It was one of the breakout stars of the season. I didn’t see it coming. I have grown ‘Snow White,’ a large, white cherry variety, a few times before, but for some reason it sat in the background while other newcomers caught my fancy. This spring I had a lot of new varieties to try and stuck it in the back corner into the worst and most sunless part of a row of raised beds where bindweed has crept over from the neighbour’s yard. I often plant the wild currant tomatoes here because they can handle it and will produce more tiny, jewel-like fruit than I can stand regardless of the growing conditions. Let them fight it out with the bindweed!
Spring came late this year and summer was cold and wet with a few pockets of heat. Some of the indeterminate varieties grew to about a foot tall, produced one sad fruit and threw up the white flag in defeat. Somehow, stuck way in the back, shaded out by other plants and in competition with the bindweed, ‘Snow White’ soldiered on, flourished even. Go figure.
Every variety that managed to produce this year was late and I assumed that I would not get much from a late season plant like ‘Snow White,’ but it surprised me here again. Despite the cold, wet weather the plant has been unstoppable, producing some of the most flavourful fruit in this year’s garden. It doesn’t taste any different than it did in warm and sunny years. The only drawback has been that the exceptionally heavy rains have caused some fruit to crack. This is an exception as I do not recall cracking in past years.
After a performance like this ‘Snow White’ has certainly earned itself a place on my list of must-grow varieties. I highly recommend it if, like me, you aim to grow a rainbow of colourful cherry tomatoes each year.
The details:
- 75 days
- Indeterminate/regular leaf
- Creamy white, large cherry, ripens to pale yellow.
- Sweet, fruity, and juicy — one of my faves for snacking.
- Big producer.
- Open-pollinated
- Ripens: Mid to late-season and keeps producing until frost.
- Story: Unknown.
- Container Growing: You’ll need a really big pot, 16+ deep at least (I have never tried).
- Further Notes: Stake diligently. This plant grows into a many tentacled beast.
What a sweet tomato! Just goes to prove the importance of diversity in all things. Coming from the warm long season of SoCal, I’ve had a front row seat here in our new digs in New England to the vagaries of weather and the ability of different types of a veg to thrive or cave. Congratulations on your beautiful Snow White! p.s. I wonder how cheap vinegar would help wipe out that neighbor’s bindweed? Good luck beating Friday’s chill. Maybe a slew of bed sheets thrown out back will help? ! :)
I’m always on the lookout for good yellow cherry tomatoes – I’ve only found one that I’ve liked (Blondkopfchen). I don’t know if it is just bad luck but most of the yellow tomatoes I’ve grown have been pretty bland and unremarkable. I’ll have to try Snow White!
I grew ‘Blondkopfchen’ this year as well and it did not do well in the cold, wet season. It was in a better location than ‘Snow White.’ Additionally, I find that ‘Snow White’ is larger, sweeter, and the skin isn’t as tough.
My standard favorites didn’t do well this year either. This was also the first year I’ve ever dealt with diseases in my tomatoes. Not sure if it was the wet spring here or what but I’m going to do things differently next year.
I’m also going to give this little tomato a try! Thank you for the *thumbs up* on these.
-Anna
Sounds like a tomato I definitely want to try! I just wanted to comment on how beautiful the photos are. Really stunning!
Thanks so much! Photographing tomatoes is a part of my job that I enjoy immensely.
We had a very dry late summer and fall. My 8 varieties of tomatoes were strong well into October. I have to confess I am tired of picking my cherry tomatoes – Sun Golds and Tomatoberries. What a problem to have. Both were monstrous in size, filling out the two-piece “Texas” tomato cages and so content to continue pumping forth little globes of flavor non stop.
I’d like to change up the “regulars” for 2015 and Snow White looks very enticing. So many kinds of tomatoes and so little time/space to try new ones each year.
I hope your weather dries out for you, soon, Gayla. It seems like every time I see your hometown on the weather map ,it’s being stalked by green blobs of precipitation.
I agree. It is always a challenge in the early spring when I have to narrow down which varieties to start from seed. I always do a few too many and then make the final cut when they go outside in late May.
I think we got all of the rain that California so desperately needed.
I should add that because some places are in a terrible crisis due to extreme drought I do feel badly whenever I mention how wet things were here.