There have been a number of posts and statements about the yellow cherry variety Sungold in recent days. Statements made include 1)Extremely large plant 2)Prolific yield 3)Many fruit split 4)Very sweet and tasty. I generally agree with all these comments, but until one has actually grown a patch of these looking for a commercially viable yield the comment "Many fruit split" doesn't even approach the reality of the situation. The reality is that under MOST weather conditions MOST of the tasty little fruits split either prior to picking, during processing (washing and sorting), or during the delivery process. So I stopped messing with them.

Subsequently I discovered Sungella. Sungella is an open pollinated knock off supposedly developed by a Thompson Morgan customer. I think it has been around for about 20 years. If you look for comments on Sungella you will find more negative ones than positive ones. I don't know why that is as it does not match my generally favorable experience. My suspicion is that Sungella performance is much affected by regional weather patterns and basic garden

skills and soil conditions. Sungella is nearly as prolific as Sungold, the plant is not quite as rampant, the fruits are somewhat larger but more variable in size, taste is quite nice and fruity-perhaps not quite as sweet as Sungold

and splitting gets down to reasonable levels, mostly under very wet weather conditions or rough handling after picking.

I have a next door neighbor who loves her cherry tomatoes

and I grow her plants for her. By golly, I believe Cathy is going to do a comparative growout test for me next summer

between Sungold and Sungella! I have actually never done this and so I think it's time to get at it.