Summer Sun F1 Tomato Review & Photos

According to the official website of the Israeli company Hazera Genetics, which breeds, produces, and sells vegetable seeds, 1 kg of Summer Sun tomato seeds was sold to European growers for a record price of $350,000 USD! Summer Sun tomatoes feature a warm yellow color and an elevated sugar content, making them incredibly sweet to the taste.

According to Hazera Genetics marketing director Eran Shafrir, the demand for small cherry tomatoes in Europe is constantly growing. European consumers are willing to pay a premium for unique tomato flavor, as well as for the high beta-carotene content, an antioxidant that helps prevent many diseases. As a result, retail prices for these tomatoes in EU supermarkets reach up to 20 euros/kg.

Edited February 2, 2015 by Drosera

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Angelina, what was your personal take on the flavor, especially compared to other famous cherries we all know (like Honey Drop, for example)? Please share!

I’ve had the seeds sitting around since last year, I just ran out of room in the garden, so I’m planning to plant it next year.

Summer Sun F1 cherry, Hazera Genetics, Israel. An absolute masterpiece among cherries! It’s an indet vine, beautiful foliage, gorgeous amber-colored trusses. Completely fuss-free to grow, extremely productive, it just sets fruit and grows endlessly. The fruits are amber, they practically glow. Very tasty, juicy, sweet, with a distinct honey flavor! I’ve never tasted a sweeter cherry. Just super! The plant itself is absolutely stunning, you could grow it instead of ivy around a gazebo!

Vikusya, it’s a hybrid, right?

Does anyone know if it grows true to type from F2 saved seeds?

Elena, I think it’ll be a total crapshoot. No guarantees.

tomatinka said:
Elena, I think it’ll be a total crapshoot. No guarantees.

Yeah, Vera, especially considering our habit of only planting 1 vine of each variety 😉! I wonder where I can get my hands on this miracle, I really love cherry tomatoes.

Edited September 8, 2014 by Danko

Danko said:
Does anyone know if it grows true to type from F2 saved seeds?

Elena, this season I specifically planted the F1 (original commercial seeds) right next to the F2 (my home-saved seeds from last year). I honestly didn’t notice any difference, I planted 4 vines of each. But the F3 will probably segregate a lot more.

My Summer Sun, which always warms my soul 😍

Edited September 8, 2014 by Mila

Mila, so is yours an OP variety or the hybrid?

My Summer Sun F2 threw simple trusses, only about eight fruits per cluster 😞 The vine itself is incredibly vigorous and strong. I haven’t tasted the cherries yet, they are still ripening, turned out to be really late for me.

Marisha said:
Mila, so is yours an OP variety or the hybrid?

There is no such thing as an OP Summer Sun variety, there is only Summer Sun F1-F3. Let’s not make things up guys, the seeds have only been in Russia for 2 years, there’s absolutely no way it has been de-hybridized and stabilized into an open-pollinated variety in that amount of time.

Edited September 9, 2014 by vikysia

vikysia said:
Let’s not make things up guys, the seeds have only been in Russia for 2 years… there’s absolutely no way it has been de-hybridized and stabilized into an open-pollinated variety.

The problem is that, as far as I know, there are no more original Summer Sun F1 seeds left in Russia, and it’s unlikely any more will show up. So the only option left is de-hybridizing it.

To do this, I planted 20 vines of “Summer Sun” F2. I selected the absolute best plant based on all traits (yield, taste, fruit size, fruits per truss, leaf shape, plant height, etc.), which actually turned out to be arguably better than the original F1. I saved F3 seeds from that specific plant. In my experience, an F3 selected this carefully (not just randomly saved) is already fairly stable. The de-hybridization process has begun! 🎉

Angelina, that is basically higher math as far as I’m concerned 😛 Thanks so much for the info and for all your hard work!

Found some fall photos. This is Sept 12th, the upper trusses at about 5 ft (1.5 m) high. We had drops down to 32°F (0°C) at night, but they handled it perfectly and I picked them. They ripened up nicely indoors afterward, barely losing any flavor. Down below you can see a covered Bush Butternut squash.

Edited November 15, 2014 by vikysia

Is Medovina Solntsa (I think it’s a Serbian variety?) the same thing as Summer Sun?

Asya said:
Is Medovina Solntsa the same thing as Summer Sun?

No, the Serbian Medovina Solntsa (Honey Sun) is a different variety. The trusses hold way fewer fruits, and the tomatoes are larger and more oval. Mine were pretty bland tasting fresh. But they were actually quite good for canning.

My Summer Sun from Angelina was sent as a gift and has Potato Leaf (PL) foliage. It’s already taller than everything else planted in my greenhouse. The distance between trusses is about 16 inches (40 cm), roughly every 3 leaves. The trusses are very small for a cherry (only about 8 fruits so far). Based on the blossom size it’s definitely a cherry.

I’m really regretting putting it in the greenhouse (I planted 2 vines). The plant structure is very loose and spindly, and there’s no shading because they are the tallest plants in there.

Here are the two Summer Sun vines in the greenhouse, tallest plants in there. Trusses:

Cherry Summer Sun F2, home-saved seed grown by my friend in Karaganda. It replicated the original F1 perfectly, you literally couldn’t tell them apart. Color, yield, and taste were just like the F1.

Angelina, are the Summer Sun seeds in your shop grown by you? Would those be F3 generation?

Summer Sun had terrible yields for me. I grew it in the greenhouse, it took up a ton of space, and I barely got a handful of single fruits off it 🤷‍♀️

Extremely tasty and productive variety!!! These photos are from September 13th.

