SIBERIAN TOMATOES
 

Would like to hear comments on the following Siberian varieties I saw on a website: Aurora, Glasnost, Grushovka, Mother Russia, Perestroika.

LarryD

[quote=cottonpicker;72352]Would like to hear comments on the following Siberian varieties I saw on a website: Aurora, Glasnost, Grushovka, Mother Russia, Perestroika.

LarryD[/quote]

Larry, methinks you've been hanging out at High Altitude Seeds, aka Seeds Trust, home of Bill McDorman.:)

I've grown all but Aurora. Actually when Bill first brought back all of his Siberian ones, Craig and I bought ALL of them, split the seeds in each pack ( I remember we were shorted), :lol: , and grew them out.

I've grown all that you name except for Aurora.

If any of them had stood out in my mind as being exceptional I know I would have remembered that. As it was, all were OK, but nothing special, in my opinion.

The heart shaped one, Grandpa's ####'s Plume was pretty good though.

What is your interest in the Siberians he lists? If an early variety, look further with few exceptions, at least for the ones you list.

Aurora is the only one I have grown ,on Sue from AK's suggestion...
It is a very nice variety, head and shoulders above Kimberly, Stupice and Slava in my garden. The tomatoes have good size and have set good sized fruit since early summer, and it is still churning out lots of fruit...Good taste and texture...I will grow it again.

Jeanne

Really appreciate the replies so far!! Carolyn...as usual..you're right-on! I HAVE been perusing Bill Dorman's Seeds Trust site. montanamato... Aurora sounds promising to me. May give it a try along with,perhaps, Galina. I know C has had experience with Galina's, the "step-parent" of Dr. Carolyn tomato, I believe. I'm simply looking for new varieties to try. GOOD to hear from both of you!
Thanks,
LarryD

I've grown only Mother Russia of those you listed. Grew it last year and this year. Somehow I had an idea that it should be grown outdoors, rather than in the greenhouse, so that's where I put it. It makes a nice, big, healthy plant with good-sized and tasty fruit. Unfortunately, grown outdoors here, it isn't very early and was not a good producer for me. This year I have two of them, both with several nice fruit, all still green.

Sherry
...hoping for a few more warm, sunny days!

Siberian tomatoes
 

Aurora always does well here. I have tried the Grushova, Peasant, Red Siberian, Market Miracle, Big Red's, Glasnost and a couple of others that don't stand out right now. Grushova did not produce but a couple of small tomatoes. I used seeds obtained from a trade but do have some old ones from Seed Trust. Mother Russian did very well outdoors in 2005 but that was a super summer with alot of sun the end of April, May, June and July. Peasant is a roma type and my friend says they do real well for her. She has a more humid zone than I am here. I am going to plant MR next year again. Anna Russian will have to take a nap for a couple of years...very low production. Oh...Galina does very well also.
Sue

Siberian tomatoes
 

LarryD,

Just a little heads up, I bought seed for 3 varieties from Seeds Trust in the fall of 2005 and tried growing them out indoors soon after I received the seeds. One, Grushovka, produced tomatoes that were totally different than their description of it. The other two varieties did not germinate and I tried more than a few seeds of each.

I was very disappointed because I was hoping to grow great "Siberian Tomatoes" that I could save seeds from. Many varieties on their website sounded like great early tomatoes.

I'm not saying you shouldn't buy any of their seeds, just that if you do, don't expect too much from them. They may surprise you with great tomatoes that fit the descriptions on the website, but I would not count on it.

If anyone has purchased seeds from Seeds Trust fairly recently and had better fortune with them than I, please let LarryD know here. Because I may be the one person who happened to have bad luck and gotten a couple bad seed packets, while others had no problems. If that's the case, please tell us. Thanks!

Jeff

Galinas is a great cherry tomato. It is a beautiful bright yellow color and the plant is very hardy and productive. It has done well in the heat as well as being pretty early.

