Sun Orange and Sun Green

[Barb_FL]

RJGlew - Thank you for the update and pictures. The difference between the SO and SG plants is unreal. I hope you keep your updates coming. I will do the same until my season comes to an end.

Pretty much all my plants are still setting fruit but we have had rainy weather and warm nights not to mention Tomato Russet Mites.

I should be able to taste SunLemon this year and really look forward to trying the others come August/September.

GreatGardens - Prepared to be overwhelmed by the # of tomatoes SunChocola produces. Keep us posted how you like it.

[RJGlew]

First flower dates are now starting to come in. One Sunorange F1 was the first Sundee to flower on June 1, 50 days after germination. This was great for me, but nowhere near what Barb saw with her plant (38 days). Sunpeach F1 flowering followed today, 52 days after sprouting (SO took 5 days to germ, SP took 4 days). Only Bloody Butcher and Red Alert F1 flowered ahead of Sunorange. None of my 3 Sungolds have flower buds showing, so it will be a while yet. Last summer my Sungold first flower date was 62 days after germ. so Sunorange (aka "Improved Sungold") has really kicked it in this regard.

[MrBig46]

I stopped growing Sungold, because I go to the garden only once every three days. When I arrived, half of the mature Sungol was cracked. When I harvested the rest of the ripe and brought them home, a few more cracked. When I harvested the still not quite mature, it did not improve my taste at home. I do not eat tomatoes in the garden, I do not have time. I go there just to work.
I like the project with the comparison of all Tokyo varieties. I hope Robert will not only be informed about how the tomatoes will taste it, but also assess the cracking of these tomatoes. Maybe he will try some not quite mature to let the ripped at home. I look forvard. This thread will continue to watch.
The video is interesting, though I do not understand the English spoken. I understood the content.
Vladimír
PS.: Robert, The plants are very nice

[Greatgardens]

Hi Barb-FL-

Any more updates/final verdict on Sunorange?


BTW, I definitely like Sunchocola. It lags Esterina in production, but I like the size and flavor of Sunchocola (and it doesn't split). It tastes a great deal like 19X ( brown dwarf), but is more consistent in size and sweeter. But the star of this season, so far, is Dwarf Velvet Night from the Dwarf Project. Purple, mostly 2 oz sweet and tangy saladettes.

Picture here: https://heritageseedmarket.com/index...-velvet-night/


-GG

[Barb_FL]

Originally Posted by Greatgardens

Hi Barb-FL-

Any more updates/final verdict on Sunorange?


BTW, I definitely like Sunchocola. It lags Esterina in production, but I like the size and flavor of Sunchocola (and it doesn't split). It tastes a great deal like 19X ( brown dwarf), but is more consistent in size and sweeter. But the star of this season, so far, is Dwarf Velvet Night from the Dwarf Project. Purple, mostly 2 oz sweet and tangy saladettes.

Picture here: https://heritageseedmarket.com/index...-velvet-night/


-GG

I just took down the last of my tomato plants this week. SunOrange was exactly as advertised; It is an improved SunGold. no splitting and larger than SunGold. The few split ones I had were way over-ripe and more likely fell off the vine. I never picked one and had it split in my hand.

Regarding SunChocola, I had stopped watering all my plants weeks ago and this week picked off many SunChocolas.

I'm hooked on these Tokita varieties and will be growing more in the fall.

I look forward to RGlews assessment.

Thanks for the link about dwarf velvet.

[Barb_FL]

RJGLEW - Any update?

I started the Tokita Varieties to bring to Tennessee for my month away from the Florida sun, heat and humidity.

Excellent fast germination (2-3 days) even SunGrape that came via UK, Czech Republic, Canada and finally me in Florida. Could these seeds have traveled further?

Also fast germination from Golden Cherry which was questionable and the ones from Seeds n Such.

The only one that failed to germinate was TomatoBerry so I bought new seeds from Johnny's and germinated in 2 days. The original seeds were older and not from any of the vendor's mentioned.

The ones from Osborne, I expected fast germination and got it.

I'm bringing 2 empty Earthboxes with me so if these plants get large, will lie them down for the trip back.

