Sun Gold tomato alternatives?

[cmorningstar]

Hello

A quick question for the heirloom tomato experts out there - Does anyone know of an open-pollinated variety of Sun Gold tomatoes?  I'm a newbie who loves to grow heirlooms but am embarrassed to say that my favourite tom is now an F1 variety!  I'd like to be able to save/share seeds from year to year and this just isn't possible with the Sun Gold.  Would also love to know which varieties are similar in sweetness, texture, fruitiness (colour and size aren't as important). 

Many thanks!
Cmorningstar

[cmorningstar]

[saddad]

Sungold is the only F1 I grow... there are over 400 illustrated open poll vars in a book I have... unfortunately the text is on French.. and I'm not bilingual.
I could send you some Tangella which is nice and Christmas Grape isn't bad either...
;D

[Chris Graham]

take a look here

http://www.realseeds.co.uk/

such a great website, it was posted on another thread.

I think they come under "Galina EARLY SWEET YELLOW CHERRY" but not sure if they are like Sun Gold's

[cmorningstar]

Thanks muchly for the quick replies  :)

Realseeds is fantastic - the Galinas are lovely but they don't have the same sugar-bomb-with-a-kick taste and texture of the Sun Golds. 

Saddad thank you for the extremely generous offer - I'll send you an email along with a list of a few heirloom varieties from the States that I can offer in return (they'll be coming out of packets of seeds I have ordered for planting next year).

C 

[Merry Tiller]

Sungella, not a cherry but superb flavour

[Hyacinth]

Personal preference I know, but I prefer Sungella over Sungold...don't grow the latter any more. Sungella Forever 8)

[Merry Tiller]

First time I've tried them, won't go back to Sungold.
For a yellow(ish) cherry I'd highly recommend Snow White, it's flavour has been a revellation

[cmorningstar]

Wow - thanks for all of the replies - I will definitely try sungella and snow white next year.   

I'd like to move away from F1 varieties where possible and these alternatives sound like they are worth a try.  I might try Galina again - maybe I had a bad season with them the first time 'round?  So many varieties to try, so little time/space :)

C

[Garden Manager]

I grew sungold for the first time this year. the seeds were sent to me by another A4All member and appeared to be saved seed. Whilst the fruits pruduced have been largely classic sungold there have been variations, not only in colour but in plant vigour, health and cropping. So 'Sungold; has ben more like 'Gold Dust', since i have enjoyed the fruits that were produced.

I never gave it a thought until I read this thread - i did not know sungold were F1s, and assumed my own experience was just bad luck. F1's are supposed to be the best, and since the only f1 tomato i have grown (Shirley) have always done well, i have no reason to doubt this.  I am now encouraged to try again and will be buying new seed next year, if only to compare results with this year.

I have to confess i have never saved seed and usualy buy fresh if not every year then certainly every other year, depending on how many seed are in a packet and how many of them i want to grow. Costs a bit more money but it ensures you get the best seed and stand a good chance of getting good results.

[Tora]

I grow Sungella. I love the taste of sungold but am not fond of F1 varieties. I liked Sungella but found them a bit less sweet. I found the bigger size more convenient though, for sandwiches.

I think Sunbelle tomatoes are really tasty. Refreshing taste but sweet too. They are cherry tom, yellow in colour and plum shaped.

[saddad]

While "Hybrid Vigour" is the classic reason for growing F1's it is really all only a seed company con... people were saving seed for thousands of years.. since farming started in fact... and many improved varieties and "landraces" have developed. I begrudge paying about £1 a seed for Cuc.s and the like when open pollinated vars like crystal apple can be bought for £1 for 50 or saved yourself..
:-X

[cmorningstar]

Hello again

I completely agree that many F1s are a complete con - makes me worried when the same companies that want to sell us the F1s also want to introduce 'terminator' seeds on the market to render Open pollinated/heirloom varieties sterile, thus insuring that we have to buy our seed from them year in and year out (and taking away the choice for people to share their own seeds or grow their own varieties unless they can stay clear of areas where terminator plants are growing).  >:(  [/alarmist off-topic rant over/]

I'm relatively new to all of this but I'm hoping that by taking seeds from the best fruits from the best three or four plants I will be able to stash away good quality seeds for the future.   :)  That said, I can definitely understand buying new seed to guarantee quality - the reality will probably be that I'll do a bit of both! 

