Lucid Gem Tomato Review & Photos

Lucid Gem is a new variety from Brad Gates (released in fall 2015). It’s a bicolor on the inside and antho on the outside. Average fruit weight is 5.3 oz (150 g), but they can push 10.5 oz (300 g). For me, they were indets growing up to 5.2-6 ft (160-180 cm), generative, with wispy vines and regular foliage. Pruned them to 1-3 vines, and the best yield came from running 3 vines. In the heat, it didn’t drop blossoms, but it wouldn’t set fruit either.

A second wave of fruit set kicked in when moderate temps returned after the heatwave broke. Taste varied depending on the weather, but the full flavor profile really opened up when warm nights of 52-57 F (11-14 C) arrived. Overwatering or frequent rains wash out the taste. They can hang on the vine and sit on the counter for weeks, staying firm to the touch, but the fruity flavor fades if they get overripe. Definitely earned a permanent spot in my garden. I can’t stop staring at this gorgeous artist’s palette!

Very beautiful and productive variety. In the greenhouse, it grew to about 6.5 ft (2 m) tall, mid-season ripening. Medium size fruits, flat-round, orange-purple color. Excellent taste with tropical fruit notes, sweet and juicy.

Absolutely loved it, totally gorgeous and delicious! 👏 Indet, ran it to 2 vines in the greenhouse, huge yield. Fruits up to 10.5 oz (300 g), extremely tasty with obvious sweetness. Seeds from V. Popenko.

Very powerful plant. The suckers get as thick as the main stems. It pumped out a sea of small, incredibly tasty tomatoes. Bright orange inside. Beautiful and sweet.

Heavy yielder, total stunner, and delicious! This one truss weighed about 2.2 lbs (1 kg).

Grew Lucid Gem last season. Seeds were from Irina (Alisa). This tomato hits all the right marks. Sturdy vine, fruited heavily and for a long time. Medium sized fruits, up to 7-8.8 oz (200-250 g). Extremely beautiful and they keep well. The flavor was amazing all season long. One of the best tasting varieties I’ve grown in recent years. Definitely adding this to my regular rotation.

Julia, look at the handsome guy that grew from your seeds! Thank you, dear! 😘 Loved the variety. Turned out really resistant to temperature swings and diseases, bigger than P20+BK and earlier too. Tasty and stores great. The color from the phone camera is a bit more realistic on this pic.

Very tasty tomato! One of the absolute sweetest, sits on the counter forever without losing its flavor, and just gorgeous to look at… 😘

Really liked it. Quite productive, very tasty, beautiful bicolor inside, just super! Definitely planting it again next season.

Beautiful, tasty, still growing in the greenhouse, ripening the next truss right now. 🙂 (Photo from October 14).

Tasty when fully vine-ripened. If it’s pulled a bit green, I get a weird nightshade aftertaste. But there’s no denying it’s a stunner.

Heavy yielder and super pretty. Hasn’t fully ripened for me yet. Hoping the flavor lives up to all the hype. Looks like it’s a late variety.

Seeds from Popenko. It’s a late variety. Looks exactly like Alice’s Dream, just smaller.

Such a beautiful tomato! For me, easily one of the prettiest. Love this shape, they hang on the vine looking completely uniform and smooth. When ripe, that orange and purple color combo is killer. And I really liked the taste—sweet and rich.

Yeah, Lucid Gem is pretty. Out of all my bicolors, it was one of the first to ripen, but its flavor didn’t impress my family at all. Turned out sour, on par with a bland supermarket tomato. Average yield. Bottom line: won’t grow it again, since I have other bicolors that yield way better and taste amazing.

On 8/29/2019 at 14:20, Sergey-EKB said:
Turned out sour, on par with a bland supermarket tomato… Bottom line: won’t grow it again.

Sergey, when did you seed it, plant it out, and when did it start coloring up? Was it on the sunny side of the greenhouse or in the shade? Which bicolors beat it out under the same conditions?

On 8/29/2019 at 15:36, Zulfiya said:
Sergey, when did you seed it, plant it out, and when did it start coloring up?

Started seeds March 2. Since early April, all seedlings were grown on an enclosed sunporch at low temps in full sun. Even when it dropped to 37-41 F (+3, +5 C) out there, the seedlings kept growing. But if they forecasted a hard frost, I hauled them inside for the night, then back out in the morning.

