Cherry tomato, savoring the summer!

Cherry tomato is easy to grow and the harvest is often abundant.

Key cherry tomato facts

Name – Lycopersicon esculentum, cherry tomato
Family – Solanaceae or nightshade
Type – vegetable

Height – 30 to 55 inches (80 to 140 cm)
Exposure – full sun
Soil – light, rich enough

Harvest – summer, let it ripen on the plant.

From sowing to harvest, each maintenance step is important to produce beautiful cherry tomatoes.

• Read also: how to grow tomatoes

How to grow cherry tomato

Sowing cherry tomato from seed

• Refer to our page on sowing tomatoes and start as soon as February-March.
  This method takes longer, but it is very easy to accomplish and you’ll be particularly rewarded, since the fruits you will harvest will have a unique delicious taste!

Planting cherry tomato purchased in pots or in nursery pots

• If you purchase cherry tomatoes in nursery pots, it means you’ll have purchased them in spring or at the beginning of summer.
• Plant them in a sun-bathed area, sheltered from stronger winds.
• Space each plant around 30 inches (80 cm) apart.
• For better tomatoes, add vegetable patch or tomato fertilizer once or twice a month, it increases the harvest dramatically.

A video on growing tomato

Pruning cherry tomato

It is important that the fruits be exposed to sunlight.

• Remove growths (they’re called “suckers”) that sprout where leaves are connected to the stem.
  These “suckers” tend to absorb a lot of sap, and this always slows the plant’s growth on the main stem.
• When the plant has reached its maximum height, prune the head off, leaving 5 groups of leaves.

Harvesting cherry tomato

• Cherry tomatoes are best harvested only when they are well colored.
  Usually this takes 4 to 5 months after sowing.

• Some fruits might mature later in the season.

• You can harvest them if still green and let them ripen in your garage or on a windowsill.

• With green tomatoes, you can make delicious green tomato jam.

• Green, unripe tomatoes will give you a firm and delicious jam.

• Jam made from red tomatoes isn’t as good, because the texture is sometimes more mealy.

All there is to know about cherry tomato

Easy to grow and only requiring minimal care, tomatoes are one of the most commonly grown vegetables in the world.
In the vegetable patch or in the garden, but also on a balcony or a terrace, this plant has the added advantage of being very decorative, and pest repellent, too (particularly against the cabbage white butterfly).

Keeping cherry tomato

• You must avoid putting cherry tomato in the refrigerator.
• Best by far is to store them in a relatively cool spot that isn’t too dry.

Diseases and insects infecting cherry tomato

• Tomato blight – Brown spots on leaves
• Powdery mildew – White velvet covers leaves
• Aphids – Leaves curl up