A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Cherokee Purple tomato.....Wow!

Had my first ever Cherokee Purple for dinner tonight and all I have to say is WOW! What a great tasting tomato. Probably will be the one to judge all others by the rest of the year. Sorry no pics. Now I've heard great things about this variety from just about everyone who's grown it and I now know why. I never realized a tomato could taste that good.

Is anyone else growing this one?

Well it must have been very good from your reaction...But what I can't understand is why you didn't take a picture of it first.

Yeah, I should have. Shame on me. My wife had it all sliced up by the time I got home yesterday. I'll make sure to get the next one.

And u didn't save me a bite? Shucks!

I'm not growing them..maybe I'll give them a go next year...after you come over and build me my new raised beds.

If you are gonna grow any open pollinated heirlooms you just HAVE to try this one at the very least. Will be saving seed if can keep my self from eating all of them.

OK, couple pics I took tonight...

Here's a shot of my plants....most of them anyway. Black Cherry is just outta control...



...and here's a shot of Cherokee Purple, Black from Tula, Carbon, Green Giant, Lucky Leprechaun, Todd County Amish and a few Sungold. Yummy! Had BLT's AGAIN tonight!



oops, sorry about the one large pic..

Wow John..those Black cherry are out of control...Be sure to PM me with you tomato seed list I was wondering..I notice some of yours has those cracks in the tops..mine did also, Do you think that has anything to do with the open pollinated heirloom varieties??? I also want to state that those cracks do not affect the taste though, so it really doesn't matter to me, just wondering about it.

Yeah, I may just have to top the black cherry plant. It's heavily shading Heidi right on the oher side of it. It keeps on pumping out the fruit though! Those cracks seemed to coicide with heavy rains one day last week. Seems like all of them cracked! I do think certain varieties are more prone to it than others, but I don't know if hybrids would have done it too if I was growing them. Ido know one thing....I'd tale a cracked cherokee purple over most perfect hybrids any day! Except for maybe a handful of sungolds.

Wow! i wish I had that much room for maters! We had an unseasonably cool week. I've had 2 san marzanos fall on the ground for mysterious reasons, and I have 1 yellow plum I will pick tomorrow. I'd love to try a couple of the purple cherokee if you remember to save seeds or if I can find them in a shop somewhere.
Purple spagetti sauce. (sorry just got a funny visual)

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="COMIC SANS MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="3" face="COMIC SANS MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by johnCT:
<strong>I do know one thing....I'd tale a cracked cherokee purple over most perfect hybrids any day! Except for maybe a handful of sungolds.

Bet it would taste good even if it was purple!

I'm not sure..But I was thinking that the color if used for sauce or salsa..would not be purple, instead a deep dark color of red. And just think if you used say half of the purple type and half regular type in a chunky salasa, oh that would give it more color and also add to the taste I am sure!!!!

Are the insides as purple as the outsides? It would make a beautiful salsa. Love using all kinds of colors in mine.

Had my first one yesterday. May of picked it a little early. Was good but not like all I had read. Maybe I had it built up to much in my mind. Also the first one. Will have some more in a few days. Definately a keeper. Fair production also. Brandywine Sudduth is finished in my garden I think. No production. May get two tomatoes this year. May everyone have a bountiful harvest. JD

I grew Cherokee Purple and Cherokee Chocolate this year too! I agree...Fantastic flavor. This was my first year growing heirlooms. The last time I grew any tomoatos I was a kid. I don't remember any of the plants being as large as these got. Holy smokes, I'm not even going to try to get seed because everything is growing on everything. I have cross pollination galore! lol! hmmmm.....second thought: They're all pretty good. Might be interesting to see what comes out.

I'm growing Cherokee Purple this year, but got it planted very late. I'm hoping a freeze will hold off long enough for me to have a harvest.

