Vegetable Variety Review: Sungold Cherry Tomato

We grow a lot of Sungolds for market and we thought it would be nice to review this attractive and flavorful cherry tomato, with the pros and cons. Pros- Big Production, Pretty Fruit, Great Taste. Cons- Highly susceptible to Cracking with uneven watering. Basically all the fruit will burst open. Seriously.

[@joslinnick]

I grew Sungolds this year, and I was blown away by the flavor.

[@Piano_Bunny]

I grew Sungold for the first time this year. It gives a completely different flavor than Super Sweet 100, and I definitely love it!

[@esotericagriculture6643]

Highly Impressed with your entire Sungold production system. 👍🏻👍🏻

[@wchayes8646]

My neighbor imtroducex mt to these tjis year. They are gonna br the only tomato i grow next year. Im absolutley blown away by them. And you Sir have an amazing crop there. Great video and review.

[@lulabelle4760]

Sungolds are the only tomatoes I've grown for years...no other compares in deliciousnes to me! I was hooked from the first bite! I harvest and harvest and harvest, Can, freeze, eat and put cartons and cartons out by the curb for passerbys.

[@oxbowfarm5803]

Its a very delicious tomato, the only flaw is how crack prone it is.

[@schmodedo]

I had such a terrible time with cracking last year with a different variety. I'm glad he mentioned it here as I am trying Sungold the first time this season.

[@david111davies]

sungold cracks really badly in my experience, super sweet 100 was very crack resistant for me and taste good enough

[@schmodedo]

@@david111davies Hey thanks for the tip on my old post. Yep, and after my experience last year, I will try something else. Sungold were quite tasty but unless you have controlled consistent watering, it's crack city. And that's hard when growing outdoors.

[@NarnianLady]

What a pretty sight: a Sungold orchard! Never heard of any farmer growing it exclusively, but since your customers love it, great. Here in my country, it's a popular among hobby gardeners. I find it good, but could not miss the Russian black slicers for anything :-)

[@oxbowfarm5803]

Hi NarnianLady, we don't grow only Sungold, but it is the only cherry tomato we grow for sure. I do like some of the black brown tomatoes, but I don't really like talking about odd color tomatoes at market, and there are red slicers that have every bit as good flavor and I don't have to convince skeptics that they are actually tomatoes, a red tomato is an understood quantity by everyone everywhere I think. There are trade-offs in varieties that you have to make when you are growing for market vs yourself, and MOST heirloom tomatoes are too low yielding and/or fragile to make a reliable market tomato, and I'd include every black tomato I've tried in that category. So for slicers we try and stick with good red varieties that develop good flavor and texture in the high tunnel without having too many fruit damage issues, especially shoulder cracking, which is something that really kills marketable yield, and is a terrible problem with most heirlooms.

[@NarnianLady]

Yes, some heirlooms are a nightmare to transport. I would not attempt to move Black Krims very far. Gladly some pink and yellow varieties are way more robust and have a longer shelf life. As for hybrids, I am trying BigBeef and Orange Paruche this year, I have heard glowing reports of Orange P. Have a good season 2018!

[@Matt-ly1pz]

Excellent video, thanks for taking the time to film, edit and post.

[@seunosewa]

Can you save the plants as cuttings and then transplant them the next season?

[@Monarky777]

ash helps make the skins tougher im growing a sungold out side in a pot forgot to water it one day it was wilting... have not seen one crack its 100+ out today.

[@thomasdunn496]

Your vegetable variety reviews are really interesting. Please make some more!

[@musicalala]

Haha. If the world were coming to an end and I had to grow only one thing it would be Sungolds. There's nothing I can think of that's as delicious and produces so much yield. I had one Sungold and Suowrsweet 100's and gave some to two friends and had enough in freezer to eat them all year round. It's growing season again and I still have some frozen. Nothing like frozen pizza with a bunch of Sungold plopped on top of them.Suddenly they're gourmet pizza.😆 This year I have Sungold and Black Cherry. Fingers crossed it'll be just as good of a yield. My Pink Board were so delicious too.

[@Bexi222]

I’m amazed at how productive your sungolds are! I only have 2 sungold plants, allowed to sucker off as I was told to not prune cherry varieties, and I don’t even have half the amount of trusses as you have with only one stem!

[@anyrahamat]

Do the flowers fall off before fruit is able to form? Because that happened to my cherry tomatoes and I read that it's because there are too big temperature swings :(

[@abdirashidmahamed532]

how many produce one tree

[@Metricamn]

where can u get Sun Gold seeds ? I got mine for 30 seeds at almost nine dollars ~! There must be a cheaper source for Sun gold seed? right ?

[@zhasouris]

Going to grow these as well as other varieties this year. Do you have any advice on spacing width between tomatoes and also for walking paths?

