Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA Zones 3-11 Experience)
A new variety, bred by Fred Hempel, USA. Sturdy, beautiful as a seedling, mid-season. Reached about 5 ft (1.5 m) in the greenhouse, a bit shorter outdoors. The fruits are absolutely gorgeous, shiny yellow-orange, almost pearlescent with red stripes, weighing 7-14 oz (200-400 g). The flesh is bicolor and delicious. Turned out to be a very heavy yielder with a long fruiting window.
Edited December 13, 2017 by Drosera
Got nipped by the May frosts but bounced back by pushing out suckers. Pruned to two leaders. Gorgeous striped fruits, averaging 9 oz (250 g) plus.
A very beautiful variety.
Did everyone like Lithium Sunset? Is there anyone who didn’t? That would be me 😆. It turned out super woody and hard for me. Probably the heat messed it up. I should have planted it in the open ground.
PS. Tried to juice it to save seeds. It completely clogged up my juicer. 😆
Vine grew to about 5.5 ft (1.7 m). Mid-season. A really tasty, sweet stunner. Very juicy and meaty. But yield was on the low side for me.
Very beautiful and tasty. I fell in love with this variety.
Lena, how did it do production-wise? I ordered seeds for next year.
Doch Fedora said:
Lena, how did it do production-wise?
Olga, I’d call it an average yielder, but I can’t say for sure. I sowed it really late, on March 26. In the greenhouse it set two full trusses with mostly two tomatoes per cluster. Pruned it to two stems.
A wonderful, tall, heavily producing tomato variety. The fruits are stunning, large, red-orange with striping. Very tasty, sweet, juicy, and meaty.
It’s rare to find such high-yielding bicolors. Both plants I grew put out really impressive production. The vine is robust, tall, with a thick stem. The fruits are just beauties, yellow-red-orange with streaks. Very large. The taste might not be the absolute best among bicolors, but I was completely happy with it. The fruits are meaty, they don’t turn to mush or get leaky when overripe, and they store well, which is rare for a bicolor. Mid-season variety.
Loved this variety: beautiful, tasty, and productive. I was picking the last ones in October when I finally pulled the vines. Yulya shared the seeds with me.
Yulya, 🙏🙏🙏
Maybe it’s better to prune it to a single leader? Might it be earlier and more productive that way? Has anyone tried growing it to 1 stem? 🤠
Could someone tell me what the foliage should look like? Two germinated for me, but they have different leaf types. Which one is true to type?
Man, this variety really reminds me of Striped Mushroom Basket (bicolor) that I grew back in ’17 (I think). A forum friend sent me those seeds in ’15. And she apparently got them from my own earlier stash of Striped Mushroom Basket, which wasn’t a bicolor but pink with red streaks. What makes me think of this is Valery mentioning the massive vine. Mine was huge like that too, tasted fine, and I think they kept on the counter until December. Mostly because they aren’t as softly juicy as a lot of bicolors.
I planted actual Lithium Sunset this year. I’ll watch it, compare, and take some pics. The seeds are probably from ’17, gifted to me last spring, but I never managed to plant it back then 😁
Ninulia said:
I planted actual Lithium Sunset this year. I’ll watch it, compare, and take some pics.
Ninulia, does that mean the photos you posted above are NOT Lithium Sunset?
sofochkamai said:
Ninulia, does that mean the photos you posted above are NOT Lithium Sunset?
The last photo definitely looks like Lithium’s shape. I grew two lines from this: Red Lithium and Lithium Sunset (the variety is still kind of young and going through segregation). The shape is exactly like Ninulia’s, but I got my seeds from the primary source, or rather, from a guy who got his seeds straight from the breeder, and that guy is totally legit with a solid reputation.
Here is my Red Lithium (that’s what they decided to name it after the segregation):
And regular L. Sunset was very close in color and shape to Ninulia’s last three photos.
Vines on both were extremely tough, not disease-prone at all. Red Lithium was earlier for me, but the fruits were smaller. L. Sunset was later, but the trusses were absolutely loaded with tomatoes. Makes me want to sow them again right now, even though I have zero space. Red Lithium didn’t store long because my family ate them all instantly, but L. Sunset stored great. Flavor-wise, L. Sunset was a step down from other bicolors, but overall still really solid.
Edited March 15, 2019 by Alisa
Tatiana Kemerovo said:
Maybe it’s better to prune it to a single leader? Might it be earlier and more productive that way? Has anyone tried growing it to 1 stem? 🤠
No, it won’t be. It was super productive for me when I pruned it to two to four stems. You can’t speed it up without adapting it to your microclimate anyway.
sofochkamai said:
Ninulia, does that mean the photos you posted above are NOT Lithium Sunset?
No! Those are all photos of Striped Mushroom Basket (bicolor) that I mentioned growing in ’17.
Ira, what an intense color on that Red Lithium!!!!
nagya said:
Could someone tell me what the foliage should look like? Two germinated for me, but they have different leaf types.
Jumping in on this question. Same story here. Got two plants with different foliage. One is regular, the second is potato leaf. 🤷♀️
Galiy said:
One is regular, the second is potato leaf. 🤷♀️
Good afternoon, Galina! This variety should definitely have a regular leaf.
Tiffany said:
Good afternoon, Galina! This variety should definitely have a regular leaf.
Thanks. Curious to see what the potato leaf one throws.
Sowed March 27, planted out in the greenhouse in early May. Grew to 2-3 stems, good yields.
2022, Krasnodar region, grew in the greenhouse to about 5 ft (150 cm). Really liked it, beautiful and tasty, but yield wasn’t great for me. It was extremely hot mid-season, and the blossoms just dropped left and right.
Average vine height, up to 6 ft (180 cm). Large fruits, some hitting 10.5 oz (300 g). Grew in a relatively sunny spot, but not baking in full sun. Fruits are tasty and juicy. Pushed out a great yield for me.
One thing: don’t let it hang on the vine fully ripe for too long. It gets kind of mealy and fibrous, and the flesh inside starts separating. Basically, don’t wait for the fruits to get soft, pick them firm. Once they color up, they’re ripe 🙂
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Full Summary: Plant, Yield, Taste and History
- 🌿 Plant: Indeterminate, mid-season. Rugged and thick-stemmed, generally reaching 5-6 ft (1.5-1.8 m) in a greenhouse. Requires regular-leaf foliage to be true to type.
- 📈 Yield: Mixed results depending on climate. While growers in more temperate zones reported huge, loaded trusses and high productivity, extreme mid-summer heat caused significant blossom drop for growers in warmer areas.
- 👅 Taste: Sweet, juicy, and very meaty for a bicolor. Visually stunning with red-orange-yellow striping. However, several growers warned that it must be picked firm; leaving it on the vine until soft results in a woody, fibrous texture.
- 📜 History & Segregation: Bred by Fred Hempel (Artisan Seeds) in the USA. Early seed stock circulating in Eastern Europe showed signs of genetic instability, throwing potato-leaf off-types and segregating into distinct lines, including an earlier, smaller red version known locally as “Red Lithium.”
Lithium Sunset comes from the brilliant breeding work of the late Fred Hempel (Artisan Seeds) in California, a legend in the heirloom and craft tomato community. The forum thread highlights a common phenomenon with newer artisanal releases: segregation. Because many modern open-pollinated lines are released before they are 100% stabilized across 8-10 generations, they occasionally throw off-types in different climates. The Russian growers in this thread experienced exactly this, noting unexpected potato-leaf seedlings and even a stabilized red variant they dubbed “Red Lithium.” If you are growing Lithium Sunset, look for the standard regular leaf to ensure you’re getting the true, intended bicolor magic!
