Sungold Volunteers
 

For the past several years I've been searching for very sweet cherry tomato varieties. This season, for the first time, I had five Sungold volunteers come up. There was one that looked the same as Sungold (tasted almost the same), one that was red and the same size as Sungold, and three currant size - two orange and one red.

They were all sweeter than the other so-called sweet varieties I grew, including Snow White, Isis Candy, and the 3 Ambrosia's (although all 3 were not true to type). They were about equal to Nectar in sweetness.

Bottom line - I saved seeds and will grow a bunch out. Hopefully my search is over. So along with original Sungold, I'll have a red cherry to replace Nectar (very expensive seeds) and a currant, just for the fun of it. Btw, one of the orange currants had intense sweetness.

So I'm wondering what others' experiences with Sungold volunteers are, and am I missing something about how simple this solution is to finding sweet cherries? Anyone else doing this on their own?

They will continue to segregate traits, but many of the offspring will be quite acceptable! Have fun with them!

Witchcraft.:lol:

I saved a few seeds from Sungold F1 and started plants but there was no need. I have a garden full of volunteer Sungold, which have been ripening over the past two weeks. They are in between other plants and not as mature , so not as vigorous. Same color/size/flavor pattern as you are experiencing. The reds don't seem to split as much though.

As much as I love Sungold, I love Esternia F1 even more and no splitting. I plan to always grow both in my garden so I can pop a few from each plant when working even though they are both space hogs.


- Lisa

Ahhhh, the mystery of Sungold. Yes, I have had several volunteers over the years but though some have come close, they are not the real deal. I think their parentage is an iron-clad secret that will never be revealed.
I grew Esterina F1 this year, very pleased with the production and taste, but to me and others who have tasted it (I gave 4 people plants), the sweetness, while very intense and nice, is somewhat one dimensional. The fruity, hint of pineapple delight of SG is the golden grail. That said, I will continue to grow Esterina again next season as I liked it. :yes:

I also found a difference in SunGold Volunteers; the tomatoes looked identical, but the skin even though still thin, was more chewy.

I didn't purposely grow the SG Volunteers, but let it grow out and fed it just to see.

---
SunGold seeds are so readily available and reasonable. Probably the easiest of any plant to clone too.

If you experience splitting, try SunOrange, the improved SunGold. Slightly larger, earlier, and no splitting. Same taste and smell.

Sungold volunteers F2 did well for us. The taste was good but different and worth growing. I was hopeful the F3s would taste better, but no. (Our personal experience - I wouldn't want discourage anyone trying.)

Sungold F3s produced way differently. Some were current sized and still that golden color - without much taste. Others grew out the regular Sungold size but ripened to a color between gold and red. The taste was boring at best.

I have my own thoughts on Sungold, and I think Sungold is a cross of 3 or 4 different plants. One being a red or pink variety.

Can someone explain how one would combine three or even four different varieties to produce stable F1 Sungold seeds? Not a rhetorical question -- I don't understand how it would be done. BTW, Sunorange is definitely on my 2019 list!
-GG

[QUOTE=Greatgardens;712984]Can someone explain how one would combine three or even four different varieties to produce stable F1 Sungold seeds? Not a rhetorical question -- I don't understand how it would be done. BTW, Sunorange is definitely on my 2019 list!
-GG[/QUOTE]

I can only reply by my thoughts which are probably off, but I will try to in the best of my understanding.

[B]A 3 way cross:[/B]
Growing tomato A and tomato B crossing them to make tomato C-F1 = a new hybrid.

Then grow tomato C-F1 and tomato D crossing them = another new hybrid F1 (Maybe Sungold?)

[B]A 4 way cross:[/B]
Growing tomato A and tomato B crossing them to make tomato C-F1 = a new hybrid.

Growing tomato D and tomato E crossing them to make tomato F-F1 = a new hybrid.

Growing tomato C-F1 and tomato F-F1 crossing them to make tomato G-F1 = a new hybrid (Maybe Sungold?)

With this line of thinking - the variables are way out there.

Maybe someone grew Yellow Pear too close to Large Red Cherry and Sungold F1 was born? Wouldn't that be funny :lol:

EDITED PART:
e-thad, you are the one who made this this thread and I respect that. My post #7 is to share my experience with you.

