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Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: Jayb on August 14, 2014, 08:54:07
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Sungold F1
A richly coloured yellowy-orange cherry tomato, indeterminate best for greenhouse or polytunnel but will crop outside too. Flavour is awesome, very sweet and savoury at the same time, with a great kick of flavour that just makes you want to eat more! One slight downside is the skins can be a bit tough and are slightly prone to splitting, more so when watering is erratic. I find Sungold is often the first tomato to ripen when grown in a greenhouse and they then just produce all season on tall healthy vines. Fruits set on long trusses and the toms are a lovely size for just munching on as you go past or filling a bowl for a snack, great halved or whole in a salad too. The leaves have a distinctive spicy smell which is different from nearly all other tomatoes. I think the fragrance is in the breeding line from a wild type of tomato.
In my opinion Sungold F1 are one of the best cherry tomatoes ever! Biggest drawback it’s an F1 hybrid, the seeds are costly and we can only buy it as long as they produce it.
Would I grow it again- most definitely
Would I recommend it to others - most definitely
Score 10
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I love sungold but I find it gets blight very easily. Seeds seems to be more expensive than it used to be. Somehow I do not think it is as good as it used to be. I remember a summer about 10 years ago when I had them dripping off the plants.
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Have you tried 'de-F1-ing' it Jayb?
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I love sungold but I find it gets blight very easily. Seeds seems to be more expensive than it used to be. Somehow I do not think it is as good as it used to be. I remember a summer about 10 years ago when I had them dripping off the plants.
That's interesting, I must admit I hadn't noticed it more susceptible to blight than other varieties I generally grow, but different growing conditions can make a difference. I think my seed is quite old and haven't noticed any real difference. I stocked up on a few packets of seeds when they were on offer last year, so I shouldn't need to buy any for a good while. Fingers crossed they taste as good, but if not I'll grow Sun Sugar F1 instead. It's very hard to call which is which when grown alongside each other or even which is better.
Which company are your seeds from?
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Yes, but not followed it through far enough. I think I got some crossed seed mixed in so results became a little random and I've decided to go back to F2. I also had some F5 Sungold seeds via Lievien, not his selection but some sent to him. Very tasty cherry tomatoes but I'm still getting both gold and red cherries (if all is correct and not a cross) at F8 and 9.
I have been impressed by Ambrosia Gold the last two seasons, it really is good :drunken_smilie: Very much on a par with Sungold colour and taste wise, also it has that distinctive leaf smell. But from saved seed this year I have one that is red fruited, I'm not sure if it's a cross, still segregating or I miss labelled or contaminated the seed? Tastes very good whatever! Having tasted Ambrosia Gold I'd be more than happy to grow it every year, the test will be if I grow it instead of Sungold!!!!! I've tried some of the available Sungold open pollinated varieties, Big Sungold, Big Sungold Select and Sungold Select but none have really ticked all the boxes and given that flavour punch and sweet combination, just weren't as good as Sungold. Plus generally they were too big for me for a snacking cherry.
Have you had any success with Sungold 'de-F1-ing' ?
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I agree with everything you said about Sungold Jayb. It has been a favourite of
ours for quite a few years now.
However, this year I noticed that many of fruit on some plants in the greenhouse remained
very small, about half the size they should have been. It's the first time this has ever
happened. Any ideas why?
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Black cherry
My vote goes for these this year. They didn't succumb to blight when my other plants did, have many trusses of 7-9 fruits (I am only a beginner at tomatoes and didn't get rid of sideshoots till too late). The tomatoes are biggish cherries and taste beautiful - very intense tomato flavour. A few have split in the rain and from my slightly uneven watering.
Definitely growing again.
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"In my opinion Sungold F1 are one of the best cherry tomatoes ever! Biggest drawback it’s an F1 hybrid, the seeds are costly and we can only buy it as long as they produce it."
Totally agree, however, I think the seed cost is completely worth it, I suppose it depends on how many you grow.
T+M are selling them at £2.99 for 10 seeds, cost per plant (at 100% germination) is 30p, the yield I got this year was around 70 - 80 toms per plant.
