Black Cherry Tomatoes: How to Grow and Care for

Black Cherry tomatoes have been on the U.S. market for 20 years and is now one of the most popular heirloom varieties for the home garden, due to its outstanding flavor and beautiful appearance. Learn how to grow the Black Cherry tomato and get expert tips and advice for caring for and harvesting these delightful fruits. Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or just starting out, this comprehensive guide will help you cultivate a bountiful harvest of these delicious tomatoes.

Tomatoes are a staple in home vegetable gardens, and for good reason — they’re craveworthy and wondrously productive. Among the hundreds of tomato varieties readily available in the U.S., Black Cherry tomatoes stand out with their unique flavor and color.

I’ll just state immediately for the record that they’re my very favorite cherry tomato. I’ve grown many, many beautiful and utterly delicious varieties — with the Sun Gold cherry tomato a close second — but the Black Cherry is the top of the tops, for my tastes.

It was actually my first introduction to black tomatoes, and led me down that intriguing tomato-lover’s path of discovering new flavors and qualities found only in black varieties, including as Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, Paul Robeson, and more. I owe a lot of personal gratitude to the Black Cherry tomato!

Getting to Know Black Cherry Tomatoes

There’s so much to love about Black Cherry tomatoes. Let’s dig right in!

Brief History

The Black Cherry tomato is a relatively recent heirloom variety that has become popular among gardeners and tomato enthusiasts. While the exact origin of Black Cherry tomatoes is not well documented, they are believed to have been developed in the United States through the selective breeding of other heirloom tomatoes with dark pigmentation.

The goal was to create a cherry tomato with the unique flavor profile and deep coloration typically found in larger black or purple tomatoes, such as Black Krim and Cherokee Purple. Most black tomato varieties that we know and love today were cultivated in the Ukraine and Russia.

The Black Cherry tomato’s distinctive color comes from its moderately high levels of anthocyanins, which are pigments that also contribute to the tomato’s antioxidant properties. Over the years, this variety has gained recognition for its outstanding flavor and attractive appearance, cementing its position as a favorite among home gardeners and gourmet chefs alike.

Flavor and Texture

Black Cherry tomatoes boast a perfect balance of sweet and tangy, with a hint of smokiness that sets them apart from other cherry tomato varieties. This complex flavor profile makes them a sought-after ingredient for fresh eating and salads. There’s nothing quite like a Black Cherry tomato Caprese salad with those little balls of fresh mozzarella, plenty of chopped fresh basil, and a drizzle of balsamic dressing. It’s my favorite summer salad!

Brix is a measurement of the sugar content in fruits and vegetables, with a higher value indicating a sweeter taste. Black Cherry tomatoes have a Brix value of around 8 to 10, making them one of the sweetest cherry tomato varieties available.

Texture can be a make-or-break perceived food quality, as some people — like me! — have strong aversions to specific textures, such as chewy, mealy, papery, or mushy. Once, Chick-fil-A served me a chicken wrap with some of the paper wrapping mysteriously inside the sandwich, unnoticed by me after I removed the outside layer. OMG. The chewy wax paper. I never had another meal from them again. I’m not mad at the mistake, it’s just that it was a mistake that triggered the worst of my food aversion issues, lol.

It’s entirely personal preference, of course, but I would say that cherry tomatoes in general are more susceptible to texture challenges than their standard globe counterparts. The perfect cherry tomato, in my opinion, has a skin that’s firm enough so that you can take a bit out of it like an apple, but not so sturdy that it becomes chewy — or papery! — and difficult to break down.

I give the Black Cherry tomato high marks in both flavor and texture. These tomatoes are known for their firm and juicy bite, and the skin is easily punctured when ripe, providing a nice “pop” of flavor without the entire tomato disintegrating.

Of course, environmental factors can alter the flavor and texture of tomatoes throughout the growing season. For example, sampling a tomato after a long rainy stretch might be unfair, because tomatoes already ripening on the vine can get a bit waterlogged and mushy in the face of too much moisture.

So before you judge the Black Cherry or any tomato, make sure you try one after a nice hot and dry stretch, so each tomato can shine.

