Sugardrop F1 tomato

[carolyn137]

I think many of us have tried Kumatos in the past. I didn't like them at all and the hype that Syngenta put out about them was over the top. They were first introduced by Syngenta in England and Australia and they introduced them here in the US as Rosso Bruno a couple of years ago.

Not that I have any strong negative feelings about them, but well, given the many alternatives, I do.

[Jayc]

Frogsleap, I'll send them in the next couple of days, but the mail here seems pretty much on standstill the last few days due to snowy weather.

Gill, pm me your addie and I'll send some over, yes a few Kumato seeds in exchange would be great as I only have 2 and would love a couple more

Cottonpicker, I'm hoping I come across Sugardrop sometime, as I'm interested to see how they compare with sungold too.

[maf]

It's the extended shelf life parents that I'm looking for to cross with my best tasting breeding lines.

Frogsleap, you might also find Piccolo to be an interesting tomato for your needs. The F1 is a good tasting red cherry tomato and is one of the most popular (if not the most popular) premium cherry tomatoes in supermarkets here. Don't know if it has been introduced in the US. I grew out F2 seed from supermarket fruit two years ago and a percentage of the plants produced ghostly pale orange fruits that seemed to take forever to fully ripen. I couldn't work out what to do with them and ended up drying most of them in the oven. I didn't realise it at the time but these fruits have been reported to keep for five months or more without rotting. See this thread for one person's account: http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=3762

Might be an interesting one for your breeding work? I can send you some seed from supermarket fruit when I send the others if you like. (Will probably be at Tesco later today and will look to see if they have Sugardrop or Moreno in stock.)

Anyone else have experience of growing out Piccolo?

The F1 seeds used to be available to buy in the UK but were expensive and have now been withdrawn from the home gardening market. Grafted F1 plants are sometimes available for sale still.

[frogsleap farm]

maf - piccolo would be great. Did you happen to save seed of the pale very slow ripening types? That's what I'm after.

Mark

[maf]

Mark, no I did not save any seed from the Piccolo segregations. Looking back I wish I had done. I still have some dried tomatoes from that batch, but they were dried in the oven at about 40 or 50°C, unlikely that the seeds are viable. Here is a picture of them prior to being dried (a mixture of the pale and red types):

Piccolo segregation.jpg

Iirc, there were about 5 red fruited plants and 3 pale fruited. If you grow out the F2 I guess the ratio will be at least 25% for the pale fruited plants, the exact number depending on how complex the cross is. When they eventually did ripen the pale fruits tasted almost as nice as the red ones.

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Today I went to Tesco supermarket and purchased the Sugardrop tomatoes, and some Piccolo for a comparison, but they did not have the Moruno in stock. Initial taste results are that they are both equally sweet, but Piccolo has a slightly better taste, stronger and more complex. Sugardrop has the better texture, IMO, due to the higher percentage of flesh compared to juice and seeds. Both types are quite firm, as might be expected from a supermarket tomato, I will let them ripen further and taste again another day.

Supermarket1.jpg Supermarket2.jpg

[gill_s]

Originally Posted by Jayc

I've not seen Sugardrop in my local Tesco store but I tried Moruno last year. For a supermarket tom it was tasty and sweet, but my notes include "lacks some depth of flavour"

Another Tesco tom I tried is Perino, I rated these above Moruno for flavour and sweetness (though they may not have the qualities you are looking for). I have some spare seed of both if you are interested.

Many thanks for your offer of seed. I shall PM my address when I can find out how to do it! I am sure the instructions about PMs are on the site somewhere. I was in Tesco today and had a look at the tomatoes and there were Moruno again. I can save myself some seeds from those but I would still like a few Perino if you have them please. I have to agree on first taste that the Moruno isn't the best tasting tomato I have tried.
I gather from Carolyn that Kumato are not open pollinated as I was led to believe. Maybe the ones I grew last year were not true to the original. Some people, including Carolyn I realise have not kliked them. As has been said many times we all differ in what we like from a tomato or maybe the ones I grew last year were not true to the original but were a better flavour! I also enjoy the flavour of Piccolo but prefer a larger cherry.
Gill

[dice]

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[maf]

Just eaten some more Sugardrops, really is a fantastic tomato. Very sweet, delicious flavour, I am surprised how much I am liking it, and have to say I prefer it over Piccolo. The flesh colour is a more intense red than I am used to seeing also.

[gill_s]

Thanks Dice. I did work it out!
I was delighted to find Morunos in my local Tesco last week. I had been looking for a long time and had decided that they must be discontinued. Much to my suprise they then had Sugardrop the next week! I know it is a lottery saving seeds from commercial tomatoes but I shall give it a try!