Introducing Marglobe X Cherry Red. Better Tasting than Sungold?

Daylilyfanatic4 · August 2, 2011

Goal: I crossed Marglobe (F) X Cherry Red (M) last year hoping to get a vigorus large cherry with good tasting meat. In general I'm a big fan of cherry tomatoes, however, the larger ones seem to have sweet gel and flavorless meat. My hope was to get the very good tasting gel of the small fruited cherry red along with the meat of Marglobe but without the mealy texture marglobe has.

About the Parents

Mother: Marglobe (OP). Marglobe is a determinate tomato with medium-small round slightly flattened fruit. Very meaty however the meat is slightly mealy. Taste 5 out of 10. DTM 70

Father: Cherry Red (F1). Cherry red is a very small, less than 1 OZ, tomato. It is Indeterminet in habit. The taste is very good 7 out of 10 and the tomato is extremely productive. Cherry red has very little meat and its gel is the star of the tomato. The gel is sweet with a bit of an acid "tomatoey" flavor. DTM 75

The Cross
MarCR (F1) I'm growing out 4 of these plants at 2 different locations. All 4 seem to be uniform in habit fruit size and shape.

MarCr is indeterminate. I have one of the MarCr plants growing on my deck next to a sungold. The MarCR is 1.25 times bigger than the sungold. The fruit are about 2 OZ in size. It appears to have inherites the classic cherry tomato truss and all the plants are loaded with fruit.

DTM: first fruit in at 87 days. This tomato is somewhat later than I expected. The sungold growing next to my largest MarCr plant came in at 67 days. The MarCr plant is more shaded than the sungold. The 1 MarCR plant I have growing in a different sunnier location should be ready today which is day 71

Taste: I sliced them open and removed the seeds to save them, however, I did taste some of the gel. The gle is very sweet but not painfguly sweet more of a gradual sweet that keeps going as you swallow. The meat is juicy not mealy at all and has a complex and very good flavor that is perfectly complemented by the gel. This is the best cherry I have ever had. 9 out of 10.

sungold held that title before I tasted MarCr. I would rate sungold as an 8 out of 10.

The fun part starts next generation. Once I get a stable OP tomato I will be happy to share seeds with anyone. I may ask for help stabalizing after the F2 generation. For now give me your thoughts

dice · August 3, 2011

Pretty cool, a big cherry with excellent flavor. Could be earlier for
my climate.

Daylilyfanatic4 · October 5, 2011

The season is basically over here in SE NY so I thought I'd do a final report.

Growth

My biggest MARCR plant is huge. Probably over 7 feet. I know that isn't that big in genral, but for a container grown plant it is. Very few disease issues to report. The biggest plant did get some early blight but despite the lower foliage dropping off the plant continues to grow.

Production

My plants produced a lot of flowers and tomatoes early but then shutdown after a strech of +90° days. When the weather cooled off in August they took off again. The plants produced probably 100+ tomatoes but far fewer edible ones.

Not that any of them were poisonous; just most of them rotted due to sever splitting issues.

The early batch of tomatoes were fine with hardly any cracking. Then the plants started producing again in August and everything went downhill.

Weather

The weather was nice in May and June but July was very hot. Production was at a stand still in July but it picked back up with cooler temps in August.

Then came the rain. For most of August there were series of thunderstorms every three days or so. The tomatoes would start to ripen and the crack when it rained. Towards the end of August there was a slight break and the fruit started to ripen like crazy. I got a bunch of tomatoes in that period. Then just as the rest were ripening Hurricane Irene hit. We got 7.5" of rain in 24 Hours. That knocked out must of my tomatoes. After setting more fruit, September was looking like a month for good production until the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee hit. 4.5 inches of rain over a couple days knocked out that bumper crop. I ended up with 7.08" of rain in September. The plants are growing and setting fruit again but night temps are in the 40s now and frost is only a couple weeks away.

Cracking/ Splitting Issues

This variety has exhibited sevre splitting issues. To be fair the Sungold and Yellow Pear tomatoes I grew next to my MARCR plants also had horrible splitting issues. The splitting might have had something to due with the 32.97" of rain I had from May through September. Or perhaps the fact that we had 19.95" of rain in August and September alone.

Some of the plants also had issues with concentric cracking. I belive this is a genetic trait most likely inherited from Marglobe which also displayed this trait.

Taste
The first batch of these tomatoes had superb flavor 8 or 9 out of 10. Fruit from latter in the season was closer to a 7 out of 10 but still excelent.

cornbreadlouie · October 5, 2011

Pictures!!! I'm interested in growing it out once you have it on the road to stabilization.

Daylilyfanatic4 · October 5, 2011

First fruit set in June picked in early August (2nd)

Plant in June

Plant in late July

Fruit set in late July (After plant started growing again) and picked in Late August

Seedlings in March

sirtanon · November 17, 2011

Can't believe I didn't see this thread before.. Looks very promising!

So you're on the F3 generation of seeds now?

Daylilyfanatic4 · November 17, 2011

no I have the f2 seeds in packets now waiting to be started for next season.