My Summer Sun, seeds from Angelina. Pruned it to 3 stems. It set fruit all summer in the greenhouse but only started to ripen in September. I think in our climate zone we shouldn’t let it grow on more than 2 stems. The tomatoes are incredibly delicious, sweet, and firm. They crunch like grapes. It’s still growing in the greenhouse, haven’t pulled the vine yet. All photos were taken in late September.

kalinka said:
Summer Sun had terrible yields for me. I grew it in the greenhouse, it took up a ton of space, and I barely got a handful of single fruits off it 🤷‍♀️

Kalinka, even in a terrible tomato year, this variety delivers a solid yield 👍 I can’t even imagine it only giving a handful of single fruits 😲

Summer Sun loves to eat. I only grow it in a heavily amended, warm bed in the greenhouse. If you don’t give it proper nutrients and conditions, then yeah, the yield might be sad. 😛

Angelina, I’m so grateful to you for the Summer Sun. So sweet, and huge for a cherry! Grew it outdoors, and on October 8th there were still tomatoes on the vine.

Marina X, Angelina answered this on the first page:
(Quotes Angelina’s earlier post about selecting F2 to create F3 seeds).

Once more on the topic of de-hybridizing. If you just grab seeds from any random F2 or F3 plant, that is NOT de-hybridizing. Anything could grow from that.

This year, to further stabilize Summer Sun, I started 20 cups with 10 seeds in each. In every cup, I selected the strongest, absolute best seedling that had Potato Leaf (PL) foliage, and culled the rest. I planted those 20 vines outdoors in the dirt, and I only saved seed from the single best vine (judged on yield, flavor, etc). So it was the best out of two hundred plants.

For the F3 generation, over 80% of the seedlings came up with Potato Leaf, which means last year I picked the correct plant to save seed from. The F1 had Potato Leaf, the F2 had about a 50% split with Regular Leaf. I am now selling F4 seeds. 🤠

Wait, was the original F1 hybrid Regular Leaf or Potato Leaf?

Alisa, Angelina wrote that the original hybrid (F1) was Potato Leaf.

Angelina, thank you for the thorough answer. I didn’t even know you could do it that way. But what a massive amount of work! I’m going to go order some seeds now 😊

Angelina said:
…For the F3 generation, over 80% of the seedlings came up with Potato Leaf… The F1 had Potato Leaf, the F2 had about a 50% split with Regular Leaf.

Why were some of the plants Regular Leaf?

The genotype for Potato Leaf is recessive (c/c). There shouldn’t be any segregation.

Marina X said:
Alisa, Angelina wrote that the original hybrid (F1) was Potato Leaf.

Could you point me to Angelina’s quote? I somehow missed that detail in her posts.

The reason I’m asking is because in the photos posted in this thread where the foliage is visible, I’m clearly seeing Regular Leaf, not Potato Leaf.

Drosera said:
The genotype for Potato Leaf is recessive (c/c). There shouldn’t be any segregation.

I bought a new variety from Li Gunvin this year that the breeder claimed was Potato Leaf, but mine grew out as Regular Leaf. Li said he could replace the seeds with PL ones, but I’m perfectly happy with the regular leaf. Everything else about the description matched perfectly – maturity, color, shape.

Also, when buying hybrids/segregating lines at the F5 or F6 stage from famous breeders this year, their descriptions clearly warn that the buyer might get either RL or PL. Here is my translation of one of Redko’s descriptions:

“Delta Diver Yellow… This variety may segregate for leaf type (leaf may be regular or potato). 2014 breeding line from Blane Horton.”

If we don’t stray from the topic, if Summer Sun F1 truly has Potato Leaf, segregation is genetically impossible.

Summer Sun F1 is a hybrid, meaning it’s the product of intentional cross-pollination of two or more parent lines. If one parent had PL and the other had RL, why couldn’t there be segregation in the F2-F7 generations?

And I’m really not convinced that the F1 form had Potato Leaf to begin with. At the very least, looking at the photos in this thread, I’m seeing Regular Leaf.

Edited October 14, 2015 by Alisa

Alisa said:
If one parent had PL and the other had RL, why couldn’t there be segregation in the F2-F7 generations?

Because if that was the cross, Summer Sun F1 would have to be Regular Leaf, since RL is the dominant gene and will express in the first generation.

And yes, I agree, you can’t see Potato Leaf on the F1 hybrid in any of these photos, and it’s not mentioned in the official description 🙂.

What I don’t understand is why “Potato Leaf” was chosen as the primary selection trait when trying to stabilize Summer Sun F1. The main defining characteristics of this hybrid are the incredibly sweet taste and the complex, high-yielding trusses.

Found a photo of the original F1 online. Definitely Regular Leaf.

Ladies, I can guarantee you that the original Summer Sun F1 from Hazera Genetics in Israel has REGULAR leaves. I know this because I got my seeds directly from the company’s rep, firsthand. There were only 100 of those seeds available in all of Russia at the time.

Angelina originally got her seeds from Yura Kuzminykh. He obviously sold her the second generation, his home-saved F2 seeds. That’s exactly why she saw leaf segregation either immediately or in the third generation.

Let’s not mislead people and try to pass off wishful thinking as reality. It’s honestly kind of insulting to the hybrid and to Hazera… They spent years breeding and testing this to make it arguably the sweetest cherry in the world. They patented it. And you guys think you can turn it into an OP variety in 2-3 years?

