Tomato ' Cherokee Purple ' NonGmo
80 days. Cherokee Purple tomatoes get their name from their skin, which boasts rich, dusty shades of purple and pink with shoulders that are often green. Its flesh is a deep rose with wet and red, sometimes green, pockets of seed. The Cherokee Purple tomato’s flavor consists of a rich combination of mostly sweet, and some acidic, notes. Despite the relative sweetness of the tomato its flavor is in no way saccharine. Rather, it is balanced, complex, and slightly smoky. Our favorite dark tomato and one of our best selling varieties.
A must have for all cooks, this semi-determinate fleshy variety has highly flavoured, large 10cm round segmented fruit.
Plant in good quality soil and apply a general fertiliser once fruiting begins. Avoid watering leaves directly to prevent disease.
Health & Culinary Notes: Rich, fleshy and full of flavour.
Excellent raw for salads or sandwiches and perfect for pasta sauces.
Great source of antioxidant lycopene as well as vitamins A and C.
Details:
Plant life cycle: annual
Site: Full sunDays to maturity: 80
Seed depth: 1/4"
Plant spacing: 18"
Row spacing: 3-4' Feet
Approx seeds per packet: 100
How to grow:
Growing. Give your plants plenty of room. If you plan on training to a single stem, you can set them 12-16” apart. If training to 2-3 stems, set 18-24 inches apart. If using cages, set 24 inches apart. If letting them sprawl, give them at least 30 inches. Make your rows at least four feet apart; five feet is better, especially if you are using cages or allowing them to sprawl. You can (and should) remove some of the lower leaves when you set them in the ground. Set them deeper than they were growing because the stems will develop roots. If they are very leggy (tall, but thin stems), remove most of the leaves, lay them in a shallow trench, then carefully bend up the tip of the plant and tamp soil around it.
Pruning. Pinch suckers (the new growth that begins between the leaf and the stem) weekly. General rule is if training to two stems, leave the main stem (where the first flowers appear) and the first sucker below the first set of flowers. If training to three stems, also leave the first sucker above the first flower. Remove all others. Most people who use cages do not prune or only prune lightly. Unpruned plants will typically ripen the first fruit a week or two later than pruned plants.
Harvest/storage:
You have two choices. You can pick your tomatoes when they are dead ripe and use them immediately. You can also pick them when they have turned color (say when they are mostly pink, but obviously not ready). When picked at this stage and left in a warm place out of the sun, they will finish ripening and the taste will be just as excellent as if they were ripened on the vine. The advantage to doing this is you are less likely to have fruit split, drop from the plant, crack at the stem end, etc. Never ever put your ripe tomatoes in the refrigerator. Taste declines significantly and the interior will taste mushy. Pick green unblemished fruit when you know there will be a frost. Wrap them individually in newspaper and store in a cool area in a box. Check frequently for rot. To ripen, take some and put them in a warm area. They won’t taste as good as a vine ripened tomato, but they will be better than the supermarket ones.