Planting and Growing Black Cherry Tomatoes

Seed Selection and Preparation

Choose high-quality seeds from a reputable source or a tomato-growing friend to ensure healthy and vigorous plants. Follow my detailed guide for growing tomatoes from seed.

If starting vegetables from seed is not your thing, don’t hesitate to make purchases from a reputable garden center. Of course, you’ll be at the mercy of what local retailers believe will sell in your area. Black Cherry starter plants are very difficult to find here, so I often go the mail order route from an online source.

Keep in mind that tomatoes are self-pollinating plants. This means that a tomato does not rely on a second plant to produce tomatoes. So, you can grow just one tomato plant, if you want.

Ideal Growing Conditions

Black Cherry tomatoes thrive in temperatures between 65 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Avoid planting them outside until the risk of frost has passed and the soil temperature is consistently above 60 degrees.

These tomatoes require full sun exposure, with at least six to eight hours of direct sunlight per day for optimal growth and fruit production, so make sure you choose an area that gets plenty of sunshine from June through at least September.

Black Cherry tomatoes prefer well-draining soil rich in organic matter, with a soil pH level between 6.0 and 6.8. A mixture of garden soil, compost, and well-rotted manure is ideal.

Planting Techniques

Transplant your seedlings — whether home-grown or store-bought — outdoors when they have two at least sets of true leaves and the risk of frost has passed. I prefer to wait until the juvenile plant is well established in its pot, with three or more leaf pairs (more explanation below).

Plants that you’ve purchased from a garden center that have been kept in outdoor displays have already acclimated to your local weather. For your own seedlings, or mail order plants, it’s well-advised to introduce your plants to the outdoors slowly, for a few hours a day over several days.

Note that all tomatoes, both cherries and standards, benefit from a deep planting. Tomato plants are super interesting in that they have the ability to produce roots anywhere along their stalks.

More roots = more nourishment absorbed from the soil!

The reason I my let my potted tomato plants mature to the point of 3 or 4 leaf pairs is so that I can remove the bottom leaf pair (or two!), and plant the long tomato stalk deeply into the soil. Dig a deep hole. Fill it with water and watch it drain. It should “empty” at a decent pace, and not puddle. Mix the dug up soil with compost. Sink the tomato stalk down to the lowest leaf pair and fill in with soil.

Some gardeners do a sort of angular planting, where they plant the root ball and part of the stalk almost horizontal in the ground and then gently bend the plant upwards so it’s standing straight. This is an option if your yard has a rocky or clay layer beneath your topsoil that prevents you from digging deeply.

Caring for Black Cherry Tomato Plants

Nutrition

Water plants consistently in the absence of rain, providing 1 to 1.5 inches of water per week. Avoid overhead watering on the leaves to minimize the risk of disease: direct your hose or watering can nozzle right at the soil.

Use a balanced, slow-release fertilizer at planting time — I add Plantone for tomatoes to the soil — and then side-dress with additional fertilizer or fish emulsion once fruit sets to support healthy growth and abundant yields.

Pruning and Staking

Regularly prune plants to maintain airflow and reduce disease risk. Remove the lower leaves of the plant — especially any that have yellowed — as well as any suckers that develop between the main stem and leaf branches. Just pinch them out with your fingertips or use narrow pruners.

It seems counterintuitive to prune your plants when you want them to grow big and produce a lot of Black Cherry tomatoes! But, tomatoes tend to produce a surprising amount greenery that will not flower and create tomatoes. These branches just use up energy that could be better directed towards flowering. Removing them helps, not hurts, tomato production.

Staking Methods:

Support plants with stakes, cages, or trellises to keep them off the ground and to make harvesting easier.

Keep in mind that heirloom tomatoes like the Black Cherry tomato have vigorous growth habits and can get quite large. My tomato plants regularly reach heights over 10 feet tall.

Here’s a photo where my Black Cherries were growing along an 8-foot privacy fence. You can see how they grew well above the fence, and then later in the season dropped down the other side and kept going, producing ever more fruit.

You don’t have let your tomatoes get this tall, but do know that chopping off a main growing stem will probably halt production on that branch. This type of height occurs later in the season, and there probably won’t be enough time for the stem to branch out with new growth and produce tomatoes.

Pest and Disease Management

Common Pests:

Aphids, hornworms, and whiteflies are common pests that affect tomato plants. Insect-wise, aphids are my biggest adversary, but the occasional hornworm does show up.