In my seed catalog, I always state clearly: second generation, home-saved seed, traits may segregate. Even though technically we don’t even have the right to sell that. I look at the photos of what is growing out of these 3rd and 4th generation seeds now, and the fruit shape isn’t even perfectly round anymore, and the trusses look totally different…

Edited October 15, 2015 by vikysia

vikysia said:
I look at the photos of what is growing out of these 3rd and 4th generation seeds now, and the fruit shape isn’t even perfectly round anymore, and the trusses look totally different…

That’s exactly what happened to mine! The shape isn’t perfectly round anymore, and while the trusses are heavy, they aren’t like the original source. The taste seems to carry over though, they are sweet! 😋

Yes, Elena, the flavor is definitely holding on strong so far! 👍 Lev Shishkin grew his in the greenhouse and it reached 13 ft (4 m) or higher, he had to lean and lower it every which way 😄 it produced right up until the very end… he was absolutely thrilled with it, he even snapped off the suckers and rooted them so he’d have a decent plant for next season. I asked him why bother? I’m just going to send him more seeds anyway… 😄

I planted three vines this year: two with regular leaves and one with potato leaves 🙈 The fruits on the regular leaf plants were smaller than the ones on the potato leaf plant (which looked exactly like the size in the photos) 😳 It’s a shame I don’t have any pictures (didn’t have time for that over the summer 😞).

Hey Lena! Did you get your seeds from me? That’s weird, my fruits this year were perfectly round, not a single hint of a different shape 😳 😳 😳

My seeds were from Angelina, F3 generation, Potato Leaf. Trusses held 9 fruits, round, sweet, and crunchy. They did split when I canned them in jars though.

I didn’t save any seeds from them, but I might replant using the leftover seeds from last year.

vikysia said:
Initially the F1 was Regular Leaf.

Okay, now everything makes sense. In the F2 generation, leaf type segregation follows a 3:1 ratio (Regular / Potato). And going forward, the “Regular” ones will continue to segregate.

It’s a total lottery, obviously. So many different forms have popped up already: complex and simple trusses, potato and regular leaves, different fruit sizes and shapes…

Mila said:
I planted three vines this year: two with regular leaves and one with potato leaves 🙈 The fruits on the regular leaf plants were smaller than the ones on the potato leaf plant…

That’s probably why Angelina specifically selects the Potato Leaf ones. Plus, down South, the heavier Potato Leaf foliage keeps the fruits from getting baked in the sun. So both leaf types have their place, as long as yield and flavor don’t suffer and your climate allows for growing PL varieties.

Alisa said:
That’s probably why Angelina specifically selects the Potato Leaf ones… So both leaf types have their place, as long as yield and flavor don’t suffer…

Fruit size, flavor, and yield have absolutely no genetic correlation with leaf type.

Drosera said:
Fruit size, flavor, and yield have absolutely no genetic correlation with leaf type.

Leaves are first and foremost the factory that feeds the fruit. If leaves convert sunlight into sugars, then a larger leaf surface area delivers more sugars to the fruit.

Quote:
Foliage. A lot of leaves can capture a lot of sunlight, so a plant with dense, healthy foliage can convert more sunlight into sugars and other flavorful components. Heirloom varieties have a greater percentage of leaf than do market-ready hybrids, which may partially explain their flavor. Do all you can to keep leaves healthy. (http://bonnieplants.com/library/the-basics-of-tomato-flavor/)

The role of the leaf on a tomato plant is massive.

Quote:
After all, the leaf is the kitchen that prepares the unique cocktail feeding the fruit. By plucking off a leaf, we sharply reduce the flow of nutrients to the fruit and decrease the yield. Therefore, be careful when pruning leaves; do not rush to expose the fruit clusters if the fruit mass has not yet reached its limit. (Lyudmila Shubina, PhD in Agricultural Sciences, Senior Researcher.)

Drosera said:
Okay, now everything makes sense. In the F2 generation, leaf type segregation follows a 3:1 ratio… It’s a total lottery…

Yeah, of course… it’s a heterotic hybrid, de-hybridizing it perfectly is nearly impossible- it’s always going to differ from the original somewhat…

Mila said:
The fruits on the regular leaf plants were smaller than the ones on the potato leaf plant (which looked exactly like the size in the photos)… It’s a shame I don’t have any pictures…

They aren’t supposed to be large. The F1 fruits are about 0.7-0.9 oz (20-25 g), I’ve weighed them myself.

Drosera said:
Fruit size, flavor, and yield have absolutely no genetic correlation with leaf type.

Agreed. Plus, I also had a vine with PL foliage, and both the RL and PL plants were very “delicate,” not massive elephant-ear leaves… The fruits on the PL plant were completely normal- round and small, exactly as they should be.

Let people grow “Summer Sun with surprises” in their gardens all they want, but it has almost nothing to do with the original Summer Sun F1 from Hazera anymore.

Seeds are from Angelina. All of them came up Potato Leaf, beautiful little miniatures 👍 Planted on February 17th.

I still don’t get it, is the real one supposed to have Potato Leaf or not? 🤷‍♀️ I’m growing it this year… mine came up with Potato Leaf…

Ninulik0980 said:
I still don’t get it, is the real one supposed to have Potato Leaf or not?

Nina, the real one has Potato Leaf 🙌

Mila said:
Nina, the real one has Potato Leaf 🙌

Awesome!!! That’s what I have!!! 🎉 🎉 🎉 I’m guarding it like the apple of my eye… out of 4 seeds, only two germinated, and only one little plant actually survived.

I’m pretty surprised so far: the first two trusses are straight, but the higher trusses are fanning out. It’s turning out to be a pretty late tomato for me. Planted on Feb 17th, fruits are still a bit small and naturally not ripening yet 😉

Mine turned out to be early, it was in the top 5 varieties to start ripening. Very tasty, sweet. I started all my greenhouse seeds on February 23rd.

Mine also started ripening among the first. It’s not a massive harvest yet, but I’ve already tasted it. Delicious 😋 So sweet 😋 Definitely staying in my permanent collection.

Olviya said:
Mine turned out to be early, it was in the top 5 varieties to start ripening…

Olya! When did you transplant it into the greenhouse? And was it a really big plant when it was still a seedling?

Elena 62 said:
Olya! When did you transplant it into the greenhouse? And was it a really big plant when it was still a seedling?

Len, I honestly don’t remember anything about the seedling stage. I had an absolute jungle on my windowsills, plants stacked 4 rows deep. Thank god I at least labeled them all.