Well worth it, in my opinion!
On your last point Jayb, they'll keep producing it only if we keep buying it!!!
I'm buying some extra packs this year, normally only one, but I made a fantastic Sungold and Heatwave dipping sauce with the last of the ripe ones and it's fantastic, so next year I need to double the Sungold planting. Let's pray for another good summer!
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Hybrids are ridiculously expensive, even more so because you have to keep buying seeds every year if you want to keep growing the same variety.
I'd much rather have a good open-pollinated variety that I buy once only, since saving tomato seeds is so easy and you can still eat the fruit you save seeds from (unlike peas or beans).
A dehybridised Sungold would be a fantastic thing - maybe we should have a forum project! ;)
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I've already extolled the virtues of Amish Paste after this great summer as a outdoor tomato that gives huge yields of brilliantly fleshy plum tomatoes.
The other one I love is tomatillo de jalapo ... it's a blight resistant tomato of weed-like tenacity ... the plants I have this year are entirely self-seeded and very productive. Tomatillo de jalapo gives nice trusses of 8-10 juicy sweet red cherry tomatoes. Seemingly nothing can kill it short of trampling on the plants!
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Sungold - yes they are very nice but were the first ones blighted... I tend to agree with Digeroo. I quite like Gardener's Delight for cherry tomatoes although they are smaller.
This year I grew Golden Sunrise, they are a yellow tomato. Very prolific and a nice flavour, quite juicy.
I also grew a yellow baby pear tomato, now I am not sure exactly of the variety. I think they are actually called "Yellow Pear", lol. Very good, they grow into a huge plant though! Long harvesting period, and they taste good even when not fully ripe. Loads and loads of fruit.
I have gone off the black varieties as I find them too sensitive and often I find their flavour too mild.
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Latah's pretty good if you want a bush tomato, sprawls and untidy but very early and productive and tastes good.
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Sungold are the only F1 I grow, Black Cherry are very good. I've found Whipper snapper and Garten Pearle excellent outdoors in baskets and tubs, they have shrugged off the blight and are flowering and fruiting again... :sunny:
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I'll stick a vote in for BLack Cherry.... really tangy tomato and I know I made some converts at work .... folks would be suspicious at first cos they'd be in a bowl with Gardeners Delight and Sungold, but everyone agreed it was the most "tomatoey" of them all, Sungold is loveley, but you could eat it with cream for pudding it's that sweet, Gardeners Deligth just does well for me in my greenhouse so I grow two of each of them and expect to be drowinging in cherry tomatoes for a couple of months...
Most of the rest of what I grow is culinary toms, an anonymous Giant Red and Giatn Yellow that I got from Spain of ebay many moons ago.... I've passed the seed around cos they are excellent big tomatoes, and their size makes. prep simple, you just roast them off for about 45 minutes and then use as per canned toms, or freeze them for use later....
Black Krim and Heinz are the other two I self-save can't fault them as cookers, big, taste lovely.... Black Krim can have some entertaining growth defects and therefore isn't for the complete beginner but the taste pulls you in and the darkness of the flesh can bring a lovely colour to sauces made with it.... Heinz is a bit of a sod to keep seed form cos it makes so few seeds...
the other ones this year: San Marzano, bit late cropping but it looks heavy and it'll be a month before my greenhouse is too cold for it to ripen on the plant, annoyingly seems to attract tomato moth more than most.... this year's experiment was cherry plums.... nice, but not nice enough.... next years will be Stupice cos I'd like to have a stadndard tom in the mix..
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I agree with Sungold and Gardener's Delight - streets ahead of everything else except the Piccolo/Piccolinos you have to pay £8 a kilo for.
I have tried Golden Sunrise and all the other recommended types like Green Grape - I can taste the water through the flavour in all of them - some people don't seem to notice - or they dislike intense flavours. I know plenty that actually like supermarket varieties - they prefer blandness in everything - tasteless mealy apples, asian pears and plums, pizzas that are 99% bread and 1% tomato pap... you name it.
However price is a problem best outflanked...
