Honey Drop cherry tomatoes are the result of careful breeding by Tevis and Rachel Robertson-Goldberg at Crabapple Farm in Massachusetts, a variety that delivers the exceptional sweetness and full-bodied flavor you'd expect from a premium cherry tomato. Growing to a modest 60 inches tall and reaching harvest in just 70 days, these small but mighty fruits offer a fruity, honey-like sweetness that surpasses even the celebrated Sungold. Hardy across zones 3 through 12, they thrive in full sun and moderate water, making them accessible to gardeners almost everywhere. Open-pollinated and true-to-type, you can save seeds year after year and know exactly what you're getting.
Full Sun
Moderate
3-12
60in H x ?in W
—
Moderate
Hover over chart points for details
Honey Drop cherries stand apart for their exceptional flavor depth and sweetness, earning praise from growers across the Northeast who compare them favorably to beloved commercial varieties. The plants are compact and productive, yielding abundant small, intensely flavored fruits that work equally well as straight-from-the-vine snacks or in the kitchen. These are the kind of tomatoes that make you stop and savor each bite, with a substance and complexity that reflects careful varietal development rather than mass-market compromise.
Honey Drop cherry tomatoes are primarily grown for fresh eating, where their sweetness and compact size make them the ultimate snacking tomato. They're small and mighty enough to pop straight into your mouth while harvesting, or to toss into salads where their fruity flavor and honey-like character shine without needing any other embellishment. The intensity of their taste also makes them valuable for fresh sauces where you want concentrated tomato flavor without the water content of larger varieties.
No timeline data available yet for this variety.
Start seeds indoors 6 to 8 weeks before your last expected frost date. Keep soil temperatures between 68 and 82 degrees Fahrenheit for reliable germination. Provide bright light as soon as seedlings emerge to prevent stretching.
Harden off seedlings by gradually exposing them to outdoor conditions over 7 to 10 days before transplanting. Move them into the garden when soil has warmed and frost danger has passed. Space plants 18 inches apart in rows set 36 inches apart.
Honey Drop cherry tomatoes are ready to harvest around 70 days from transplanting. Pick fruits when they've fully colored and feel slightly soft to gentle pressure, usually when they've turned a deep red or golden color depending on your specific seed source. These small fruits will continue to ripen slightly after picking, so you can harvest at full color for immediate eating or pick slightly earlier if you need to store them.
Enter your ZIP code to see a personalized growing calendar for this plant.
“Honey Drop emerged from the hands-on horticultural work of Tevis and Rachel Robertson-Goldberg at Crabapple Farm in Chestertown, Massachusetts. The variety was brought into wider cultivation through Jay Armour of Four Winds Farm in Gardiner, New York, who became an enthusiastic advocate for the cultivar, helping seed companies and gardeners discover its remarkable quality. This lineage traces through some of the most respected small-scale farmers in the Northeast, making Honey Drop a testament to regional agricultural expertise and the power of word-of-mouth in preserving exceptional varieties.”