Sungold F1
The best tasting tomato most people will ever eat, and worth the hybrid price.
Sungold is the variety that converts people who thought they did not like tomatoes. The orange cherry fruit are extraordinarily sweet, closer to a fruit than a salad vegetable, and they start ripening earlier than almost anything else. It is an F1 hybrid, so the seed costs more and will not come true if you save it, but for flavour there is nothing in the same class.
Quick facts
- Botanical name
- Solanum lycopersicum
- Type
- F1 hybrid
- Category
- Cherry, cordon
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Hardiness
- Tender, no frost tolerance
- In Ireland
- Much better under cover
- Germination
- 7 to 14 days at 18 to 25C
- Sowing depth
- 5mm
- Spacing
- 45cm apart, 75cm between rows
- Height
- 2m
- Position
- Full sun
- Containers
- Grows well in pots
- Sowing to harvest
- 16 to 20 weeks
- Harvest
- July to October
- Award
- RHS Award of Garden Merit
Sowing and harvest calendar for Sungold F1
Months shaded below are the reliable windows for Irish conditions.
Where to buy Sungold F1 tomato seeds in Ireland
Irish suppliers that stock this, so postage stays domestic and seed arrives in time to sow. These are plain links, not paid placements.
Order online
Garden centres and mixed retailers
- Woodie's Click and collect nationwide Dublin headquartered chain, part of Grafton Group. Cheapest per packet and the only nationwide click and collect option. Visit Woodie's
- Mr Middleton Irish Mail order arm of a long established Mary Street shop, carries the familiar named varieties the organic specialists skip. Visit Mr Middleton , Co. Dublin
- Johnstown Garden Centre Irish Stock runs out by midsummer, best ordered in spring Third generation family business near Naas with the widest branded range, though popular varieties sell out by midsummer. Visit Johnstown Garden Centre , Co. Kildare
Why it suits Ireland
Sungold starts ripening earlier than most cherry tomatoes, often from mid-July under cover, which matters in a country where the useful growing season is short at both ends. It also keeps cropping well into October in a greenhouse, so a single plant covers a long stretch.
The sweetness holds up even in a poor summer. Many varieties taste watery when there has not been enough sun, whereas Sungold stays sweet, which is why it is so widely recommended for cool, cloudy climates.
Growing notes
Grow it as a cordon, one stem, side shoots removed weekly, tied in as it goes. It is vigorous and will hit 2m in a greenhouse, so start it up a string from the roof rather than a short cane.
Do not let it dry out. Splitting is the one real fault of this variety and it is almost always a watering problem rather than a weather one.
Pick the fruit when it is deep orange and comes away easily. Picked underripe it is merely nice; picked properly ripe it is the reason people grow tomatoes at all.
Common questions
Why do Sungold tomatoes split?
Sungold has a notably thin skin, which is part of why it eats so well, and thin skins split when the plant takes up water faster than the fruit can expand. Water little and often instead of soaking a dried-out pot, and pick fruit as soon as it colours rather than leaving it on the truss.
Can I save seed from Sungold?
Not usefully. It is an F1 hybrid, so seedlings grown from saved seed will be a mixed and generally disappointing lot, often reverting to smaller red fruit. If you want a sweet cherry tomato you can save seed from, grow Gardener's Delight or Sungella instead.
Is Sungold worth growing outdoors in Ireland?
It will grow outdoors in a sheltered sunny spot, but it is at its best under cover where the extra warmth pushes the sugars higher. It has no blight resistance and the thin skin makes it vulnerable in wet weather, so a greenhouse, tunnel or growhouse is the sensible home for it here.
More tomatoes to consider
Gardener's Delight
Open pollinated / Cherry, cordon
The safest first tomato for an Irish garden, and still one of the best tasting.
Growing notes and stockistsShirley F1
AGMF1 hybrid / Medium salad, cordon
The variety to grow if your greenhouse is unheated and your summer is unreliable.
Growing notes and stockistsAlicante
Open pollinated / Medium salad, cordon
The most flexible old variety here, happy in a greenhouse or a sheltered outdoor bed.
Growing notes and stockistsMoneymaker
Open pollinated / Medium salad, cordon
Dependable and cheap, but there are better tasting varieties for the same effort.
Growing notes and stockists