Quick Summary of Cherolla F1
- 🌍 Origin: A commercial F1 hybrid variety, sometimes marketed under the alternative name “Strawberry Tomato”.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall). Reaches about 2 meters (approx. 6.5 feet) in height. It is a vigorous plant that produces long, cascading trusses with excellent fruit set.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Deep dark red cherry tomatoes. Seed packets claim the fruits weigh around 30 grams (1 oz), though some growers report smaller sizes closer to 10 grams (0.35 oz). They form massive, evenly spaced clusters of 25-30 tomatoes per truss.
- 👅 Flavor: Marketed as “very sweet,” though real-world grower reviews on the flavor are mixed.
- ☔ Disease Resistance: While some seed companies claim high resistance to disease and extreme temperatures, growers report it is highly susceptible to Late Blight (Phytophthora) when grown outdoors. Best suited for greenhouse growing.
- ⏳ Maturity: Mid-early season.
Description from the seed packet:
“Mid-early tall hybrid, also sold under the name ‘strawberry tomato’. Cherry type, plant height about 2 m (6.5 ft). Intended mainly for growing in greenhouses and hoop houses. The mini-fruits are very sweet, weighing about 30 grams (1 oz), with a rich dark red color, evenly spaced on the truss. Each truss holds 25-30 fruits.”
(Photos by forum member cat2008 and evgenii97531)
We tried it last year. The bush is vigorous, there are plenty of elongated trusses, and the fruit set is excellent. The fruits weighed about 10 g (0.35 oz), but we didn’t like the taste.
The bush was outdoors in open ground, because the packet stated it was disease resistant (without listing which specific diseases) and further claimed it tolerates cold and heat well. Cherolla was purchased from the company Gartenkraft, and nowhere on the packaging did it say it was a hybrid—this is a common occurrence here. I only found out it was an F1 on the internet.
Late Blight (Phytophthora) devoured the bush effortlessly. We won’t be planting it again.
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