Brad’s Atomic Grape Tomato Review

Indeterminate mid-season variety from Brad Gates. The bush is thin, but strong, not droopy. The fruits are large, elongated cherries with exotic coloring. It’s a variety for diversity and beauty in the garden bed; I haven’t found another use for it.

Elena, why haven’t you found a use for it? Was the Grape not tasty?

P.S. I just have it listed under the “Golden Dream” section in my seed order…

Edited December 18, 2017 by Loshadka

Loshadka said:
Elena, why haven’t you found a use for it? Was the Grape not tasty?

Tanya, you will be surprised, but I didn’t even taste them, so I can’t advise on the flavor). When I was cutting the tomato for seeds—the skin felt like rubber, quite tough. I think it would be suitable for canning jars, for those who accept blue varieties in marinades.

But because of this skin, it should accordingly store very well.

ElenaN said:
Tanya, you will be surprised, but I didn’t even taste them…

Yes, that is definitely surprising)) 😲

Understood, thanks.

A gorgeous, tall variety from Brad Gates, mid-season ripening. The cherry fruits are purple-red with striping, plum-shaped. Very tasty, juicy and meaty, sweet. The tastiest cherry of the 2018 season in my garden.

I liked it. Crispy and tasty. Not dry, but it’s very convenient to sun-dry them.

I didn’t plant this variety on purpose, the store pulled a fast one on me—instead of Pink Siberian Tiger, this Atomic Grape grew.

This variety amazed me with its high yield and the awesome sweetness of the fruits. True, the skin is extremely thick, like leatherette, but for the taste (I should note – it grew outdoors, in full sun), this is forgiven. I found an avid fan of this grape—I carried the entire harvest to him as gifts ))

It turned out to be late for me, it sat for a long time without a single tomato, and then it got going by September. The fruits are very beautiful and original, I want to repeat it this season, maybe it will ripen earlier?

In the photo, it’s unripe, this is how I picked it for counter-ripening, and it easily kept until December.

I liked the variety very much! Productive, beautiful, tasty! Everyone I treated to it loved the taste.

Katya treated me to it! Thank you!

I confirm, it is tasty and beautiful! In the photo is the same one as Katya’s, just riper.

Outdoors it was of medium height, 1.2-1.5 m (4-5 ft). It didn’t handle the heat perfectly, but it didn’t die either.

Very productive clusters. But it turns red earlier than it actually ripens))) And in principle, it only ripens in full sun and only with good weather. The taste is a bomb! Very rich, full of flavor nuances. Even the tough skin brings its own note and texture. I liked it a lot, but… alas, during counter-ripening indoors, the taste is not even close.

In our climate, it needs to be either acclimatized, put in a greenhouse, or eaten straight from the bush.

I had 1 bush, it grew in the greenhouse. But not in the sun. A neat little indeterminate. Not very tall. It also started ripening in August. The skin is thick. I harvested it. Put it in a bowl. And a while later I found the bowl empty. The hubby did his best! Ate them all in one evening! Even though he usually doesn’t favor exotic varieties. He says – “I’m cautious of them!”

Very productive, tasty, but… a very slow starter, it took until August to finally get going. I will definitely repeat it.

I saw Brad’s Atomic Grape in the top 10 cherries list and was surprised. I grew huge plums half the size of a palm. They match all the variety’s characteristics. Tasty, striped, early, productive. They store for a long time on the bush in the mature green stage. When fully ripe, they have a gorgeous fruity taste. The purple color of the skin almost completely disappears when ripe. Inside, it’s green flesh with pink streaks.

Many have this variety in their top lists this year. Please reply about the fruit size, maybe I got some cross-pollinated off-type.

Edited November 29, 2020 by Lenhik

Lenhik said:
Please reply about the fruit size, maybe I got some cross-pollinated off-type.

My fruits were about 40 grams (1.4 oz). Very tasty!

I just looked at a few sellers, they list 40-75 g (1.4-2.6 oz).

Here are mine, on a saucer the size of a palm.

I got my seeds from Natasha @Ilkina. Natasha, what were yours like?