[@CHICHISWEETS]

I’m SC. This is my 1st yr. growing Sungold. I have several outside in pots. No splitting yet. I put 1 plant in my pop up green house in 10 gall grow bags it slumped & wilted too much. Greenhouse is very warm. Had to be watered 2x/day, I just transferred it to a 17 gall plastic tote, covered w/ netting, & put it outside. I’m hoping this will stop it from wilting so much. So far, the taste is good, but I’m not blown away. 🪴

[@elizabethblane201]

Is it worthwhile to us truss supports for Sungolds?

[@MiticaVoinescuX3]

How many kg do you remove from a plant?

[@kansasgardener5844]

I live in an area where it gets real hot then thunderstorm's. So if I give them water on a regular basis how helpful is that as far as cracking goes? First year trying them. Guess I've never had much problem with cracking on the plant. I have had some crack as soon as you pick them. I tend to stay away from varieties that have cracking issues I wasn't aware of the fact that sungolds had that problem.

[@johnjude2685]

By advice from many you tube teachings and test,I have just got next season seed in the mail, I'll be outside (Ohio) and as you say hybrid is probably more productive and very healthy in most garden so I don't save from the hybrid plants either. I'm going to much and prepare good drainage also, Thanks for the teaching Sir and like "Mark's Garden Life" always saying I will try em and feed many cousins and my neighbor's little daughters.

[@GrownToCook]

Great info, especially interesting about the attempts to de-hybridize Sungold. We're growing it for the first time this year and I might try to save the seeds, just for fun.

[@oxbowfarm5803]

If you look around online on the tomato forums you can probably get one of the semi-stabilized lines from somebody without too much trouble. For me its just not really worth it, since Sungold is a superior tomato to its offspring in my experience. Sometimes you can get something in a hybrid that you can't stabilize in an OP.

[@GrownToCook]

Thank you!

[@Chelleyshall]

The best doggone tomato I’ve ever eaten. I tried to save seeds from the one plant I had last year but I didn’t store them properly so I’m not optimistic about them germinating. But I’m still a little hopeful. If I can get just one or two to grow…

[@beverlycharles6534]

Update?? How did your seeds turn out? I didn't know there was a special way to save seeds. I have proper seeds drying right now, I think they will grow ok in spring.

[@Chelleyshall]

@@beverlycharles6534 actually one of them turned out great and the tomatoes were soooooo good. I’m going to pick my last few and save some seeds for next year. Hoping to grow the same tomatoes every year from now on.

[@69thPaladin]

In my experience, Sungold needs to be picked slightly before being ripe to avoid most of the cracking. I have grown Sunsugar but have not found it yielding as well.

[@darrenrieger4343]

You are right! They should be picked as soon as they are easy to come off of the stem. For others who might have problems, this might be the reason : "Tomatoes tend to crack when they receive irregular water. If your tomatoes have gone through a dry spell and you try to make up for it with frequent waterings, the inside of the tomato will plump up faster than the outside can stretch and grow. As a result the outer skin of the tomato splits open or cracks"

[@snava360z334]

Where did you get your original seed from, can you sell me a cutting from one of these plants ? Your plants look like the original sun gold tomato.

[@stavrosglitsos7587]

I used to let 80cm between plants and 120cm between the lines with some other cherry variety and wasn't looking to be inaf. However yours looks great. Thanks for your time.

[@sreykimsear]

I cannot wait to plant these seeds

[@Larkz0717]

first year for me with sungold and I'm hooked. I also tried Mochi and Unicorn this year and while impressive.. not what I was looking for.

[@a23b23]

Do you grow them on a single stem?

[@tajialleyne6672]

Nice video. We sell this variety in Jamaica. May we have permission to repost this video to our youtube?

[@jamiet9132]

I love sungolds... Im a backyard gardener and i dont mind the cracking. I usually just eat them immediately or freeze them for sauce.

[@torgeirmolaug196]

In addition to bursting due to rain, a mild breeze easily snap them off the stem, or even worse, a strong wind will scatter them all over the place. Still my favorite sweet tomato and in spite of the flaws well worth it.

[@david111davies]

Your lucky if you can grow them outside to have strong wind in the first place. In the UK we grow these is a glass house

[@stavrosglitsos7587]

Hi from Greece again. I have grow sungold this year among other cherry tomatoes but they doesn't look like yours.the clasters have no more than 12 fruits on.i noticed that yours at least double.can you please let me know from where you buy your seeds?thanks in advance. By the way you have to try tomatoberry.one of my best variety on taste and production.

[@oxbowfarm5803]

Hi Stavros, I usually purchase my Sungold seed from Osborne Seed Co. www.osborneseed.com I do think that the size of the fruit trusses and the fruits themselves can vary a bit based on environmental conditions. Some of my colleagues tend to have much smaller fruited Sungolds than I do.

