What type of tomato could this be?

[Liska]

Okay, so please don't laugh at me, but I was browsing around the store the other day and saw a "medley" of heirloom tomatoes for tasting, so I picked up a container and I've been snacking on them. I am absolutely taken with a smallish yellow tomato that they had in the package.

Except, they don't say which type of heirloom tomato it is on the packaging. I ate all of them already, so it's not really possible to take a photo of one. Does anyone know what it could possibly be? They're very sweet, almost with a salty after taste, smaller than a normal red cherry tomato, about the size of a nickel, with a slightly translucent skin. I can kind of see inside it.

Does anyone know what type of tomato it could be? Do they have to be grown from seed, or is there a place from where I can get starter plants?

I did do a google search, but rom the pictures on there there's really no way to tell

[applestar]

Do you still have the package? Did it have the grower's label on it?

Couple of years ago, I got a container of organic grape tomatoes that were so delicious that I saved seeds from them and grew them out last year. That package said "Sugar Plum Tomatoes" and there IS such a variety. But the description I found on-line said it matures in 100 days As it turned out, my tomatoes were ready to pick earlier -- 75~80 days, along with all the other tomatoes, and the fruits were as sweet and intensely flavored as I remembered. They were very prolific too, with clusters an clusters of tresses. So I saved seeds again and am growing them this year.

[Liska]

Do you still have the package? Did it have the grower's label on it?

Couple of years ago, I got a container of organic grape tomatoes that were so delicious that I saved seeds from them and grew them out last year. That package said "Sugar Plum Tomatoes" and there IS such a variety. But the description I found on-line said it matures in 100 days As it turned out, my tomatoes were ready to pick earlier -- 75~80 days, along with all the other tomatoes, and the fruits were as sweet and intensely flavored as I remembered. They were very prolific too, with clusters an clusters of tresses. So I saved seeds again and am growing them this year.

The only package info it gave me was that the label was Sunset, and it's called Gourmet Medley. I don't even know how to begin getting seeds from these lovely tomatoes (and I ate all of them already. WHoops! I rarely see them in the store). If I can manage to find a package again, how do I go about prepping and getting the seeds?

[applestar]

There are more involved (and correct -- better storage and germination) ways of doing it (and someone -- TZ or maybe DV -- posted it before on the forum) but all I do is put them in a tea strainer, rub with finger while rinsing gently, then turn them out on a sheet of paper towel and mark the paper towel with variety name and date. I leave that out to dry, sometimes folded over, then when dry, fold up the paper towel with the label on the outside to store in a ziplock bag. When it's time to plant, the seeds will just flake off of the towel. If they're stuck, I just tear around the seed and plant the paper and seed together.

[Liska]

There are more involved (and correct -- better storage and germination) ways of doing it (and someone -- TZ or maybe DV -- posted it before on the forum) but all I do is put them in a tea strainer, rub with finger while rinsing gently, then turn them out on a sheet of paper towel and mark the paper towel with variety name and date. I leave that out to dry, sometimes folded over, then when dry, fold up the paper towel with the label on the outside to store in a ziplock bag. When it's time to plant, the seeds will just flake off of the towel. If they're stuck, I just tear around the seed and plant the paper and seed together.

Awesome. Thank you

[TZ -OH6]

The little yellowish tomato was probably Sungold if it tasted that good. Sungold is a hybrid, and unlike alot of tomato hybrids, if you saved seed from it you would not get anything close to the parent in the offspring (many have tried). For example, if you want to save seed from a red grape tomato (also a hybrid) from the store you will get something almost identical to the parent.



Saving seed from tomatoes is easy. If you are in a far away place and get a good tomato in your salad that you want to grow you can just spit the seeds into a napkin, dry them and plant them next year. The problem comes when you want clean seeds to save for a longer period, trade etc. because you want to get the gel off. The so called "fermentation " method is the most popular where you just let the seeds sit in their own juices for about 4 days to let the gel rot off (I add a little water, but many people don't). Rinse them, and air dry them for several days and you will get nice clean fuzzy seeds that will store for 5-20 years. Most people use some sort of covered cup/container, but I have done fermentations in a ziplock. Don't cap the lids tightly because pressure builds up, and rotting tomato juice exploding all over is not as much fun to clean up as you might think.

There are some quick chemical scrubs you can do to get the gel off without waiting. The best is to use a 10% TPS solution (trisodium phosphate sold for cleaning walls befor painting) for about 10 minutes followed by a 10% Chlorox bleach solution for 15 minutes, followed by rinsing in hot tap water. That kills more diseases than any other method. Some people scrub the seeds with Oxyclean or cleanser (Comet/Ajax etc) to get the gell off before the bleach bath. The effect on long term storage (more than 5 years) is not known with the Oxyclean/cleanser methods.