Lenhik said:
Natasha, what were yours like?

Elena, I haven’t planted them yet. After I shared them with you, I read that it’s very late and set it aside for now. Regarding the size, I noticed that this year in the Perm region, tomatoes took a long time to ripen and instead just kept putting on size. All my icicles/plums grew very large, some were simply huge. The round cherries, by the way, were normal size, the gigantism only attacked the icicles))))).

Natasha, where did the seeds come from? The rest of my varieties perfectly match the stated size. I just already sent seeds to people and plan to share with my sister. I need to know exactly how to label them)

This is a photo of my grape, the fruit here is one of the smallest. And the size didn’t change towards the top of the bush.

And here is a salad made from them) The color is gorgeous, the taste is very close to Irish Liqueur.

And this is a photo of the bush from July 13. Unfortunately, I don’t have others.

Edited November 29, 2020 by Lenhik

The fruits are 55-150 g (1.9-5.3 oz), but the vast majority are up to 100 g (3.5 oz). Of course, small tomatoes grow from the final blossoms on the clusters, but there are few of them. My Atomic Grape is from the Batatovy Kuschi seed store.

I grew it two years in a row, outdoors and in the greenhouse – it was identical.

There was no tough thick skin (which was discussed at the beginning of the thread), the skin on the tomatoes is normal, more tender than on Crispina Plum, for example. The taste is decent; for those ripened on the vine it’s closer to fruity, for the latest ones – standard tomato flavor.

Outdoors in 2019, the bush yielded 4.125 kg (9.1 lbs – very good for Kostroma outdoors), and in the greenhouse – more precisely, in the doorway of the greenhouse, part of the bush hung outside – 8.4 kg (18.5 lbs). It grew in 4 or 5 stems. It’s a late variety, a lot of tomatoes ended up in the final harvests.

The variety has one flaw – extremely brittle stems. If you forget to tie it up or miss a spot, the stem won’t just bend and fall – it will snap. The stem that grew outside tolerated a crooked tie only while the clusters were small. As soon as the tomatoes started to ripen, it fell and snapped in two places. The breaks were severe, open fractures, which really slowed down the ripening ((

In the photos is the exact same cluster. When ripening, the purple color doesn’t go anywhere.

The whole bush just wouldn’t fit in the frame, another one or two stems grew into the greenhouse, and the side ones – up to the side walls. It had complete freedom of action)

In the basket are the late harvest tomatoes, the percentage of Atomic Grape was large.

Edited November 29, 2020 by Loshadka

And this is from last year:

You can’t call it a cherry… Outdoors, the skin was slightly tougher.

Loshadka said:
When ripening, the purple color doesn’t go anywhere.

Did your bushes grow in full sun?

My bush grew on the north side of the greenhouse, the very last one. And it was heavily shaded by others. The leaves on it were all healthy, so I barely removed any. I only stripped the bottom in late August.

During indoor counter-ripening, the first fruits turned olive-brown. When ripening on the bush, the skin color changed insignificantly. The taste of the counter-ripened ones is truly worse than from the bush. I picked the last tomatoes in early October – those were black-purple. Upon thermal processing, the color disappeared.

Lenhik said:
Did your bushes grow in full sun?

There was only one bush, all by its lonesome) you shouldn’t plant more than that – it will bury you in tomatoes. Yes, one side of it faced full sun until 2 PM.

The tomatoes from the shade are completely different, pale, and after ripening they are olive with yellow and orange stripes.

From the originator’s website: These elongated multi-colored large cherries grow in clusters.

For me, they were exactly large cherries, about 40 g (1.4 oz).

I read somewhere that the variety segregated, and now 2 variations are circulating: one with cherries and one with cocktail-sized tomatoes (50-100 g). Brad Gates himself sells seeds of the “improved” Atomic Grape — Atomic Fusion, which has exactly that weight.

For me, Brad’s Atomic Grape is the most delicious, but VERY-VERY-VERY capricious in the seedling stage and outdoors. Are there any people who have acclimatized it here? I want the exact same thing, but with “mother-of-pearl buttons” (better resilience) )

I repeated it in 2019, well, it’s very late! My seeds are from Gusev. Now I have a new greenhouse, maybe I should try it there, it’s brighter and more spacious.