In the greenhouse, the vine was about 3.3 ft (1 m) tall, but I had absolutely no water until late July. Everything in the greenhouse survived with zero irrigation, just sucking whatever moisture they could get from the soil outside the greenhouse walls. Absolutely every variety I grew ended up shorter than its advertised height.

I transplanted them into the greenhouse around May 10-15.

Adding an update on the variety: when I cleaned out the greenhouse, I picked about a quart (1 L) of totally green Summer Suns. They ripened indoors for about a month, and we are eating them now. Still sweet! Literal candy.

I grew two vines this season – one was Potato Leaf, the other Regular Leaf. Seeds were from Angelina.

The Potato Leaf vine turned out massive. The fruits were on the larger side, about 0.9-1 oz (25-30 g). You definitely couldn’t call it a cherry, it was more of a cocktail size. Fruits were slightly elongated, yellow with very faint orange marbling, and extremely sweet.

The second vine (RL) was wimpy. Barely any fruits on it, they were tiny, and they took forever to ripen, hanging on until October. The skin was on the tough side, and the flavor was just bland/non-existent.

Elena_Ch said:
The Potato Leaf vine turned out massive… very sweet. The second vine (RL) was wimpy… flavor was just bland.

So that means we should cull the regular leaf seedlings and only keep the potato leaf ones?

Time to show off my little suns. Thanks to Larisa (Larina) for the Summer Sun seeds. I’ll definitely be planting from my own saved seed next year.

Please keep discussions about where to buy original Summer Sun F1 seeds to the appropriate thread:
“Summer Sun F1. Where to buy seeds?”

Listing potential sellers in the variety catalog section is off-topic.

The original F1 is super expensive here too – 1.5 euros per seed, and you have to buy a minimum of 100 seeds. The company rep in our state couldn’t find enough people willing to split a 100-pack. He kept reminding everyone that it’s a “high-tech hybrid” (not meant for backyard gardens).

So I just bought a pack of these tomatoes at the REWE supermarket (they actually label the varieties on the packaging more often here now). Not all of them were tasty, but it was already winter. I dug the seeds out of the ripest ones – basically an infinite number of seeds in just one cherry.

I planted 4 seeds, they all popped. Broke one by accident in the spring, planted the other 3 under a plastic tunnel. They grew to almost 10 ft (3 m). We had to bend them under the 8 ft (2.5 m) roof, and then it just stopped growing on its own. The trusses were mostly double-forked (16 fruits) and a few triple-forked ones too.

The leaves started wilting and yellowing earlier than on my other cherries, which means they demand extra feeding. They are sweet, absolutely zero acid. The breeding company itself rates the flavor a 10 out of 12 (very good). Its main competitor here in the stores is Yellow Cerise (which is an OP variety), and we actually like Cerise better because of the sweet-acid balance.

Conclusion:
This is a purely commercial hybrid meant to be grown hydroponically in commercial greenhouses, which of course doesn’t stop us backyard gardeners from trying it! 👍

In the fall, I picked some pale ones to ripen indoors. They sat there for a whole 1.5 months refusing to ripen – picked pale, stayed pale (great shelf life!), but they completely lost all flavor.

My kids ate them right off the vine at first, but later on, they completely ignored them. They found better flavors and colors in my other cherry varieties (Malachite Box, all the bicolors, Ampelny, Black Cherry, KBH…).

I honestly regretted giving up 3 prime spots under my tunnel for it. Not growing it next year.

Anyone who has contacts with European tomato growers can easily get F2 seeds. Just buy them in the supermarket, squeeze out the seeds, and mail them. I mailed some out to folks on the forum; if the letters arrive by New Year’s, the girls will let us know.

By the way, you can only call the foliage “Potato Leaf” when they are very young seedlings. It’s just not heavily serrated yet. After a few days, the normal serrated leaves appear and all traces of Potato Leaf vanish.
F2 hybrid seedling on the left:

Every year I plant the seeds Angelina sends me 👍 The harvest is just absolutely phenomenal 😲 Photos are from 2016 😋 😋

Grows in the greenhouse in a heavily amended warm bed, just like my other varieties. I’m constantly doing foliar and root feedings; without them, there’s no way in hell you could grow a literal wall of tomatoes like this!!! 📝

My Summer Sun grew outdoors in the dirt. Out of the seeds I sowed, half came up Regular Leaf, and the other half Potato Leaf. I purposely planted two different ones side-by-side because I was curious to see what would happen 😄

In the end, both vines were the exact same height, with the exact same trusses, and absolutely identical tomatoes.

I really loved this tomato; sweet and crunchy. It’s going on my mandatory grow list for next season, but I’ll try it in the greenhouse. I saved seed from the Potato Leaf vine.

This year I’ll be growing from my own saved seed. I sowed 7 seeds, all 7 popped. One seedling had Regular Leaf foliage – I pinched it off and tossed it. The remaining 6 plants are Potato Leaf.

cat2008 said:
…One seedling had Regular Leaf foliage – I pinched it off and tossed it. The remaining 6 plants are Potato Leaf.

You shouldn’t have tossed it. The original F1 has Regular Leaves. I grew the actual F1 original, and from there F2 seeds spread across Russia. I’m already on the third generation, and mine gave me a split – both Regular and Potato leaves.

I’ve been saving seeds from the Regular Leaf vines, I just like them better and they are closer to the original. But honestly, it doesn’t really matter, it’s still a long way from being a stabilized OP variety anyway.

vikysia said:
You shouldn’t have tossed it… I’ve been saving seeds from the Regular Leaf vines…

Victoria, I’m already regretting pinching it off 😄

Like I wrote above, the two vines with different leaf types were completely identical for me. But when it came time to save seeds, I asked around on the forum and people told me to save from the Potato Leaf one. I still have some of my seeds left – maybe I should sow a few more and specifically pick out a Regular Leaf seedling?

cat2008 said:
I still have some of my seeds left – maybe I should sow a few more and specifically pick out a Regular Leaf seedling?

