, let them continue to ripen on the countertop. If you refrigerate them, it stops sugar production.

Have you grown tomatoes in containers yet?

I will again be growing all of my tomato plants in pots this year. It is the easiest way to grow.

If you want to read about previous tomato-growing years, here are a few posts.

Tomatoes I’m trying this summer from 2019.

If you want to start your tomatoes from seed, here’s how.

Here’s when tomato season was in high gear in 2017.

I grow a lot of tomatoes, and while I’ll be focusing on the sweetest cherry tomatoes this year, I’m also growing a lot of salad and main-season tomatoes. I’ll post more about those later.

Tell me what you’re growing tomato-wise this year. Have you ever tried to grow the sweetest cherry tomatoes? Seems like a worthy goal to me.