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Cherry Ember Tomato
Indeterminate
65 days to harvest
Solanum Lycopersicum
We love the glorious sweetness of these gorgeous cherry tomatoes, each one a luminescent gem, like a striped heart-shaped apple, so creamy and so juicy. We also love that Cherry Ember rarely cracks, no matter the rain that falls!
This new tomato the joy of Phil Griffiths of Cornell plus the genius of countless generations of indigenous seedkeepers who have co-adapted with tomatoes for millennia. Within a few generations, this tomato will be a beloved heirloom here in the Finger Lakes and so far beyond.
At Fruition, we sow tomatoes in soil blocks indoors 2 months before final frost, early April for us here in Zone 5, germinating them on heat mats with ease. Good light is essential: Younger, less stressed seedlings are healthier and more abundant than older, more stressed seedlings.
Organic Cherry Ember Tomato
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: 65
Harvest: Indeterminate. A scrumptious snack straight off the vine! Enjoy fruit early and often, and until frost too 🙂
Fruition’s Growing Guide
Paddy (verified owner) –
Went a bit crazy and planted 14 different cherry tomatoes last year. I carefully chose what were said to be the most tasty in every color of cherry tomato to try to find the best. And at the last moment on a lark I added the brand new Cherry Ember. We did multiple rounds of taste testing during the season and every taster put Cherry Ember in their top 5, with several folks putting it in their top 3. Great looks, great taste, and a little bit firmer than many of the other cherry tomatoes grown. Yield was good despite the drought. My friends have asked me to grow some Cherry Ember seedlings for them this year.
Janet (verified owner) –
This is the first year that we’ve grown the Cherry Ember variety and, unfortunately, I can’t provide a positive review. The plants are gorgeous, healthy, and abundantly fruited. But, I find the flavor of these tomatoes to be absolutely off putting. They lack the rich, tomato sweetness that one generally finds in cherry and grape varieties and, in addition, seem overly sour. I want to note that I’ve done 3 tastes now with tomatoes picked on different days to allow for progressive ripening and, thus, changes in flavor but each tomato tasted the same—acidic, sour and lacking in tomato flavor. I have read other reviews of this variety (post taste-testing) and now realize that a red flag about this variety is that the reviews seemed to focus mostly on the “look” of the tomato rather than any meaningful discussion of flavor. Obviously, we will not plant this variety again.
Maddie –
We are grateful for you sharing your reflections with us and the Fruition community, Janet, and truly sorry to hear that you haven’t found delight in this experience. Apologies that we are just now getting you a reply — we are responding to a backlog in product reviews, and iterating our teamwork to ensure we are consistently and quickly responding with care to reviews, now and in seasons to come. We appreciate your patience alongside your feedback!
While we certainly only offer varieties that we have taste tested and find delicious — and many of our customers have commented positively on Cherry Ember’s sweetness — one of our favorite facts of life is that flavor is such a subjective and personal phenomenon! Our friend Joseph avoids red tomatoes because it turns out he is yucked by the compound lycopene associated with red-tomatoey-ness so — to each their own. Thank you for taking a chance on something new, and providing your learnings so others may have more information to make their choices.
Surrounding you with beauty and joy is why we do what we do– one way or another, we would love to see you find more delight this season! We have reached out to you directly by email to joyfully provide you with a coupon for a free packet of seed. Please feel free to read our Satisfaction Guarantee and email support@fruitionseeds.com should you wish to reach out any time in the future. Thanks for growing with us!
alexander.record (verified owner) –
Super delicious and sweet. This was the most consistent producer for us in this year’s drought and was the last variety we were picking red tomatoes from. I will absolutely grow these again.
KJ (verified owner) –
I trialed 15 new varieties of tomatoes in my Zone 9b maritime home garden this summer, and Cherry Ember was one of my top performers. Early summer marine layers (fog and damp), alkaline soils, very limited water (Southern CA drought) and a lack of staking (got too busy & missed the staking window) or fertilizing (new garden area, soil is still being built up) and weed pressure negatively impacted yields on most of the other tomatoes but not this one. Our rampant wilt & blight barely touched it. It put out high yields of delicious, sweet, beautiful, large cherry/small saladette sized tomatoes all season long. As I write this at the end of December, the plants are healthy, bushy and green and are still setting fruit, despite several light frosts (and no protection). This one goes in the permanent collection for our garden and will be one I grow each year from now on. Highly recommend for coastal SoCal and other maritime Mediterranean climates.
Melissa Knox –
Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us! Thanks for being a part of the fruition community.
KJ (verified owner) –
I tried Cherry Ember for the first time last year. It handled our difficult weather (cool, foggy summers with drought) without flinching and provided tremendous amounts of sweet, delicious, crack-resistant, beautiful tomatoes. A huge hit, and was essentially dry-farmed with limited irrigation in June and August and none at all in July. It did not succumb to late blight or powdery mildew, both of which are very pervasive in our area (see aforementioned cool, dry, foggy summers!).
But even better…. is that it is now the end of January and the plant is still going strong, setting flowers and fruit! Light frosts have not killed it, and it is still vigorous. The other tomatoes have all given up and are absolutely dead. Cherry Ember just keeps on going. It may be a tender perennial here in our zone 9b garden. This one has earned a spot in next summer’s garden plans.
liz (verified owner) –
wow! I am just in love with these! This variety caught my eye so I just decided to try it out. Absolutely delicious, and lots of tomatoes to harvest. so unique yet so tasty. will definitely grow again next year. my plants are so big and healthy, they’ve gotten to be taller than me, (5’3). I’m amazed and so pleased
gwynnek1 (verified owner) –
Joyfully colored, very flavorful, cherry ember will light up your life. Eat right off the plant or gather them in a bowl in the kitchen to remind you why you garden.