I think I may not be letting my Atomics get fully ripe. I am going to try to keep them on longer this year to see. A tip someone told me for the Barry's crazy cherry is to wait until the stem / flower part at the top of the tomato turns from green to yellow. I have been waiting for it to turn yellow for the past couple years before picking and seems to be the trick. Also, I do not prune my cherry tomatoes. They start slower but you get a lot more production. I've tested 2 identical plants side by side and got triple the harvest of the plant that was not pruned. I know everyone in video's say to prune but I will never do it again after testing and my preference. Hope that helps.

Thank you!

Loved the tomatoes comparison especially because we are in the same state. I grew 7 varieties of cherries and about 25 slicers and I can share some info. There are some reasons why some tomatoes do better than others. Location they are grown in, the weather, how they are grown and variety. We grow outside and I do have irrigation as of mid summer. I don’t prune to one leader and I attach/weave to cattle panel. Sun Gold of course was a definite winner for sweet cherry and the first to produce and a lot! Little to no cracking and keep quite well. Sweetheart Grape from Jungs was my favorite as it is easy to pick, firm, no cracking, good sweet to acid and a bit of pop when eaten and very prolific. Sweet 100s is a longtime favorite. Black Cherry was a larger cherry with good flavor. All were Very prolific. I had a Brad’s Atomic and with that late frost I replanted and must have gave them all away. Last year had a White Currant that was really sweet and Just Awful cracking and deteriorating habit. I think they rotted on the way to the house. The Amish Paste and Amish Gold Slicer will make my list. I didn’t think the paste were going to be prolific and they finally came through a few days back and the slicer is a beautiful yellow orange. I’ve found yellow tomatoes are a smoother texture and paste are fairly neutral tasting. Mortgage Lifters were Huge! 2lb. 5.9oz.! They are meaty and not too sweet or acidic. I have several flats of various kinds that I will taste today. Most all varieties were prolific. Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, Abe Lincoln, Mammie Browns Pink, Brandywine Pink. I will have to say for next year I will go back to Oxhearts, Brandywine Red, a couple hybrids from Burpees that were super meaty, actually unbelievable and might try a determinate for paste and of course the cherries I mentioned. It would be nice to harvest all at once and get the canning done. I see the Veggie Boys grow determinates and no staking on farm fields. What I won’t do is take time to prune to single leader. It’s impossible to keep up, they will sunburn here and you don’t get near the production at all. The plus side is they look pretty with the cluster up the stalk and easy to pick. Hydroponic growers use this in intensive growing. Of course they will get tall because all the energy goes to that one leader, but missing the fruit. I trim the lower branches and prune throughout season lightly for air flow. Another thing I think when leaves are taken away it reduces the gasses to help ripen. I don’t believe pruning to SL improves health either as when August first hits the wilt just arrives and if I have time I clip them out. My plants are very prolific and we’ve harvested flats of tomatoes and there are still many out there. I’ve topped some to stop further growth as frost will soon be here. My take on most heirlooms is they cat face really bad. Some of it this year may be due to late frost and drought. They just don’t keep well with cracks and scarring. I’m talking within a couple days they mold. Also the green shoulders and large cores is a lot of waste along with cutting out the scars. I found I really like my tomatoes red or yellow/orange and wasn’t a fan of green gel inside dark tomatoes. The flavor wasn’t enough to get me to grow again and they don’t keep well. I have to say the Amish Paste and Amish Gold were very perfect with no imperfections. The opinions I have are for my own garden. Climate, soil, pruning, fertilizing, watering all play a part in how a tomato will perform/taste, so what worked/didn’t work for me may not be true for all. I will say I would like to try a high tunnel for sweet peppers next year as they are just coming on strong and then it will freeze.🙄 If I had a traffic safe place to set a stand I would. We did have a friend harvest one garden for his church food pantry and I give to others, but it would be nice to recoup some costs.😊. Oh well.

We received a free package of Gardeners Delight seeds with an order about 5 yrs ago. Now I have to grow them every year! People ask me for plants and I take pints and quarts to gift neighbors, friends and family. My husband and I garden for the love it. We are scaling back this year because of age and health. Very good in salads and snacking!!

Try Juliet! The best for me!

Part of your problem with productivity on the Sungold is that you pruned too much. Most cherry varieties are not supposed to have much pruning as you get a lot of tomatoes from the suckers.

Does german lunchbox even sound appealing? No disrespect to german cuisine but a lunchbox with a tomato in it is not inspiring or motivational.