--- title: "Cocktail Tomatoes" description: "Cocktail tomato sits between cherry and truss and is a distinct market class with its own cultivars and buyers. Reference values with their Dutch sources, and what the crop asks of a greenhouse." canonical: "https://dutchgreenhouses.com/crops/tomato/cocktail-tomato" locale: "en" updated: "2026-08-11" --- # Cocktail Tomatoes > Part of: [Tomato](/crops/tomato.md) · Provider: [DutchGreenhouses](/) Cocktail tomatoes are the market class between cherry and truss in fruit size, sold on the vine and loose, with their own cultivars, price position and buyers. The crop is grown long-cycle on substrate and high wire, with consistency of fruit size carrying the price rather than grading after harvest. Tomato # Cocktail tomatoes. Between cherry and truss, and a class in its own right. Cocktail tomato sits between cherry and truss in fruit size and is sold both on the vine and loose. It is a distinct market class rather than a size variant, with its own cultivars, its own price position and its own buyers. Growers choose it to reach a segment that finds cherry too small to use as a cooking tomato and truss too large to eat whole. ## What the crop needs The crop is long-cycle on substrate and high wire. Its demands sit between the two neighbouring classes: more fruit per plant than truss and fewer than cherry, with a correspondingly intermediate harvest rhythm. Consistency of fruit size within the truss or the pack is the quality that carries the price, and it is held through steady climate and controlled plant load rather than through grading after harvest. ## What the greenhouse has to do Cocktail sits between two crops in what it asks of a house, and the sale form decides which way the specification leans. On the vine, the truss has to reach grade as a unit, so evenness across the floor governs. Sold loose, grading and packing capacity governs instead. Both run on the same long-cycle high-wire structure, and both need the climate held steady enough that fruit size does not drift through the season. Light moves the answer most. Cocktail is grown commercially under full light-emitting-diode installations as well as under glass alone, and that choice changes the heating load, the electrical service and the screening strategy together. It is a structural decision taken with the greenhouse, not a fixture chosen after the house is standing. DutchGreenhouses® specifies the structure, climate, screening and irrigation around the cocktail tomato crop, its cultivar and the local climate, so fruit size holds within the pack. Get in touch to plan a tomato greenhouse for your market. ## Crop data Cocktail tomatoes ### Day climate1,2,3,4,5 Air temperature 19–23 °C Relative humidity 82–88 % Vapor Pressure Deficit (VPD) 0.28–0.45 kPa Daily light integral 18–35 mol/m²/d Photoperiod 16–18 h CO₂ concentration 600–800 ppm Root-zone temperature 17–20 °C ### Night climate1,3,6,7 Air temperature 17–20 °C Relative humidity 85–90 % Vapor Pressure Deficit (VPD) 0.2–0.34 kPa CO₂ concentration 420–500 ppm Root-zone temperature 17–20 °C ### Irrigation and root zone6,8,9,10 Supply EC 3.5–4.5 mS/cm Supply pH 5–6.2 pH Drain fraction 20–30 % Daily water use 1–5 L/m²/d Dosing capacity ≈ 2 L/m²/h Sources (10) - Kas als Energiebron, 2020 — Lit tomato crop timing and lighting E015 - Kas als Energiebron Academy Tomaat, 2023 — Radiation–temperature ratio (RTR) E016 - Kas als Energiebron / Delphy, 2022 — Energy-efficient LED temperature and humidity E017 - Kas als Energiebron / WUR, 2014 — Tomato CO₂ operating range E023 - Kas als Energiebron project 20184 — Modern full-LED tomato project configuration E029 - Kas als Energiebron / Delphy, 2025 — Humidity, EC and transpiration under LED E018 - WUR / del Amor & Marcelis, 2005 — Humidity response and nutrient uptake E022 - Proefstation voor Tuinbouw onder Glas / WUR, 1994 — Closed-system tomato nutrient solution E021 - WUR / Li, Stanghellini & Challa, 2001 — Tomato EC × transpiration response E027 - Kas als Energiebron, 2023 — Nutrition under lower transpiration E028 Reference values, not a specification. Setpoints are calculated per greenhouse, crop and location. Related ## Other tomato varieties and the systems behind them ### TOV / truss tomatoes The Dutch export standard, sold on the vine. ### Cherry tomatoes Small fruit, high count, and labour as the deciding cost. ### Beef tomatoes The large-fruited slicing class, and the load it puts on a house. ### Grow lights Supplemental light for the low-light months. ### Climate Heating, cooling, humidity control and carbon dioxide dosing. ## A fruit bought for both jobs Cocktail tomato is bought for two uses at once: eaten whole like a small fruit, and cut into a dish like a large one. Neither use hides it. It is judged raw and it is judged in the pan, and the same fruit has to answer both. That doubles what ripeness has to carry. Raw, the fruit is judged on sugar and acid, which are laid down on the plant. Cooked, it is judged on flesh and on the water it gives up, which follows from how long it has been off the plant. Fruit cut early for a journey gives ground on both at the same time. A house near its market can pick at colour and ship inside the week. The vitamin C and the potassium stay close to what the plant put there, and the pack is graded straight off the crop rather than sorted a second time after the fruit has already spent its condition getting there. ### Nutrition facts Tomato, red, ripe, raw — year round average Per 100 g Energy 18 kcal Fat 0.2 g Carbohydrate 3.89 g Sugars 2.63 g Fiber 1.2 g Protein 0.88 g Sodium 5 mg Potassium 237 mg Vitamin C 13.7 mg Source: USDA FoodData Central, FDC 170457 Questions ## Cocktail tomato, asked and answered How does cocktail tomato differ from cherry? It is a larger fruit sold into a different segment, with its own cultivars and price position. It is a separate market class, not a grading outcome from a cherry crop. Does cocktail tomato need full LED? Not necessarily, but the decision belongs with the greenhouse. Full light-emitting-diode installations are in commercial use for this class, and choosing one changes the heating load, the electrical service and the screening strategy at the same time. On the vine or loose? A market decision that changes the crop. It affects harvest labour, pack format and how saleable yield is counted, so it belongs in the brief before the house is designed. 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