Imagine a tomato that tastes like summer and looks like a sunrise.
After nearly a decade of careful crossbreeding, Rutgers scientists have finally unveiled Scarlet Sunrise, a sweet, golden grape tomato with a rosy blush and a knack for staying crack-free.
Why the name? It’s a tribute to the breathtaking New Jersey skies that inspired it.
Back in 2012, Rutgers researchers Peter Nitzsche and Tom Orton spotted two tomatoes with serious potential, but very different personalities. One was a bold red grape tomato: tasty, reliable, a commercial favorite. The other was a charming bicolor cherry tomato: super sweet, but a bit of a drama queen, prone to cracking under pressure.
Antimicrobial properties of Tomato juice can kill bacteria causing Typhoid fever
So they asked: What if we could blend the best of both? Flavor + sweetness + resilience = Scarlet Sunrise.
Nitzsche said, “We saw potential in both. So, we crossed them, hoping to combine the firmness of the grape with the flavor and color of the bicolor.”
Creating Scarlet Sunrise wasn’t easy. Red is a dominant color in tomatoes, so early versions looked plain red, no golden glow, no bicolor magic. It took years of careful breeding, testing, and tweaking to get the right mix of traits.
Nitzsche said, “There were times we thought it wouldn’t work. Everything was red. No bicolor. That’s when you get frustrated.”
How do tomato plants protect themselves from drought?
And it wasn’t just mentally challenging, it was physically tricky, too. Grape tomato flowers are tiny and delicate. Tom Orton spent months (then years!) using tweezers to remove flower parts and paintbrushes to hand-pollinate hundreds of plants.
But the team didn’t give up. Eventually, they cracked the code, and Scarlet Sunrise was born. Now, it’s officially protected by the USDA as a unique plant variety.
Scarlet Sunrise isn’t just pretty, it’s perfectly balanced. With just the right mix of sweetness and tang, it’s a snack-time superstar. And that golden-red glow? Hard to miss at the market.
“It’s yellowish with a reddish blush,” Nitzsche said. “One of our colleagues looked at it and said, ‘That looks like a sunrise,’ and the name stuck.”
A lost-in-space tomato was found eight months later
Scarlet Sunrise was set to debut in 2020, but then COVID hit, and seed distribution got tangled up. Now, Rutgers is teaming up with commercial growers to bring this golden gem to the masses finally.
In a tomato world ruled by big farms in California and Mexico, New Jersey growers have one secret weapon: flavor. And Scarlet Sunrise brings it in full bloom.
Nitzsche said, “We’ve always tried to focus on flavor as the competitive advantage for New Jersey growers. It doesn’t have to be perfect-looking. It just has to taste great.”
Even as Scarlet Sunrise gets ready for its big debut, the scientists behind it aren’t slowing down. Nitzsche and Orton are already cooking up improvements.
Tomato engineered to produce Parkinson’s disease drug
Right now, the plants can grow up to 8 feet tall, which is great for drama, but not so great for gardeners. So, they’re working on new versions that stay compact but keep all that delicious flavor.
The new tomato variety will be featured at the Open House and Tomato Tasting event on Aug. 27 at the university’s Clifford E. and Melda C. Snyder Research and Extension Farm in Pittstown, N.J.
