Quick Summary of Sladkiy Kesidi (Sweet Casady)
- 🌍 Origin: A very popular elongated striped variety. Known globally as “Sweet Casady” (originally bred by Tom Wagner), it is widely grown and traded among Russian and Eastern European collectors under the translated name “Sladkiy Kesidi”.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate and extremely vigorous! Growers describe the foliage as having a dark, almost turquoise tint with pointed, twisting, and slightly weeping (wispy) leaves. ⚠️ Warning: It requires strict pruning! If left unchecked, this plant can turn into a “monster” that will completely smother and tangle up neighboring plants in a greenhouse.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Bright red, elongated bullet or plum shapes (often called “slivka”) covered in wavy yellow/orange stripes. Depending on growing conditions, they range from large cherry to cocktail size, averaging around 25-30g (1 oz) per fruit.
- 👅 Flavor & Texture: Highly rated for its sweetness. Described as a dessert tomato that is crunchy, meaty, and very juicy. The fruits easily detach (drop) from the vine when fully ripe.
- 🥫 Usage: Excellent for fresh eating right off the vine, salads, and visually stunning when canned whole in jars. It also boasts a long shelf life after picking.
Danko said:
And mine was the same height!!!
His little brother, Sweet Casady, is even tastier! 😉
My “little brother” Sweet Casady has started ripening. For a cherry tomato, they are very large, I’d say they are actually cocktail size. The trusses are dense, packed with uniform fruits. The bush really stands out—it’s sturdy, with beautiful dark foliage that has a turquoise tint. It has a slight weeping habit, and the tips of the leaves are very pointed and slightly twisted.
Overall, I am very happy with the variety. I planted the cherry Blush next to it as a pair, and Blush is losing, heavily. This variety is on its 5th-6th truss, while Blush is only on its 3rd.
Alena Latvia said:
Overall, I am very happy with the variety. I planted the cherry Blush next to it as a pair, and Blush is losing, heavily. This variety is on its 5th-6th truss, while Blush is only on its 3rd.
Alena, for me it is exactly the opposite: Blush has its 5th truss, and Sweet Casady is on its 3rd! 😆
Out of the new cherries, I only planted these two, but 5 bushes of each.
salix said:
Alena, for me it is exactly the opposite: Blush has its 5th truss, and Sweet Casady is on its 3rd! 😆
Casady’s bush is very strong and healthy. In my very bad weather conditions (we’ve only had 4 (!!!) days of actual summer, the rest of the time the nights have been extremely cold), it is very noticeable on most varieties, but this one handles everything very well.
By the way, Blush also has its first ripe fruits. But apparently, in terms of cold tolerance and daylight hours, Casady suits me better for now. I’ll have to “tame” Blush, it is lagging far behind in growth and vigor.
Alena Latvia said:
Casady’s bush is very strong and healthy. In my very bad weather conditions… this one handles everything very well.
I was surprised myself at how in different conditions everything can be exactly the opposite! For me, Sweet Casady is clearly much later than Blush. I sowed it only 5 days later, but that shouldn’t make such a difference. Its bush is a bit more vigorous, yes, but both are generally bushy and healthy. However, we are already eating Blush, while absolutely nothing is ripening on Casady yet.
I taste-tested Casady yesterday. I have my own tried-and-true cherry tomato that I consider the gold standard for sweetness. Well, I really liked Casady, very much so, and considering its good size, it’s a total win. Very sweet, just barely more acidic than my standard (which might just be a sign of slight underripeness—it’s hard for me to identify when it’s perfectly ripe, although I tasted a fruit that dropped off just from being touched). Blush is currently losing in taste, I’ll need to compare later fruits.
But overall, so far, Casady has left a very good impression in the combination of bush-truss-health. The only thing is—the fruits are visually plain/unattractive. My family is used to cherries being bright, so they don’t choose these (I put a mix in a bowl for them to snack on, and my son won’t even try this one 😕).
Ladoga said:
My Casady clearly went crazy from this summer’s weather and grew like all the others, about 70 cm (2.3 ft). Few fruits, dropping blossoms… I tried it in canned goods, honestly, I wasn’t thrilled, it seemed fibrous to me. But it’s very beautiful visually…
Wait, what kind of Casady is it—a cherry or a plum (slivka)? It seems two different types have been combined in this thread. I have Sweet Casady, a cherry, but size-wise it is a cocktail tomato. And it looks completely unattractive visually. I’ll find a photo now, I think I photographed and weighed it.
July 13, trusses. 53 grams (1.9 oz) for 2 pieces.
I was saving seeds today and ate my fill. Firstly, the process was very convenient—you bite the tip, squeeze out the liquid/seeds, and eat the flesh. Secondly, it is a very sweet, dessert tomato that seems to store quite well. The first fruits sat in my hot kitchen for three weeks and still looked like they were just picked from the bush.
Seeds from Kulik (Ukraine).
– Visual description of the bush: mid-late variety, not sprawling, slightly weeping habit.
– Fruit set: no skipped blossoms, the very last top trusses are ripening.
– Bush height outdoors as of Aug 17 – 1.4m (4.6 ft).
– Trusses – 4-6 fruits each.
– Total yield – above average.
– Fruit: plum type (slivka), bright red with an orange wavy stripe, drops from the bush when ripe.
– Firmness of ripe fruit – high.
– Taste – balanced, tasty, harmonious, crunchy, juicy, sweetness is a solid 5 out of 5.
First impression: a versatile tomato for both canning and fresh eating.
Rating: Seedlings – 3-, Bush – 4-, Fruit – 5, Overall rating of the variety – 5-.
Mine were from Alena.. Thank you.. I liked it 👍. It didn’t drop blossoms.
A very sweet, firm little cocktail tomato. The bush is healthy and heavily foliated. It’s growing in six stems. Very productive. One of the best! It’s a pity I only planted one bush. I will definitely repeat it. A wonderful variety!
Sweet Casady grew to nearly 2 meters (6.5 ft) in the greenhouse and was mid-season. The fruits are cherry size, red with stripes, pepper-shaped. Very beautiful and tasty, meaty, sweet with a fruity aftertaste.
A monster of a variety with only average yield, closer to mid-late. Since the yield was low, I decided to stop pruning its suckers at the end of July (this technique usually works so well for me with cherries). The result: it completely smothered 3 bushes to its left, 3 bushes to its right, and 3 bushes in the neighboring row. It just choked everyone out, crushed them, tangled everything up, and didn’t add any yield. By the time I realized what was happening, it was too late to do anything—all the branches were hopelessly intertwined. 🤦♀️
Taste: average. For me, it wasn’t sweet enough, the skin was thick, and it shrivels up near the stem during storage.
I didn’t even bother saving seeds.
And for me it turned out wonderfully.
Productive, tasty, and—if I can put it this way—mid-early.
Yes, the bush is powerful; at first it grew in 4 stems, then in 7 or 8. I had to string twine from the side bed where it grew all the way to the middle bed. By late September, there was an entire canopy of vines and hanging trusses in that spot. Most of them ripened on the bush. The last ones, picked green on September 24th, are ripening well indoors without losing their visual appeal (though the sweetness has dropped a bit). We mostly ate them fresh, but I did can a couple of jars just to test.
Lyubasha sent me the seeds, for which I give her a huge thank you. 🌺
I plan to repeat it next season.
This photo is from August 3rd. The lower trusses ripened 2 weeks earlier.