Ciao John,

I'm growing it and I have really loved it. It's not the most productive tomato I've got in the garden, but that's very much ok with me because I have so many varieties. Here's a picture of my harvest on Aug. 11:



Clockwise from top: Cherokee Purple, Brandywine Sudduth, Kotlas, Manyel, Bicolour Cherry, Jaune Flammee, Not Aunt Gertie's Gold Cherry (red oblate cherry), Snow White Cherry, Sungold F1, Banana Legs, Green Grape Ind?, Galina's, Not Galina's (red saladette), Orange Banana, Little Lucky, Moskvich, Kotlas, Yellow Brandywine Platfoot Strain.

I'm so looking forward to doing some trading with you in the Fall. You've got so many dwarfs and determinates that would be absolutely ideal for earlies. I'm sure you're keeping good notes as you do such good work with the rest of your newly found tomato obsession!

Hugs,
Julianna

Sorellina..when do you start your plants? I'm about 200miles south of you and everyone here finds our tomatoes are ripening much later this year than usual.
Do you have pictures of your garden? Perhaps I've missed them in previous posts?

Oh...and some time back, you posted a pic of the peppers that you have harvested...how did you have red peppers already back then? I JUST spotted my first chili turning red today...other than that...I've been eating green peppers.
Is there a trick that I don't know of?

Cherokee Purple does have the best taste I have tasted in a very long time. Heat got mine before could get many but hope if it ever gets below 100 ++ might start blooming again the heat has Cherokee purple is 8 foot tall now. Will look for the chocolate next season.

I planted Cherokee Purple for the first time this year also. The flavor definately ranks right up there with my Brandywine OTV and a bit better than my Big Rainbow. I made an awesome pasta sauce last week using 1 Cherokee Purple and 1 Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter. The Cherokee made it a nice dark red color.

I've been eating a lot of tomato sandwiches lately. Usually just a couple of thick slices on whole wheat spread with brown mustard w/ whole mustard seeds. Sometimes with chopped basil on top. I prefer mustard to mayonnaise on my tomato sandwiches as the vinegar in the mustard accents the sweetness of the tomatoes. YUM!!

I found a cherry tomato this year to rival Orange Sungold in flavor. It' actually a grape tomato simply called Red Grape from Johnny's Selected seeds. It's texture is unbeatable.

Ciao Christina,

Normally, I plant out on Victoria Day Weekend, but this year it was very cold. My transplants were not as healthy as I would have liked, either. I had left them in the care of my darling boyfriend, Duane, while I visited family in California for a few weeks and let's just say it was a combo of him missing me and male selective babysitting. Lots of them kept growing under the lights, but the lights didn't magically get moved up to account for the growth. A lot of the tops of the transplants got a bit crispy. I ended up transplanting that following Thursday so I guess that would be 25 May.

Duane started his pepper seeds on 25 February. He did this on purpose because last year, he had a few Habaneros which took all season to finally ripen. Those real hot ones take a LONG time. His transplants had flowers on them and in a few cases, very small fruit. He elected to keep the flowers and fruit, but he harvested them at the green stage to encourage the plant to produce more flowers and fruit. His transplants were very rootbound, which does tell peppers to hurry up and make fruit. peppers are somewhat more forgiving for less-than-obsessive or even somewhat faulty care. He's forgotten to water his container peppers on several occasions and they wilt, but then they bounce back and put out this riot of colour. He's got Fataliis, Habs, Congo Trinidads, various Jalapenos, Cherries, and quite a few ornamentals in pots out on the driveway and also in hanging baskets. I'll upload some recent garden pics when I get the chance.

Cheers,
Julianna

Ohhh...how could u all b so successful at planting tomatoes!!! ...n i m such a failure!!!... i have bought local n non-local tomato seeds namely Thomson n Morgan a number of times... they grew n made my heart swell with high hopes...they look beautifully healthy...started producing flowers n tiny fruits...then suddenly wilt n die out on me...flowers n tiny fruits all... breaking my heart