August 2, 2011	#1
Daylilyfanatic4 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Zone 6 SE NY Posts: 64	Introducing Marglobe X Cherry Red. Better Tasting than Sungold? Goal: I crossed Marglobe (F) X Cherry Red (M) last year hoping to get a vigorus large cherry with good tasting meat. In general I'm a big fan of cherry tomatoes, however, the larger ones seem to have sweet gel and flavorless meat. My hope was to get the very good tasting gel of the small fruited cherry red along with the meat of Marglobe but without the mealy texture marglobe has. About the Parents Mother: Marglobe (OP). Marglobe is a determinate tomato with medium-small round slightly flattened fruit. Very meaty however the meat is slightly mealy. Taste 5 out of 10. DTM 70 Father: Cherry Red (F1). Cherry red is a very small, less than 1 OZ, tomato. It is Indeterminet in habit. The taste is very good 7 out of 10 and the tomato is extremely productive. Cherry red has very little meat and its gel is the star of the tomato. The gel is sweet with a bit of an acid "tomatoey" flavor. DTM 75 The Cross MarCR (F1) I'm growing out 4 of these plants at 2 different locations. All 4 seem to be uniform in habit fruit size and shape. MarCr is indeterminate. I have one of the MarCr plants growing on my deck next to a sungold. The MarCR is 1.25 times bigger than the sungold. The fruit are about 2 OZ in size. It appears to have inherites the classic cherry tomato truss and all the plants are loaded with fruit. DTM: first fruit in at 87 days. This tomato is somewhat later than I expected. The sungold growing next to my largest MarCr plant came in at 67 days. The MarCr plant is more shaded than the sungold. The 1 MarCR plant I have growing in a different sunnier location should be ready today which is day 71 Taste: I sliced them open and removed the seeds to save them, however, I did taste some of the gel. The gle is very sweet but not painfguly sweet more of a gradual sweet that keeps going as you swallow. The meat is juicy not mealy at all and has a complex and very good flavor that is perfectly complemented by the gel. This is the best cherry I have ever had. 9 out of 10. sungold held that title before I tasted MarCr. I would rate sungold as an 8 out of 10. The fun part starts next generation. Once I get a stable OP tomato I will be happy to share seeds with anyone. I may ask for help stabalizing after the F2 generation. For now give me your thoughts __________________ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- DLF

August 3, 2011	#2
dice Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: PNW Posts: 4,743	Pretty cool, a big cherry with excellent flavor. Could be earlier for my climate. __________________ -- alias

October 5, 2011	#3
Daylilyfanatic4 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Zone 6 SE NY Posts: 64	The season is basically over here in SE NY so I thought I'd do a final report. Growth My biggest MARCR plant is huge. Probably over 7 feet. I know that isn't that big in genral, but for a container grown plant it is. Very few disease issues to report. The biggest plant did get some early blight but despite the lower foliage dropping off the plant continues to grow. Production My plants produced a lot of flowers and tomatoes early but then shutdown after a strech of +90° days. When the weather cooled off in August they took off again. The plants produced probably 100+ tomatoes but far fewer edible ones. Not that any of them were poisonous; just most of them rotted due to sever splitting issues. The early batch of tomatoes were fine with hardly any cracking. Then the plants started producing again in August and everything went downhill. Weather The weather was nice in May and June but July was very hot. Production was at a stand still in July but it picked back up with cooler temps in August. Then came the rain. For most of August there were series of thunderstorms every three days or so. The tomatoes would start to ripen and the crack when it rained. Towards the end of August there was a slight break and the fruit started to ripen like crazy. I got a bunch of tomatoes in that period. Then just as the rest were ripening Hurricane Irene hit. We got 7.5" of rain in 24 Hours. That knocked out must of my tomatoes. After setting more fruit, September was looking like a month for good production until the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee hit. 4.5 inches of rain over a couple days knocked out that bumper crop. I ended up with 7.08" of rain in September. The plants are growing and setting fruit again but night temps are in the 40s now and frost is only a couple weeks away. Cracking/ Splitting Issues This variety has exhibited sevre splitting issues. To be fair the Sungold and Yellow Pear tomatoes I grew next to my MARCR plants also had horrible splitting issues. The splitting might have had something to due with the 32.97" of rain I had from May through September. Or perhaps the fact that we had 19.95" of rain in August and September alone. Some of the plants also had issues with concentric cracking. I belive this is a genetic trait most likely inherited from Marglobe which also displayed this trait. Taste The first batch of these tomatoes had superb flavor 8 or 9 out of 10. Fruit from latter in the season was closer to a 7 out of 10 but still excelent. __________________ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- DLF

October 5, 2011	#4
cornbreadlouie Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: SF bay area... north bay Posts: 242	Pictures!!! I'm interested in growing it out once you have it on the road to stabilization. __________________ Do You Like Worms?

October 5, 2011	#5
Daylilyfanatic4 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Zone 6 SE NY Posts: 64	First fruit set in June picked in early August (2nd) Plant in June Plant in late July Fruit set in late July (After plant started growing again) and picked in Late August Seedlings in March __________________ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- DLF

November 17, 2011	#6
sirtanon Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Phoenix, AZ (zone 9b) Posts: 796	Can't believe I didn't see this thread before.. Looks very promising! So you're on the F3 generation of seeds now? __________________ I could sail by on the winds of silence, and maybe they won't notice... but this time I think it would be better if I swim..