So the seedlings were super hardened off to our wild climate swings, which is why they didn’t even flinch at the constant mood swings of this “summer”.

Planted in the poly greenhouse on May 5. Seedlings were a bit overgrown by then. The whole batch took the crazy temp jumps in May and the cold spells in June and August like champs. Didn’t stunt after transplanting and kept growing even during cold snaps. Started blooming mid-June.

Lucid Gem started picking in early August, turning out to be mid-season. The greenhouse is in a slightly shaded spot, which saves the plants from peak summer heat. From early June to August 25, the door and opposite vent were never closed—gotta avoid temp swings, condensation, and bake-offs during the day.

Grew right in the middle of the greenhouse with the rest of the bicolors. Pruned to a single vine. Besides Lucid Gem, I had Burracker’s Favorite, Virginia Sweets, Grandmother Viney’s Yellow and Pink, Mary Robinson, Amana Orange, and Berkeley Tie Dye Pink.

Taste-wise, Lucid Gem was the absolute worst variety this year. Sure, the fruits are pretty, but small compared to other bicolors, even though it did out-yield a few of them.

But that flavor just ruined everything… Sour, cardboard supermarket taste.

I mean, if you compare Lucid Gem to the infamous Banana Legs, yeah, Lucid Gem is a masterpiece! But unfortunately, it failed the trial in our conditions, so it’s off my grow list. Just my strictly personal opinion. I’m sure it’s totally fine for other tomato lovers. No accounting for taste! :)))))

To my taste, Lucid Gem actually beat out Lucky Cross and Northern Lights. Its flavor was way richer and deeper, even though those other bicolors are fantastic too.

And for me this year, despite battling leaf mold, botrytis, whiteflies, and BER (sounds like a fun season, right 🤪), Lucid Gem was easily the sweetest one in the garden! 😋

On 8/29/2019 at 14:20, Sergey-EKB said:
Sour, cardboard supermarket taste.

Sergey, 🎩 big thanks for the detailed breakdown of your seedling tech! (Hope the Ural folks link it in the regional thread so it doesn’t get lost). Antho varieties absolutely need full sun. That’s why it wasn’t sweet.

On 8/29/2019 at 17:37, Zulfiya said:
Antho varieties absolutely need full sun. That’s why it wasn’t sweet.

Zulfiya! The antho coloring on my Lucid Gem; just like on my Pascal de Picardie, Pink Siberian Tiger, and Sgt. Pepper’s—was extremely dark and vibrant. Maybe it just lacked heat in our cool summer? Because my other varieties turned out super tasty and productive this year.

On 8/29/2019 at 17:42, Sergey-EKB said:
Maybe it just lacked heat in our cool summer?

No real way to know what went wrong. You just gotta try growing it one more time. Sometimes, for absolutely no logical reason, the sweetest tomato one year tastes like wet cardboard the next. Lucid Gem is supposed to be delicious. Give it a second chance.

On 8/29/2019 at 17:42, Sergey-EKB said:
Maybe it just lacked heat in our cool summer?

Yeah, looks like Lucid Gem definitely needs more heat.

On 8/29/2019 at 17:45, SvetaR said:
Lucid Gem is supposed to be delicious. Give it a second chance.

Sveta, we have zero guarantee next summer in the Urals will have more warm nights. But I’d still plant it just to test.

Grew this tomato this season too. Had 2 plants in the greenhouse – one grew true, the other looked like an off-type/segregate. Shape and size were identical, truss structure too, but the color went reddish with just a faint hint of antho on the shoulders. That was back in July/early August. Today, when I picked more from the off-type, the color was much richer. Absolutely loved the taste, sweet with a fruity note, and gorgeous inside.

Can’t find a photo of the whole plant right now, but I’ll upload it when I do. For now, here are photos on the scale and sliced. Shot both side-by-side for comparison. The 4th photo shows tomatoes from the 3rd/4th truss – they’re larger, and you can see the shape is identical but the color is off. Found a photo of the off-type truss, with the true version peeking out behind it. 🙂 Will repeat it.

On 8/29/2019 at 17:42, Sergey-EKB said:
Because my other varieties turned out super tasty and productive this year.

It’s a young variety, maybe try sourcing seeds from somewhere else? I’ve planted from three different vendors, and the taste/vine vigor fluctuated a bit, though the coloring and fruit density stayed consistent.

