Sungold tomato question

13 years ago

I am feeling guilty about summarizing my experience with Sungold compared to other "cherry tomatoes" that I grew last year. The reason is that when looking at seed magazines this year I noticed the pictures of the fruit are orange. When I grew out 4 last year, I had one orange one and three purely yellow ones. Not having looked at pictures or having grown it before, I assumed the yellow ones were the real ones and I got another single seed mixed in. Now I think I was wrong.

Can anyone provide an opinion about what I really had. The seeds were labeld "Sun Gold" from Burpee. The three yellow ones were extremely productive and the orange one fairly productive. Plants were similar.

I have not started any of the seed this year, but maybe tonight.

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Comments (3)

Okiedawn OK Zone 7
13 years ago
Scott,

What sort of yellow was it? A bright, clear sort of lemon yellow or more of a pale whitish-yellow or more of an orangey-yellow? Were the yellow fruits the exact same size and shape as the orange fruit (which I assume actually were SunGold)?

I bet we can figure it out if it was Burpee's error and the seed got mixed up during the packaging process.

I'm not sure we can figure it out if it was the grower's error.

I heard of someone else getting red fruit last year from seed labeled as Sungold, which leads me to think that there was a major snafu somewhere, most likely in the seed production fields or processing facility.

Dawn
scottokla
Original Author
13 years ago
The orange one had a bit larger fruit if I remember correctly. The yellow one had no hint of orange whatsoever. It was lemon colored except a bit more pale. It was pure yellow, and very productive.
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Okiedawn OK Zone 7
13 years ago
Scott,

Hmmm. I don't think Burpee carried a lemon yellow cherry in their catalog last year. I think they had whitish-yellow one called Italian Ice but it was more white than yellow.

If the tomatoes you harvested on your non-Sungold plants were not as pale in color as Italian Ice, then I think it likely the mix-up occurred in Sakata Seeds' production fields, which could have been in Japan but, since they're a global company, could have been just about anywhere that seed is produced. If that's the case, the tomato you had could be any yellow cherry produced by Sakata and since they are a global company, that leaves it wide open.

There is a yellow cherry tomato sold by Bonnie Plants that produces lemon-yellow cherry tomatoes and it is simply sold as Yellow Cherry, so maybe seed of that variety was produced where the Sungold Seed was produced and the mixup occurred in the fields or seed processing facility.

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Were the yellow fruit tasty? I haven't found a yellow cherry that our taste buds like yet, but have found several good yellow grape types.

FYI---For what it is worth, quite a few people have had trouble with Sungold seed from Burpee not producing true to type since about 2008, so if you want to grow Sungold again, you might try some other seller---Thompson and Morgan is one choice and TGSC is another, and there are plenty of others.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Lemon Cherry at TGSC

Sungold tomato question

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Okiedawn OK Zone 7

scottokla
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Sungold tomato question

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Okiedawn OK Zone 7

scottoklaOriginal Author

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scottokla
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