A-100 Cherry tomatoes

[daveomak]

My friend up north has this garden. Last year he would bring a container of A-100 cherry tomatoes everywhere we went for a snack. Man-o-man were they good.....Sooooo.....being the frugal, retired, opinionated dude I am, I took a really ripe tomato and let it ripen more. Saved the seeds and started these plants this spring.

Never having grown cherry toms, are the toms in this picture growing "normal".  On a single vine I see  14 tomatoes.

Did it cross last year with something ???  I suppose most would not bother to ask this question but......other tomatoes do not grow 14 on one vine.........inquisitive at 62 years young.  I have to know why about everything......but you already knew that about me.........Dave

 

[venture]

Dave, with cherry tomatoes, I have heard of them coming up volunteer for years to come.

With some fruits (tomato is a fruit) I have seen some really weird cross pollination, too.  The good news is that that weird looking stuff still tastes great!

Saving seeds from a hybrid plant will give you fruit which is often related to the original hybrid, but is likely made up of one of the strains from the hybrid, too.  Different, but not necessarily bad?

That looks like a heckuva healthy tomato plant you have there.

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[daveomak]

Appears I have a few days until they are ripe and the  "all important"  taste test will happen. I most certainly hope they are good. Dave love maters.

If they are really good, Dave will be saving seeds from these guys. The nearest maters are about 100 feet. Although these are growing next to the Anaheims, poblanos and jalapenos. Interesting maters could develope.

Dave

 

[roller]

Never grown them but those look pretty good...

 

[nwdave]

I've planted a few of those and yes, that's the way they come out.  Personally, I like to hang them in planters and let them drape down.  They seem to love it too.  A slight hijack if you don't mind, while we're waiting for yours to ripen.  Remember awhile back I mentioned about sending my daughter in Parker (Denver area) a package of Ed Hume's Ball Squash.  Well, she's got this little garden, not much but hey, at least she's trying (she's got great plans for next year now, thanks to your garlic pictures):

It helped a lot when I showed up and weeded it.  All of a sudden, the flowers took a turn to squash and two weeks later we're getting:

That one's about 9 inches in diameter and grows more, practically overnite.  Some of the other squash, while not as large are still fair sized:

and not to be forgotten:

What's important here is not the size of the garden but of the desire of a new gardner to till the soil and watch something grow.  I think we can expect more crops from Dana in the future.  Always glad to pass on the rake and shovel, so to speak.

~Dave

 

[SmokinAl]

Your garden looks great Dave!

We have a variety of tomato here called wild everglades tomato's.

They don't need water, fertilizer or bug spray.

Their cherry tomato's with a very thin skin. If you let them 1 plant will take over your whole garden.

They are so sweet we just eat them like candy.

They will grow across an asphalt driveway.

They continually self seed and you will have as many tomato's as you can eat.

One plant will give you a constant supply of 20-30 tomato's a day.

PM me with your address & I will send you some seeds, as soon as they are available. 

We have them growing all over the yard.

There's even one growing in my neighbors gutter with tomato's on it.

 

[Bearcarver]

Beautiful Garden Dave!!!

Yes that is the way Cherry Tomatoes grow.

I never had much luck with gardening, except for Tomatoes.

I usually only plant 3 Tomato plants, but I make sure one of them is an "A-100".

A few years ago, one "A-100" plant of mine grew to 17' in height, and produced over 3,500 cherry tomatoes !!!

Thanks for showing,

Bear

On edit:  I just looked. The ones we always make sure we get are "Sweet 100", not "A-100". Maybe they are the same--I don't know.

 

[flash]

Love those Cherry tomatoes. There is another called Jelly Bean that is very good. Gotta watch how many plants you put in the ground, as you can be over run with tomatoes.

 

[fliphyzer]

Thems cherry tomatoes all right.  mine are the same way with long chains.   been doing them for a couple of years now, mine are the sweet 100's but they look the same.  i make cages out of 1/2 inch conduit from home depot and clamps.  They are about 8` tall and work great.  enjoy your harvest!

 

[daveomak]

Thems cherry tomatoes all right.  mine are the same way with long chains.   been doing them for a couple of years now, mine are the sweet 100's but they look the same.  i make cages out of 1/2 inch conduit from home depot and clamps.  They are about 8` tall and work great.  enjoy your harvest!

