Grape Varietals
I have been dazzled by some of the colors of store-bought grape tomatoes, but never impressed by the taste of the non-red ones. In some ways, grape tomatoes are the perfect size; you can eat one or a handful at a time. The texture is often crunchy and the taste of the red ones is often sweet, at least, and sometimes complex! And they often last longer in the pantry than other tomatoes. I want tasty, crunchy, sweet grape tomatoes of different colors and if they don’t exist I will try to make them myself! Towards that end, I grew many types of grape tomatoes this year (2025) and in anticipation of there being some good varieties amongst them, made 34 crosses. But once I was able to evaluate the flavor and vigor during the whole season, I narrowed it down significantly to the following 10 that I’m interested in growing next year:
Elf Tears x Baby Red Grape
Frosty Grape x Green Tiger
Frosty Grape x Lucky Tiger
Yellow Grape x Green Tiger
Frosty Grape x Medovaya kaplya
Medovaya kaplya x Yellow Grape
Orange Grape x Medovaya kaplya
Red Grape x Medovaya kaplya
Medovaya kaplya x Lucky Tiger
Medovaya kapyla x Prairie Fire
I thought four or five would be enough to make a nice mix, but now I can see there are enough interesting crosses I’ve made already that I could end up with “Nine Grapes,” which has a certain ring to it. I don’t know if some or all or none will have potato leaf. I imagine a greenflesh bicolor, a red striped, and at least some with anthocyanin.