Hmmm... Big sprays of cherry tomatoes like Sungold. Ripening gold like Sungold. Tastes like Sungold!
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Here we go again and again. Seeds from an F1 fruit producing true fruits just like heirlooms do..
There has been reports of so many similar case that reinforce the notion (to me) that a lot of those so-called "Hybrids" are no really hybrids anymore.
I am growing one such plant : KUMATO.
I took the seeds from store bought tomato. Now my plant is flowering. I should find out soon.

I had several sungold volunteers last year and the fruit was not quite as sweet but very good just the same. Made several quarts of golden tomato sauce for the winter.

The only way one could know for sure they were "true" fruits would be with DNA testing. Even if you had planted a true F1 again this year and had it to do a side-by-side comparison with you still wouldn't be able to certify the volunteer as Sungold, especially in only one generation.

But if you are happy with the results you get then it doesn't really make any difference whether that are actually Sungold or not.

And the laws of genetics do allow for the occasional true reproduction so you may have just lucked out. :)

Dave

Most important is to confirm you were growing the F1 Sungold, b'c you weren't sure about that.

And most who get volunteers from the F1, or save seeds from the F1 fruits don't get fruits as good as the F1 and most of the time not stable. Reinhard Kraft in Germany worked many years to get a version of the F1, actually three of them, but those who have grown them say they are not the same as the F1. Most get the orange when ripe fruits, which is correct, but some also get red fruited plants since what's bred into the F1 is a gene for the long truss trait and that gene gives red fruits.

Why not save F2 seeds from your volunteer and next season put out several plants so you can see if what you have is stable or gives offtypes?

Lastly, Sungold F1 is said by many to have a distinct aroma to the foliage and i tmight be a good idea to grow the F1 to compare with what you have. I've grown the F1 many times but have never experienced that aroma, but it's known that that odor and the taste genes are closely linked genes. And at another message site this has been discussed and it turns out that the smell comes from a very specific Solanum species.

Carolyn

Lucky you! (If you like Sungold) (LOL). I heard that they don't usually come anywhere close to the original hybrid.

Linda

As I mentioned earlier, I too have a couple of sungold volunteers growing from last years crop which are actually 3rd generation. Now I live about a half an hour from Cold Spring Harbor laboratories, the site where it was first confirmed that genes were made up of DNA not protein. Ya think they'd be anxious to decide whether my couple of plants are true Sungolds? NAAAAAAAAAH. I'll just do the taste test and decide for myself.

Be well............elliot

Elliot, actually Cold Spring Harbor had nothing to do with the discovery of DNA or that genes were made up of DNA, not protein. (smile) Read the link below and scrol ldown to the history of DNA research.

Now, since you live so close to Cold Spring Harbor, why not drive over and ask to speak to Dr. Zach Lippman, whom I once knew well who now works there. Just mention my name, Carolyn Male, and remind him I'm the one who coordinated sending him seeds for 1000 different tomato varieties when he was doing a post doc in Isreal LOL

Nope, even with modern methods of DNA sequencing they couldn't tell you if your volunteers were Sungolds, b'c they'd have to go out and get some Sungold F1 seed and grow their own plants to isolate the seeds from those F1 fruits to compare with your whatever volunteers.

And since most of their money comes from individual grants to each member there I can assure you that no government agency is going to spring for a grant to do that.LOL

And I wouldn't rely on taste tests either, since taste is personal and perceptual and there's even a human genetic influence as well.

Carolyn, who is pretty familiar with all these gene and DNA discussions but thankfully is now retired . LOL

Here is a link that might be useful: History of who found DNA

Afternoon Carolyn,

I did state that it was "confirmed" at the facility. I was thinking "discovered", until I read the little history blurb by the lab at this site:
http://www.cshl.edu/About-Us/History/

Many thanks for the enlightenment. Hope all is well with you. We'll speak soon,

elliot

Genetics and heredity are more complex than "I" can think of. For all intent an purposes if it looks like a duck, walks like duck, talks like a duck, it is a duck.

seysonn

Alfred Hershey came to Cold Spring Harbor in 1950. Two years later, he and Martha Chase performed one of the most famous experiments in modern biology, the âÂÂWaring blenderâ experiment, which reinforced the findings of other scientists that genes were made of DNA, not protein. The discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953, first described publicly by James Watson at the 1953 Cold Spring Harbor Symposium entitled âÂÂViruses,â heralded a new era in biology.

Above from your link.

Yes, others already had determined that DNA was composed of nucleic acids, not proteins,

And yes, Watson did present his findings at the summer symposium, which happened each summer but at that time was not a faculty member at CSH.

I too worked with phage as well as with other systems.

YOur link was great b'c so many of the names I knew well,like McClintock from Cornell, where I went,Luria, and so many more.

Please forgive me for posting more, but sheesh, it 's been a long time since I've seen those names, and yes, I attended two summer symposia at CSH myself.

Carolyn
Carolyn

A piece of that same Sungold plant is still there. So is a Black Cherry. I cut them off at soil level late last fall, but hadn't pulled up the roots. And they didn't have sense enough to notice the frost. Both are growing like crazy.

I guess I accidentally started my tomato season a few months early. A happy kind of accident, eh?