What’s the point? Though personally, I liked the Regular Leaf vine better based on the trusses and the flavor compared to the PL one; I specifically compared them side-by-side this season. You can sow some more, it’s definitely not too late.

vikysia said:
What’s the point? Though personally, I liked the Regular Leaf vine better…

Yeah, there’s probably no point… for me they performed exactly the same. Guess I’ll just stick to growing the Potato Leaf ones 🙂

cat2008 said:
Yeah, there’s probably no point… for me they performed exactly the same. Guess I’ll just stick to growing the Potato Leaf ones 🙂

Oksana, my Potato Leaf vines had noticeably larger fruits. I plant 4 vines in the greenhouse, so the difference is very obvious to me 😲 😲 😲 😲

The fruits on the original Summer Sun F1 average about 0.9 oz (25 g). The 3rd generation home-saved seeds (and onward) can produce larger fruits, oval fruits, etc. – it’s actively segregating. It just comes down to personal preference. It’s obviously not stable yet, everyone is getting different results so far…

Mila said:
Oksana, my Potato Leaf vines had noticeably larger fruits…

Mila, if mine get larger but manage to keep that exact same flavor – I’d be absolutely thrilled 🙂

Out of the hundreds of varieties I’ve grown, I’ve never encountered a tomato this delicious 👍

cat2008 said:
Out of the hundreds of varieties I’ve grown, I’ve never encountered a tomato this delicious 👍

Oksana, I am just so in love with it, the flavor is out of this world 😋 😋 😋 😋 My daughter literally refuses to eat any other tomato 😋

Ladies, when do you usually sow this one? I just sowed mine today – I hope it’s not too late? I got seeds from two different girls on the forum, so I have absolutely no idea what F-generation I’m even growing. But after reading all these reviews I’m dying to try it. 🙂

All of mine popped up with Potato Leaf. I want to plant it outdoors in the dirt. Is one vine enough, or should I do a couple since it’s supposedly so delicious? Space is super tight.

Yulia, not too late at all, perfectly normal time to sow.

Olya, I grew it outdoors. Yield wasn’t anything crazy, definitely not the absolute wall of tomatoes like Mila showed in her photos. But the flavor is genuinely super sweet. You can safely plant 2 vines outdoors.

o-lya-lya said:
All of mine popped up with Potato Leaf. I want to plant it outdoors in the dirt. Is one vine enough, or should I do a couple…

Hey Olya! In our Moscow region soil/climate… there is very little chance Summer Sun will ripen in time outdoors!!!! My fruits only start turning yellow in early August, and that’s with them growing in a heavily amended warm bed, with no crowding around them 😛 😛 😄 😄 I feed them constantly 📝 📝 📝 📝 Basically, it gets extreme VIP treatment 😳 😳 😲

Mila, mine managed to ripen on the vine outdoors. Yes, it isn’t early, and obviously it would be much happier in a greenhouse. But the variety is 100% worth the extra hassle 👍 The yield is definitely lower outdoors. Mine had Potato leaves.

Home-saved seeds from the Summer Sun F1 hybrid. If I sow them late, the top trusses don’t always manage to fully ripen on the vine before the season ends for me either. The second generation perfectly retained the traits of the original – just look at the trusses and fruit shape. It yields quite well outdoors in the dirt.

TatyanaSh said:
Mila, mine managed to ripen on the vine outdoors… But the variety is 100% worth the extra hassle 👍

Tanyush, my stance is firm: to see Summer Sun in all its true glory, it MUST be in a greenhouse (I’m probably growing like 10 stems of it in there 👍 👍 👍). This season I’ve got about 20 seedlings going, I’m selectively picking out the Potato Leaf ones. I’m putting 4 vines in the greenhouse, and I’ll spend two solid weeks prepping that bed (pulling out all the stops 👍 👍!!!!!).

Mila, I totally agree, it definitely does better in a greenhouse here. But since I don’t have one, I’m just glad I at least got to taste the tomatoes.

Super! 👍

I’m going to sow mine on March 16-17th for outdoor growing. I saved seeds from the absolute best Regular Leaf vine. We’ll see how unstable it is based on what leaves pop up…

My “Summer Sun” seeds popped–2 plants from different seed sources. Now I’m just waiting for their true leaves to appear to see what kind I got.

m_Kallista said:
My “Summer Sun” seeds popped–2 plants from different seed sources. Now I’m just waiting for their true leaves to appear…

Hey Yulia! I’m also growing Summer Sun this year) they’re already getting pretty big (I’m only keeping 1 plant). We’ll have to compare notes later 😉

Mila, Tanya, thanks for the replies! 🌻

Mila said:
Tanyush, my stance is firm: to see Summer Sun in all its true glory, it MUST be in a greenhouse… I’m putting 4 vines in the greenhouse, and I’ll spend two solid weeks prepping that bed (pulling out all the stops 👍 👍!!!!!).