Prepping for fermantation actually takes less time than the chemical treatments. Squash seeds into a wire strainer, squish juice and gel through the strainer into container to scrub the seeds a bit (I use a rubber spatula) add seeds to containers, add a little water and set aside for 3-4 days....takes about 5 minutes. Rinsing off the seeds at the end takes a couple of minutes. If you don't use the sieve and have all kinds of tomato flesh in with the seeds it takes a bit more time to mess with the rotting gunk at the end.


I have saved/tested seeds from fruits that have been scalded in boiling water for a minute or so for removing skins, and the seeds germinate fine, so if you accidentally grab a fruit that you were saving for seed and toss it in the scalding pot, you can still get seeds from it.


Seeds are mature when the fruit is still green, as long as they have gel around them and the seed coat does not slip off when you pinch the seed in your fingers. You do not have to let the fruit get ripe, but ripe fruit/gel makes fermentation easier. This info is useful if a tomato worm eats part of your seed fruit while it is green or if you are in a rush to get seeds started from experimental crosses for growouts before the season ends.

[Liska]

The little yellowish tomato was probably Sungold if it tasted that good. Sungold is a hybrid, and unlike alot of tomato hybrids, if you saved seed from it you would not get anything close to the parent in the offspring (many have tried). For example, if you want to save seed from a red grape tomato (also a hybrid) from the store you will get something almost identical to the parent.



Saving seed from tomatoes is easy. If you are in a far away place and get a good tomato in your salad that you want to grow you can just spit the seeds into a napkin, dry them and plant them next year. The problem comes when you want clean seeds to save for a longer period, trade etc. because you want to get the gel off. The so called "fermentation " method is the most popular where you just let the seeds sit in their own juices for about 4 days to let the gel rot off (I add a little water, but many people don't). Rinse them, and air dry them for several days and you will get nice clean fuzzy seeds that will store for 5-20 years. Most people use some sort of covered cup/container, but I have done fermentations in a ziplock. Don't cap the lids tightly because pressure builds up, and rotting tomato juice exploding all over is not as much fun to clean up as you might think.

There are some quick chemical scrubs you can do to get the gel off without waiting. The best is to use a 10% TPS solution (trisodium phosphate sold for cleaning walls befor painting) for about 10 minutes followed by a 10% Chlorox bleach solution for 15 minutes, followed by rinsing in hot tap water. That kills more diseases than any other method. Some people scrub the seeds with Oxyclean or cleanser (Comet/Ajax etc) to get the gell off before the bleach bath. The effect on long term storage (more than 5 years) is not known with the Oxyclean/cleanser methods.


Prepping for fermantation actually takes less time than the chemical treatments. Squash seeds into a wire strainer, squish juice and gel through the strainer into container to scrub the seeds a bit (I use a rubber spatula) add seeds to containers, add a little water and set aside for 3-4 days....takes about 5 minutes. Rinsing off the seeds at the end takes a couple of minutes. If you don't use the sieve and have all kinds of tomato flesh in with the seeds it takes a bit more time to mess with the rotting gunk at the end.


I have saved/tested seeds from fruits that have been scalded in boiling water for a minute or so for removing skins, and the seeds germinate fine, so if you accidentally grab a fruit that you were saving for seed and toss it in the scalding pot, you can still get seeds from it.


Seeds are mature when the fruit is still green, as long as they have gel around them and the seed coat does not slip off when you pinch the seed in your fingers. You do not have to let the fruit get ripe, but ripe fruit/gel makes fermentation easier. This info is useful if a tomato worm eats part of your seed fruit while it is green or if you are in a rush to get seeds started from experimental crosses for growouts before the season ends.

Thank you very much for the information

So you would recommend finding seeds at a store, or ordering them, instead of getting them from the fruit I found in the store? I find it very interesting that you can't take seeds from Hybrids and have them turn out as well as the original parent plant.

[Cirtes]

https://www.sunsetproduce.com/product/tomatoes/gourmet-medley

Is this the brand?

Maybe you can email them and ask what variety is in there.

[Liska]

https://www.sunsetproduce.com/product/tomatoes/gourmet-medley

Is this the brand?

Maybe you can email them and ask what variety is in there.

yup! that's it exactly. hmmmm. I'll have t send them an email maybe and see. thank you!

[soil]

The little yellowish tomato was probably Sungold if it tasted that good. Sungold is a hybrid, and unlike alot of tomato hybrids, if you saved seed from it you would not get anything close to the parent in the offspring (many have tried). For example, if you want to save seed from a red grape tomato (also a hybrid) from the store you will get something almost identical to the parent.

that's not always the case. I bought a few sungold tomatoes 4 years ago, the next year I had volunteers from those tomatoes. expecting them to be nothing like the sungold I bought but I was curious to see what I would get. It turns out that the plant produced a tomato very similar to the purchased sungold. so I saved seed again because they were absolutely delicious. the 3rd year I planted about 20 of those saved seeds, there was slight variation in the plants I will say, but imo some of those plants were better than the original sungold I paid for. I have seed going that saved from the 3rd year for this season and expect even better plants.

but you are right, that is what happens most of the time.