Around here it's hard to sell any slicing tomato that isn't round and primary red.

Cherry tomatoes of various colors look great on a table at market, but the labor to pick them makes them uneconomical for anything other than a splash of color.

Just give a sample. They taste great. People have no choice but to love them.

I'm a very small-time market grower, so my time isn't worth much. I spent about six hours picking and washing, and I made roughly $200 from the cherries. Obviously there are expenses to grow them, too, but I've already paid them, so I'm happy to get that money back at least.

Cole robbi! That was fabulous selection of cherry toms. How many do you plant to have that many at a time? what/how many varieties do you have? Thanks for the info. It is so hard to guess at how many of what to plant and plan on for the market.

Thanks. Most of my plants are in one 50-ft row, about 18 or so. I don't have more than 2-3 plants of any one variety.

They are the Artisan mix from Johnny's, plus white cherry, sungold, Chang li (Chinese yellow pear), Dancing with Smurfs, and Joe Laurer's Pink German Egg. I would have black cherry, too, but those plants got set out too late and didn't produce well.

I think I'm finally confident in my variety selections. Now I need to get better at providing more consistent irrigation to combat blossom end rot. I lost a lot of the oblong-shaped fruit to BER.

I am envious! They are beautiful. well done. I did sun sugar, sun gold, lemon drop, orange sunshine, sweet olive, a green cherry ( I hope) and some 4th of July.... I hope mine look as nice as yours when they start producing.

[QUOTE=Cole_Robbie;424050]I think I'm finally confident in my variety selections. Now I need to get better at providing more consistent irrigation to combat blossom end rot. I lost a lot of the oblong-shaped fruit to BER.[/QUOTE]

If you made different variety selections you wouldn't have to get better at providing more consistent irrigation... There are tomato varieties that rarely if ever get BER in spite of inconsistent irrigation.

I'm going to market this coming Thursday with Knopka, Ambrosia Red, Sungold, Gold Nugget, Sugar Drop, Submarine Blush, Jan's, Bosque Green Cherry, Elfin (if enough are ready), Yellow Pair, Black Pear, Chocolate Pear, Green Pear, Ivory Pear, Purple Pear, Black Cherry, Starfire Isis, Maglia Rosa, Blush, and a bunch of different Tigers, Blues and Bumblebees. I will probably only have a pint or so of each, but they should look spectacular. I only have a few ripe big varieties but I need to get my space at the market established. I'm also going to charge more for a full pint of cherries than their equivalent weight in big varieties.

Thanks again, Carolyn.

Neat varieties, Charley, I will have to look into those. If you could take pics, I would love to see them.

And Joseph, I don't disagree at all. I'm just very partial to the varieties that got BER. I love eating them, because of how good they taste, and that's what makes them so much fun to sell.

Cole Robbie, how does that dancing with smurfs taste?

It's ok. I wouldn't call it amazing, but it's not bad.

Cole Robbie, your tomatoes look fantastic! :yes:
The market here is somewhere in the middle - most people still want a round red tomato, but there's enough interest to sell other coloured heirlooms and mixed cherries, no worries about coming home with unsold produce... especially anything as good looking as yours.

Thanks Bower

I bet you cant grow enough of those cherries to satisfy the people, your color mix looked really awesome. People just love the colors and the different types, the cherries usually hook them, and then they try other stuff too. Nice!

Thanks, Mark. I started selling a color mix of cherries last year, and this year there are two other vendors with similar products. The Artisan mix really puts me over the top competition-wise.

My table this afternoon:
[url]http://i.imgur.com/2kdcjT8.jpg[/url]

I think I'm going to drop the Sungold for next year so I can call it an heirloom/OP mix. Another tough call is Black Cherry, which I like, but I like Purple Bumble Bee better. Maybe I will try Chocolate Cherry in place of Black Cherry next year.