[@yabloko26]

Hello, Thank you very much for your reply. After you plant them, do you fertilize the plants while they are growing?

[@oxbowfarm5803]

Hi KFamily. No we don't. I know that many high tunnel tomato production protocols call for side-dressing or fertigating additional nutrients later in the season, but our set up doesn't allow for side-dressing without a LOT of difficulty, and we don't have the equipment for fertigation, and I don't consider it a truly "organic" or sustainable method in any case, whatever the NOSB says.

[@yabloko26]

Hello, Thank you very much for your reply.

[@Funnyvideos-ql5rl]

Here in summer Florida when I don’t pick tomato’s they pop

[@yabloko26]

Hello, Thank you for the informative video. Can you please share what do you add to the soil and how do you fertilize your tomatoes? Thank you.

[@oxbowfarm5803]

Hi KFamily, We are basically non-certified organic so the beds in this tunnel typically get somewhere between 1/2" to an inch of compost, and a high potassium certified organic fertilizer, usually something like Fertrell Super K which is something like 2-4-6 I think?

[@pangtou9733]

Your tomatoes are gorgeous

[@kjsinsaino]

i love sun gold! what is the difference between these and sun sugar? i love that one too.

[@oxbowfarm5803]

I've never grown Sun Sugar, but it is another hybrid in the Sun series that Sakata has created. Sungold is by far the most popular of the Sun Series though.

[@bushwp11]

Great Video. Where do you get the clips that hold your vines to the string?

[@oxbowfarm5803]

They're a pretty standard item and any place that sells wholesale greenhouse or hydroponic supplies will have a version of them. If you just want a few I think Johnny's has them, but they will cost lots more than from some other suppliers. We usually get them locally from a wholesale vegetable equipment supply place, but its an Amish business without a mail order set-up or website, but if you google Tomato trellis clip you should find lots of online sources, I bet you could get them on Amazon even.

[@stavrosglitsos7587]

Hi from Greece. Which is the distance between the sun gold cause they became quite big?

[@oxbowfarm5803]

Hi Stavros, I have these in a double row in the bed, with about 60 cm between plants in the row, and approximately 50 cm between the two rows, and the spacing of the plants between the two rows is staggered, does that make sense? This spacing is arguably too close, and we are debating increasing the spacing somewhat. Hope that helps.

[@r.pinheiro549]

Amazing video! Thank you!

[@chesterandchristiedavis7134]

Have you tried sunsugar cherry tomato? My customer prefer them over any other cherry tomato. I have never tried the sungold variety.

[@oxbowfarm5803]

I have not tried sunsugar. At this point we've got our system down with the Sungolds, so I don't really want to go looking for another variety of orange cherry tomato. This year was challenging as it was so wet from August on that we did get a lot of cracked fruit and lost quite a bit. But this was a historically wet year in this area. In terms of trials for 2019, I am going to try Maglia Rossa, which has a great reputation for flavor and is pretty distinctive looking.

[@poconobarmaley]

Hello, where do you sell your sungold tomatoes since after watching your video I would like to buy them to try?

[@tangobayus]

Just get some seeds. I grew some through the winter in san francisco.

[@david111davies]

Gardeners Delight ( AKA sugar lump I think you call it in the USA ) was probably one of the plants they started with. I don't know if the quality of sugar lump has declined in the US but in Europe it is still incredibly nice tasting, highly reliable and high yielding with large trusses of toms that crack with too much water, just like sungold

[@konman3085]

Cool, hey I was wondering if you were going to do an update video on your F2 lettuce or soup peas I'm very interested.

[@oxbowfarm5803]

I can't really do a soup pea follow up this year, they are already dried and off the field. I should have done it in August but I was having computer trouble and lack of time. I will try and get better at stuff like that, sometimes things get away from me during the growing season. I'm happy to hear someone is interested though, thanks KonMan.

[@jtimwest]

How do you price your Sungold's? Are you able to get more for them than other varieties at market? What size container do you sell them in?

[@oxbowfarm5803]

We typically sell them in pint pulp containers, $4/pint. We don't really grow any other cherry varieties.

[@nandagirirajesh3638]

Am gonna grow them in an acre of land using hydroponics(water flow) .pls advise what is the best nutrients I can give it to plant and any advise on other methods

[@oxbowfarm5803]

Hello nandagiri, I do not grow my tomatoes hydroponically, so I cannot give you any specific advice regarding hydroponic protocols. Sorry. I imagine they would be more or less the same as any other indeterminate tomato so a standard hydroponic nutrient regimen would probably be just fine, but I'm just guessing.