Hey Mila! 🌻 Look what you’ve done to me, huh? You’ve completely messed with my head 😄 4 vines in the greenhouse? Wow ??? There is no way I can do that, I’m way too greedy, my one greenhouse is going to be packed with nothing but new varieties this year, they’ve all already mapped out their spots in my garden journal 😄

Now I’m thinking maybe I should kick Batyanya out into the dirt, even though it breaks my heart because it’s always the very first one to ripen in my greenhouse, which is why I love it so much. If I actually go through with it, I’ll put one Summer Sun outdoors and two in the greenhouse. Ugh, it is so hard being addicted to these little besties 😄

Mila, if you get a chance, could you please write down how you prep the bed for it? 🙂

o-lya-lya said:
Hey Mila! 🌻 Look what you’ve done to me, huh? You’ve completely messed with my head 😄 4 vines in the greenhouse? Wow ??? There is no way I can do that, I’m way too greedy, my one greenhouse is going to be packed with nothing but new varieties this year, they’ve all already mapped out their spots in my garden journal 😄 Now I’m thinking maybe I should kick Batyanya out into the dirt…

Olya, in one of my greenhouses (it’s a 13 ft / 4 m one), I plant 4 vines of Summer Sun and 1 vine of Flasch on one side!!!! I don’t prune the suckers on Sun at all. At most, I’ll snap off the very bottom ones if they are in the way, and that’s it. Then, once the fruit sets, I just do the standard leaf pruning.

As for the warm bed, it’s super simple: I dig a trench, dump in old leaves and squash/pumpkin vines, top it with horse manure, and then a layer of soil…. that’s it!! After transplanting, I do foliar feeds with Megafol, Boron, Brexil Calcium, Magnesium, Plantafol…… all on a schedule. After every watering, I always dust the soil with wood ash. So yeah, that’s pretty much it.

NataNata said:
Yulia, it looks like this:

Natasha, I can finally tell now (it’s visible), both of my Summer Suns are growing with Potato Leaves, even though I got the seeds from two different girls on the forum.

The biggest disappointment of the season for me. Grew it outdoors, Potato Leaf. Gave it the absolute best sunny spot. It was the very first one to catch late blight, and the yield was… practically non-existent. The flavor didn’t impress me at all either, just totally average. I won’t be growing it again.

My Summer Sun as of today. This is just a part of the vine. I planted it horizontally in a trench, and about 8 stems shot up out of the ground. Today I picked a 7-quart (7 L) bucket of tomatoes. Bought the seeds from Angelina. Extremely sweet!

One of the sweetest tomatoes out there. Just like candy. I had 2 vines and we ate absolutely every last one. My mom specifically asked me to only pack the yellow cherries for her to take back to the city. The only downside is that the yield was a bit on the low side. I pruned it to 3-4 stems. Foliage was Regular Leaf.

F3 selection for further de-hybridization. Very productive. Photo is from mid-September, the main harvest is already picked. I saved seeds from the most productive trusses and the perfectly round fruits. Regular Leaf. Just showing its potential grown outdoors in the dirt in Siberia. Fruits are incredibly sweet, grew it with mycorrhizae. It kept growing, flowering, and setting fruit right up until the very end.

My Summer Sun didn’t ripen at all…. 😞 Literally not at all….. The tomatoes are still sitting here green, brown, and yellow….. Grew it outdoors. Maybe it just didn’t get enough sun, plus it got hammered by hail like five times…..

My Summer Sun had Potato Leaves. Yellow cherries, not very productive, but the flavor!!!! You can forgive anything for that flavor. The sweetest little tomatoes!

This is my second year growing Summer Sun. Last year it had Regular Leaf, this year I planted the Potato Leaf one. Didn’t notice much of a difference. I didn’t prune the suckers at all, just let them grow wild. Very heavy yielder. It was the very first one to start ripening in the greenhouse and the absolute last one I pulled out, picking a bunch more ripe and blushing fruits off it at the end. An extraordinarily sweet and delicious cherry. I’m definitely planting it every single year.

Edited September 29, 2017 by Tiffany

Let’s be clear, this is not an established OP variety yet. It is unstable home-saved seed from the Summer Sun F1 hybrid. That’s exactly why everyone is getting such vastly different results in maturity dates, fruit shapes, leaf types, etc. Heterosis is tough to pin down. Once it successfully replicates the original for about 5 years straight, then we can call it an OP variety. That’s why I clearly label mine as “home-saved hybrid seed, 3rd generation”. Since it all started with me and the F1 anyway, I’m going to finish de-hybridizing it properly myself…

Victoria, huge thanks for doing this work! Summer Sun from your seeds is the absolute best discovery of the year! Tall, vigorous vine. I pruned suckers at first, but then just let it grow wild. Regular Leaf. Complex trusses made up of 2 or 3 simple ones. The little tomatoes are about the size of a quarter, give or take. Extremely productive, ripened among the very first. Picked the last ones on September 24th, they probably could have hung on longer, but it was time to shut down the season. It got a little bit of leaf mold, but nothing fatal. But the most important thing is the amazing flavor! The tomatoes are super sweet with a bright fruity taste. My daughter calls them “little grapes”, and it’s the only tomato she’ll eat! It has a permanent spot in my garden now! I’m going to try growing it from my own saved seeds next season and hoard the rest of the seeds from Vikusya for now.

Mila said:
Grows in the greenhouse in a heavily amended warm bed, just like my other varieties. I’m constantly doing foliar and root feedings-without them, there’s no way in hell you could grow a literal wall of tomatoes like this!!!

From Mila’s seeds, I grew this absolute beauty and deliciousness 👍 😋 I grew one vine in the greenhouse to 5 stems. Super productive, the fruits are nice and firm, hold up well to transport, don’t fall off the vine when ripe, and don’t crack. They store incredibly well and are super tasty, crisp with obvious sweetness. It’s now my absolute favorite cherry. Foliage was Regular Leaf. They stored perfectly until December 1st (last photo), then we ate them all. I couldn’t continue the storage experiment anyway, I barely held out that long! 😄

Svetikk said:
From Mila’s seeds, I grew this absolute beauty and deliciousness… Foliage was Regular Leaf.

And mine from Mila had Potato Leaves 🤷‍♀️

IVOLGA said:
And mine from Mila had Potato Leaves 🤷‍♀️

Well, it was originally home-saved seed from a hybrid, which means it’s still unstable when it comes to leaf type. The main thing is that the yield, color, flavor, and truss size are consistently replicating. Plus it doesn’t get sick easily. I finally pulled it from the greenhouse in mid-October when we closed up the summer house.