For mix, I'm bringing a small amount of ProMix and then the compressed Wonder Soil. I'm thinking I can expand it in the EarthBox once I get there.


BTW - I picked my last SunChocola's (grown in EB) back in late July and put them in the Fridge; they stayed good and even today still have a few left.

[Greatgardens]

Hi Barb_FL-


A couple of folks have commented that Sungold seems pretty tolerant to Septoria. I presume you have Septoria in your area? How did Sun Orange do, perhaps it has similar tolerance?


-GG

[Barb_FL]

Originally Posted by Greatgardens

Hi Barb_FL-


A couple of folks have commented that Sungold seems pretty tolerant to Septoria. I presume you have Septoria in your area? How did Sun Orange do, perhaps it has similar tolerance?


-GG

Sorry, I just saw this. I'm not sure I have Septoria or even get fungal diseases; I have a lot of wind where I live so back in the day, when I used Marsh'a diluted Copper treatment, it never did anything helpful; I was treating for something I didn't have.

All my problems are bug related; one year with TYLCV (caused by whiteflies) and the last 2 years, I had Tomato Russet mites in mid-winter. Both years, I had great harvests but a drag nonetheless.

[Barb_FL]

Went to Tennessee for the month of September; I came back to hotter weather than August (87-89 on most days with very intense sunlight). I sowed seeds right before we left (and some in Tennessee) and brought them back in the car.

Lots of my cherry tomatoes have set fruit already even though our night time lows were ranging from 77-80. We had 2 days of 'good weather' - high of 80, but it is warming up the rest of the week; Once we get to Friday, it will be fantastic for months and out of the 80s.

These have all set fruit:

Sun Chocola - a '17-18 standout
Sun Gold - grown forever
Sun Cherry - new for me this season

TomatoBerry - New for me this season
Cherry Bomb - New for me this season
Park's Nectar - New for me this season
5 Star Grape - New for me this season; bred by Johnny's

Still waiting on:

SunPeach and SunOrange were started later since they were such fast growers that I didn't want huge plants coming back from TN. SunPeach was the biggest standout in 2017-2018 season. SunOrange was started late last year (March) but lived up to the hype - a slightly larger improved SunGold that doesn't split

GoldenCherry - another Tokita Variety new for me. Smells like SunGold/SO.

SunGrape - new for me this year

SunLemon and SunGreen - sowed really late last year; SunLemon is the weakest of all the Tokita varieties I'm growing.

Sakura was started just last week.

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None hybrid cherries that I'm growing is Brad's Atomic Grape and Garden Gem. Neither look close to setting fruit.

Also growing Marsha's and KarenO's KARMA PINK but I really don't consider it a cherry tomato since the minimum size was a ping-pong ball and larger.

First picture: starting on left: Park's Nectar with Cherry Bomb sharing the Earthbox.
The 2nd EB has TomatoBerry along with an Brad Gates's OP.

The 2nd Picture is SunCherry ; these were so incredibly leggy when we got home; the wind here makes the stems thick.

[ginger2778]

They all look strong and amazing. I just have 10 or so still to get into pots this week, plus a bunch of peppers. It's very hard to work in the heat of the day.

[Barb_FL]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

They all look strong and amazing. I just have 10 or so still to get into pots this week, plus a bunch of peppers. It's very hard to work in the heat of the day.

I know the feeling; the backyard cools off around 5:30 and then it's dark by 7. It's OK in the morning until 10, but then not a good idea to have the plant start suffering right away. I've been rotating shade cloth when I first introduce the plant to the intense sun; I don't have enough for everything; so the others happily wait their turn in the staging area under the shade cloth dome.

[Barb_FL]

Thought I would give an update on how things are progressing:

Sun Chocola - Fall 2018 - Better than ever - only 1 plant but tomatoes have LONG Vine hang time. I need to get a clone for replacement of something in spring.

Sun Gold - Grown forever and same as always.

Sun Cherry - growing both types from SeedsNSuch although I lost track of which was which. Also growing one type from Osborne. OK - I have NEVER seen such fruit set EVER for a good size cherry. Size when ripe is good. One of the SeedsNSuch varieties does split if left on the vine too long. I'm guessing it is the cheaper one since Osborne only sells one type now.

