Hi all.
Last year I gave a friend several sun gold plants.
He just called me on the phone telling me that apparently from the tomatoes that fell to the ground last year he had two wild tomato plants, he doesn't always live there and he waters them when he remembers, they are practically abandoned, the most curious thing is that he tells me which is super productive, with potato leaves and red and yellow tomatoes and lacks diseases, when here at this time the most normal thing is that almost all plants are attacked by the mildew virus and other diseases. He says it is the healthiest tomato plant he has ever seen.
It seemed to me something curious to tell it here, I have asked you to send me photos to be able to publish them.
Nico

did you ask him to save seeds from one of the tomatoes?

Hi Nico,
I'm pretty sure that neither of Sungold parents is a PL tomato. As so many people have tried to grow out Sungold to a stable OP, I've never seen anyone mention that there are PL plants in the F2. (But someone correct me if I'm wrong!).
Also since a cross with Sungold would have at least one RL gene (due to being RL/RL) even a cross with a PL parent would not have potato leaf in the F1, because regular leaf is dominant and the cross would be RL/PL genetics. You wouldn't find any PL until the next generation.
So it's pretty certain that this tomato must be a seed from some other fruit, and unrelated to Sungold.
Nothing wrong with that, if it's a great tomato and healthy please tell your friend to save seeds!

i will just confirm that i have never seen a potato leaf offspring of sun gold.
i had volunteers coming up in my garden a couple years that gave me a variety of fruit color, size, and taste.
i had yellow, orange, red tomatoes that were currant size up to sun gold size. the small reds were the tastiest,
the most like sun gold in flavor. the yellows, and golds varied from so so, to pretty good, but not like sun gold.
any chance he remembers what else he grew there recently?


keith

wykvlvr, if I told you to save some seeds

Arbor and rxkeith thanks for the reply. I did not know that Sun Gold's parents were regular leaves, out of curiosity who are their parents? My friend only had sun gold cherrys tomatoes although he had other larger tomato varieties, perhaps Sun Gold has been crossed with another tomato plant bigger, it's funny, I'm waiting for my friend to send me the photos

Nico wrote: ↑Sun Aug 23, 2020 2:10 pm Arbor and rxkeith thanks for the reply. I did not know that Sun Gold's parents were regular leaves, out of curiosity who are their parents? My friend only had sun gold cherrys tomatoes although he had other larger tomato varieties, perhaps Sun Gold has been crossed with another tomato plant bigger, it's funny, I'm waiting for my friend to send me the photos

Nico, nobody knows the parents of SunGoldF1, it's a closely kept trade secret of the company that makes the seeds.

i think someone in the past said sun gold is a complex cross meaning each parent from which sun gold is bred,
has 3 or 4 varieties in their parentage. so there could be 6 or 8 tomato varieties in sun golds heritage. again, just
speculation since nobody is giving up trade secrets.



keith

Comes from Japan, lord only knows what they did.

I'm pretty new to this whole tomato breeding world. In other crops, such as apples, patents are strictly enforced. I've heard about apple orchards being ripped out because they didn't pay patent fees for a particular apple or lied about what apple they had planted. Now these aren't tomatoes but I wonder if everything out there called Sungold is actually Sungold. Do all the major seed suppliers (Johnnys, Burpee, etc) get their seeds from a single source?

farmersteve wrote: ↑Mon Aug 24, 2020 9:54 am I'm pretty new to this whole tomato breeding world. In other crops, such as apples, patents are strictly enforced. I've heard about apple orchards being ripped out because they didn't pay patent fees for a particular apple or lied about what apple they had planted. Now these aren't tomatoes but I wonder if everything out there called Sungold is actually Sungold. Do all the major seed suppliers (Johnnys, Burpee, etc) get their seeds from a single source?

I've bought SunGold tomato seeds from multiple vendors and I am confident on everyone of them, I got the real deal. The thing with SunGold is the plant has it's own unique smell so I can tell which tomato plant is a SunGold long before fruit is set. Vendors that I've purchased SG from include: Burpee, ParkSeed, Seedsnsuch, Johnnys

The source - Tokita seeds from Japan sells other Sun Series varieties including Sun Orange which is an improved Sun Gold - slightly larger and no splitting when it rains. I try to buy as many of their tomato seeds that I can get; if I could get seeds from their larger tomatoes, I would.
Sun Orange and most of the other SunSeries available in the US are sold by Osborne Seeds. Other vendors have a couple, but Osborne has the most.

Barb_FL wrote: ↑Mon Aug 24, 2020 3:07 pm

farmersteve wrote: ↑Mon Aug 24, 2020 9:54 am I'm pretty new to this whole tomato breeding world. In other crops, such as apples, patents are strictly enforced. I've heard about apple orchards being ripped out because they didn't pay patent fees for a particular apple or lied about what apple they had planted. Now these aren't tomatoes but I wonder if everything out there called Sungold is actually Sungold. Do all the major seed suppliers (Johnnys, Burpee, etc) get their seeds from a single source?

