[Scribbler]

Hello all. A special request from the Head Gardener this year for me to grow cherry tomatoes instead of normal sized ones. The most important thing is that they taste good apparently, but she has also shown interest in unusual varieties which come in different colours. We've seen yellow and purple in our local veg shop, as well as traditional red. Probably not easy to source as plants, so need to buy seed. They may be described as 'heritage' varieties I think.
Any recommendations would be welcome.
I'm also thinking that a baby plum variety might be fun too. Hope I haven't left it too late in the year, but until very recently it has been too cold to even think of growing tomatoes up in Sheffield!
Thanks in advance. 

[hasbeans]

For yellow you won't go wrong with 'Sungold' and a purple could be 'Black Opal' or 'Black Cherry'.  'Artisan Tiger' are an interesting looking small tomato too.  They all taste good!

[Potty Plotty Lotty]

Another vote for Sungold from me. I'm actually trying a new variety of sungold called honeycomb which is less prone to splitting.

Galina is my go-to yellow cherry and it's early so good for cooler locations. You can save seeds from these as they aren't F1. If you are struggling to get hold of them (realseeds are a supplier) PM me and I can put some in the post.

For growing outdoors I sow towards the end of this month so you aren't too late.

[mumofstig]

Rosello is a lovely tomato, a deep pinky red cherry

https://www.kingsseeds.com/Products/Vegetable-Seeds/Tomato/Tomato-Rosella-PPP-ASolanum-lycopersicum-BGB40557-Clot-see-pkt-DGB#loaded

[AndyRVTR]

Sungold gets the thumbs up from me.. one of the nicest tasting cherry tomatoes imo.

[JacsH]

As others have said 'Sungold' is good - tasty and excellent cropper. 'Honeycomb' good cropper but very sweet and less tasty to my mind. Chocolate cherry - quite acidic flavour but good companion on the plate to Sungold,  purplish brown skins; 'Ildi' little yellow plum on huge sprays of flowers/fruit - very tasty and look lovely. Did badly for me 2020 though but 2018 one plant kept going until Christmas so we had freshly picked tomatoes for starter.  'Aviditas' - grafted plants - small red plum style, excellent flavour and cropper (2019 3 plants gave me over 9kg fruit; 2020 3 plants 6.5kg. I grow a lot of tomatoes to roast, blitz and freeze for use as "tinned chopped" tomatoes/soups/casseroles etc over the winter months; self sufficient in them). Although F1 last year I had some self-sown seeds come up that produced something very like Aviditas in appearance, flavour and yield! All grown in the soil in a poly tunnel. Not too late at all for sowing - sowed mine last week in heated propagator to plant in tunnel in late April/early May. Nickys Nursery has a good selection of varieties amongst other suppliers.

[Debz]

We only sowed our seeds two weeks ago so definitely not too late. I've bought mine from Plant World Seeds this year.  They have a fabulous selection of tomato varieties.  My problem was which ones to choose when there were so many I'd have liked to try.

[Scribbler]

Hey – many thanks for all the replies, and thank you Lotty for the offer of seed. I’ll check out some of the suppliers you’ve mentioned and see where we go from there. Thank you all again, very much appreciated.

[missmoneypenny]

Another vote for Sungold.

[jaydig]

I love Apero, and also Santorini, a small, oval tomato that packs in a lot of flavour, but I think each one of us have different tastes.  My husband prefers a sweet tomato with a slightly acidic tang to it and these two are his favourites.

[mumofstig]

jaydig: My husband prefers a sweet tomato with a slightly acidic tang to it

Me too, that's why I don't rate Sungold 
It would be too easy if we all liked the same things, the world would be a bit boring, wouldn't it?

[jaydig]

I love Apero, and also Santorini, a small, oval tomato that packs in a lot of flavour, but I think each one of us have different tastes.  My husband prefers a sweet tomato with a slightly acidic tang to it and these two are his favourites.

Sorry - I should have put "Santonio", a small plum tomato.  I would say "should have gone to specsavers" but I did, then didn't wear the glasses when labelling the tomatoes!

[rowlandwells]

we usually go with Sungold and tumbling tom but we couldn't get tumbling tom from our supplier so we went for Maskotka to see how that performs said to be good tasting and resistant to cracking only time will tell

[New shoot]

we usually go with Sungold and tumbling tom but we couldn't get tumbling tom from our supplier so we went for Maskotka to see how that performs said to be good tasting and resistant to cracking only time will tell

I grow Maskotka most years.   The fruit is a bit larger than tumbler types and doesn’t usually crack.  They taste better as well.

If you give them a decent sized container, they make loads of fruit.  I had 2 last year planted in a builders bucket with holes drilled in the base and was picking them for months and months.  They stood variously inside on greenhouse benches, outside, then back in the greenhouse for the autumn.  The plants were pretty manky at the end, but still fruiting.  They just got some decent compost to grow in, regular watering and tomato feed and did the rest themselves 

[OakR]

I'm not a massive fan on sungold myself - the kids like them, but I find they split more than any other tomato. I had them planted next to a gardeners delight last year and the difference was striking. Some of it is probably due to my care, or lack of, of course.