Both Sungold and Gardener's Delight are available for as little as £1 a plant - and if you get decent sized plants early enough each one will provide 8-12 big cuttings which will root really easily and produce fruit within a week of the "parent".
As to Piccolino - you'd be mad to buy seed when that £3 will buy you 400g of fruit equivalent to 10 or more packets (and a good meal from the leftover flesh). As to growing true, the big producers use huge greenhouses full of the same variety - much larger quantities than the seed producers, and probably much further away from the next different variety.
I also rate Green Tiger (from M&S - but indistinguishable from Highlander from seedsmen). It has a unique meaty flavour (possibly inherited from the impossibly finicky Green Zebra) and most people like to grill it - but I love it raw.
As to blight - I find each year brings a different sequence of what succumbs first and last. The only constant seems to be that hollow crowned varieties - mostly big ones - get blight first in the dip which presumably collects rain and dew - whereas the cherries tend to shrug off leaf attacks but get it in the stem before the fruit succumb.
Cheers.
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I forgot to say I tried blight-resistant Losetto on a Which? recommendation - against my better judgement.
Breeding for blight-resistance had the inevitable result of sidelining flavour - it's as tasteless as the worst I've ever grown.
What's the point of growing red bags of water no better than the cheapest supermarket tomato?
Cheers.
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I haven't grown or tasted many types of tomato, so I'd love your recommendations!
I like my toms to be tangy and sharp and not sugary sweet (sweet is okay as long as it has enough acid for balance) with a nice strong tomato flavour. I don't mind what colour or shape or habit they are. I have to admit to a weakness for interestingly-coloured fruits and veggies, but I prioritise flavour over looks.
What do you think I'd like? I have a small greenhouse and could probably get 12 plants in there if I don't grow anything else in it!
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I found a small bag of seed in my stash that I saved from a supermarket tom called Sunstream years ago. I don't remember anything about it but I must have liked it enough to save it. Anyone know anything about it?
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I found a small bag of seed in my stash that I saved from a supermarket tom called Sunstream years ago. I don't remember anything about it but I must have liked it enough to save it. Anyone know anything about it?
Sunstream info for you:
http://www.enzazaden.co.uk/Products/fruitvegets/tomato/cluster/sunstream.aspx
The seed packet displayed does not say that it is an F1, therefore it is an open pollinated variety and should come true from saved seeds:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tomato-SunStream-Strawberry-amazing-flavour/dp/B003ABA5X8/ref=pd_sxp_f_pt
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Sunstream toms were quite tasty as I remember, I know tesco's sold them a few years ago, I'm not sure if they still do. They were good tasting for shop bought tomato and a fair substitute for out of season homegrown ones. I know I saved seeds too, although I've not grown any out yet. I would think you will get some diversity, but useful sorts with a range of good traits many similar to the parent and you should be able to pick favourites to take forward for next year.
The seed packet displayed does not say that it is an F1, therefore it is an open pollinated variety and should come true from saved seeds:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tomato-SunStream-Strawberry-amazing-flavour/dp/B003ABA5X8/ref=pd_sxp_f_pt
Despite the poor labelling, I'm pretty sure Sunstream are an F1 variety. It's very misleading when seed companies give the wrong information or leave things out.
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Jayb, annoying isn't it. There are many of the modern 'new' supermarket tomatoes that are actually OP although everybody 'says' they are hybrid. Then apparently there is the opposite here :BangHead:
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Have just Googled Sunstream seeds - it's open pollinated. Try Ericwallnursery.co.uk or Amazon. Sounds interesting.
Tricia
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Interesting the differences, Vitalis lists it as F1. As they are part of the Enza Zaden group, you'd have hoped they got the right info!
Jayb, annoying isn't it. There are many of the modern 'new' supermarket tomatoes that are actually OP although everybody 'says' they are hybrid. Then apparently there is the opposite here :BangHead:
I think some of the supermarket tomato varieties are bred using in-bred breeding lines that are indeed very similar in outward appearance, in order to give the desired F1 type they wish. This then does give somewhat more uniform looking and tasting F2's, than say crossing two different type heirlooms.
