Could This Be Sun Gold OP

[ContainerTed]

I'm beginning to get lots of fruit set on the 3 OP plants I have here. My brother has two more OP plants, and a neighbor has 1 OP plant. I have 4 Sungold F1 plants for comparison. I'm going to do some pictures in a day or so. I noticed this morning that the fruit trusses are identical to the Hybrids.

And here's one thing that gives me a real giggle. This year, I have 17 volunteer plants this year, including one that has come up in the middle of my row of beans. Some have set fruit already. I'm waiting for ripe fruit to decide what they are. Usually I get the volunteers in only one section where I have concentrated my Cherry types. But this year, the volunteers are everywhere in all part of my 108' by 40' of tilled soil. I didn't count them, but there are also volunteers in the high grasses in the field beside my garden. That's where I throw the rejects while I'm harvesting. Who knows, I might get a few more tomatoes for my juice from there this year, if they don't bush-hog it like they do most years.

Anyhow, I'll have some update info coming a couple days.

[ContainerTed]

Okay, I'm seeing more sameness than differences between the hybrid and my OP's. Here's some pictures of what we look like so far this year.

1. The OP fruits are showing signs of being slightly larger than the hybrids.
2. The fruit trusses are almost exactly identical.
3. Fruit colorations while green are the same (some green shoulders).
4. Foliage aroma is now identical with both the OP and the F1 being equally strong.
5. Total plant sizes are the same.

Okay, here's the trusses from the 3 hybrid plants - Sungold F1

Row7Plant34.JPG

Row7Plant35.JPG

Row7Plant36.JPG

And, here are the OP plants beginning with Row 9.

Row9Plant13a.JPG

Row9Plant13b.JPG

Row9Plant13c.JPG

And then the OP plant from Row 8

Row8Plant3a.JPG

Row8Plant3b.JPG

And then the OP plant from Row 7

Row7Plant24d.JPG

[jmsieglaff]

Ted, I'm continuing to dig this thread. It will be interesting to see how the flavors compare to you. I'm guessing when the time comes and you feel you have 'it', there will be a lot of TVille members who would be happy to grow the F1 and your OP in the same year for a much larger community grow-out and provide honest feedback, myself included!

[bower]

Ted, the OP's are looking luscious!
Awesome work, can't wait to see the ripe ones.

[ContainerTed]

In my garden checkout this morning, I noticed that the green OP fruit is already larger than the ripe F1 hybrid fruit. The picture I posted with both together looks like it will repeat this year.

Also, the aroma from the OP foliage is much stronger today. We're running on the dry side down in the main garden, so maybe that has something to do with the intensity.

So far, so good. I can't wait for ripe OP fruit. I had three ripe fruit from one of the F1 plants this morning. It was planted about a week ahead of all the OP's and the other F1's.

I may have to put myself on tranquilizers. This waiting is "INTENSE".

[zeroma]

following...hope it is true!!!

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by ContainerTed

I may have to put myself on tranquilizers. This waiting is "INTENSE".

I'll say it is!

[clkingtx]

At least you have a lot of others waiting with you!

[sjamesNorway]

Keeping my fingers crossed...

[Minnesota Mato]

I followed the scent like everyone has talked about and my F3 sungold is potato leaf and the blossom end has nipples. What must the parents be?

[ContainerTed]

Here's the first of this year's fruit for comparison. The center one is the OP and the two outside ones are F1 hybrids. I harvested these green, breaking fruit for two reasons. One is that there's been a lot of rain and I didn't want that to skew my observations of fruit size. Two is that I'm so impatient to get this thing settled that I found fruit from the OP and the Hybrid at about the same point of ripening and decided to do a comparison.

I've already tasted a couple of the OP ripe fruits and I'm 99.99% convinced that I have the Sungold OP nailed. I'm just going to be "overly" cautious and make sure that the next few fruit also are what I'm looking for. Note in the picture below that the larger size has repeated. The foliage fragrance has repeated, and the color has repeated. The size of the plant is approximately the same - large sprawling vines that put out truss after truss of cherries.

I think it's ready.

[ddsack]

Woo Hoo! Looks like you get the trophy for most like the F1! Was this now F5 or F6? I've lost track during this long thread!

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Minnesota Mato

I followed the scent like everyone has talked about and my F3 sungold is potato leaf and the blossom end has nipples. What must the parents be?

This linkshouldansweryourquestion

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/SunGold_F1

Look at the history.The F1 was bred by Tokita seeds and they never,but never release public info about anything they breed and that's true for ALL the major commercial breeders as well.

About Tania's link.I can't understand why anyone would even suggest Brandywine as a parental input but also note that some have gotten PL grow outs as you have, and maybe someone suggested Brandywine b/c it is PL.

And that doesn't even say that a parental input was PL,since it depends on what else was thrown in the with the rest of the initial alleles,alternatives of the PL phenotype which is homozygous and recessive.

I should have saved the Google search I did so that you could see all the links with folks asking the same question about parental inputs to the F1,and to be honest I did that search since I couldn't remember if it wasTokita or Taketa that bred it.

Carolyn

[kchd..]

Originally Posted by ContainerTed

I think it's ready.

That is so fantastic! Congrats, Ted!!

[ContainerTed]

Dee, what I'm showing now is from an F6 plant and it will produce F7 seed. I'll still not consider releasing this one until I have tasted some that are vine ripened. I'm really forward to the next couple of weeks.

Carolyn, I know there have been several attempts with as many disasters at finding an OP version of this one. Maybe it's a weird kind of justice that someone should "just find it". I'm not a technical breeder who looks at the genes and tries to match up this and that. But I'm a pretty good observer and have always looked past the obvious to the "potential" I see. I guess that maybe this time, I just might have gotten lucky. For everyone out there, I hope this is the case.

I don't want to say this is something it isn't. This is NOT the SunGold F1 hybrid that everyone raves about. But, so far, it sures does taste like the hybrid. It also looks like the hybrid except that it is a bit larger. I don't think "a bit larger" is a bad thing.

So, watch this thread for a final announcement on this volunteer tomato sometime within the next couple of weeks. If it's as good this year as it was last year, you're gonna love it.