I admit it’s been a while between seed/plant reviews here, so I thought today was as good as any to get into routine.
And while I’m admitting things..I’ll admit I chose Sunny Boy F1 non-gmo hybrid tomato this season for its name 🌞
Because it’s name was a reminder of a cool sunny boy ice block from the tuck-shop on a hot 1980s school day. Tell me you remember those triangle-tetra-packaged ice-blocks that seemed to melt away any cares, and lasted so much longer than any other ice block for the money it cost. I don’t remember paying any more than $1.
But before I disappear down that rabbit-hole…why do I like this Sunny Boy tomato for so much more than it’s name and colour, now I’ve grown it?
I’m most impressed now, because it’s behaving like a super compact indeterminate tomato. It’s just 60cm high in my garden, with no out-of-control side shooting. Whereas a determinate variety would usually be my go-to for a smaller planting space, this tomato may be an indeterminate alternative for tucking into those smaller spaces. I’d obviously need more in-the-ground knowledge of it across several seasons, before I call it a small-space alternative, but it’s a good characteristic to file away for future plantings.
An early maturer and 72 days to fruiting, Sunny Boy seems to get these attractive clusters of 3 fruit which it holds strongly to ripening, See pic below…yes two there because I picked the other one. See how they’re different sizes? My experience is that as you pick the one that’s ready, the next starts to get bigger and ripen, and so on through the cluster.
It’s delicious tangy, almost tropical taste, doesn’t have the sharp acidity that you’d expect from a yellow fruit that looks so lemony. I was actually reminded of frangipani notes in there too, which is why a frangipani is in my pic. Call it a coded reminder to myself when I’m trying to remember how it tastes so I can describe it to someone who asks me about it…usually in winter. So if I compare the taste to say, Beams Lemon Pear cherry tomato, there’s really no contest in which tastes better. To be fair a cherry tomato type grows quickly and in my experience does not have the time to develop the complex notes that a slicer can, during the more extended ripening process of less fruits.
The ripening, and it seems, growth, of each tomato in the Sunny Boy cluster, happens consecutively. This prevents gluts while keeping up just-in-time supply. It’s how you’d like every slicer tomato vine to behave really. And the colour is deep lemon, how attractive. As a bonus, germination and growth to the point of fruiting. was straightforward.
This is not a paid post, but I’m very happy with my purchase…so for Australian gardeners I got my pack of 15 seeds from @happyvalleyseeds. They say on their website yellow tomatoes have higher iron and minerals, and by growing a mixture of red and yellows the nutritional balance is increased.
Well my nutritional balance is set, because Sunny Boy F1 non-gmo hybrid tomato has entered my stable of must-grows for future seasons.💫
#yellow #tomato #growingtomatoes #sunnyboy #growyourownfood #freshproduce #organic #tropicaltang #vintagetrishgarden
VintageTrish 