And yes, this year many of my plums grew into giants, the summer was anomalous.

Liaro said:
Brad Gates himself sells seeds of the “improved” Atomic Grape — Atomic Fusion…

They have some inhuman measurements of weight over there)) But yes, it turns out some people are now growing cool Atomic Fusions instead of cool Atomic Grapes.

I sowed this year from my own (seemingly!) saved seeds.. I should try the ones from Batatovy Kuschi. Although, if they saved seeds from the largest and most beautiful tomatoes…

Liaro said:
VERY-VERY-VERY capricious in the seedling stage and outdoors.

In the seedling stage, it’s ugly and wimpy, yes. But outdoors, I had no problems with it.

Hello. Does Brad’s Atomic Grape ever come with potato leaves? I bought some seedlings. Did I get a mix-up/off-type?

Tumtikaya said:
Does Brad’s Atomic Grape ever come with potato leaves?

I haven’t encountered it; it’s regular leaf everywhere. But if you suddenly got lucky, I’ll be the first in line for the novelty! In my conditions, potato-leaf varieties rule.

I liked it. Fruits up to 40g (1.4 oz). Outdoors it was just a good boy; in early September late blight attacked, I removed everything, many fruits suffered, but this one stood there looking fresh as a cucumber. I picked the tomatoes for indoor ripening, and decided to leave the bush as an experiment. In the photo it is 3 weeks later—not only did it withstand the blight, but it set new tomatoes and is blooming in proud solitude.

No one in my house would eat this grape. It looked beautiful, with unusually colored clusters hanging, but it didn’t stimulate anyone’s appetite. And the taste turned out to be mediocre. Probably not for my conditions and soil. I don’t like such grey-brown-crimson colors in canning jars. So I didn’t find a use for it. I won’t grow it anymore.

Edited October 1, 2021 by TatianaSh

Planted 1 bush in 2021 for the first time. For me, it was literally an atomic grape. I planted it on April 7, it sprouted on April 11, transplanted to the ground on June 6, but already in May I was plucking suckers off the seedling. It grew outdoors and endured the anomalous heat well. Height about 1.6 m (5.2 ft). Productive. Fruits weighing 30-40 g (1-1.4 oz). The skin is of medium thickness. The fully ripened tomatoes had a sweet taste with tart notes and some unusual aftertaste. Seeds from a collector.

And here are mine. I’ve been planting it for the 3rd year now, and I will definitely keep planting it.

Edited January 14, 2023 by Vladimir Baranov

The sweetest tomato of all the ones I have ever grown! I didn’t even suspect that tomatoes could be so intensely sweet! And very beautiful, productive, and resistant to growing conditions. Well, in my opinion, anyway.

And here it is next to Blush.

Edited January 14, 2023 by Irina Fedorova

For me, this variety was frail as a seedling, but got stronger after planting outdoors. I liked the taste, sweet, piquant. I grew it for the first time, so there were problems with determining ripeness.

Please tell me, what grew for me instead of Atomic Grape? Segregation or a seed mix-up?

As a seedling, it acted up like a true plant of this variety…)

The top small cluster looks similar.

Edited August 1, 2023 by Luba51

Luba51 said:
Please tell me, what grew for me instead of Atomic Grape? Segregation or a seed mix-up?

Lyuba, hello! Did you figure out what miracle grew for you?

I also have something similar to your tomato growing. I was told that I missed the mark 😅 and that it is definitely not Brad’s Atomic Grape!

But, having read above, I realized that it is most likely Atomic Fusion (the larger brother of Atomic Grape).

Nonna said:
Lyuba, hello! Did you figure out what miracle grew for you?

Good afternoon, no, I didn’t figure it out, but I bought a pack of this variety from Aelita.

That one looks like the real deal and made me happy, sweet, with the recognizable special taste of Atomic Grape…

And the other one was nothing special in taste, they clearly put the wrong variety in the packet.

Edited August 19, 2024 by Luba51