Planted 4 vines in the greenhouse. One turned out to be Potato Leaf, with larger but less sweet fruits. I saved seeds from the other three.

It’s sweet, but with this really bright sweetness. Not bland or flat, but a really “crisp” and punchy kind of sweet. 👍

You made your selection in the right direction… To me, its sweetness has distinct notes of linden honey…

My Summer Sun. Not the original, obviously not the first generation. Photo is from Sept 7th, 2018, growing in the greenhouse. It’s currently over 11 ft (3.5 m) tall and is bending along the roof of the greenhouse. Hands down the sweetest cherry, you can clearly taste the sweetness even in the ones that aren’t fully ripe yet.

Here is mine….. 😋 😋 😋 😋 I strictly only plant the Potato Leaf ones!!!!

I didn’t get the crazy impressive yields like the greenhouse folks did, obviously, but I did prune it down to 3 stems myself. It was one of my latest varieties, took forever to ripen, but got incredibly sweet. By the end of the season, the ones that cracked on the vine were oozing, my fingers were literally sticky from the sweet juice 😁 A friend came over for my birthday in the fall and was absolutely blown away by these tomatoes. She took some for her dad to save seeds, said they tasted like berries.

Photo is from October 7th. Temps were already dropping near freezing at night, the leaves had dried up, but the tomatoes were still perfectly edible. It was the very last variety I pulled.

Planted one vine in the greenhouse last year. Seeds were from Angelina, already labeled as F5, Potato Leaf, and surprisingly early. The very first tomato ripened way back in June, around the 20s. And that’s considering I only transplanted it into its final spot on May 7th. Naturally, they ripened sporadically, not whole trusses at once, but the first two tomatoes were instantly super sweet.

It grew in the first row facing southwest, right in the corner. An absolute monster of a plant. I started off pruning it to 2 stems, then got fed up and just let it go wild. I still pinched a few things here and there, but in the end, it had like 5 or 6 stems plus a bunch of trusses on suckers that I topped after two leaves. Very productive. Dropped blossoms in the extreme heat, just like all my other greenhouse tomatoes. Mind-blowingly sweet, especially in August.

During the peak heat, the fruits I didn’t pick in time actually sun-dried themselves on the vine (they can hang fully ripe on the vine for a pretty long time, by the way). The flavor, look, and sweetness of the sun-dried Summer Sun reminded me of large yellow raisins. You could honestly serve them with tea as candy. Very popular with my nephews; they would devour whatever amount I picked and washed. I usually picked a solid bowl (probably about 2 quarts / 2 L) off that one vine every 3-5 days. I didn’t count the trusses, but looking at photos and the volume we harvested, we easily pulled at least 2/3 of a bucket off it. Planting my own saved seeds this year, so it’ll be F6.

By the way, I also grew it outdoors. It wasn’t nearly as massive, but it was still very early and sweet (though for some reason the greenhouse ones were sweeter). Yield outdoors was lower.

Planted it again this year. Had some delayed germination with my saved seeds, probably fermented them too long or over-dried them (likely the latter), but they eventually popped. Interestingly enough, absolutely every single one has Potato Leaf foliage. Because the first batch was delayed, I soaked and started some backups in March. Not a single plant showed segregation, they are all identical. Angelina’s F5 seeds originally came explicitly labeled as “Potato Leaf.” I grew 5 or 6 plants last year (only kept 1 for myself) and they all replicated the traits 100%. Same for my F6 seeds this year.

Well, that means her de-hybridization stabilized along the recessive line (Potato Leaf). I’m going to keep selecting for the Regular Leaf, just like the original. The foliage itself is actually really pretty, nicely serrated, and allows for better airflow and light penetration. Let there be 2 versions, who cares as long as the tomatoes taste good.

“The original F1 is super expensive here too–1.5 euros per seed.”
Holy crap. Are they made of solid gold over there? Do they pollinate them with platinum q-tips?

m_Kallista said:
Ladies, when do you usually sow this one? I just sowed mine today-I hope it’s not too late?

It’s funny, there are tons of reviews here, but I have zero desire to actually try growing it. I only found the thread interesting because of all the F1, F2, genetics talk and seeing what comes out of it. I guess for me to catch the bug, someone would literally have to shove one of these tomatoes into my mouth by force.

Grew it this year, seeds were from Svetikk. Planted two seeds, one came up Regular Leaf, the other Potato Leaf. Both grew outdoors. They behaved completely differently.

The Regular Leaf one started ripening earlier, had small trusses, but the tomatoes were sweet. The Potato Leaf one threw massive complex trusses, got hit way harder by late blight, and its tomatoes absolutely refused to ripen. I pulled them green in mid-September and they are literally still sitting green on my balcony right now!!! 🤷‍♀️ The ones that did ripen tasted worse than the Regular Leaf ones.

Overall, I wasn’t super impressed with either. I grew Sprut Cherry-Plum this year, and those were genuinely super sweet and delicious compared to Summer Sun. Here’s a photo of the Potato Leaf truss.

Buketik said:
They behaved completely differently. The Regular Leaf one started ripening earlier… The Potato Leaf one threw massive complex trusses, got hit way harder by late blight, and its tomatoes absolutely refused to ripen.

That completely checks out. Summer Sun is undergoing de-hybridization on the forum, and it’s basically split into two distinct lines: Regular Leaf (mostly steered by Victoria Gitelman) and Potato Leaf (steered by Angelina). Over the seasons, folks have noticed that the Potato Leaf line performs better down South (and in greenhouses, I suspect), while the Regular Leaf line does better in cooler climates and outdoors. You have to remember that in northern greenhouses, temperatures are still lower than my outdoor temps, for example. So it makes total sense why one line outperforms the other depending on location.

