Better than SunGold

[ddsack]

Since SunGold is so good, what are the reason you grow other cherries?

My sister demands I start Black Cherry and Snow White Cherry as well as SunGold. She likes those as well, no point in growing ones that taste alike. I try other cherry varieties every few years to see if I can find other unique tastes. Personally, I don't care for cherries that much, more of a big tomato gal. Now if there was a big 'un that tasted exactly like SunGold I would be in heaven.

[svalli]

It is many years since I have grown SunGold even I grow multiple cherry tomato plants every year. I have many packets of cherry tomato seeds which I got as souvenir from Japan and all of these varieties have been sweet and flavorful, so there has been no need for me to buy the expensive SunGold seeds.
Last year I purchased seeds for variety named Umamini F1 and even the seeds were extremely expensive, I have to grow it again. I did blind taste testing with it against the Japanese cherries and everyone thought that it was the best. Maybe I should grow both SunGold and Umamini this year and compare them.

[PlainJane]

Sungold is the most disease-prone tomato I’ve ever grown, so I’ve fallen back on other flavorful cherries with better health:
Green Bee
Hoosier Outlaw Black Cherry
Honey Drop

Granted, none have anything remotely close to the profile of Sungold but I’d rather have interesting and healthy.

[greenthumbomaha]

Not better, but if I was stranded somewhere with only a packet of Esterina F1, I would be okay with that one too. Also an undeniable unique taste. It has to ripen to a nice orange/yellow color to experience the complex sweet flavor. When ripe has an intoxicating fragrance too.

- Lisa

[Kurt]

https://www.johnnyseeds.com/vegetables/ ... ZihPI4jcMY

Hands down best producer and taste for us in 10b

[Wildcat82]

To me, Sungold and Black Cherry tie for the best tasting. Black Cherry seems sweeter and tangier than Sungold but Sungold has that citrus note to it's flavor that makes it unique. In my garden, Black cherry is normally twice as big as Sungold. I usually plant both.

[maxjohnson]

Since SunGold is so good, what are the reason you grow other cherries?

Fruit size, color, flavor, texture, productivity, plant size/spacing, style of gardening, how durable the fruit is to cracking and pests, disease resistance, climate, preference in amount of acidity of the fruit. Sungold may meet a lot of these criteria within the context of a grower, but not all of them. Also Sungold is a hybrid, so you have to buy the seeds if you want the exact characteristic, you won't get the same thing from saved seeds.

[habitat-gardener]

I don't grow Sungold. I think the flavor is ok, and I will occasionally try one from a neighbor's plant, but when I've grown it, I quickly got tired of it. It has an unpleasant aftertaste when I eat more than one or two.

[Labradors]

@habitat-gardener Interesting comment!

I love the taste of Sungold when perfectly ripe, early in the season, but as the summer wears on, I find that it gets a funky taste which I don't like.

[svalli]

I have enough of tomato seeds to grow, but when I ordered seeds for cucumbers and flowers yesterday, I just had to include a package of Sungold seeds in my order. I will give it a try this year and compare with the Umamini. I hope the seeds will grow true, since last year there were so many complaints here in Finland about the Sungold from one brand of seeds not being what those should have been. I ordered then another brand in hopes that the German brand is better than the Swedish one.

[Homegrwoninillinois]

I have been trialing many sungold segregates that others have stabilized. I like a colorful array of cherries to eat and also offer for sale. This year I will have a handful of other cherries but am trying Sungold Green. I got the seeds from Bill Minkey.

[karstopography]

I don't grow Sungold. I think the flavor is ok, and I will occasionally try one from a neighbor's plant, but when I've grown it, I quickly got tired of it. It has an unpleasant aftertaste when I eat more than one or two.

Maybe this is the reason I have been less than impressed by Sungold as many people apparently are. There is something off putting or strange with the flavor of Sungold. I want to like sungold more since it is so popular, but after growing it for a couple of years, Sungold and I just aren’t working out. Definitely not a tomato I crave over and over again. Plus, for me, sungold is one the cherries that’s prone to splitting.

[JRinPA]

No, sungold is not the best, never was. Sungold is very sweet but somehow not tomato-ey.

I prefer sunsugar but it is not sweeter, just more normal.

Sungold is higher in fruits per truss.
Sungold more prone to splitting.
Sunsugar is a size bigger per fruit.

You can smell the difference between the seedlings. Sungold would get pecked to death if tomato seedlings had beaks. It is an outlier.

This is all accurate for my garden, in ground, good soil, SE PA.

[Greatgardens]

Anyone tried Sun Orange ???

I've grown it a few times. It is close to Sungold taste (IMO), and amazingly better with regard to splitting. But we have moved on to grape tomatoes. Not as sweet, but amazing shelf life compared to all cherries I have grown. I like the "chewy" texture, also. We really like Ruby Crush, and it is a tremendous producer.

[Barmaley]

It is many years since I have grown SunGold even I grow multiple cherry tomato plants every year. I have many packets of cherry tomato seeds which I got as souvenir from Japan and all of these varieties have been sweet and flavorful, so there has been no need for me to buy the expensive SunGold seeds.
Last year I purchased seeds for variety named Umamini F1 and even the seeds were extremely expensive, I have to grow it again. I did blind taste testing with it against the Japanese cherries and everyone thought that it was the best. Maybe I should grow both SunGold and Umamini this year and compare them.

Is it possible to ask you to tell more about Japanese cherries? Are they better than out local stuff? When I was in Japan I was amazed how much their produce is better than in the USA. I can not forget their strawberries which we can not stop eating. Everything there was great. I that the theory that the French restaurants there are better than in Paris.

Did you get any other seeds besides tomatoes? Are they OP?

[Barmaley]

https://www.johnnyseeds.com/vegetables/ ... ZihPI4jcMY

Hands down best producer and taste for us in 10b

are those seeds any better than the regular Black Cherry?

[Mark_Thompson]

Last year I purchased seeds for variety named Umamini F1 and even the seeds were extremely expensive, I have to grow it again. I did blind taste testing with it against the Japanese cherries and everyone thought that it was the best. Maybe I should grow both SunGold and Umamini this year and compare them.

You’re a bad influence…

IMG_3483.jpeg

[MissS]

Please let us know how the challenge turns out!

[svalli]

Is it possible to ask you to tell more about Japanese cherries? Are they better than out local stuff? When I was in Japan I was amazed how much their produce is better than in the USA. I can not forget their strawberries which we can not stop eating. Everything there was great. I that the theory that the French restaurants there are better than in Paris.

Did you get any other seeds besides tomatoes? Are they OP?

I am not sure, but I believe that the seeds which I got are hybrids. All the cherry types have been sweet and flavorful, but since I have not grown other type of hybrid cherries for many years, so I do not know if the Japanese ones are actually sweeter than for example Sweet Million F1.
I have not traveled to Japan myself, but my husbands brought me the seeds from his business trips. Our Japanese colleagues also brought me seeds after they heard about my interest in gardening. Addition to tomatoes I got seeds for various vegetables like cucumbers, peppers, pumpkins, brassicas, melons and herbs. We had some expatriates from Japan working in Finland and I used to give them the cherry tomatoes, because they complained that the ones sold here in super markets are not sweet enough.

[MalachiteJen]

I prefer Sun Sugar to Sungold but they are very similar. It may just come down to one producing better in my hot climate.