Bizarrely at the other end, Thompson and Morgan, amongst others, have for some reason have been listing Sweet Aperitif as F1 when in fact the breeders list it as open pollinated along with their other lines Black Opal and Rosella. http://www.gourmetgenetics.com/tomato/aperitif.html
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Forgot the link for Vitalis http://eu.biovitalis.eu/binaries/VITALIS%20CAT%20UK-IRL%202014-web_tcm87-23707.pdf
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Red Alert
If you are looking for an early variety then Red Alert could be a decent choice. Described variously as an extra early, bush type, sweet tasting, small fruiting, heavy cropper! I've been growing them for the last couple of years and they are prolific and can be grown in soil, pots, in the greenhouse or outside so it is a versatile variety. Taste wise they are sweet and juicy although they wont compare to Sungold in the sweetness stakes. You can get seeds from several sources.
The only downside is that they can be a little unpredictable - they are dependent on early Summer conditions but the attraction is a tom that is done and dusted before the blight.
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Thanks guys! I'm not that bothered if Sunstream does turn out to be an F1, because as you say Jayb it will still throw up some interesting plants. And if it's complete rubbish, well the seeds were free... ;)
Looks like it's tall, early, and the fruits are small and plum-shaped. It must have a good sweet-acid balance or I wouldn't have bothered to save it.
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Im with you on red alert,it was recommended to me as a hardy anti blight variety,and after moving here to Dorset I grew some in the garden GH and outside and although I lost quite a few other varieties to blight this season the Red Alert still kept producing
strongly,plus we enjoy its small sweet tomato flavour.
if I was to grow just the one I guess that variety would be it !!!!!!!!!!
Gazza
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I haven't grown or tasted many types of tomato, so I'd love your recommendations!
I like my toms to be tangy and sharp and not sugary sweet (sweet is okay as long as it has enough acid for balance) with a nice strong tomato flavour. I don't mind what colour or shape or habit they are. I have to admit to a weakness for interestingly-coloured fruits and veggies, but I prioritise flavour over looks.
What do you think I'd like? I have a small greenhouse and could probably get 12 plants in there if I don't grow anything else in it!
Sungold is very sweet but for me does have very good balance with an assertive twang and good hit of tomato taste, my mouth waters when thinking of their flavour! Cherries do tend to have that sweet side which I love, I know not everyone loves the sweet though.
What are your favourite tomatoes so far and how do you most like to use them?
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I usually go for cherry tomatoes when I'm in the supermarket, but that's mostly because the "standard" ones are horrible mealy tomato-shaped cotton wool balls (expensive ones are much better, but I'm a cheapskate and resent spending so much). At least the cherries are sharp and juicy.
Out of the ones I've grown (not a big selection) I really liked Latah from Real Seeds and intend to try that again next year. Being a sprawling bush type it does take up a lot of precious greenhouse space but it grows millions of fruits and they taste good.
I've tried a couple of yellow cherry types that I wasn't impressed with because they didn't taste tomatoey enough. Similarly Green Zebra has a nice hit of acid but is otherwise too bland for me, which is a shame because I love the way it looks.
I guess essentially I want something early, sharp and tangy, not too sweet, strong tomatoey flavour without that "fluffy" texture you can get sometimes. Smaller fruits are probably better but I'm not at all precious about that.
I have one called Saucy to try for, well, sauce ;), that someone sent me from America a few years ago but I don't remember if I grew it or not. Will try a couple of plants this year but I'm mostly interested in tomatoes to eat fresh.
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This year I grew black cherry and ailsa craig. Big crops of both. I love the flavour of ailsa craig for quite a bigish tomato and black cherry is the perfect balance between sweet and sour for me. The most delish tom imo!! I think I got the seeds of Jayb a couple of years ago. muchos gracias Jayb!! :wave: Will definitely go for this pairing again. I eat the blackcherry like sweets through the day and the ailsa craig are great for cooking and sauces, or sliced on salads.