Tora - thanks for the suggestion of the Sunbelle variety; I'll keep an eye out for it :)

C

[davy1]

I have been growing the same yellow tomato for over 16 years taking my own seed and all the local growers have the same breed none of us could name it. It came from an old show grower that long ago we cant remember the name of it so we just call it Show Yellow. For them that wants to know when your tomato is ripe this is perfect as it turns a lovely golden colour.
I will be putting some photos on next week as its show day on Monday and will be picking tomorrow. There will be seeds available later in the year and will let you know when.
Davy.

[Ricado]

I have sungold and found the taste very good, but not all were golden, some reverted to red and their taste was inferior, but still well worth growing.

I highly rate golden cherry.  I think this has a slightly more intense taste than sungold.  Its probably higher in acid but is definately as sweet as sungold, and is orange in colour.  Im having both these as my maincrops next year.  I will also try sungella.

Others i rate are caro rich, which is an orange beefsteak, so called because it has 10 times the beta carotene of red tomatoes.  I found the plant not too prolific, but was in smaller containers than my others, but the taste and colour was fantastic.

Another tomato i rate highly is Sakura.  This is a red tomato, id call it a large cherry, bigger than gardeners delight and better in taste, but ive never really rated gardeners delight that much.  The plant shows excellent vigour and disease resistance, and seems to come out very uniform, with long straight even trusses 2" fruits of the darkest red ive ever seen.  The taste is medium acid and sweetness.  Id rate this plant for its hardiness and overall grower friendly.

Does anyone else have tomatoes that show exceptional disease resistance/grower friendly traits ?

[moonbells]

I grew sungella last year, and it was very susceptible to blight. It went down first of the ones I grew, and when I read up on it, the web articles also said blight-prone.

I didn't grow it this year - just stuck to paste tomatoes at the lottie (cream sausage and San Marzano) as they puree so well.

Ok, I admit, I also grow tumbler at home in hanging baskets for lunch packups...

moonbells

[Garden Manager]

I have grown sungella before now. I didnt like the flavour of it, but it didnt get blight (I dont think any of my plants got blight that year :-X). In contrast Sungold has been far better taste wise, despite the plant itself having health problems, and one plant reverting to a tasteless red version.

[cleo]

Does anyone else have tomatoes that show exceptional disease resistance/grower friendly traits ?


`Nepal` is good. Slightly larger than average red-heavy cropper and a very good flavour

[supersprout]

When I was reading up on yellow banana and cream sausage, they were said to be resistant to all sorts of diseases :)

[moonbells]

Cream sausage did get the blight, but not as fast as the gartenperle and the sungellas and with the plants being next to each other it was rather inevitable. This weekend last year I picked all my tomatoes and put them to ripen in the spare room. So far this year, so good... though I keep expecting it any day now.

moonbells

[cmorningstar]

Sungellas are prone to blight -  :'(

My Latahs have been struck down with blight already and I yanked them out of my plot yesterday.  Touch wood everything else seems ok so far.  I've had to remove a few yuck branches from alicante plants but they are still producing well.  The constoluto fiorentinos are fine, as are the green grape and yellow pear.  Sun Golds seem like they are just revving up - they have been very very productive.  But every one of the Sunray Gold toms have suffered from blossom end rot.  Just crossing fingers that we get a few more weeks before having to take everything indoors. . . .

This would be a great topic for a separate thread (blight/disease resistant tom varieties).

Re: alternatives to Sungold.  Great recommendations so far - wanted to share another one I found when asking the same question on Dave's Garden forum - Katinka Cherry is also highly recommended. 

Looking forward to seeing your photos Davy1  :)