Orange cherry tomatoes

[pixley]

We had some fantastic orange cherry tomatoes from Tesco over the summer but they didnt label the variety. I can only see 1 variety in the catalogues - SUNGOLD. Anyone have any idea if there are any others? Grew Garden Pearl this year which was very productive but the taste wasnt impressive.

[FelixLeiter]

There may be, but you don't have to look much further than Sungold. I grow it most years and it is superb for flavour, weight of crop and vigour. I'm rather pleased to see that they're now in the shops so that everyone can enjoy them.

[sparhawkiw]

I grew some Sungold this year, they cropped plenty, Lady Sparhawk said the flavour was the best she's ever tasted, one of them after being cut down has resprouted vigorously flowered & is just setting fruit again...

[alan refail]

Sungold every time!

[glallotments]

We grow Sungold too!

[heyjude]

Sungold gets my vote too for growing both outside and under cover. I spoke to a grower on the tomato growers association stand at some show this summer where they were sampling a variety called Piccolo. He said that Sungold are hardly ever grown commercially because they split so easily. Which they do. I don't find it a problem at home because you can minimise splitting by watering consistently ( in the tunnel anyway) and if it does happen you just use the splitting ones first. But I can see it's a problem if they have to sit on a shelf.

Piccolo were delicious. When I said I didn't remember seeing the seeds for sale he said they cost about £1 each and came from France. I googled the variety and they did seem very expensive.

Has anybody any experience buying seed or growing them?

[sparhawkiw]

Sungold are hardly ever grown commercially because they split so easily. Which they do. I don't find it a problem at home because you can minimise splitting by watering consistently...

Being of little experience in the growing stakes this little snippett amused me, this was the first year that I tried growing tomatoes all in my greenhouse. I grew: moneymaker, gardeners delight, subarctic plenty & sungold all treated exactly the same: watering, feeding, growing medium etc. I only had a few that split but guess which one was the only one not to have any splits...

This is something that I'm enjoying about gardening & now I can see why people can spend so much time talking about it...

[pixley]

Sungold it is then! Thanks to everyone for their comments.
I was watering my plants every day - just a little and feeding twice a week - til a more experienced friend told me to only water twice a week to get a stronger flavour and low and behold all my tomatoes then split. Next year i am going back to little and often.

[Geoff]

sparhawkiw
If there was only one way of doing things the definitive book would have been written long since and there would be no magazine or forum. The truth is there are many successful ways of growing everything and we all love to champion our favourite method but when things go wrong it has got to be the way we did it so we desperately cast around for the new wonder solution. We are rather like the mediocre club golfer (a game I hate) who thinks buying the latest putter will get him into the Open Championship. The weather and the cyclic nature of pests probably means one method is superior in one season and the next year a different approach or timing would be better. However, over the long term, some ways are always going to be better so when you can call on people like JB who served their apprenticeship with Adam you've got a better chance!

[glallotments]

sparhawkiw
The weather and the cyclic nature of pests probably means one method is superior in one season and the next year a different approach or timing would be better.

This is why we usually grow more than one variety of some crops e.g. potatoes as whatever the prevailing conditions one type seems to do well - although this year all have so we have lots of potatoes!!!