Sun Sugar Tomato

The color is telling you something about the flavor.

Most growers assume orange cherry tomatoes taste sweeter because they were bred with more sugar. Part of the answer is chemistry that doesn’t get talked about enough.

Red cherry tomatoes carry relatively high levels of citric and malic acid. That sharpness creates what most people associate with tomato flavor. Orange cherry varieties like Sun Sugar tend to have less of that acid. With less acid competing, the sweetness comes forward more powerfully than the sugar levels alone would predict.

That combination is what growers describe when they say Sun Sugar tastes like candy. It’s not marketing. It’s the reason people who won’t touch a red tomato eat these by the handful straight off the vine.

Sun Sugar is the orange cherry tomato most home gardeners settle on once they’ve tried the category. It’s early at 62 to 65 days. It carries better crack resistance than its closest rival, Sungold. And it produces so heavily through summer that the main challenge isn’t getting fruit. It’s keeping up with what the plant gives you.

What the fruit is like

Sun Sugar produces round to slightly oval cherry tomatoes about three quarters of an inch to one inch across. Each fruit weighs roughly an ounce. At full ripeness the color is deep, warm orange. Not golden yellow. Not pale. A rich, saturated orange that tells you it’s ready before you even press it.

The skin is thin. Not as fragile as Sungold, but thin enough to burst pleasantly rather than requiring you to work through anything tough. The flesh is juicy and intensely sweet with just enough tartness to keep it interesting. Clusters form continuously up and down the vine, with 15 to 20 tomatoes per truss at peak production.

The flavor stands apart from red cherry tomatoes in the way orange varieties do. Bright. Sweet. Fruity in a way that makes most growers eat the first clusters standing in the garden before any make it inside.

Days to maturity: 62 to 65 days from transplant. That puts Sun Sugar among the earliest cherry tomatoes in this guide. First fruit arrives before mid summer in most climates and the plant keeps producing until frost.

Sun Sugar and Sungold: what actually separates them

These two orange cherry tomatoes cause constant confusion. They look nearly identical in the garden and on the plate. The differences matter for practical growing decisions.

Sungold, bred by Tokita Seed Company in Japan, has exceptionally thin skin. The flavor is exceptional. The cracking problem is real and persistent. A heavy rain after a dry stretch will split a significant portion of ripe Sungold fruit on the vine. Many growers love it. Many give up on it.

Sun Sugar has slightly thicker skin while keeping the same general thinness that makes orange cherries pleasant to eat. It holds up better through moisture swings. It still cracks under extreme conditions. But the frequency is meaningfully lower, and the damage per storm is less. For growers who gave up on Sungold over splitting, Sun Sugar is the practical answer.

On disease resistance: Sun Sugar carries VT resistance (Verticillium wilt and Tobacco Mosaic Virus). It has no Fusarium resistance and no nematode resistance. Sungold adds Fusarium resistance to the same base. In gardens with known Fusarium pressure, Sungold has the edge on paper. Sun Sugar wins in wet climates or variable watering conditions where cracking is the bigger ongoing problem.

How to grow Sun Sugar, start to finish

Starting seeds

Start indoors 6 to 8 weeks before your last frost date. Sow seeds a quarter inch deep in a clean seed starting mix. Keep soil temperature between 70 and 80°F. A heat mat keeps germination fast and consistent in early spring when room temperatures are still unpredictable.

Set up fluorescent or LED grow lights close to the canopy from the day seedlings emerge. Keep them 2 to 3 inches above the plant tops. Raise them as growth continues. Sun Sugar is a vigorous hybrid that reaches 8 to 9 feet. A seedling built under poor light produces a weak stem that never fully recovers once it’s in the garden.

Pot up to individual containers when the first true leaves appear. Feed weekly at half strength with a balanced liquid fertilizer from that point through transplant day. A well fed seedling establishes in the garden far ahead of anything that was cramped or underfed early.

Sun Sugar is a hybrid. Seeds saved from the fruit don’t grow true the following season. Buy fresh seed each year. If seed saving matters to you, an open pollinated orange cherry type gives you that option. None matches Sun Sugar’s combination of flavor and crack resistance in the same package.

Transplanting

Move plants outside after your last frost date, once nights hold reliably above 50°F. Cold nights below 54°F during flower formation cause catfacing. Sun Sugar produces small cherry fruit, so catfacing is far less dramatic than on beefsteak types. But cool nights during flower formation still affect early fruit set and quality.

Harden off over 7 to 10 days. Set plants outside for increasing periods each day before leaving them out permanently. Indoor seedlings moved directly to full sun and outdoor wind experience shock. Skipping hardening costs more time in delayed establishment than the week it takes to do it right.

Bury two thirds of the stem at planting. Tomatoes produce roots along any buried stem section. An 8 to 9 foot vine carrying hundreds of small tomatoes benefits from every extra inch of root depth. Strip any leaves that would go below soil level before planting.

Space plants 24 to 36 inches apart. Sun Sugar spreads wide as well as tall. Crowded plants trap warm, humid air around the lower foliage. This variety carries VT resistance, which covers Verticillium and TMV. Early blight and Fusarium are not in that coverage. Adequate spacing is your primary tool against both.

Soil and feeding

Rich, well drained soil loaded with compost, pH 6.0 to 6.8. Work a balanced organic fertilizer into the planting hole before setting the plant in. This slow release base supports root development without pushing sudden leafy growth in the first weeks after transplant.

Switch to a lower nitrogen tomato feed once the first flowers open. High nitrogen after flowering drives leaf growth at the expense of fruit. Sun Sugar is already vigorous. It doesn’t need encouragement on leafy growth once it’s setting clusters.