I've bought SunGold tomato seeds from multiple vendors and I am confident on everyone of them, I got the real deal. The thing with SunGold is the plant has it's own unique smell so I can tell which tomato plant is a SunGold long before fruit is set. Vendors that I've purchased SG from include: Burpee, ParkSeed, Seedsnsuch, Johnnys

The source - Tokita seeds from Japan sells other Sun Series varieties including Sun Orange which is an improved Sun Gold - slightly larger and no splitting when it rains. I try to buy as many of their tomato seeds that I can get; if I could get seeds from their larger tomatoes, I would.
Sun Orange and most of the other SunSeries available in the US are sold by Osborne Seeds. Other vendors have a couple, but Osborne has the most.

I have 2 special ones in my seed list. Going to sow tomato seeds on Thursday. Thank you so much [mention]Barb_FL[/mention].

I have read in some forum that there is "Big sungold select", how about its taste? I still think that for my taste, sun gold, after having cultivated it for two years, they do not have such an incredible flavor, for many it is their best tomato, for me it is just a good tomato, I have tried many cherries with better flavor, but, as you like colors

Nico wrote: ↑Tue Aug 25, 2020 1:20 pm I have read in some forum that there is "Big sungold select", how about its taste? I still think that for my taste, sun gold, after having cultivated it for two years, they do not have such an incredible flavor, for many it is their best tomato, for me it is just a good tomato, I have tried many cherries with better flavor, but, as you like colors

Nico what don't you like about them? Too sour? Too sweet?

Hi Marsha.
Like if I like the sun gold tomato, it is a tomato that has a unique aroma and its flavor is good, but not as much as some say, this year some friends came to our house, in total we were 8 people, we tried sun gold, sun chocolate, black cherry and maglia rosa, we all agreed that sun gold was below the others in taste.

Nico, do you pick SunGoldF1 at first blush? It's the only tomato I know that must ripen to bright perfect orange before picking. It's not very good If its picked not at full ripe and instead ripened in the house. Try leaving it on the plant until it is solid bright orange.

Orange orange.

Nico wrote: ↑Tue Aug 25, 2020 1:20 pm I have read in some forum that there is "Big sungold select", how about its taste? I still think that for my taste, sun gold, after having cultivated it for two years, they do not have such an incredible flavor, for many it is their best tomato, for me it is just a good tomato, I have tried many cherries with better flavor, but, as you like colors

I've grown Big Sungold Select. I overwatered that year (and did not use black plastic). Here's my analysis:

Medium-sized plant (not huge). Just over 1" , blocky, orange (not yellow or gold), firm fruits, with excellent texture. Great taste, but not super sweet, and not tart. Not potent. Unique taste for an orange tomato; I really liked it. Great for snacking (would be great with cheese, on a relish tray or something, probably). It produced decently, but not as much as some cherries. It was maybe 65 to 72 days to maturity. Regular leaf.

I gave a friend some seeds from my packet (from Diane Seeds). She got a plant with red fruit. She loved it and said it was very sweet. She gave me seeds. I grew a plant. It also had red fruit, and they were indeed quite sweet and good. I grew those with drought and black plastic. They weren't as prolific as the orange ones, but that may have been the watering. They were softer and had different texture than the orange fruits. The red ones were bigger (about golfball-sized), and not at all blocky.

Ginger2778 wrote: ↑Tue Aug 25, 2020 3:00 pm Nico, do you pick SunGoldF1 at first blush? It's the only tomato I know that must ripen to bright perfect orange before picking. It's not very good If its picked not at full ripe and instead ripened in the house. Try leaving it on the plant until it is solid bright orange.

My wife was down there picking them at half orange and I said you need to wait until they are dark orange. She loves them so much she has a hard time waiting! I guess I need to plant more of them

farmersteve wrote: ↑Wed Aug 26, 2020 8:57 am

Ginger2778 wrote: ↑Tue Aug 25, 2020 3:00 pm Nico, do you pick SunGoldF1 at first blush? It's the only tomato I know that must ripen to bright perfect orange before picking. It's not very good If its picked not at full ripe and instead ripened in the house. Try leaving it on the plant until it is solid bright orange.

My wife was down there picking them at half orange and I said you need to wait until they are dark orange. She loves them so much she has a hard time waiting! I guess I need to plant more of them

Yes they will turn orange in the house just like any other tomato will get color but for some reason sungold never develops the flavor unless it actually oranges up on the vine itself. It's the only tomato I know of that have to be totally Vine ripened.