Cherkoee Purple

gardenbean · Wed Jun 01, 2011 8:49 am

Could someone please give provide some basic information on this plant. Out all of my plants, seems like this one gives me the most "fits". He is my smallest plant so far and frankly doesn't look as "happy" as my others. So what's up with that???????????

TZ -OH6 · Wed Jun 01, 2011 9:44 am

The several times I have grown CP it starts out as a runty seedling and then catches up once it is in the ground. It puts on fruit early in the season and then doesn't do much at the end of the season other than ripen the few remaining fruit (not loaded with green fruit when frost comes like most plants). The plant is about 2/3- 3/4 the size of full sized indeterminants. By the end of the season it will fill up a 5 ft cage while the others are over growing it. First fruit ripens about 65 days after planting out here.

LindsayArthurRTR · Wed Jun 01, 2011 1:03 pm

Same here, it'll catch up. It was one of my tallest plants last year, but it wasn't a prolific producer. Taste made up for small production

I did get really large fruits!

tedln · Wed Jun 01, 2011 1:17 pm

I've already eaten five or six CP tomatoes from two plants this spring with possibly four more left to ripen. The plants are only 1/2 as tall as most of my other varieties. They are very healthy plants compared with some other heirloom varieties, but low producers. Next year, I will plant Indian Stripe (slightly smaller fruit, but much more productive) and Spudakee (similar size fruit and productive) to replace the CP variety. Both Indian Stripe and Spudakee supposedly taste as good as CP with some people saying the Indian Stripe tastes better.

Ted

gardenbean · Fri Jun 03, 2011 9:04 am

Thanks for the info guys. He is my far my smallest guy tomato plant but I wanted to see what a purple actually looks like. He may be scrappy but I think he will be fighter in the end..........

BrianIllinois · Sun Jun 05, 2011 6:31 pm

I gave mine a good look today. Can't say he's the biggest, but he's right in the middle of the pack.
He's definitely one of the healthier-looking of my dozen or so varieties. Very compact, bushy.

BrianIllinois · Sun Jun 05, 2011 6:31 pm

I gave mine a good look today. Can't say he's the biggest, but he's right in the middle of the pack.
He's definitely one of the healthier-looking of my dozen or so varieties. Very compact, bushy.

gardenbean · Tue Jun 07, 2011 12:47 pm

My runty CP finally took a huge leap and sprout up in the last four days. Suddenly we went from 60 to 90 in the blink of an eye and my little runty is starting to catch up. So far my Brandywine and Snow White are the giants.....

GardenRN · Tue Jun 07, 2011 1:42 pm

I have always had problems with CPs. Usually they don't make it past a foot tall and have the hardest time hardening off. This time I only started two and decided to take better care of fewer plants rather than try to beat the system by planting a dozen of them. It paid off....the two in the garden both have fruit but are slow growing and slow to ripen it seems. I don't think they look the healthiest, and definitely not the biggest, but they are producing so what the hay.

As far as biggest and best go, I think my azoychkas are by far by biggest and fullest plants, however they seem the most disease prone.

Supersweet 100, brandywine, mandarin cross, and tiger stripe all seem to be neck and neck for size and health. But all looking very good and producing.

gardenbean · Tue Jun 07, 2011 5:07 pm

@gardenrn, have you tried Mr.Stripey. I have one of those along with Snow White and a Green Zebra. So far things are good with them but it's still early in the game......