If you didn’t plant cherry tomatoes this year, it is a little too late to start them in Georgia but if you’re lucky, you know someone who did. Now is the time that Cherry tomatoes are in full production and your friends may have plenty to share. There are countless reasons to grow and eat cherry tomatoes!

Different Varieties

There are thousands of varieties of colors and sizes of tomatoes, including many types of Cherry tomatoes. This year I grew Sweeties, Sun Gold, and for the first time, the Chocolate Cherry variety. Cherry tomatoes are prolific and continue to bear fruit through the hot summer months. They are very sweet and delicious, like the Chocolate Cherry name implies, they almost taste like candy. It is difficult to resist eating them warm, right off the vine before you can even fill your basket.

I’ve grown several varieties of cherry and grape tomatoes, including the yellow pear shaped tomatoes in prior years but I think these 3 varieties are becoming our family favorites.

Big Producers

I started my seeds indoors in February and transplanted them in mid-April (April 15 is the “Frost Free” date for Georgia). We have been harvesting and enjoying them daily since the 4^th of July. Our temperatures remain very warm and frost-free through most of September and our cherry tomatoes continue producing through the month. I often harvest all of the fruit and pull the plants mid-month so I can prep the soil to plant fall and winter crops. The green tomatoes ripen indoors.

Easy to Grow

Cherry tomatoes are easy to grow so they are great for beginning gardeners. The small fruits are perfect for children to help harvest. Like most summer crops, they need good soil, lots of sunshine and plenty of water. They do grow very tall so it is best to give them room and provide some sturdy support. If you meet these basic requirements you’ll be rewarded with piles of the delicious, sweet, vitamin-packed fruit.

Nutritious Disease Fighters

All tomatoes, including the cherry varieties are full of nutrition and disease fighting goodness. They are vitamin-packed, full of Potassium, antioxidants and Carotenoids like Lycopene that has been shown to reduce the risks of many types of cancer, heart disease, and Diabetes. Carotenoids are pigments that make fruits and vegetables red, yellow and orange in color and they are particularly high in tomatoes. These natural chemicals are powerful antioxidants that help our bodies combat inflammation, which is also important for brain health. Although all tomatoes deliver Lycopene, our absorption of these inflation-fighting chemicals is significantly improved when tomatoes are cooked and more concentrated – but don’t remove the skins. Tomato skins are richer in nutrients.^1,2,3

Perfect Portable Snacks

Cherry Varieties are so tender and delicious that it’s easy to pop the whole tomato into your mouth before you can fill a basket!

Please join the GardenZeal™ mailing list and we’ll remind you again so you won’t forget to include them in your garden plans next spring.

Sources:

¹USDA
United States Department of Agriculture
Agricultural Research Service National Nutrition Database

² Life Extension Magazine
“Slash Chronic Disease Risk with LYCOPENE”
by Alex Wilson

³WebMD”
Health Properties of Tomatoes, Here are 10 reasons you should be eating more delicious, nutritious tomatoes”
By Elaine Magee, MPH, RD