Flip, mornin'.....We are enjoying the cherry tomatoes finally.....I think we are gettin' about 15/day from those 3 plants.....that is all we have right now......We have 15 Roma plants and not 1 ripe tomato yet.....this summer is strange....Daytime temps of 85-90 and night tmps 42-50.......the garden just can't grow at temps in the 40's.....maybe we will have a warm winter ...hahahahaha
 

 

[fliphyzer]

Warm winter indeed. Got a light dusting a month ago, but thats it. Hope your harvest was good!

 

[smoking b]

Thems cherry tomatoes all right.  mine are the same way with long chains.   been doing them for a couple of years now, mine are the sweet 100's but they look the same.  i make cages out of 1/2 inch conduit from home depot and clamps.  They are about 8` tall and work great.  enjoy your harvest!

Can you post a picture of one of your cages? 

 

[daveomak]

Can you post a picture of one of your cages? 

B, evening..... I don't have a pic but they are the funnel shape wire cages..... I think they are made from 8 or 10 gauge wire.... About 3 hoops 12" apart.... top hoop 12" D, middle hoop 10" D, bottom hoop 8" D..... Hope that helps...  

 

[linguica]

The tomatoes that you are growing are called Sweet100's here. They are a commercial crop and by far the sweetest one one the market. They run small in size but big in flavor. It doesn't get hot enough here to grow tomatoes and one mistake I often make when growing them is when the bush reaches a good size i need to back off on the fertilizer otherwise I end up with a huge over sized bush and no fruit. Good luck, sweet 100"s are the best.

I make cages from cylinders of  2" x 4" rolls of welded wire fencing.

 

[smoking b]

Can you post a picture of one of your cages? 

B, evening..... I don't have a pic but they are the funnel shape wire cages..... I think they are made from 8 or 10 gauge wire.... About 3 hoops 12" apart.... top hoop 12" D, middle hoop 10" D, bottom hoop 8" D..... Hope that helps...  

Thanks Dave. I have a couple of those but they never seemed to be tall enough for me. I ended up making a BUNCH of them from concrete reinforcing wire. I was getting 30 per roll & they work great. Cut in half they are nice protectors for pepper plants in case of high winds as well. I will take a pic of one tomorrow & post it. I was kinda curious about the 8' tall conduit cages too.

The tomatoes that you are growing are called Sweet100's here. They are a commercial crop and by far the sweetest one one the market. They run small in size but big in flavor. It doesn't get hot enough here to grow tomatoes and one mistake I often make when growing them is when the bush reaches a good size i need to back off on the fertilizer otherwise I end up with a huge over sized bush and no fruit. Good luck, sweet 100"s are the best.

I have grown the Sweet 100's for a few years & really enjoy them. Last year one of my friends gave me a plant from Burpee. It was a Supersweet 100 & there was a noticable difference between it & the sweet 100's I had growing. When I asked him about them however I found out he had paid $5/plant + shipping!!! 

 & that was the end of that lol. I also grow Sweet Million & they are pretty good too...

EDIT: Just looked up Burpee & here they are http://www.burpee.com/vegetables/to...013.html?catId=1000&trail=1014:2047:1022:3039   It's crazy what some people will pay for plants!!

 

[diggingdogfarm]

FWIW, I used to use the concrete reinforcing wire and still have several of them, but it's gotten so expensive to build new ones.
I adopted dcarch's trellis system for indeterminates a few years ago, super easy and cheap. Plus, it disassembles to take up very little space.

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• diggingdogfarm
• Dec 5, 2012

The end posts are superstrut, but anything can be used. 10 feet tall. 40 feet apart.
Ropes are very strong dark brown nylon.

Here painted in camo so it blends in......

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• diggingdogfarm
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~Martin

 

[smoking b]

That's a pretty nice setup Martin! That looks like a really good system to switch to when my cages are worn out. Thanks for sharing 

 

[dward51]

Martin that is a great idea!  Thanks for sharing.  Drawing and photos made it crystal clear.

 

[go4abliss]

I love sweet 100 cherry tomatoes, I grow them in 5 gallon planters, they grow over 7ft. By then Im letting them lean on the driftboat for support. We always have enough to give them to our friends. Im going to smoke them next year and then mix them up with basil and olive oil. On some bread and you some got good eats 

 

[venture]

I was never a big fan of cherry tomatoes.

This year, my neighbor gave me an extra plant long after I had set in my maters.

Pain in the butt to harvest. Never got so many from one plant.  But, the most delicious and intense tomato flavor I have ever had!

I doubt if he will remember what he bought.

I may update in April.

Good luck and good smoking.