Grow Your Own Cherry Tomatoes and Enjoy Them in These Delicious Ways

Cherry tomatoes have a lot going for them. They’re easy to grow, ripen fast, and you’ll enjoy a prolific harvest. Cherry tomatoes are naturally ready to use for eating raw and are perfect for snacking on. Their thin skins make them easy to bite into and create an explosion of flavor in your mouth. Cherry tomatoes will grow all summer until the first fall frost.

The only downside to cherry tomatoes is that they aren’t great for canning or making sauces. Their skin-to-pulp ratio results in a less meaty sauce. But if fresh tomato taste is your thing, try growing cherry tomatoes. Their easiness to grow and the intense tomato flavor will make them a winner in your summer garden.

Cherry tomatoes are the miniature size version of tomatoes. They come in a range of colors and flavors. Although small in size, they are large in flavor. When full size, they generally weigh 1 to 2 ounces.

Cherry tomatoes are an easy snack to go with you. No slicing, dicing, or refrigeration is needed.

A cup of cherry tomatoes is only 25 calories but is full of vitamins A, C, and E, as well as potassium and fiber.

The round shape and beautiful colors of cherry tomatoes make them a fun addition to crudités platters. Use a variety of colors for a creative display of healthy vegetables.

Make your own sun-dried tomatoes with your cherry tomato harvest. Cut your cherry tomatoes in half and dry them in an oven or food dehydrator for intense flavor.

Add some cherry tomatoes to a skewer with other garden fresh veggies for a delicious taste on the BBQ grill. You can’t do that with a beefsteak tomato.

For a cold refreshing skewer, add mozzarella balls, fresh basil, and balsamic glaze for a tasty Caprese kabob.

You don’t even have to slice these tomatoes to add them to a fresh salad. Cherry tomatoes are the perfect addition to a salad made with heirloom lettuce, cucumbers, and sweet peppers.

Cherry tomatoes are a warm-weather crop and thrive in the heat and sun. To give your plants a head start and have successful seed germination, we recommend starting tomato seeds indoors.

• Start tomato seeds indoors 10 to 12 weeks before planting outside.

• Plant seeds ¼” deep and spray with a water bottle to keep the soil moist.

• Keeping the soil warm and moist is essential to germinating tomato seeds.

• Cover the seeds with a humidity dome to keep the moisture in.

• Use a heating mat under the seeds to keep the soil between 70º - 80ºF.

• After the seeds have sprouted, between 5 and 10 days, you can remove the humidity dome.

• Start watering the seedlings from below to continue keeping the soil moist and avoid damping off.

• Once the tomato seedlings have 4 true leaves, you can repot them to a larger pot.

• Every time you repot your tomato plants, bury the stem several inches deeper than before. This will allow the plant to develop a more solid root base.

• At this point, you can start fertilizing your tomato plants with a half-strength fertilizer. 

Once the outside temperatures are consistently above 50ºF at night and the soil temperature is at least 60ºF, it’s safe to start hardening off your tomato seedlings. When they have acclimated to life outdoors, it’s time to transplant them into the garden.

Space cherry tomato seedlings 2 to 3 feet apart. Bury your tomato plant deep, all the way up to the first leaves. This is the last time you’ll be potting up, and this will give it a stronger root structure.

Plan ahead and provide strong structures that can support large indeterminate cherry tomato plants. They may look small and tender now, but these little seedlings grow quickly and will need a sturdy trellis.

Choose a sunny spot where they will receive at least 6 hours of direct sunlight.

Cherry tomatoes prefer soil a little more on the acidic side. Learn more about soil pH here.

Consider what companion plants you want to have next to your tomato plants.

Cherry tomatoes are heavy feeders and will produce more tomatoes with regular applications of fertilizer.

Pruning your cherry tomatoes will keep them from getting out of control.

Cherry tomato plants will continue producing as long as you keep picking the fruit. Once temperatures drop below 50ºF, plant growth, and flower production will slow. Once freezing temperatures arrive, the plants will die off.

Cherry tomatoes ripen faster than bigger tomatoes. So plan on picking frequently, every day or so, to keep your tomato plants producing.

Don’t worry. Cherry tomatoes taste nothing like cherries. The name refers to their size. While cherry tomatoes taste like the larger varieties, they seem to be more intense. Different varieties will have slightly different flavors, some sweet and others tangy.

In zone 10 and higher, you can plant tomatoes all year.

Most cherry tomatoes are indeterminate and will continue growing and spreading. Regular pruning can help keep your cherry tomato plants in check.

Growing cherry tomatoes is an excellent way to enjoy fresh tomato flavor all summer long. By following these basic tomato growing tips, you’ll enjoy such a prolific harvest that you won’t feel bad when the squirrels and other visitors to your garden take off with a few!  And these little tomatoes ripen so fast you can be snacking on these little bursts of sunshine before other varieties get ripe.

Start growing cherry tomatoes and use these easy and delicious ways to enjoy your harvest.