Tomato, Gardener’s Sweetheart (Organic)
Solanum lycopersicum. Red Cherry. 65 days. Indet.
This adorable little tomato has a lot to offer and quickly became a favorite field snack. Cute, heart-shaped fruit are large for a cherry with a really good firm texture and a lovely sweetness to match. Gardener’s Sweetheart has vigorous plants that produce long trusses of split-resistant fruit. Bred by Will Bonsall in Maine from a cross between a cherry and a paste, and released in 2014. Thanks to Fruition Seeds for turning us on to this one.
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Sow indoors in flats with good potting soil as early as February, but no later than April. Keep warm and well-watered. Up pot seedlings into 4” pots once they have two true leaves. Transplant into the garden once danger of frost has passed.
Seed Saving
Collect seeds from ripe fruit by squeezing into a jar and add 25% more water. Wait a few days for mold to form. When seeds sink and gel-sac is gone, stir, add water, then decant and rinse to clean. Dry thoroughly. Tomatoes are mostly self-pollinating; isolation is not usually needed for seeds to be true to type.
Anna Fay (verified owner) –
Where did you grow this variety? Oregon
I was super stoked to grow this last year, after seeing it lookin’ so adorable in the Baker Creek catalogue, I ordered it through Adaptive Seeds (woo! 😀 ). The plants were beautiful, big, strong and healthy and the fruits ripened sequentially down the long cascading trusses, a gorgeous display on the vine. Their unique shape is oh soooo cute and photogenic!
>>But then came the flavor: they were bad. Bad bad. I’m never going to grow this tomato ever again.
Yeah they were firm and held their shape and lasted in a box for a freakishly long time (nobody wanted to eat them)…but they were bland, a bit bitter with a hard texture. There was nothing sweet about ’em. I grew the not-so-sweetheart in two separate locations (on different pieces of land) with the same lackluster results. They look great but they taste so bad they aren’t worth the effort, time or space. Veeeeto!
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An-Lon Chen –
Where did you grow this variety? Washington
These were my six-year-old’s daughter’s absolute favorite last year, mainly because they’re so darn cute. They were nice and sweet with a pleasantly firm texture (not splitty or mealy). To the adults in the household, the productivity and taste were great but not outstanding. We would have preferred to try out other varieties for the fun of trying out different tomato varieties, but our daughter will probably make us stick to this one year after year.
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