Tomato Report: Franchi Red Cherry

I don’t have much to say about this variety from Franchi named, somewhat generically, “Red Cherry”. It grew well and is very productive considering the compact size of the vine. The taste, however, was acceptable but not exciting. This could be because of over-watering on my part.

I could find very little information about this tomato on the interwebs other than that it is an indeterminate, early variety that grows well in pots (though I grew mine in the ground).

In the interest of a sweeter cherry tomato I think next year I’m going to plant the reliable Sungold.

What’s your favorite cherry tomato? Leave a comment . . .

ETA:  Just thought of something that would be helpful–if you rec. a tomato, tell us where you live. It will really help others searching for a good tomato that works well in their climate. You know how it is: location, location, location…  And if any of you who have already rec’d one see this, feel free to pipe up again regarding your location.

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19 Comments

  1. Sungold, hand’s down. We grew Sungolds and Sweeties, and the Sungolds were a surprise both in how early they came and how tasty they were! The only problem we had was the vine went NUTS and grew all over the place, killing my peas and taking over their trellis as well as growing up the fence. Totally worth it though for the taste

  2. matt’s wild cherry and tess’s land race currant tomato are my faves. both are smaller heirloom varieties with lots and lots of tomato flavor. the plants are really vigorous, too.

  3. Wanted to add that these cherries are very good for drying–this may be their principle virtue. They don’t have a lot of flavor fresh, but they’re meaty, kind of like little plum tomatoes, so they’ve been drying beautifully and have good flavor dried. The plants were also healthy and prolific. But I sure missed my sungolds.

    A good basic practice is to always plant one sungold, no matter what else you plant. My 2 cents.

  4. Matt’s wild has been our favorite for the past three years. It self-sows, so all we have to do each year is pull up the plants we don’t want and put compost on the others. Each plant produces gallons of little, round, red tomatoes that are full of flavor. Not so great for cooking (lots of seeds and skin), but great for salads and eating off the vine. A friend’s kids (ages 4-10) eat them like they’re candy.

  5. We live more or less in the woods, so our garden does not get as much sun as it probably should. We grow Cherry Roma heirloom tomatoes from Seed Savers Exchange every year. They grow like weeds and bear tons of fruit despite the shady mornings. They’re tasty and beautiful to look at. We also grow Riesentraube tomatoes which are a little larger than cherry tomatoes, quite tasty and they do well here. These are from Seed Savers Exchange, too.

  6. Having finally remembered that I don’t like cherry tomatoes I didn’t grow any this year. However regarding dried tomatoes,we did a trial of 7 paste varieties principally for this purpose. Speckled Roman from Botanical Interests turned out to be our favorite; delicious, productive and very beautiful.

  7. I had the same feeling about my Franchi Principe Borghese tomatoes. They looked great last year, and only tasted OK. I didn’t plant them this year, though they sprung up on their own and tasted a little better, maybe from less water.

    And I know they’re not really a cherry tomato, but I really like Beam’s Yellow Pear tomatoes.

  8. Matt’s wild cherry and Black (sometimes called brown) cherry. Both have lots of flavor, and are very prolific. The Black Cherry is about the size of a ping pong ball and tastes like a Cherokee Purple. The Matt’s just explode with real tomato flavor and are about marble sized. After growing these two varieties which give and give and have such amazing flavor everything else is just disappointing.

    Both did well in Denver’s dry climate. We can confirm the Matt’s do well in a self watering container in the Charlotte humidity this year.

  9. Sungolds have been really prolific for me in a cool cloudy Pacific Northwest summer that I’ve heard called “tomato hell” on my local weatherblog.

  10. Another vote for Matt’s Wild Cherry. We have 4 plants (2 of them volunteers), and are about drowning in little tomatoes. They’ve continued to be prolific, despite the excessive heat and lack of rain we’ve had in Atlanta this year.

  11. Hands down, Sweet 100’s. Prolific, incredible flavor, and disease resistant. They also seem to be less heat sensitive in my area (Valencia).

  12. A dissenting view. We didn’t like Matt’s Wild Cherry. Vigorous and productive, yes, but we found the flavor rather bland.

    Our other cherry tomato, Isis Candy, was a huge winner for us. It’s less vigorous and productive than Matt’s, but the flavor is amazing. We’ll definitely grow it again next year.

    We’re in L.A. (the Valley).

  13. I’ll dissent from an earlier commenter saying that the jelly bean are good. I found the plant to be prolific but the tomatoes are thick-skinned and not that sweet.

    I bought a single “Snow White” cherry at “Tomatomania” and find it to be the best cherry that I’ve ever had – only problem is that it produces only a third the fruit that the jelly bean vine does. I’ll have to try sungold next year. I actually have a problem here in Thousand Oaks, CA with tomatoes not setting fruit after the weather heats up….so I need to stick to heat tolerant varieties.

  14. My mom, living in Fresno, swears by “Tommy Toes” for her main cherry-tomato crop (indeterminate, heavy bearer with a nice full tart taste, and holds well on the vine), but she’s also had a good result this year trying out “Red Currant”, which really are about the size of Zante currants and are incredibly sweet. On our previous property in Fresno, Sweet 100s were a winner in full shade until 10 AM, but they’re less productive in the more intense full-day sun at her new place.

    Here in Michigan we’re having great luck this summer with a particular stripey purple cherry variety grown in containers, but damned if I know what it is. My roommate says he got it by saving seed from Trader Joe’s, though.

  15. Try the white current tomatoes.They ‘re a wild small cherry but they’re flavor is so excellent. I got the seeds from Baker’s heirlooms.

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