Sun Sugar F2?

[habitat_gardener]

I was talking to another person who has 150 seedlings to give away at the community garden. Turns out she saved the seeds from *one* Sun Sugar last year and planted them all, and ended up with 150 seedlings. I mentioned to her that they're a hybrid and might not produce what's expected, but she said no, Sun Sugar is one hybrid that does produce true from seeds. (I'm skeptical.)

Probably I'll find out in a couple months if the F2s produce good cherries, since they'll be all over the garden (I don't have one of them; I bought my seedling in early March), but I was wondering if anyone else had grown Sun Sugar F2s. How did they come out? Should I plan to save seeds from my own F1 plant?

[travis]

I may have mixed up two seedlings in 2007. One was SunSugar and the other was a very similar Chinese hybrid named Golden Gem. I planted them side by side and couldn't tell enough difference to make a possitive ID.

I saved the seeds from one of them that I liked and in 2008, I got some plants with larger cherries about the size of half dollar coins, red and mealy. Not worth a plugged nickel. Wish I could tell you for sure whether the F1 was SunSugar or Golden Gem, but I can't. Sorry.

[organichris]

Well, I can't help you either. But I did have a question about whether SunSugar was a hybrid. Do we know for sure it is an F1? This is my first year growing it. I planted it along side two Mexico Midgets. I'm hoping to get a perpetual feral tomato crop from the volunteers.

[Wi-sunflower]

Sun Sugar is definately a hybrid.

I've saved seed and grown out several crops and NO it doesn't breed true. There is another thread here at TV about the fact that Sun Gold is a tri-bred or something like that.And Sun Sugar is an offspring from that program I believe.

You will get some red ofspring and some odd offspring. At least that's what I have gotten.

Carol

[habitat_gardener]

Organichris, for a feral tomato patch, a great OP yellow I've tried is Galina's Yellow (I've also seen it called Galinas). I grew it alongside SunSugar one year and thought the two tasted remarkably alike, but Galina's produced 30 percent more cherries.

The only reason I'm growing SunSugar instead of Galinas this year is that I wanted some early tomatoes, and SS was the only cherry I liked that was available at the nursery in early March. (And I started my seeds in mid-March in my cold frame.) There are also many other great OP cherries. I've tried and liked Tommy Toe (red) and Black Cherry.

So now I'm wondering if I should tell the person who grew all these seedlings (or the people she gives them to) anything. I'm inclined to say nothing and let her see for herself, since she's kind of pushy and an "I know better than you" type of person. But I'd hate to see all those other people growing duds.

[organichris]

Originally Posted by habitat_gardener

Organichris, for a feral tomato patch, a great OP yellow I've tried is Galina's Yellow (I've also seen it called Galinas). I grew it alongside SunSugar one year and thought the two tasted remarkably alike, but Galina's produced 30 percent more cherries.

The only reason I'm growing SunSugar instead of Galinas this year is that I wanted some early tomatoes, and SS was the only cherry I liked that was available at the nursery in early March. (And I started my seeds in mid-March in my cold frame.) There are also many other great OP cherries. I've tried and liked Tommy Toe (red) and Black Cherry...

I looked for Black Cherry here locally and couldn't find it. I think the nursery up the street has Tommy Toe though. I think I'm pretty much done with planting tomatoes unless I find something I really really want to try. We'll see if the SunSugar progeny goes feral. My hope is that some of them will naturally cross with the Mexico Midget. That's why I planted them close to each other. From what I've heard the Mexico Midget seems like it would go feral fairly easily.

[organichris]

Originally Posted by Wi-sunflower

Sun Sugar is definately a hybrid.

I've saved seed and grown out several crops and NO it doesn't breed true. There is another thread here at TV about the fact that Sun Gold is a tri-bred or something like that.And Sun Sugar is an offspring from that program I believe.

You will get some red ofspring and some odd offspring. At least that's what I have gotten.

Carol

How did the F2s taste in comparison? Were they all cherries?

[Wi-sunflower]

They were all cherries, but about 1/3 of the plants were red. The orange fruit did have a bit of color variation and no they didn't taste as good as Sun Sugar but weren't spitters either.

I'm continuing to grow it out and hope to find something that will be close to the original as it's one of my absolute favs. It may take a few years tho.

Carol

[travis]

Originally Posted by habitat_gardener

So now I'm wondering if I should tell the person who grew all these seedlings (or the people she gives them to) anything. I'm inclined to say nothing and let her see for herself, since she's kind of pushy and an "I know better than you" type of person. But I'd hate to see all those other people growing duds.

Let's examine the pros and cons.

She distributes 150 SunSugar F2 seedlings. Or maybe not all 150 get planted. Maybe just 50 get planted in the community garden. Maybe just 25, whatever.

Let's say out of the 25 - 50 that get planted at the community garden, 1/4 of them produce something worth eating. That's 6 - 12 good examples for you to collect F3 seed from. That's a plus.

Let's say half or more produce nothing worthy of note or are a complete disappointment to the individual growers. You could consider that a plus or a minus depending on your outlook toward Ms. Pushy any particular day