On 8/29/2019 at 21:33, Alisa said:
It’s a young variety, maybe try sourcing seeds from somewhere else?

I appreciate it, but Lucid Gem clearly just can’t hack our harsh Ural climate. You can fix almost any growing issue, but you can’t fix bad flavor.

On 8/29/2019 at 21:12, Amarant said:
Found a photo of the off-type truss… Will repeat it.

I saved seeds from an off-type exactly like that four years ago and kept growing it out every year just for the taste and yield—mine just has a bit more antho and smaller fruit. In this weird season, the flavor took a hit, but I might regrow it from seeds I saved the year before last. Originally I called it “Red Lucid Gem”, but this year it threw crimson fruits, so now it’s “Crimson Lucid Gem” )))

I was processing seeds today and finally tasted my Lucid Gem. Extremely tasty! Out of all my blue tomatoes (Amethyst Jewel, Blue Pear, Alice’s Dream, Sgt. Pepper’s, Pascal de Picardie), it’s easily the best tasting. I bet the folks complaining about it being bland just picked it too early and didn’t let it fully ripen.

Grew it again, and once again it blew me away with its looks and flavor 😘

On 8/29/2019 at 17:42, Sergey-EKB said:
Maybe it just lacked heat in our cool summer?

This year wasn’t great for Lucid Gem here either (growing it for the 3rd year from my 3rd seed source). When nights stayed around 57-61 F (14-16 C) with moderate daytime heat, the sugars were super high. But when the nights tanked to 46-50 F (8-10 C) and the days were scorching hot, it tasted like a supermarket tomato (either totally bland or sour). Impossible to predict what the weather will throw at us next year. Yield was low this season; only 4 full trusses averaging 3.5-5.3 oz (100-150 g) each, ripened mid-to-late. I’ll grow it again, but gonna try a new seed source.

For me, this variety pumped out mid-early. It was the second one, right behind Divnoye Divo, to pack on the sugars, which totally won me over. Gonna repeat it next year hoping it earns a permanent slot as my go-to early-mid variety that sweetens up before the big mid-season slicers come in.

Seeds from Popenko. Growing for the second year and thrilled every time. Powerful vine, ran it to 2-3 stems. Sets every single blossom without skipping. It had a prime spot in the greenhouse – spacious, sunny, and soil heavily amended with rabbit manure. Didn’t get nitrogen burn; foliage was thick and dark green. Barely got sick. Gorgeous fruits, 3.5-10.5 oz (100-300 g), super sweet when vine-ripened, and honestly just as good when picked green and ripened off the vine. Loved this tomato, definitely growing it again.

On 8/29/2019 at 14:20, Sergey-EKB said:
Sour, cardboard supermarket taste.

I had two completely different tomatoes grow from a single seed pack: one had pinkish-crimson marbling inside and tasted out of this world, while the second had pale yellow flesh, a denser texture, and a bland, watery taste. Outwardly, the plants and fruits looked identical.

Seeds from Ilya Korolev. Grew in the greenhouse. Strong vine, set every single truss all the way to the top. Heavy yielder, incredibly tasty. Easily the best tasting tomato for me in the 2019 season. Color was yellow-orange with a dark antho cap, no off-types. Keeping this one permanently, I’ll always run at least 1-2 vines. Want to do a side-by-side with Alice’s Dream for 2020.

On 8/29/2019 at 17:42, Sergey-EKB said:
Maybe it just lacked heat in our cool summer?

Maybe just cumulatively. For us, Lucid gets significantly sweeter when the cool nights hit in late Aug/early Sept. Actually, it gets EVEN sweeter, though you’d swear it couldn’t get any better. The sugar levels rival yellow cherry tomatoes, just with a heavier fruity tartness that gives it an intense punch of flavor. You really have to watch your temperature balance – tomatoes stop uptaking potassium (and stop building sugars) when it’s either too hot or too cold.

Grew it in the greenhouse this year. Medium sized, uniform, and in our zone it wasn’t late at all; started picking July 11 (seeded late Feb, potted up in April, planted out May 3). Flavor-wise, it was practically a carbon copy of BK+P20, but BK+P20 yielded better for me, had denser flesh, and ripened about a week later. Seeds for both from Kulik. When ripe, ours is a deep dark orange with red marbling inside. Plus antho on the shoulders and sides.

