‘Sun Gold’ tomatoes for the summer harvest.

It’s no wonder ‘Sun Gold’ tomatoes are one of the most popular cherry tomatoes for the garden. This early-maturing hybrid variety is beloved as a gardener favorite for its bountiful fruits, cheery yellow-orange color, and deliciously sweet flavor like a taste of summer squeezed into juicy, bite-sized fruits.

‘Sun Gold’ glows in the garden with full clusters of perfectly round, golden tomatoes. Plants are high-yielding and disease-resistant, adding to the advantages and ease of growing ‘Sun Gold’. They’ll grow and produce the tender orb fruits from early summer until frost for an ongoing harvest.

Brighten the garden and the salad bowl with ‘Sun Gold’ tomatoes. Here, we’ll explore how to easily incorporate these favorite cherry tomatoes into our gardens this season.
What are ‘Sun Gold’ Tomatoes?
‘These cherry tomatoes boast an exceptionally sweet flavor in abundant, bite-sized fruits. Indeterminate plants yield clusters of tangerine-orange tomatoes throughout the growing season. The juicy, tender fruits are among the tastiest of the cherries.

‘Sun Gold’ is a hybrid cherry tomato whose parents are a trade secret. Tokita Seed Company of Japan introduced the golden hybrid in 1992. Some growers speculate the prized heirloom beefsteak-type tomato ‘Brandywine’ is one of the parents, favored for superior flavor and garden performance. We’ll just have to be content with knowing hardy stock led to a strong garden performer and excellent flavor.

Beyond its flavorful fruits, this variety is noteworthy for its disease resistance. Plants resist fusarium wilt and tobacco mosaic virus, two common tomato fungal problems. ‘Sun Gold’s’ high yields, vigor, disease resistance, and quality fruits earned it the Royal Horticulture Society’s prestigious Award of Garden Merit.

Characteristics
‘Sun Gold’ is an early producer, with fruit maturing around 57 days after transplanting. The productive plants bear clusters of 8 to 14 fruits, with each petite globe weighing about one to one and a half ounces. Each plant produces about 120 fruits. The fruits have a low acid content and a sweet flavor with citrus notes.

Cherry tomato clusters begin to ripen at the base (stem) and progress to the fruits on the tips. The ripening phases stagger the harvest over a few days and create an attractive look to the plant with bunches of green, yellow, and rich gold tomatoes. Once the fruit gets going, the harvests continue weekly throughout the summer and into fall.

As an indeterminate plant, it has six-foot-long or longer vines, but four-to-five-foot vines are more likely. Indeterminate tomato plants grow and produce fruit all season until frost. The long vining stems benefit from staking, caging, or trellising to maintain production and health.

The fruits are tender and thin-walled, making them fragile for commercial shipping to grocery stores but perfect for the local grower’s market or home garden. As fruits ripen and become full of juice, they sometimes crack or split (especially following rain, water fluctuations, or intense sun exposure when ripe).

An option to prevent cracking is to pick fruits a few days early to let them fully ripen indoors. Fruits are flavorful even before they are fully golden, and early picking won’t compromise flavor. It also protects the thin-walled fruits from the sun, garden pests, and birds, who find them tasty, too.

Native Area
All tomatoes originate from wild, tropical ancestors in South America, with a narrow growing range along the coast and bordered by the Andes Mountains from Ecuador to Chile. The original cherry tomato, a wild, weedy plant with small fruits, dates to Ecuador some 80,000 years ago.

Humans cultivated this small-fruited plant, spreading its range to Central America and further into South America through people and wildlife. The fruits that became the basis for the modern tomato came into cultivation in Meso-America 7,000 years ago.

Explorers from Spain brought domesticated tomatoes to Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, but they were slow to enter cuisine. Tomatoes are part of the nightshade family, Solanaceae, with peppers, eggplants, tobacco, and many herbaceous perennials, shrubs, and trees. Nightshades had a reputation for toxicity, so plant collectors gave caution to tomatoes.

Planting
Tomatoes are frost-sensitive plants, requiring warm air and soil temperatures for best growth. They grow easily from seed. Start seeds indoors five to six weeks before the anticipated final frost date. Transplant seedlings outdoors one to two weeks after the last expected frost has passed and as nighttime temperatures are above 55°F (13°C).

Vegetables in the nightshade family benefit from crop rotation yearly because they are susceptible to transmitting diseases. If you’re growing tomatoes in the ground, choose a spot where you haven’t grown other nightshades (eggplants, tomatillos, potatoes, peppers, and other tomatoes) in the past year for a clean plot.

Indeterminate cherry tomatoes like ‘Sun Gold’ need a two- to three-foot spacing between plants. If planting in rows, space rows three to four feet apart to give the vining stems plenty of growing room and circulation.

Plant tomato stems deep; each hair on the stem has the potential to set a root. You can plant as deep as leaving only one or two upper leaf sets exposed. Some gardeners lay plants horizontally in a buried trench, leaving one or two sets of leaves above ground for maximum rooting. A vigorous root system leads to strong, stable plants with increased nutrient and water absorption for best fruiting.

The long vines need a support structure for best growth. Install the support structure at planting time to avoid disturbing roots and foliage later. A large cage provides ample space.

‘Sun Gold’ tomatoes grow in containers as long the pot is large enough to accommodate mature plants with plenty of soil volume for a robust root system. A 15 to 20-gallon container gives indeterminate tomatoes room to grow. ‘Sun Gold’ may get a bit tall and rangy in containers as the season wears on, but the bounty of golden orb tomatoes is worth the space allotted.
How to Grow
While ‘Sun Gold’ is a relatively carefree tomato plant, it benefits from specific cultural conditions for the best growth and vigor. Plenty of sunlight, consistent water, and air circulation are key to tomato plant health.
Maintenance
Indeterminate tomatoes grow tall and leggy by the season’s end. Pruning isn’t necessary with caged plants, nor is it essential, but pinching off suckering offshoots can be beneficial, especially with staked or trellised plants. Pinching low offshoots, or at least pinching off the ends when shoots are six to eight inches long, directs energy to the upper parts of the plant and keeps leaves and fruits off the soil level.

Mulching is another regular maintenance practice at planting and as needed during the growing season. Initially, let the sun warm plant roots for growth without mulch. When stems reach 18-24 inches tall, layer two to three inches of weed-free straw around plants. Mulch aids moisture retention, weed suppression, and soil temperature regulation.