Cherokee Purple

[Alan]

Does anyone else here believe that Cheroke Puple could easily be considered the offical all american tomato due to it's history and distrubution, as it appears there are other strains found in other areas of the country such as the possibly Indian Stripe tomato? It's my belief that Cheroke Purple should be in every american garden.

[toni]

I grew cherokee purple from seeds I had saved from an organic tomato bought at a farmers market the year before. I had excellent germination from the seed and they grew well but we had a very cool, wet summer last year and they took quite awhile to ripen. I'd be better able to judge them after having a good year. Going to try them again this year, will keep you posted.

[Alan]

Cherokee Purple can definetly be finicky from year to year, i've grown it the past two years, the first year it did amazing, the second year not so well. This year i'm going to plant about 400 of them and 400 Brandywine and hope for the best.

[johno]

I'm going to plant 4-6 of them. I'm on a small scale compared to 400 of them...

[houseodessey]

I started Cherokee purple seeds three times and none of them survived to the point of getting true leaves. I think that I'm not meant to grow them. My other dozen varieties have had at least two survivors each. I finally direct seeded a few in the garden just to see what happens. I'm admittedly a novice with growing from seed but you'd think I would get one survivor from an entire pack of tomato seeds.

[lavandulagirl]

What happened to them? Are they just stunting, no growth? Or maybe it's a fungus or something? I hate when I get problems with seed. I've got an issue with my black plum toms right now - no germination so far, and they're well beyond the time frame of all my other tomates this year. Phooey. Are you beyond the window of starting more?

[houseodessey]

First batch was damping off (forgot to poke holes for bottom watering and all seedlings bit the dust). Second and third batches were in the same flats as their surviving cousins, watered identically, etc. and still died from what looked to be underwatering this time. I could try again, according to Goldpearl at Idig-we're in the same area but she's in a valley and not exposed to quite as much heat as me. I really just got a bit disgusted so I didn't try again. I'll put my last few seeds in tomorrow and see what happens. I'm going to use my remaining other tomato seeds to experiment with so that I'll do better next year, hopefully.

[tomc]

I think one of the German's due to its-their long Mennonite maintenence better fits the title of "all american". Americans are much more likely to go for a pink or a red than a purple black or brown.

[houseodessey]

I dunno, Tom. Pink and red are commie colors. That's not very 'mercan in my opinion.

[tomc]

I resemble that remark

[Alan]

True, the menonite/dutch varieties are old and definetly deserve a place in american agricultural history, but we have evidence that Cherokee Purple may be even older. I just wonder how the north american indians came accross it, i'm glad it's still around for us to grow and talk about though!

[brook]

I'm wondering if we're all talking about the real history of Cherokee Purple, or some of the imaginative stuff written by seed catalog copywriters.

The documentable history goes back to Servier, Tennessee, when a neighbor of Craig LeHoulier, a gentleman name of Johnston, gave Craig some seed. He told Craig that the Cherokee has been growing it for at least a hundred years. But there is no evidence for or against that claim.

Craig named the "new" variety Cherokee Purple, and has since come to regret it because it's a lot of things but purple sure ain't one of them.

The speculative connection between Cherokee Stripe and Cherokee Purple has been led, primarily, by Carolyn Male. But she'll be the first to admit that there isn't even anecdotal evidence positively linking the two. And given the widespread moving back and forth between the Western and Eastern Bands, even if there is a connection it is just as likely to have taken place in the latter 20th century as the 19th.

So, if you want to nominate it as All American for it's incredible taste, I'm for that. But it's history is shaky, at best. There are others which have a firmer claim to that title. Indeed, for various reasons, my nomination would go to Livingston's Golden Queen.

[brook]

"Americans are much more likely to go for a pink or a red than a purple black or brown. "

I reckon you're about half right, Tom.

Knowledgeable heirloom gardeners are likely to go for a pink. But Americans, in general, will opt for one that fits the smooth-round-red rubric, because that's what they've been taught a tomato is supposed to be.

[LoreD]

I have a few people who are big converts to purple/black tomatoes. A friend of mine at work who never tasted an OP and at my urging grew Japanese Black Trifele and Carbon as "novelty" tomatoes. She is wild about "black" tomatoes. She made me promise that I would make sure that she had plenty of "black" tomatoes. She wanted to grow only black tomatoes and I talked her out of that.

She tells everyone that the only tomato she wants to eat are the black ones.

LoreD

[johno]

All tomatoes are "American."