Friends, rather than selling and shipping seeds, we now share seeds as an embodied gift practice. We are shipping all orders prior to August 28th as quick as we can, though your seeds may not arrive ’til October. Thanks for your patience and grace! Learn how to receive seeds from us & here are our FAQs.
One of the most delectable, dependable and disease-resistant tomatoes we’ve ever experienced, Summer Sweetheart ripens long and luscious trusses of ten succulent fruits and often more. We love these large saladette-style tomatoes on salads, kabobs, roasted and stuffed with mozzarella as well as sun-dried. Intriguingly, Summer Sweetheart has beautifully diverse expressions: some plants will be slightly earlier than others, some plants will have slightly smaller fruits than others, and some plants will have more smooth or more ribbed fruits than others. Why? Here’s more of the story:
Whether you hope to harvest ten or ten thousand tomatoes, diseases like Late Blight, Early Blight and Septoria Leaf Spot are affecting your abundance every season here in the Northeast. Though many cultural practices can reduce the spread of disease (like growing under plastic and watering soil rather than leaves), sowing seeds with natural genetic resistance to these diseases is the single greatest thing you can do to increase your success, whether you are an organic or conventional grower. Martha Mutschler-Chu developed such tomatoes at Cornell University.
Fruition Seeds asked to play with one of Martha’s triple-resistant lines (CU-79) and fell in love with a cross with Will Bonsall’s Gardener’s Sweetheart, an exceptionally sweet and creamy heart-shaped red cherry. Most F1 Hybrid varieties are the result of two inbred parent lines crossed and since Summer Sweetheart Cherry Tomato is a cross of one inbred parent line (CU-79) and Gardener’s Sweetheart (a more genetically diverse open-pollinated variety), there is more delicious diversity and variation in sizes in Summer Sweetheart than most F1 Hybrid varieties.
Planting Method: Transplant Only
When to sow: 6-8 weeks before last frost
Seed Depth: 1/8 inch Days to Germination: 7-10 at 80°F (27°C)
Sowing and seedling care: Don’t start too early! Sow indoors 2 seeds/cell or soil block, & thin to 1. We recommend sowing on a heat mat at 80°F to emergence, 75°F after. Good light is essential: Younger, less stressed seedlings are healthier and more abundant than older, more stressed seedlings. Pot up to 3-4” pots when first true leaves, submerging 3/4 of the stem below soil.
When to transplant: Harden off & transplant outdoors after frost, again burying stem.
Strong 3′ trellis optional but helpful. Water soil, not leaves. Prune lowest stem “suckers” as they emerge.
Transplant Spacing: 2.5 feet Sun Needs: Full
Days to Harvest: 75
Harvest: Indeterminate.
Carolyn –
I wrote a review for sweetheart cherry tomatoes. It should be here.
Sylvia –
Hi Carolyn, Your review for the Gardener’s Sweetheart Cherry Tomato should be live on the site now. Thank you for being part of our growing community! -Sylvia and the rest of the Fruition Crew
Roger (verified owner) –
A disease-resistant tomato that’s truly delicious. Grown in Los Angeles. We will grow them again this year.
Melissa Knox –
So glad to hear you enjoyed them!
Anonymous –
We have a serious problem with Septoria Leaf Spot in our area. These tomatoes are the most resistant to SLS that I have tried, but they still eventually succumb later in the season. However, it is much later than non-resistant varieties. The plant is very productive and the fruit is good tasting. I will continue to grow them.
Melissa Knox –
Thanks for sharing your experience with us!
Melissa