Cherry Tomato Rainbow

Cherry tomatoes may be small, but they can be every bit as flavorful as the juiciest slicer you've ever grown.

- by Susan M. Brackney Susan M. Brackney is an award-winning writer and the author of Plan Bee: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Hardest-Working Creatures on the Planet and The Insatiable Gardener's Guide: How to Grow Anything & Everything Indoors, Year ‘Round.

Available in a rainbow of colors, these sweet treats can also do a lot to brighten up your garden and your plate. Besides the basic red and orange fruits, there are heirloom and hybrid varieties that produce cherry tomatoes in breathtaking pinks, creamy yellows, bright greens and bluish-purples, among others. What's more, cherry tomato plants often will put on mature fruits much sooner than other kinds of tomatoes. That means you'll get to enjoy lots of fresh little tomatoes while you wait for any larger tomatoes you may be growing to materialize. Several types of cherry tomatoes are also compact enough that you can grow them in pots on a patio or even in a window box planter.

One- & Two-biters & Beyond

While exploring the hundreds of Technicolor tomato varieties out there, you may come across descriptions such as “micro-cherries,” “mini-grapes,” “currants” and “micro-plums.” You'll also likely see “determinate” or “indeterminate” as you peruse the listings.

“I look at cherry tomatoes as one-biters,” says John Lenz, a horticulturalist at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. “The whole thing goes in your mouth. Boom!”

Those one-bite cherries are often very juicy, seedy and full of flavor. For their part, both micro-cherries and currants put out fruits that are even smaller than standard cherry tomatoes. Although somewhat tedious to harvest, they can be candy sweet.

After the one-biters, Lenz continues: “I look at grape tomatoes as being slightly larger [than cherries] all the way up to the two-biters. Then I kind of jump to salad-sized where you quarter them and throw the wedges in your salad.”

Closer to the size and shape of a small plum, plum tomatoes have thicker walls, fewer seeds and aren’t as intensely sweet as cherry tomatoes. This can also hold true for micro-plums.