I picked these beautiful cherry tomatoes this morning while working in my garden.There are many good reasons to grow cherry tomatoes, the main one being their delicious sweet flavor. Cherry tomatoes are easier to grow than full size varieties, and don’t need as much room. In the past I grew them in containers, but this year I planted several in a small side garden. Because the fruit is much smaller, cherry tomatoes mature and ripen earlier in the growing season, then continue to produce throughout summer and into the fall. We enjoy salads, and these little gems are a perfect addition to our salad greens.
I like to support my plants with tomato cages, but have read that not all cherry tomato plants need cages. It really depends on the size of the plant, but I would rather put the cage on at the time of planting, just in case a particular plant grows larger than expected, as the one above did. I’ve heard that some cherry tomatoes will reseed themselves, so I did a little research. Apparently this is true. Some gardeners always remove seedlings that start on their own, while others leave them, and say the wild seedlings do just as well as store bought plants. If this year’s plants do self seed, I will definitely let them grow and see how they do. It will be an experiment in cherry tomato gardening. I already plan on having a larger crop of cherry tomato plants next summer. Hopefully a combination of wild and store bought. Below is a photo of green tomatoes still on the vine. They will be ready for our salad in just a couple of days.