The vine is wispy (but not weak) with sparse foliage, and carries that classic “blue” tint on the stems and leaves. Never got sick and every single fruit ripened fully on the vine.

Running one vine in the poly greenhouse. Fruits on the first truss are smaller than on the second.

On 9/24/2019 at 21:05, Alisa said:
but when night temps were 46-50 F (8-10 C) and days were extremely hot, it tasted like a supermarket tomato (either totally bland or sour).

Alisa, that’s gotta be exactly why it flopped for me. I wouldn’t even call it sour—there was just zero taste at all. I’m still holding out hope and will definitely try growing it again from a few different seed sources, just to see if I can pull it off.

On 8/1/2020 at 17:52, T@tk@ said:
will definitely try growing it again from a few different seed sources

But why? You’re just gonna get the same result. I tossed it last year solely because of the taste. Pure supermarket tomato. Looks like it fails even in a hot summer, seeing as we both had the exact same experience. You just grew it this year, and I grew it in 2019 when it was much cooler.

On 8/1/2020 at 18:23, Sergey-EKB said:
But why?

Sergey, I mostly agree with you, but part of me is still clinging to the hope that it failed because of the hot days and cold nights. Plus, I’ve got that stubborn gardener’s curiosity going 😁… Though, our summers get worse and more unpredictable every year 😞 Honestly, with so many new varieties piling up on my wish list, I’ll probably put off re-growing this one until we get a reliably good season.

On 8/1/2020 at 18:23, Sergey-EKB said:
But why? You’re just gonna get the same result.

Well, it’s a permanent staple for me now, just a super variety. Both last summer and this year, the flavor was outstanding—everyone in the house loved it. And it’s stunning on the vine and sliced. My photos and notes from last year are higher up in this thread; having issues uploading pics right now, but I’ll add them this fall. Btw, fruits are almost twice as big this year. So just because it flopped for you, doesn’t mean everyone else will have a bad run with it.

On 8/1/2020 at 20:58, Amarant said:
So just because it flopped for you, doesn’t mean everyone else will have a bad run with it.

Happy for you, but looking at this thread, I’m clearly not the only one who got burned by it. It’s a southern variety, plain and simple—not meant for northern zones where plenty of other varieties easily beat it on yield and taste. Why bother growing these if you can get the same cardboard taste from the store. Guess it wasn’t the cold nights after all…

On 8/1/2020 at 21:20, Sergey-EKB said:
It’s a southern variety, plain and simple… Guess it wasn’t the cold nights after all…

I’m definitely nowhere near the south. And we had a freezing cold May and June. So the taste isn’t strictly dictated by weather. Btw, I have another plant outdoors right now that hasn’t fully ripened yet. We’ll see how the flavor turns out on that one. Tonight and the next two nights are only gonna hit 46-48 F (+8-9 C). 😞

On 8/1/2020 at 21:25, Amarant said:
I’m definitely nowhere near the south…

Compared to us, Nizhny Novgorod is basically the south. And what works in Nizhny doesn’t always translate to the north and east of Russia. If anything, your experience just confirms that Lucid Gem doesn’t work for us up here.

Maybe mine just isn’t fully ripe yet, but I shot a video of the tasting and cut. Very sour. Gonna let the others hang on the vine a bit longer and see if they sweeten up.

Totally different experience with the fully ripe ones. The flavor is just fantastic, and the crimson marbling on the inside is beautiful.

Lucid Gem. Grew this gorgeous, tasty gem again 😘 Did great in the greenhouse and even outdoors 👍 (Had 2 plants rough it out through rain, cold, and a late blight wave).

For me, this one and Divnoye Divo are staples now; I always start them early. They load up on sugars fast and hold up great against junk weather. Already penciled in for next year. Good flavor.

On 10/2/2020 at 09:09, Nata N. said:
Already penciled in for next year. Good flavor.

Hey! How in the world are you getting fruits that heavy? What’s the trick? My Lucid Gems are half the size.

On 10/2/2020 at 09:38, Alisa said:
Hey! How in the world are you getting fruits that heavy?

Hey Irina! My tomatoes pack on a ton of weight after I top the vines, and in early summer they bulk up strictly from heavy watering. Keep in mind I’m up North; we rarely get scorching heat, so the plants aren’t wasting water on transpiration like they do in your zone.

