Tomato Zuckertraube - Cherry Tomato organic seeds

The 'Zuckertraube' Cherry Tomato is a German red cherry tomato variety that is very productive, prized for its long clusters of red fruits and its particularly sweet flavour. This variety, whose name means "sugar cluster" in German, combines the deliciousness of a cocktail tomato with the robustness sought in organic cultivation. The organic seeds of the 'Zuckertraube' tomato allow you to obtain numerous young plants, to be harvested from July to October.

This indeterminate growth variety requires staking or trellising from transplanting into open ground to support its long stems. It is an heirloom, non-hybrid variety, with reproducible seeds, which can be harvested and resown from one year to the next. However, avoid growing other tomato varieties nearby to preserve its true-to-type characteristics.
Each young plant reaches 1.80 to 2 m in height with a spread of 50 to 60 cm in open ground; in a large pot, it remains around 1.50 m tall and 40 cm wide, depending on cultivation method. This tomato produces many side shoots in the leaf axils, which can be pinched out or left according to the chosen cultivation method.

The tomato belongs to the Solanaceae family. The cultivated species is Solanum lycopersicum, it originates from the Andean region (present-day Peru) and was later domesticated in Mexico; it is now cultivated worldwide. Botanically a short-lived perennial in frost-free climates, the tomato is grown as an annual in our latitudes.
The cultivar 'Zuckertraube', resulting from a German selection distributed since the 1970s, is sometimes sold under the names "Zucker Traube" or, in French, "Grappe sucrée". It produces long clusters bearing 10 to 15 fruits, sometimes more. The fruits are spherical berries, 2 to 3 cm in diameter, weighing 15 to 25 g, a bright, shiny red at ripeness, with thin skin that is resistant to splitting. Their flesh is juicy, well-balanced, with a dominant sweetness and a marked fruity aroma; the seeds are numerous, small, and lodged in abundant pulp.
Fruiting continues all summer, with a particularly generous production in the latter part of the season, until the first frosts.

In Germany, the 'Zuckertraube' is often offered as a "cocktail" tomato for snacking, as its fruits are eaten like sweets. It must be admitted that its fruit is very pretty and pleasantly colours the vegetable garden. It also has many nutritional assets. Low in calories like most vegetables, rich in water, it contains a particularly interesting molecule: lycopene, a powerful antioxidant. The longer the tomato cooks, the more it makes available. It is also distinguished by its richness in vitamin C, pro-vitamin A, and trace elements.

The Harvest: There is no sure trick to tell a priori that a tomato has reached its full ripeness. Picking should be done when, at a minimum, it is fully adorned with the colour it was announced with and when its texture, while remaining firm, shows a slight softening. For better storage, take care to pick the fruit with its peduncle attached.

Storage: tomatoes keep for less time if their water content is high. They keep well for a few days in the vegetable drawer of your refrigerator or spread out in the open air. To enjoy them, make tomato confit, sun-dried tomatoes, sauces, frozen fruits, preserves. We love making confit, as it's very simple and so tasty: cut your tomatoes in half, collect their juice. Position your tomato halves cut side up on a baking tray. Salt, pepper, sugar, then bake at a very low temperature for at least an hour. Remove your tomatoes and consume immediately, otherwise, store them in a glass jar and top up with olive oil.

The Gardener's Tip: Winning combinations in the garden are often the same on the plate. It's a good mnemonic device to remember that tomatoes and basil go well together. You can also surround them with French marigolds, nasturtiums, which attract many beneficial insects to the vegetable garden, or simply with salads.

The AB seeds are seeds from organic farming. They come from mother plants cultivated without pesticides or synthetic chemical fertilisers, without chemical seed treatments, in compliance with an official specification. Their traceability is controlled by independent certification bodies.