Feed every two weeks through the full season. Sun Sugar produces until frost. Fruit is still setting through September in most climates. Tapering off nutrition in August while the plant is still producing is a common mistake.

Light and water

Full sun, 8 hours minimum. Sun Sugar runs on heat and light from transplant day through frost. Partial shade extends time to first fruit and reduces the sugar concentration that makes this variety worth growing. Give it the sunniest spot in the garden.

Water deeply and consistently at the base of the plant. Target 1 to 2 inches per week. Keeping soil moisture stable is the main crack prevention strategy with Sun Sugar. Wet to dry swings split ripe fruit. A drip line or soaker hose delivers water where it’s needed and keeps moisture off the foliage.

Lay 2 to 3 inches of straw mulch around the plant after a deep watering. Mulch buffers soil moisture between rain events. It reduces the swings that crack fruit. It also suppresses weeds and stops disease spores from splashing up onto lower leaves. On a variety that still cracks under stress, mulch is essential from planting day.

Support and pruning

Sun Sugar is fully indeterminate. In good soil it reaches 8 to 9 feet and keeps growing until frost. Standard short tomato cages fail with this variety. Use a heavy duty cage at least 6 feet tall, tall sturdy stakes, or a trellis system. Set the support at planting, before roots spread.

Tie growing stems to the support with soft plant ties or strips of fabric. Nothing that cuts into stems as they thicken. Check every two weeks through the season. Wet clusters of ripe fruit add real weight to loaded branches. The structure needs to handle that load without failing mid season.

Remove suckers below the first flower cluster. This keeps the lower canopy open and reduces disease pressure from poor airflow. Above the first cluster, let the plant develop two to three main leaders. Sun Sugar produces its best yield on those upper branches. Aggressive sucker removal above the first cluster reduces total harvest without improving individual fruit quality.

Strip any foliage touching the ground. Soil to leaf contact is the primary entry route for early blight spores. Keep the lowest foot of the plant clear throughout the season. Strip spotted leaves the day you see them. VT resistance doesn’t cover early blight.

Problems to watch

Cracking. Still the main challenge even with better resistance than Sungold. A rain surge after a dry stretch splits ripe fruit. Pick at full orange rather than waiting for the deepest, most saturated color. Check the plant before any rain forecast and harvest anything near ripe. Consistent mulch and watering prevent most splitting at the root level. Our tomato fruit problem guide covers cracking and every other common fruit symptom in detail.

Early blight. VT resistance doesn’t cover this. Brown spots with concentric rings on lower leaves, climbing from the base. Strip affected leaves immediately. Keep foliage dry. Rotate beds each season. An 8 to 9 foot vine with no early blight resistance gives it a lot of material to climb if you let it get established.

Fusarium wilt. No resistance here. In beds with a history of Fusarium pressure, the plant will decline faster than a resistant variety. Rotate beds each season. In high Fusarium gardens, Sungold (which carries F resistance) may be the better choice despite its cracking problem.

Catfacing. Cool nights below 54°F during flower formation cause it. Much less noticeable on small cherry fruit than on beefsteaks. First flush fruit may show minor scarring at the blossom end. Safe to eat. Trim and use it. Midseason fruit from the same plant comes in clean.

Hornworms. An 8 to 9 foot vine loaded with cherry tomatoes is exactly what they target. Check undersides of leaves and look for stripped stems weekly through summer. Dark droppings on the ground below a branch are the sign. Handpick or treat with Bt at first appearance.

Container growing

More manageable in containers than large beefsteak types, but still demanding. Sun Sugar reaches 8 to 9 feet and carries hundreds of small tomatoes. A container limits the root volume that vine needs to sustain that kind of production through a full season.

Use a 10 gallon container of quality potting mix at minimum. Many growers go to 15 gallons for better results. Set a tall stake or heavy duty cage at planting. Water daily in summer heat. Feed every week to 10 days because containers flush nutrients much faster than ground beds. Expect more cracking in containers than in the ground because moisture control is harder in a pot.

Among vigorous indeterminate cherry types, Sun Sugar is one of the better container options. It still performs best in the ground. That’s where the root volume is, and root volume is what sustains production through a long season.

Sun Sugar vs the other sweet cherry tomatoes

Sungold is covered above. The short version: if you’ve grown Sungold and never had a cracking problem, stay with it. If you’ve lost significant harvest to splitting, Sun Sugar is the practical upgrade for the same general flavor profile.

Sweet 100 is the classic red cherry comparison. Both are highly productive, early, and intense in flavor. Sweet 100 is red and more sharply tangy. Sun Sugar is orange and sweeter with less perceived acid. They appeal to different ends of the cherry tomato preference range. Many gardeners grow both and find they attract different eaters in the household.

Black Cherry offers depth and complexity that Sun Sugar doesn’t chase. Sun Sugar wins on sweetness and early season timing. Black Cherry wins on flavor complexity per fruit. Both belong in the same garden if you have room. Our heirloom tomato guide puts the full cherry family side by side with flavor and difficulty compared.

The verdict

Sun Sugar is the orange cherry tomato most gardeners end up staying with once they’ve tried it. The flavor is exceptional. The early timing is useful. The crack resistance beats Sungold in most growing conditions.

It asks for real support, consistent moisture, and a picking habit that doesn’t wait for the deepest orange. Pick a little before maximum ripeness. Keep the soil stable with thick mulch. Check the plant before any rain forecast. Those three habits close the gap on the cracking problem that would otherwise define your experience with this variety.

Give it full sun, a heavy duty cage from planting day, and consistent water. Pick often and pick early. Our growing tomatoes guide covers the full season timing for early cherry varieties like this one.