Incredibly long keeper and shrugs off fungal rots when ripening off the vine. Check out my review in the Chukhloma thread.

Grew it during this insanely hot 2020 summer. In the poly greenhouse (same as last year), flavor was identical – very sweet with a nice fruity tartness (almost like lemonade). The antho doesn’t bother me or my family; the aftertaste just adds a nice spicy kick. Stays pretty small for me, getting even smaller toward the top trusses. Decent clusters, average yield, bright and unforgettable flavor, and it’s a real looker like all orange anthos.

But this year it acted mid-season, almost mid-late, instead of mid-early! It totally swapped timelines with P20+BK. Stalled out and refused to set fruit forever, then suddenly dropped a massive cluster all at once. Pushed out crazy amounts of suckers (even though it wasn’t suffering from nitrogen burn) and constantly tried splitting into double/triple vines. Just behaved really weirdly. Meanwhile, the normally mid-late P20+BK turned out super early in 2020.

Almost the earliest thing in the greenhouse. Total anomaly. Taste-wise, Lucid Gem is almost a dead ringer for P20+BK, but BK is slightly denser, a bit larger, and out-yields it for me (and I find it sweeter, too). I picked up a few new orange anthos from Sofia this year, so for 2021 I’ll run BK+P20 and the newbies in the greenhouse, and let Lucid Gem sit on the bench.

One amazing thing about this variety – it counter-ripens flawlessly, even from completely green, and stores like a rock. If you pull it with just a blush, it ripens inside with almost zero flavor loss. If pulled completely green, it loses a little punch but still ends up sweeter than most. Will crack occasionally from watering swings or temp drops, but doesn’t rot; the split just scabs over with a clear film.

Up here, Lucid Gem shines in the cooler late Aug-Sept weather, when nights hit 46-50 F (+8-+10 C) and days are warm but not scorching. It’s still tasty in the heat, though – not watery – it just needs to fully vine-ripen, like any antho. Because of the dark shoulders and dusting, they often look ripe before they actually are. Gotta wait for the belly to hit a deep, rich orange. And it should feel soft. Same rule applies when ripening off the vine. If a blushing fruit tastes watery, leave the rest on the counter for another 3-7 days; they’ll finish sweetening up.

Found the photo. Cracked from violent temp swings and long rains. Picked from the shady side, so barely any antho. Underripe by my standards because I had to pull them due to the cracks; they should be much more orange.

Growing in the greenhouse. Insanely tasty! And beautiful! Seeds from Lyudmila. Huge thanks! 🥰

Lucid Gem out here in southern conditions.

Planted 1 vine outside in 2021. Hit about 5 ft (1.5 m), ran it to 3 vines. Produced a heavy yield for me. Fruits averaged around 7 oz (200 g). Gorgeous, looks like they’re glowing from the inside; once fully ripe, the antho basically vanishes. Flavor is sweet, juicy, with that weird lemonade kick people mentioned earlier. Never got sick, laughed off 104F+ (40C+) in full sun.

Poltava. Outdoors in open ground. Had a few plants. Ran them to 2-3 vines. Fruits look a lot like Alice’s Dream. But I actually preferred Lucid Gem, even though Alice is a great one too. Permanent spot in my garden.

As the newest guy on the forum, I noticed there wasn’t a thread under “Ya” for Yarkiy Samotsvet (Lucid Gem) from Brad Gates. Maybe it’s buried in another subforum, but I couldn’t find it. Apologies if I’m double-posting 😞

The plant is an indet; mine blew past 6.5 ft (2 meters) outdoors, had to top it. Beautiful and delicious tomato (even pulling it green and counter-ripening it, the taste only got better). The fruits match the description exactly—flat-round, uniform, smooth, you just wanna hold them, weighing in around 5.3-7 oz (150-200 grams). My first truss with seven tomatoes snapped right off while totally green, so that was a total bust.

Grew 2 vines in different spots. One in partial shade, the other baking in full sun all day. Didn’t notice a massive difference, but the ones in the shade actually colored up a bit brighter, or so it seemed.

Overall, it was a massive hit with the family—bright orange/brownish, juicy, sweet. Didn’t really catch the tropical fruit notes the breeders advertise (but my palate probably isn’t that refined 🙂).