Cherokee Chocolate
Open-pollinated tomato
- Breeding
- Open-pollinated
- Growth habit
- Indeterminate
- Days to maturity
- 80-85 days 2 sources, none independent · basis unstated
- Fruit
- purple-black, beefsteak
- Weight
- 10-16 oz 2 sources, none independent
- Bred by
- -
Grey captions say what stands behind that particular figure. Breeding, growth habit and fruit characters carry no caption because they rest on the record's sources as a whole rather than citing their own; closing that gap is ordinary outstanding work, not a finished job.
Origin & history
A stable skin-color mutation of Cherokee Purple found and named by Craig LeHoullier: the clear skin turned amber, converting the purple fruit to a deep mahogany brown while keeping the flavor intact.
Measurements
| Measurement | Value | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Days to maturity | 80-85 days | Consensus range across the cited sources, which include both independent references and commercial catalogs. |
| Fruit weight | 10-16 oz | Typical range for the cultivar, as a consensus across the cited sources. Not a measured mean from any single crop: fruit weight varies with season, spacing and where on the plant the fruit set. |
Against the rest of the tomato database
Where this variety sits among every tomato we hold a comparable figure for. Position is not merit: earlier is not better than later, and hotter is not better than milder. Only cultivar-level figures are compared, never trial results, and maturity is only ranked against figures counted the same way.
later than 79% of the 258 tomatoes we hold a figure for. None of these figures state whether they are counted from sowing or from transplant, so they are ranked against each other on the assumption that suppliers use one convention, which is not something any of them says.
heavier than 53% of the 72 tomatoes we hold a figure for.
Traits
Disease resistance
No documented disease resistance, typical of heirlooms and older open-pollinated varieties. See tomato diseases for the cultural playbook that fills the gap.
Related varieties
- open-pollinated
Black Beauty
80-85 days · Indeterminate
- heirloom
Carbon
80-85 days · Indeterminate
- heirloom
Cherokee Purple
80-85 days · Indeterminate
- heirloom
Aker's West Virginia
80-85 days · Indeterminate
- heirloom
Aunt Gertie's Gold
80-85 days · Indeterminate
- heirloom
Aunt Ginny's Purple
78-85 days · Indeterminate
Explore all tomato varieties · compare any two · when to plant it where you are
Sources & References
Evidence: 2 sources, 1 seed catalog and 1 community collection. No independent reference documents this yet.
- Victory Seeds variety histories · Victory Seed Company, Seed Catalog
- Seed Savers Exchange catalog & variety histories · Seed Savers Exchange, Community Collection