'Katinka' Cherry Tomato

This orange-gold cherry tomato produces early, even in cool weather, but needs some heat to develop its fullest tart/sweet flavor. The plants are almost as pretty as Sweet Baby Girl—perfect for the back of a container on a sunny deck, fronted by peppers perhaps. The flavor just gets better as the season progresses, right up until hard frost.

We tried Katinka in the search for an open-pollinated orange cherry tomato with a flavor to match the “gold” standard of the hybrid Sungold. Early in an exceptionally cool summer, Katinka disappointed – not much flavor and a slightly tough skin. I was ready to write this one off, until the weather heated up and so did Katinka, with a bright tart sweetness that made me no longer notice the skin. Into the fall, Katinka kept producing intensely flavorful fruit, right up until a hard frost browned all the leaves and I dragged the plants into the chicken yard so the hens could feast on the remaining golden fruits.

Culture: Start seeds indoors six weeks before last frost. They’ll need to be caged or staked or grown where they can trail over a tall container. Good soil, full sun, a warm spot if grown in cooler climates.

Grown in 2010; germination tested November 2011: 95% Packet = around 40 seeds -- $3.

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