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Spotted these Sunstreams in Sainsbury's earlier. I'm too cheap to buy any, but it was nice to see what they look like.
(https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2947/15296822977_87e0fd31b0.jpg)
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The "tres cantos" or three songs I grew this year where amazing in taste and size.. very, very, large. Definately going to grow again next year.
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Regarding Sungold.. I have three or 4 stable dehybridised versions of it from different sources. Tatiana has done it and sells the seeds, the fruits are slightly bigger on all of them and the flavor is pretty good and pretty close, although honestly Sungold still beats the, My personal view and one I would follow if I was younger is they could come from the wild cheesemani which does have an excellent taste but it's just a guess..
Opalka as a paste tomato, just great makes wonderful sauce.
I was sent yet another Brandywine.. BR from Croatia which is excellent and another tomato called Hoy which is also excellent
If we are doing other veggies.. Shasta cauliflower, I have sent this to many folks who couldn't grow cauli and they did.
XX Jeannine
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im growing loads of different sorts this year with my old favs my cherry types this season are idle, golden cherry, sungold, red pear, super sweet 100,gardeners delight,principle porcese and pink charmer salad type tamina,alicante,moneymaker,mountain magic and ailsa craig large tom type fandango, country taste, yellow stuffer,Cuore di Bue and brandywine thats my little lot for this year and im bound to plant some more as the season gets going
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We have 25 different indoor varieties germinated for this year, and 6 outdoor... pricking out to 3-6 of each over Easter.. :toothy10:
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We have 25 different indoor varieties germinated for this year, and 6 outdoor... pricking out to 3-6 of each over Easter.. :toothy10:
That's a lot of work. Hope that many of them will do well for you. :sunny: Would you please let us know the winners, losers and also-rans at the end of the season?
:wave:
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I'd like to put in a word for Black Opal, it's bred from Black Cherry and is OP. Skins don't split quite as easily as BC and it seems to be bit sturdier as well. It is just lovely :)
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this year not growing as many cherry types just couldn't get through them all last year even with drying them still got 80 or so bottles of dehydrated cherry type so I'm growing gardeners delight, sungold, sweet 100,tomatoberry, and i think its called sanantiono and that's it oh i have one plant of sweet millions salad toms stonards exhibition , alicanti, Essex wonder ,moneymaker,roma,tamina ,mountain magic beefsteak type yellow, stuffer, country taste, fandango, coure de beuf, big daddy and gigantomo around 10 of each however will make it up to the 200 with other varieties which are swapped with other plot holders
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I grew Latham from Real seeds at the lottie last year and hit the best crop of outdoor bush tomsties I’ve ever had, they got blight eventually but the Latah were the last plants standing! I’ve saved some seeds and are growing them again this year, plus Red Alert which also did very well.
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Has anyone tried Ildi? I grew them quite a few years ago. I remember them being crazily prolific croppers but can't remember the flavour. I may give them another go next year, but wondered where they would be compared to other prolific croppers. Thanks :)
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I have grown Ildi for the last few years and they are quite a sweet and tasty yellow tomato and are quite a prolific cropper I also grow sungold but another nice cherry tomato is Rosella which is a dark red one it is also sweet and tasty
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I have bought some Captain Beefheart seeds from Seaspring seeds this year, solely on the strength of the name (I plan to serve them with big eyed beans from Venus) - I will let you know how they turn out!
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I have bought some Captain Beefheart seeds from Seaspring seeds this year, solely on the strength of the name (I plan to serve them with big eyed beans from Venus) - I will let you know how they turn out!
First choose a Clear Spot for them
I think you may have to PEEL them first.......
(May I refer you to my post of 20/10/2019)
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I have grown Ildi for the last few years and they are quite a sweet and tasty yellow tomato and are quite a prolific cropper I also grow sungold but another nice cherry tomato is Rosella which is a dark red one it is also sweet and tasty
Thanks :) Mm, I think I'll give them another try then. I like my tomatoes sweet :)
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Where did you get the ildi seeds from, Cudsey? (I follow Richard Perkins and he raves about them!)
Thanks.
Infradig