Litchfield Gold it is!

Ahhh but they are red you said. ;-)

Dave

No, actually I said some are red, some are gold. I totally take your point about the instability of hybrids. I hadn't really thought about that factor. And you are quite right about dominant genes recurring in reiterations of a plant. (Embarrassing that I hadn't remembered the simple Mendelian factor of dominant vs. recessive genes that I learned in freshman zoology.)

That said, about half of my seedlings produced yellow, and half red. If I were to run a proper experiment, of course, I would plant an entire field with my collected SunGold seeds. And then, in that imaginary scenario, I would select out the yellows that reappeared, year after year. And I suppose, about 40 years on, I might even find SunGold seeds that actually broke out of the hybridized prison, and became true to type every time.

I also totally agree with your points about sloppy plant taxonomy, a problem we all encounter every time we purchase a plant that has highly variable forms, depending on where you buy it, who grew it, and so forth.

Bottom line is that my SunGolds, or "SunGolds," all taste the same. A blind tasting proves this. The gene that seems to be dominant/recessive is evidently the gene that governs color, rather than flavor or fruit size. But I'm not a geneticist, so for me this is all speculation.

And the bottom-bottom line, I guess, is that these are wonderful-tasting tomatoes. If I were putting them on the market (as I am not) I could not legally call them SunGolds. But you know what? At home...we call them SunGolds.

An interesting 'control' would be to get hybrid Sungold seeds again (you said it's been 4-5 years) and grow them out to do a side-by-side tasting. I'm not saying you're wrong, but your saved ones (of either color) may, or may not pass a blind tasting with the original. :-)

I grew SunGold few years ago. I didn't like them for 2 reasons. Maybe 3 reasons. (1) too small, especially toward the end of cluster. (2) split before you can say "AH".

Few weeks ago I picked a pint of gold cherry tomatoes at the farmers market. The lady said that they are called " Esterina ". Wow ! good taste, thicker wall ( not the skin ) very sweet and much bigger than SunGold. It is also hybrid. I will try to find seeds but I have also saved seeds to give the F2 a try.

Sey

Good point, rgreen. Taste is such a subjective matter, it would be pretty hard to confirm, I think. Maybe next year....

A hybrid becomes an heirloom when you save only the seeds from from the tomatoes that are most like the original plant. You have to do this for many generations (7 maybe?) before you end up with seeds that will consistently give you fruit like the parent plant. Not as bad as 40 years, but you'd still have to have a lot of patience.

Sey, I'm growing a few Esterina but they are vert light yellow. One seed source calls then a replacement for Snow White Cherry. I don't think they are as sweet as Yellow Mini, a deeper golden yellow cherry which is also less prone to cracking.

I still plant a few Sun Gold plants although 90% of my orange cherry plants are Sun Sugar. Oddly most people use the name "Sun Gold" when talking about an orange cherry but it is more commonly being replaced by another variety for one reason or another.

Unless I'm mistaken, and this is neither here, nor there, as it's really just a distinction of time, but a hybrid can become an OP (Open Pollinated) after it stabilizes under a few generations of grow outs. The label, heirloom, is usually reserved for varieties with like 50 years of stabilization.

Barrie, I cannot find picture that I took from Esterina that I bought. But here is a picture from somebody else post in another site.

The ones that I bought at Farmers Market was the same color and size.

Sey

rgreen...I think you are correct! PS I am a bit like sey...my SG's were good, but they certainly split often.

For sure, they split open when dead ripe. Particularly after a rain, when all that water is rushed into the fruit. True of most of the heirlooms in my garden (except Roma). BUT...the splitting is the flip side of having a tomato with tender skin (a plus, if you hate peeling). And also typical of fruits that you will never see at the supermarket because they lack "shelf life." There are real reasons why the tomatoes you grow at home are way better than you'll find at Stop&Shop. Those are the tomatoes that last for, oh, 3 weeks, but have zero flavor.