Tomatoes & friends
Sungold cherry
Widely rated the best tasting.
- Indoors
- 6 to 8 wk (late Mar)
- Outside
- Transplant after frost
- Where
- Raised bed or in ground, tall stake
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Every 3 to 4 days in July; heavy rain splits ripe fruit
- Harvest
- Jul to frost
Care
- Water
- Every 3 to 4 days in July and August, about weekly in spring and fall. A long soak at the base until the top few inches are wet, then let it dry a little before the next. Even all the way; ripe cherries crack after heavy rain, so keep it steady and pick ahead of storms.
- Sow
- In cells in late March: 2 seeds a quarter inch deep per cell, keep the stronger. Set plants 18 to 24 inches apart in the bed, with a tall stake; the vine clears six feet come August. Bury the stem to the first true leaves.
- Start inside
- Mat at 75 to 85F, sprouts in 5 to 10 days. Under the lights the moment they break ground, 14 to 16 hours; off the mat at the first true leaves. Outside after mid May, once nights hold 50F.
- Feed
- A shovel of compost or castings worked in at planting starts the bed. Side-dress with Garden-tone when the first fruit set and again at harvest, up to a third cup a plant. Keep the nitrogen modest, or the vine runs to leaf instead.
- Ready
- Pick at full orange and glossy; it comes off the truss with a light tug. Split-prone when dead ripe, so a day early beats a rain-split day late, especially before a storm.
- Trouble
- Split fruit: heavy rain on ripe cherries, pick hard before storms and shrug off what the rain claims. Flowers but no fruit in a heat wave: normal, wait it out. Pale lower leaves in August: hungry, tighten the liquid feed.
In a bag?
- Yes
- Up to a 10–15 gal bag.
- Water
- Daily in July and August; bags dry far faster than a bed. 60 to 90 sec on the shower dial until it runs from the seams.
- Feed
- Top-dress monthly; every watering leaches the bag.
- Sow
- One plant per bag, sized toward the top of the range for this six-foot vine.
Sungold is the orange cherry tomato that wins taste tests so routinely the result is barely news. It holds one of the snacking slots here and re-earns it every July without apparent effort.
Growing
It runs with the cherries: sown in late March, buried to its first leaves at transplant, happy in a bed or a 10 to 15 gallon bag with a tall stake, since the vine passes six feet by August. First fruit lands in July and the run continues to frost if the suckers get pruned and the picking keeps up. Splitting is the flaw: ripe fruit cracks after heavy rain, so pick hard ahead of storms and be philosophical about what the rain claims.
Varieties
Sungold is itself the variety, an F1, so saved seed will not come true. Buy fresh packets and skip the open-pollinated imitations, which are pleasant and not the same thing.
In the kitchen
Most of the harvest is eaten within reach of the plant. Survivors go on toast with salt, or into a hot pan just long enough to burst.