I actually tried both, planted both sungold and sunsugar side by side one year.I didn’t see any noticeable difference between them in terms of crack after rain, flavor, productive, and disease resistance, except one variety, I think is sungold , fruits color runs when I washed them in water.
1 Like
I figured I’d include a few pictures from last year’s harvest of the varieties I’m growing again this year.
Pink Berkley Tie Dye
Box Car Willie
16 Likes
Wow,beautiful tomatoes.I really like the look of pink Berkeley tie dye. Does it taste as good as it looks?
1 Like
If not better. Sliced up, placed on a plate, with salt and pepper sprinkled over them along with small pieces of fresh basil…ahhh, heavenly.
3 Likes
Has anyone grown any of the bumble bee tomatoes? E.g. bosque bumblebee?
I grew Pink Bumble Bee last season. Sturdy plant, but the skin of the fruit was to thick for my taste. Kind of explains their crack resistance.
3 Likes
That explains a lot and like you I don’t care for thick skin either. Our summers are typically hot and dry but it can rain and cause cracking. I’d rather have delicious tomatoes with thin skin than thick skinned types.
We grow the Berkeley Tie Dye too! Our major must have is the Pink Bumblebee, it is a striped cherry that gets eaten my the handful.
I grew some sweet purple Oda bell peppers last year that were prolific that are on the definite list for this year.
1 Like
Dropping all my usual cherries and only growing 4 oz and up tomatoes. Past two years the cherries have grown out of control and made waaaay more than I was interested in eating. This year I am only growing:
Moskvich - globe shaped 4-6 oz fruit, 60 days to maturity. Supposedly extremely tasty, and hardy, meaning it can bear right to frost
Speckled Roman - plum tomato 6-8 oz, 85 days to maturity. I’ve grown these the past three years with very good results. They are supposedly made for sauce (thicker skin, less juice) but I grow them for fresh eating and adding to salads.
Big Beef - globe shaped 10-12 oz, 70 days to maturity. From what I’ve read on tomatoville.com this seems to be the best all-around tomato for the home gardener: early, disease resistant, good flavor, good size.
Black Krim - Russian heirloom 8-16 oz, 80 days to maturity. Very comparable to Cherokee Purple from what I’ve read, I only went with BK because it supposedly is more productive (although CP produces larger tomatoes so their total yields might be similar).
For trellis / cage I will be using my rebar mesh tomato cages. The tomatoes I grew in them last year required almost no maintenance and the fact that the cages were 6’ high means there is no overflow even towards the end of the growing season. The only downside is the mesh is completely rusted (it literally comes this way) so I’m not sure how long they will last… but if I get just 5 years out of them I will be happy considering how cheap and easy they were to make.
3 Likes
Oh yes, the Berkley Tie Die was really tasty. I should probably make room for one of them.
We also made our cages out of the 6ft concrete reenforced mesh (Love Apple Farms: How to Make a Strong Tomato Cage), They are sturdy but really ugly (due to the rust dimitri mentioned). I want to make something nice looking because tomatoes like our front yard best.
Sungolds are my favorite tomato and insane growers… They will topple the 6ft cage if it is not secured. They are like candy. I don’t bother with a lot of other cherries since I like them so much better. I have also grown sun sugar, it is very similar, but didn’t like it quite as much color or texture wise. Since we don’t get rain during tomato season, we don’t have any sungold cracking here.
Awesome looking toms. Almost too pretty to eat. How does the Lucid Gem and Boxcar Willie taste? We tried BW for the first time last year and they were pretty productive and disease resistant. Didn’t really get to taste them as they got thrown in with the others when made salsa.
Did you grow Carbon as mentioned up thread, or are you trying them for the first time? If you did grow them, how were they?
I’ve only grown Carbon once, but it became a victim of root-knot nematodes and did not produce. But I’m growing it/them elsewhere this year so hopefully I’ll be able to harvest some fruits this year.
Both Lucid Gem and Box Car Willie are spectacular. What I have noticed with Box Car Willie however, is the variety seems to be tainted. Some people I know who have sourced them from different places, get different tomatoes. Some grow small and plenty, some very large but few, and/or in between. I save seeds from the best looking fruit each ear and so far it produces true to type. I have had different results from the same seed pack so I only use the seeds I’ve saved.
2 Likes
Sounds like Sungold is the cherry to grow. I will have to try it this year.
1 Like
Check the soil pH and reduce it to near 6.0 with sulfur if necessary.
I grew Sungold for many years and agree its in a league by itself. Even if it goes on a big splitting run its worth it. I remember many times sitting next to my tomatoes and inhaling a mess of Sungolds that just cracked. Someones got to eat 'em 
This thread is making me think about adding a few more varieties beyond my JDs C-Tex… that Lucid Gem looks very nice, @MockY! I also might dig out my old Sungold seeds and hope a few are still viable. I am going to be grafting this year so I can go a little more out on the limb in terms of heirlooms. I was thinking of Black Prince, its a more meaty black so it has more uses. Also my old favorite Stump of the World which tends to quit too early here with root problems.
3 Likes
Sorry I missed this earlier. I’ve tried several reds/pinks and haven’t liked any enough to make them a permanent selection. Sweet One Hundred and Sweet Million were too sweet without enough else going on, Matt’s Wild Cherry was pretty similar to me (but who knows if I had the correct seed since some love it) and then I tried Chadwick Cherry which was more interesting and sometimes darn good when there was less rain and the flavor was richer, but it wasn’t enough to win a permanent place either. Chadwick is also pretty large for a cherry, often larger than Black Cherry which is already pretty big, and I didn’t really want another big cherry.
So this year I’ve added Ted’s Pink Currant to my grow list:
I like the idea of big bunches of smaller cherries and they sound really good from what I’ve read. They are technically a pink, but I just lump pink and red together… We’ll see how they do and, most importantly, if they can find a place beside Sungold and Black Cherry in the bowl.
2 Likes
I have been going to the best nurseries in my area for tomato plants every year. I am so tired of planting mis-labeled plants (three years in a row). We have a mad rush here of very anxious gardeners and according to the nurseries people pick up the pots take out the labels and put them in another tray of tomatoes. Go figure! Is there an on line company’s that sells excellent tomatoe plants? Please let me know. Until my house sells (not yet) I might as well buy tomato plants! Please recommend! Thanks Mrs. G
Thanks Richard!
I buy some of my pepper and tomatoes plants from here… http://www.chileplants.com/tomato-plants.aspx. I pick my plants up at the nursery, but a good part of their sales are mail order, not sure how well they ship. Always have the highest quality plants and a great selection.
1 Like