[@chunliyu6815]

What brand/ company is your sungold from? This is huge production!

[@lunkerpond9765]

Tokita seeds is the breeder

[@drpk6514]

Are they F1?

[@oxbowfarm5803]

Yes

[@delresearch5416]

You got one of the parents of sungold, now you just gotta get the other parents.

Oh my god sun gold is so high yield. I am going to grow these 😁😁😁

[@Shaw7373]

Two favourite moments here are 4:42 "this nonsense", and the part 9:52, relatable to any man, where in any situation we just start thinking about how we'd survive the apocalypse.

[@paintingtracey]

That was fun.

[@ernestvantent5510]

I got one sungold out of six I planted this year. One of the plants has 5 3/4 inch fruit. Crazy.

[@oxbowfarm5803]

I didn't really mention in the video, but Sungold does seem to vary in size based on soil conditions. Some of my market gardening friends grow Sungold in other soil types and get much smaller fruits on average than we do. I don't know exactly what causes that, but ours average pretty large here at Oxbow Farm.

[@mariusm5660]

Sungold is Tokita hybrid not Sakata.

[@oxbowfarm5803]

Yes, that's correct, I got my Japanese seed companies mixed up while I was filming. Sorry. I decided the error wasn't worth trying to edit a fix after upload though.

[@peterstevens4223]

G00D Morning from Auckland, New Zealand it’s Wednesday, January 29, 2020.

[@ArsenicF.C]

I found you have to pick em with the green stem, each fruit stem breaks off at the elbow about 1 cm above the fruit. when im ready to eat I twist the fruit off the stem and give a quick rinse

[@oxbowfarm5803]

The difference with my situation is that I am picking into containers for sale at markets. Leaving the calyx on dramatically shortens their shelf-life and saleability. The calyxes dry out very quickly and become unsightly and also SHARP, which results in them puncturing other fruit in the containers while they are being transported. So if you leave the calyxes on you have to sell them within about 48 hours from harvest, which is very limiting from a market garden standpoint. We pick without the calyx and I've found if we harvest in the mid to late afternoon there is rarely any cracking. Morning harvests usually results in a lot of cracking, probably because their is more water in the fruit from the previous night.

[@SD-co9xe]

My fave!

[@gardentips1249]

Dang that's a lot of Sungolds haha

[@strahdzarovic2138]

Impressive.

[@oxbowfarm5803]

Thanks Strahd!

[@mangofever4681]

Sun Gold is over rated.................I grew it thinking it was special, but I ended up being disappointed. Princess Yum Yum cherry tomatoes tasted better and does not split.

[@krissyzimmer5756]

YUM!

[@karunald]

“Sweet and HIGHLY Acidic”??? Huh?

[@NKQ1984]

Umm... tomatoes are fruits that are part of the solanum family so they’re not vegetables

[@oxbowfarm5803]

Botanically you are correct Quoc, but at least in American English, we use the word "vegetable" to classify quite a few things that are technically fruits. Cucumbers, summer squash, winter squash, tomatoes, eggplant, tomatillos, peppers, okra, peas and beans (if they are still in the pod) are all technically "fruits" but we call them "vegetables". The criteria is more base on how they are used in cooking vs their botanical function, at least in spoken English here in the US. Sorry if that's confusing, but that's how they get referred to in my dialect of English.

[@Funnyvideos-ql5rl]

Also put a roof over it it won’t lose

[@trollforge]

You don't have to save seed for everything??? What? That's heresy!😉

[@oxbowfarm5803]

It was kind of directed at the tomatomaniacs who turn up their noses at the hybrids, and people who think that all hybrids are bad or tasteless. I love saving seed, but I don't have time to save seed for everything, and the commercial seed industry does a really good job with some things. I CAN save cherry tomato seed or arugula, but its not really worth doing when I can get such good seed for so cheap from the industry. There are lots of other things I can save myself which the commercial industry can't even touch, like soup peas, TPS, weird Asian mustards etc. That's where I focus my energy, and I"m happy to buy Sungold every year.

[@trollforge]

Oh, I know brother, I was just trying to be funny...

[@GreasyMooseKnuckle69]

Dr. Steve Brule the gardener

[@gschady]

ACKshully like kind of ACKshully like kind of ACKshully like kind of .. INFINITY >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[@KitNKitty]

No one likes to hear a loud chewer, especially one taking while chewing! You did it several times during this video. Annoying AF but and not to mention tacky. No thanks!

[@oxbowfarm5803]

My heart is broken KitNKitty, I don't know how this channel will go on without you. I'm not going to give up though, I'm lying awake nights hoping we can still be friends.

[@ArsenicF.C]

She got you there

[@tonystephengrayson]

Shutup kitty

[@carollyncheeyen]

Chuckles