Sungold Replacement

[Labradors2]

Originally Posted by ddsack

I still have not found any cherry that I like as well as Sungold, cracks and all. It's not the sweetness that impresses me, but the fruity acid zing that it has at the ripeness stage I like best. All other sweet cherry tomatoes just taste blandly sweet to me.

I'm going to try growing Sun Sugar next year. I hear they taste similar but that SS doesn't crack as much AND it doesn't get that funky taste that I really dislike in the heat of summer from SG.

I agree that most cherries are sweet with no complexity to the flavor. I really liked Rosella last year and wish I'd grown it again. This year I LOVED Blush, but didn't grow Sungold with which to compare it.

Linda

[NewWestGardener]

Linda, I grew Sunsugar once before, but it does not come close to SG to me.
I love Blush too, also Green Tiger, really fruity later in the season. They split more than Blush with rain. Together with Maglia Rosa, they are my must -grow trio.

[pmcgrady]

Brads Atomic Grape tastes better than Sungold in my opinion!

[heirloomtomaguy]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

Wow was in my garden last season. Grew as Salt described. Very tasty but every one of them split terribly. For this reason, I won't grow again.

Good to know Marsha. Now im on the fence. I guess if i have an open spot i will give it a try. Its getting harder and harder to whittle down my list every year.

[AlittleSalt]

HTG, I have seeds for WOW, Brads Atomic Grape, and Gargamel. The only way/s I would compare the three (besides tasting good) is that they are an experience growing them. WOW is a cherry tomato that the plant grows as I described. I'm thinking the splitting that Marsha described might have possibly had to do with humidity in Florida? (Not trying to sell you on WOW - nor to detract from what Marsha wrote.)

The only reason I mention Brad's Atomic Grape is from pmcgrady's #78 reply. It's not a cherry tomato, but well worth growing if you have the room. Around 3 oz.

Gargamel is in a class all in its own. I've grown some odd tomatoes, but that one starts out light green, turns DEEP purple and is hard as a rock, and eventually matures into a striped looking 3 oz. tomato. A little more acidic than sweet - it tastes good. It's one that you grow where visitors to your garden asks, "What is that?"

But not as much as a Litchi Tomato plant. I have very few Litchi seeds. Litchi is the oddest one I've ever grown - it has thorns. Painful ones.

Pictures 1 Wow, 2 Brad's Atomic Grape, 3 Gargamel, 4 Litchi.

I'm not sure Brad's Atomic Grape or Gargamel are fully stable. They may need a few more generations of growing out. Neither of my plants grew tomatoes that looked like the one's pictured, but were still very close.

[Labradors2]

I grew WOW and Sungold one year and didn't think that WOW could compete with SG.

Linda

[pmcgrady]

I agree with Salt that Atomic Grape isn't fully stable, I grew out 6 plants this season, 5 grew true, 1 plant grew round 5oz tomatoes that were colored/striped the same but didn't taste as good as the grapes.

[Fusion_power]

Makes me chuckle to read all the old posts. See if you can convince Swamper to send you a few seed of Swamp Sweet Orange. It is one of very very few tomatoes I've grown that could compete with Sungold for sweetness. The flavor is not "tropical fruit" from the Habrochaites genes. It is an extraordinarily sweet rich tomato flavor.

[VirginiaClay]

Originally Posted by NewWestGardener

For the same reason, I don't think I'll replace Sungold with anything else, that fruity taste.
The large F2s are identical to the F1s I saved seeds from, same taste, and with abundant flowering and clusters. So on to F3 next year. I harvested lots of seeds from both generations, and will grow both again next year. I did not grow any other orange cherries last year, so no mixups.

I'm curious, did you continue growing your line of large Sungolds? Were you able to stabilize them?

[Andrey_BY]

What's new in Sungold replacement these days?

[Yak54]

I grew SunOrange last year and couldn't tell any difference in taste from Sungold, and they didn't split or crack when it rained. Plus they are slightly bigger. What's not to like !

Dan

[Fred Hempel]

Originally Posted by Yak54

I grew SunOrange last year and couldn't tell any difference in taste from Sungold, and they didn't split or crack when it rained. Plus they are slightly bigger. What's not to like !

Dan

SunOrange sounds great! I need to try that one.

Our closest Sungold replacement is Golden CherryWine

[CrazyAboutOrchids]

My very first cherry we loved was Galinas but then I had trouble finding seed and switched to Sungold. I switched from Sungold years ago to Sunsugar - grew both one year and stuck with the Sunsugar. It's the splitting that did me in.

I have tried a few other cherries over the years but always grow a Sunsugar - nothing else grows the monster plant and produces it's heart out until hard frost and doesn't crack unless you leave on the plant way too long. My hubby has a sweet tooth so he loves the extra pop of sugar versus the tomato taste for a cherry. We go to the garden gate, enter, snack on a handful as we walk around and harvest other stuff. One plant can keep us in salads and snacking with enough to share with friends. One year we grew 2 Sunsugar and were giving away paper bags of cherries.

I'm always up to trying a new cherry just to see how well it does against Sunsugar.

[biscuitridge]

Sweet orange is what I grow instead,less splitting but just as sweet.

[VirginiaClay]

Originally Posted by NewWestGardener

How big is everybody's Sungold F1 fruit? I got one plant with all large fruit last year, as wide as 2" across as I remember, similiar to Mountain Magic, wonderful flavour. So I saved seeds and planted a couple of F2s this year, got the same large fruit that taste as good as any regular Sungold F1s. I will keep growing this next year again. The original seeds are from a trade labelled as F1, all grew true. I grew Sungolds from Johnny's for a few years before, so I am familiar with the variety, just never got the bigger fruit.
Here's a picture of the large ones vs. regular sized ones . The reference coin is a Canadian Toonie(1.1"). Or the large one is regular and I've been growing the off type smaller ones all these years and didn't know it?!

Does anyone know if NewWestGardener continued developing this 2" Sungold? There's a photo with their original post about it. I couldn't find any updates. I love making sauce out of roasted Sungolds, but it's a lot of processing effort with the high percentage of skins and seeds, so a saladette or larger version would be amazing.