Post #9 this one was a reply to post #8. If I have gone off-topic, I will delete Post #9, but I'm pretty sure we only have a couple of days to edit our posts.

Defiance
 

Here are a few pics of Defiance, which got its name because these pics were taken on October 10th, 2015, at which time the plant was virtually disease-free, which is unheard of in this area. This plant somehow was found in my pepper bed, and I often wonder if this is Sungold's "missing link." I sent some to a friend in EU and they got various sizes, including reds.

I'm growing 4 plants this year, hoping for Sungold-like fruits & taste. I tried some about a week ago, and I spit them out, they were hard & not fully ripe. Yesterday I tried some and the ripest ones were great except for thick skins, possibly from the heat and growing on the blacktop driveway in containers... or maybe from genetics.

Besides living thru our first frost, the leaves look virtually disease-free. I wonder if the pubescence has anything to do with it... look closely at the first pic, even the fruit has slight pubescence; my Matt's Wild Cherry has that characteristic.

[QUOTE=AlittleSalt;712883]Sungold volunteers F2 did well for us. The taste was good but different and worth growing. I was hopeful the F3s would taste better, but no. (Our personal experience - I wouldn't want discourage anyone trying.)

Sungold F3s produced way differently. Some were current sized and still that golden color - without much taste. Others grew out the regular Sungold size but ripened to a color between gold and red. The taste was boring at best.

I have my own thoughts on Sungold, and I think Sungold is a cross of 3 or 4 different plants. One being a red or pink variety.[/QUOTE]

I appreciate this info and am not discouraged at all. I only would like one or two varieties of cherry other than Sungold. If it's not an F8 from a Sungold parent, in the end, that's ok. Maybe it'll be an Ambrosia (they all were not true for me in my first season with them this year) or something else.

All said and done, if I have something cheaper than Nectar that's a different color or texture, etc., than Sungold, but great for my taste (sweet, and as a bonus complex) then I'm set.

Did you try an F4 Sungold? Can a not so great F3 produce a better F4?

Sungold seeds are available for a few bucks.

It always amazes me that people are willing to devote countless hours and much garden space to try to get something that might be a decent variety that is still not as good as Sungold.

So they don't have to spend a few bucks to buy the seed for a hybrid. Seed that they could probably use to grow Sungold for 5 years.

[QUOTE=Fred Hempel;713311]Sungold seeds are available for a few bucks.

It always amazes me that people are willing to devote countless hours and much garden space to try to get something that might be a decent variety that is still not as good as Sungold.

So they don't have to spend a few bucks to buy the seed for a hybrid. Seed that they could probably use to grow Sungold for 5 years.[/QUOTE]

Totally agree. I'll always grow Sungold.

I was just surprised at how good the Sungold volunteers tasted. They were better than all the other, so called, "sweet" cherries I grew, including Snow White, Isis Candy, and Pink, Blue, and Orange Ambrosia (although all three Ambrosias were not true to seed). I have a little room for ten or so single stem plants to experiment with, so I figure "why not?" Out of all those plants, I should at least get one decent one ... right? And the next year, hopefully another decent one. And so on and so on, all the way to F8. Am I off-base in my figuring? That I'll have something decent to eat each year through all the generations?

If there's not a decent chance of getting a sweet cherry and/or currant by growing out a Sungold volunteer to F8, then yes, I don't want to waste my time.

Ok. So I did some "research" and have decided to not grow out the Sungold F2's. Fred's right. - too much time and space just to come up with something "decent".

I think it would be more exciting and interesting to cross my two favorite toms - Sungold and Brandywine. Anyone ever try this?

[QUOTE=Fred Hempel;713311]Sungold seeds are available for a few bucks.

It always amazes me that people are willing to devote countless hours and much garden space to try to get something that might be a decent variety that is still not as good as Sungold.

So they don't have to spend a few bucks to buy the seed for a hybrid. Seed that they could probably use to grow Sungold for 5 years.[/QUOTE]

It's not about saving a few bucks, it's about exploring the genetics and maybe discovering something awesome.

It's a hobby.