For example, in my region, the solar radiation is insane, temps hit 104°F (+40°C), with massive temperature swings and strong winds. Since Potato Leaves are larger and thicker, they cast more shade and have a larger transpiration area, which helps the plant cool itself and handle the extreme heat. In our sun, the extra shading doesn’t delay ripening at all; it’s actually beneficial. In cooler regions, the heavily serrated and “airy” Regular Leaf vine has the advantage. Meanwhile, with our intense sun, the Potato Leaf Summer Sun is early and overwhelmingly sweet – almost too sweet- whether in the greenhouse or outdoors. Though, honestly, the outdoor fruits are smaller.

Angelina is in Stavropol, which likely has a very similar situation to mine. She mentioned selecting the Potato Leaf seeds because they yielded better with the same sweetness. Victoria lives in Siberia; the summers are hot but shorter, the total solar radiation the plant absorbs is lower, and the springs are cooler. Hence why the Regular Leaf line gives her better yields, earliness, and sweetness.

So you really just need to pick your Summer Sun line based on your local climate. It tastes great basically everywhere. By the way, my fruits were larger this year but kept the same yield and sweetness. Now I’m just wondering if it’s eventually going to mutate its way up to a cocktail-sized tomato by accident!

Every year I plant a single vine in the corner of my greenhouse. Seeds from Angelina, Potato Leaf. I only prune the bottom suckers. Starts ripening early. Productive, sweet cherry with a fruity flavor.

LenaK said:
Every year I plant a single vine in the corner of my greenhouse. Seeds from Angelina, Potato Leaf.

MINDBLOWING VARIETY. MY FOREVER FAVORITE, 4EVA

Edited February 7, 2020 by Drosera

I planted two Summer Sun vines side-by-side. One had Potato Leaf, the other had Regular Leaf. On the first vine, the fruits were yellow, on the second one they were red. I won’t be planting it again, both vines barely produced anything.

Buketik said:
The Regular Leaf one started ripening earlier, had small trusses, but the tomatoes were sweet. The Potato Leaf one threw massive complex trusses, got hit way harder by late blight… The ones that did ripen tasted worse than the Regular Leaf ones.

Wow! Natasha, it was the exact opposite for me. The Potato Leaf one started ripening way earlier (even outdoors), tasted much better and sweeter, and the trusses weren’t complex, yet the overall yield was higher than the Regular Leaf vine.

Edited August 3, 2020 by T@tk@

T@tk@ said:
Wow! Natasha, it was the exact opposite for me. The Potato Leaf one started ripening way earlier (even outdoors), tasted much better and sweeter…

Tatyana, you mentioned earlier that you had a very hot, sunny summer. The forum has already figured out that the Potato Leaf Summer Sun is more productive and sweeter down South and anywhere with scorching summers. The Regular Leaf one does better in Central Russia where it’s cooler.

The Regular leaves are airy and cast less shade. Potato leaves shade the plant better and absorb more light. My PL vine also had excellent yields and was overwhelmingly sweet, like almost cloyingly sweet to the point where I couldn’t eat too many at once. Because it’s so hot and dry here, they also sun-dry themselves right on the vine if you don’t pick them. Tastes just like yellow raisins, you could literally serve it with tea.

I’ve been growing Summer Sun for two years in a row. All my seedlings are Potato Leaf. Extremely tasty tomato! Ripens among the first and produces right up until the frost. I don’t prune suckers at all, I just tie up every single leader individually. By the end of the season, a single plant turns into an absolute jungle.

I plant it dead center in the greenhouse near the north door. I give it a ton of space, easily the equivalent of 3-4 normal plants. I didn’t like growing it in the corner; it’s too hard to manage, and without good airflow during the cold, wet summer of 2019, it got hit with gray mold.

It has an incredible flavor when canned (the best ones for this are the ones that have just turned yellow but aren’t fully soft yet). It demands a heavily amended planting hole and regular feeding all season long.

Edited April 2, 2021 by Lenhik

vikysia said:
…I can guarantee you that the original Summer Sun F1 from Hazera Genetics in Israel has REGULAR leaves…

Thank you so much! I only sowed two seeds. From two different sources. One is Potato Leaf, the other is Regular Leaf. I was going to exile the Regular Leaf one outdoors, but nope, it’s definitely going in the greenhouse now!

Oksana Yevgenyevna, you broke that down perfectly. Last season, it showed excellent yields in the greenhouse. Super sweet, and they sell great at the farmer’s market. I’m keeping the Regular Leaf line. The fruits are around 0.7-0.9 oz (20-25 g), exactly the size a cherry should be. In the greenhouse, it ends up being very early. (Photos show it already stripped of fruit).

Outdoors, it’s a mid-season variety.

Right now, I’m actually growing various F1 Italian cherry hybrids – excellent yields and super sweet.

Planted this variety for the first time this year. Mine is Potato Leaf. I actually regret pruning it down to so few stems. Anyway, the results are in the video.

https://zen.yandex.ru/video/watch/62e291be1f7e273a88cf27ee

I am absolutely thrilled with this variety. Potato Leaf, early, complex trusses.
I gave it a ton of space, amended the planting hole enough for three normal plants, added extra wood ash, banana peels, fish meal, and hay. It rewarded me with massive quantities and incredible flavor.
The last photo is from the fall. I cleaned out the greenhouse on October 14th, picked the green tomatoes, and they ripened indoors perfectly. We were eating them well into mid-November.

Edited November 10, 2022 by Natalya79

Summer Sun in October.

Natalya79 said:
Very happy with this variety. Potato leaf, early, complex trusses. Gave it a lot of space…

Natasha, you fed your Sun perfectly, it absolutely loves a heavy feeding! And you did the exact right thing by tying the stems out in different directions!!!!

My red Summer Sun.