Sweet 100

Sweet 100 produces scarlet, cherry-sized fruits that hang in long clusters and keep coming right up to frost, carrying a notably sugary flavor. The fruit itself is firm, with a well-balanced sweetness rather than a soft, mushy texture. Individual tomatoes run small, snack-sized fruit, and a single truss can carry as many as 100 tomatoes, living up to the cultivar's name. The vine is described as huge and vigorous, and its fruit is noted for a high vitamin C content alongside its mouth-watering flavor.

Sweet 100's fruit is prized mainly for fresh eating, whether plucked straight from the vine or tossed into salads. Beyond raw eating, it also works into simple cooked meals, roasted dishes, or pressed for juice.

Sweet 100 ripens early in the season, with the first ripe fruit appearing about two months after transplanting. From there the plants keep bearing for close to three months, and vigorously grown specimens can turn out several hundred tomatoes over that span. The vines run long, commonly six to ten feet, and need a sturdy trellis or stake to stay upright rather than sprawl. The plants tolerate drought and heat well, though the fruit can split if watering swings between dry and wet.

Sweet 100 is a modern hybrid developed through conventional breeding methods at Northrup King Seed Company, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota — a firm since absorbed into Syngenta.