When people see our trusses of cherry tomatoes, a lot of people get really interested in the variety that we’re growing. We’re always happy to share and this has been a variety that’s been with us for half a decade now. There’s more than a few that follow us that liked what they saw and they too started growing them!
These are Sakura tomatoes. You’d never find them on any “northern” or “Alaska” based growing list. This tomato is one of the main reasons why we teach the concept of looking for growing traits, as it can really open up your world of options. Sakura doesn’t mind the cooler evenings in the far north and they produce heavily laden tomatoes across their vast trusses. They’re also a very early variety, typically maturing only a month after transplanting into a greenhouse.
If you go shopping for the seed, you’ll find that Sakura is quite a bit more expensive than other cherry tomato varieties. While it isn’t “always” the case, often times the price of seed can reflect the quality of the plant. The mantra of “you get what you pay for” is very much alive in gardening and genetics. And while that might not matter with some plants, tomatoes are one of those where it can matter.
But, looks aren’t everything. Although they are gorgeous and fantastic growers, it’s really the taste that draws us towards Sakura. A lot of cherry types are sweet forward and don’t bring a lot of strong tomato-like flavor to the table. With Sakura, it’s like biting into a proper, heirloom grade full size tomato. They certainly provide a bit of sweetness, but the rest of the flavor is fully satisfying.
We often do mix things up for our tomato varieties, but Sakura is likely to have a very long life in our gardens. It is simply unmatched. We used to mix up the varieties of cherry tomatoes we grow, but these days, our cherry type is fully filled by Sakura. They simply leave us wanting for nothing, and while our opinion may change in the future, we’re steadfast in our selection these days.
So, if you’re in the mood to change up your cherry tomato types next season, we wholeheartedly put our recommendation behind Sakura. It’s been a fantastic northern producer for us and we often have more than we can possibly eat fresh! That’s a hard bargain to achieve in the subarctic, but it’s very real with this one!
Good to know of your positive comments on ‘Sakura’, I have a few of them in my veggie garden near Edmonton, Alberta … this summer has so far been mostly on the cool side and rather pleasant with the garden is coming along well. ‘Sakura’ plants are of moderate vigor and healthy dark green foliage, fruit ripens surprisingly quickly, seems it was already blushing only mere weeks after setting! … and now soon to sample them for myself, I’m glad you’re most pleased with the flavor, so many tomatoes otherwise miss the mark in that aspect, I’m hoping these become my staple go to cherry tomato!
I live in the UK and tried growing sakura cherry tomatoes after reading this & Im so pleased I did. They’re a lot hardier than other varieties Ive tried. The plants themselves are bigger too but I dont mind that as they taste incredible and here, store bought tomatoes all taste like water. I’d definitely recommend them and from now on they’re going to be a staple for me.
Is it worth trying to save any seeds or should I stick to buying them as theyre a hybrid?
Fantastic! We absolutely love Sakura, it’s the only cherry type we grow anymore! Glad you’ve also found joy in growing them.
As for saving seeds, Sakura are an F1 variety. That basically means it is a cross breed from two other types of cherry tomatoes. If you save seeds and it was pollinated by Sakura pollen (which is highly likely), you’ll get an F2. That’s inherently genetically unstable and will produce various mutations. (Structure, taste, color, plant size, etc.) It’ll take about 5 to 8 generations to stabilize the genetics (i.e. F4 to F7) and it’s highly likely that in that process you’ll lose much of what makes Sakura great! Hope that helps.
Thanks for sharing! I’ve had ok success with Sweet 100, and a Siberian Cherry this summer, but want to try this next year.
What are your top two choices for a slicing tomato? I go back and forth between wanting to focus on cherries and also making space for a slicer when I realistically can only have 4-5 plants.
We’ve been growing Stupice for years. It’s not the best tomato ever, but it’s reliable and a fast producer outdoors and in the greenhouse. This year, we grew a variety called Siberian Pink Honey and it’s really wow’d us. We’ve also had a lovely variety called Berkley Tie Die that we’ve been growing for a few years now and it’s a great slicer. Tends to come in around 80 days, but we get very decent maturity and excellent “heirloom slicer” quality. Hope that helps!