TomatoBerry - Very few are ripe yet; but definitely looks like a strawberry.

Cherry Bomb - Earlier ripe tomatoes than Nectar but Nectar has recently blown it away in every category.


Nectar - What a surprise! This one is what I thought Cherry Bomb would be; long hang time; great taste, and beautiful red.

5 Star Grape - Bred by Johnnies and pretty much as advertised; few seeds and meaty. I need to leave it on the vine longer to see if it gets sweeter. My husband said it was good for cooking though. I also thought these would be great for dehydrating.

SunPeach - My standout from F'17-F'18. Picked the last ones of that season in July and dehydrated them. This year started later than the others b/c they were such a fast grower last year and need to bring plants back from Tennessee on Oct 1.
This year, just picking the first ripe ones.

SunOrange - started later also - same as SunPeach. But have been eating for weeks already. I have to say SunOrange was the first GREAT tasting tomato of the season.

GoldenCherry - Another SunGold variation. Like a SunGold that doesn't split.

SunGrape - still waiting on ripe tomatoes

SunGreen - Still waiting on ripe tomatoes

SunLemon was he weakest of all the Tokita varieties so got a pretty crappy sun spot. What I can say, the small plant is loaded - more tomatoes than leaves.


Sakura - started really late and just setting fruit now.

Esterina - loaded and just starting to ripen; I don't know why it hasn't been early like other years.

---
Brad's Atomic Grape - Set lots of fruit, nothing near ripe; typical for being late

Garden Gem - Grown again - last time when it first was introduced and I thought it was the holy grail of tomatoes because it was early, etc (until others came in and I lost interest) This year, the tomatoes look really large but not nearly as many as before and not early. Grown both times in an EB.

Candy Icicle - Much less production than the others listed; but one plant grown in an EB was SunCherry that has taking over. Picked my first today

Maglia Rosa - 2nd or 3rd time growing; never good luck before but this time, picking much earlier - I use to wait until what I thought was ripe. These taste much better than the other years.

Will get a picture of all the red/pink ones to distinguish from each other.

First picture is 5 star grape
2nd picture is the 3 SunGold Varieites, SunCherry, and Nectar, SunChocola although they may be on the bottom, and a few maglia rosa.

Last picture is how large these cherry tomato plants are:

[zipcode]

I have grown some of these 3 years ago, and I think tomatoberry is overall my favourite.

Tomatoberry belongs basically in the grape category due to crunchier texture, thick walls and little seeds. Probably good for drying, also skins aren't that tough. Production is very good pruned to one stem compared to Sungold for example (much much more fruit per truss), shelf life is also good. I think the taste is balanced and good, but it has that 'novel' grape tomato taste which not everybody likes apparently (probably gene screened). Requires high K for optimal taste. Very tall plants with long leaves.

Golden cherry is close to sungold but lacks some acidity/more fruity, didn't really like it. Plants have shorter internodes and even thicker stems and make suckers at an insane rate.

Sungrape has the best taste of all, strong and high sugar/high acid. And also nice looking, dark red fruit. Unfortunately the production is low (fruit is small (10 gram maybe) and few fruits per truss, at most 20). The plants are insanely tall with thin stems and long internodes.

Suncherry is solid cherry, nice shiny fruit, good texture, big trusses, plant is reasonably compact and vigurous. My problem was that it became way too sweet at the end of the season although it started with a really good balanced taste.

Sakura had insane production of very large cherries (quite larger than black cherry) on very solid plants. Otherwise was not that impressed with the fruit. Maybe it required more K to keep up with the production.

I am so happy to have info on Sungold replacements! I end up growing it every year but it always comes down with Septoria and once the summer rain pattern sets in most of the fruit splits.

Tomatoberry did very poorly for me last year even compared to large-fruited varieties.

Antho types seem to struggle with my heat and humidity. Aftershock did well but I’m not sure if that’s an exception or some other factor.

[jmsieglaff]

Great report and a great looking tomato jungle! Thanks for sharing! I'll have to try some of the Sungold relatives ones of these years.