A sharp blast of soapy water can remove both aphids and whiteflies. Hornworms can be physically plucked off of the plant and relocated out into the open — birds love them. Parasitic wasps are effective against both hornworms and whiteflies (if you’re lucky enough to have them around), and ladybugs will make a feast out of aphids.

Organic treatments such as insecticidal soap or neem oil can be effective when natural enemies are not present.

Bacterial and Viral Infections

Tomatoes are, unfortunately, highly susceptible to diseases such as bacterial and fusarium wilt. Wilts are usually quite deadly, and once you see signs of disease, it’s too late. Wilt settles in the soil and persists into the next growing season.

The only way to effectively rid your garden of wilt is crop rotation: For the next couple of years, plant vegetables that are not affected by wilt and move your tomatoes elsewhere.

Furry Woodland Creatures

Although aphids sometimes task me, my most significant tomato adversaries are squirrels and chipmunks. Deer often like to take big chomps out of the plants themselves, but tomato for tomato, squirrels and chipmunks are the biggest consumers of my heirloom tomatoes. Not me, lol.

They have a particular affection for Black Cherry tomatoes and Sun Gold tomatoes, and who could blame them! I find it fascinating that they have such exquisite tomato tastes: They’ll leave the perfectly serviceable and abundantly fruited hybrids completely alone if there’s an heirloom nearby.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a recommendation for any of us that I can stand by. The deterrents that work are not safe tactics I can endorse.

One year, my clever brother built extraordinary cages made of wire cloth, which kept everything out … including me. Safe, but differently problematic. Lol.

So, in general, I just grow more plants than I really need and hope that some days will grant me good timing to grab a few near-ready tomatoes before they do.

Harvesting Black Cherry Tomatoes

Determining Ripeness

Black Cherry tomatoes are ready for harvest when they reach a deep burgundy color, likely with dark green shoulders or splotches of dark green. They’ll have a firm, but not rock-hard, texture. The fruit should easily detach from the stem when it’s ripe, but read on for a better harvesting method.

Be aware that this variety is prone to splitting when over-ripe, so be sure to harvest just before the point of perfection. Tomatoes have all of the sweetness they’ll ever have once they start to take on reddish tones, so pick a little early and let finish ripening on the kitchen counter.

Stay attuned to the weather forecast and plan to do a harvesting sweep through your tomatoes before a rainy period. While a good soaking is great for the plant, prolonged rainfall can cause the fruit to swell a bit, and will crack during handling.

Harvesting Techniques

Cherry tomatoes in general are more fragile than their standard globe counterparts, so take care when harvesting. To help the tomatoes stay fresh longer after picking, leave the stem attached to the tomato, covering the scar.

I recommend using garden sheers or scissors to snip the stem just above the sepals.

Or, if you’re caught without tools, find the elbow joint just above the tomato. Lift the tomato gently so that you can cradle it with your fingers, then use your thumb/thumbnail to press down on that elbow joint. It should break away easily at that joint.

Do not twist or pull on the tomato, as you could inadvertently rip the vine. This is especially important if there are still tomatoes on the truss that are not ready to be picked.

If the entire truss is ripe, use garden shears or sharp scissors to snip the truss close to the stem it’s attached to.

Storing and Preserving

Room Temperature Storage

Store freshly harvested tomatoes at room temperature, away from direct sunlight, for up to a week. Avoid refrigerating them, as this can negatively affect their flavor and texture.

Freezing and Canning

For longer storage, consider freezing or canning your Black Cherry tomatoes. Freezing is simple – just wash, dry, and place whole tomatoes on a baking sheet to freeze individually. Once frozen, transfer them to a freezer-safe container. For canning, follow a tested recipe to ensure safe preservation.

Note that tomatoes that are thawed from frozen will have a very different texture that is not optimal for fresh eating. They are, however, perfect for cooking. In fact, thawed, whole cherry tomatoes are easily released from their skins with just a pinch, for recipes like sauces and pastes where skin removal is a standard practice.

I’ve done this many times for homemade tomato pastes and sauces. It sounds tedious, but I actually found it to be very zen. Like popping bubble wrap.

Happy tomato growing!