Tyffanie

I have my doubts about Siberian origin of Galina's, Perestroika, Glastnost etc. You know for me it's really ridiculous to hear that somebody in 1980s or even before that times bred and grow e.g. small cherry tomatoes in the cold climate of Siberia. You really have to feel USSR era spirit to know it could happen here. 90% of all Soviet gardeners grew only red and globe tomatoes which were available frm official State shops or were given such seeds from local AES or Breeding Institutes. Very few yellow varieties (but again only with uniform medium globe shape!), no blacks or greenies or ivory white and other odd colored exclusives :!:

And the typical case when foreign sources have named some Soviet/Russian varieties "Siberian" when somebody brought some seeds from this huge Siberian area (Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Omsk etc.). That is only to laugh at because people grew mostly widely known varieties from the Central and South part of USSR there and these tomato varieties were bred by mostly Moscow and St. Peterburg's Breeding Institutes and AES. And a foreign gardener-enthuasist went to Irkutsk and bought these seeds from an eldermen. So another fairytale about Siberia went on :D

I can say for sure that most of currently available here in CIS Siberian tomato varieties (several hundred) were developed from the late 1980s till now (70-80% in 1995-2007). Our people just came closer to better clothes and food so they started to think about developing new varietes for their gardens... ;)

Grushovka is the only Siberian variety from the list which I can tell this is absolutely right.

Wonderful to get such experienced & helpful responses from ALL of you!! Thanks so much!!

LarryD

Grushovka is the only Siberian variety from the list which I can tell this is absolutely right.

****

Andrey, all I can tell you is that Bill McDorman was one of the first to go to that area after the borders were open to outsiders.

He collected the seeds from persons who were growing them in that area. And he used the names that they used and in a few cases I think he used a translated name.

There were many more than have been mentioned here, and his website no longer even lists all the varieties that Craig and I got and grew out.

So it wasn't as though he was dealing at a distance to have seeds sent to him saying they were from Siberia.

As I recall he made two such trips to that area.

Here's the blurb from their website ......

[URL]http://www.seedstrust.com/st/siberia.html[/URL]

I can vouch for Sue's Aurora and Andrey's Sibirskiy Skorospelyi(Standard Siberian Variety). Good yields, produce early and keep producing nice tasting tomato's. Like Stupice too...

Randy

Wonderful responses to my query!! Thanks one & all.
PNW D.... REALLY appreciate your enjoyable link to Bill Dorman's piece about his first experiences in Russia in 1989!!! and... THANKS, BILL DORMAN..wherever you are.. for your pioneering efforts!!! I TOTALLY agree with his Russian friend, Galina,--- gardeners are peaceful folks.... I now think my "future planting" list will definitely include Aurora & Galina....... from what I've learned so far. A generous "friend" on this website already offered me seeds for Galina... am still searching for authentic Aurora seeds.
LarryD

A nice story indeed. But again it seems to me Bill had no idea of real origins for varieties he brought back from Novosibirsk. The matter is there was a huge exchange programm between such Breeding Institutes and AESs. There is a still a huge collection of seed samples owned by VIR institute where most of other Soviet breeding organizations had been taking from. The main goal of these regional Institutes was to adopt a well-known varieties to their local growing conditions so they made a lot of crosses using these samples and stabilized most promising results.

So as I wrote before there is no real signs to consider those seed samples from Galina and other Siberian friends of Bill to have Siberian origin. They could be from Moscow, St. Peterburg or any other Russian regions...

I bought several packets from Seeds Trust last
year and planted them this year. They did all
tend to sprout, but the results in terms of what
kind of tomato grew from them were very
inconsistent.

One that was consistent was Aurora, and the
descriptions above are accurate. Mine are
still producing tomatoes with good flavor in
a rainy summer where a lot of other varieties
have washed-out flavor.

Galina: two real PL Galina plants, one RL yellow
cherry a little smaller and sweeter, and a
mystery dark-fruited, larger tomato that is
actually quite tasty. The real Galinas taste like
real tomatoes (excellent flavor).

Red Siberian: four different kinds, none of
them matching the description. One golf-ball
sized red from the lot tastes pretty good. (I
gave two of these to relatives, because the
plants looked so healthy, I am cringing in
advance at the results.)

Market Miracle: two very early, indeterminate
PL plants that produced hard, sweet, pointy
fruit a tiny bit bigger than a golf ball, and one
indeterminate with fruit that looks like
the cultivar description, although none
of the latter have ripened yet. (Supposed to be
65-day determinate.)

Odessa: two determinates consistent with
the description and one indeterminate
producing smaller fruit.

Ispolin: seems consistent with the description,
though no ripe fruit yet (weather uncooperative).

Sasha's Altai: all plants the same, not so early
as described, ripe fruit came in after Aurora.
Warning: they get soft before they look ripe,
and the plant stays fairly small. Good flavor,
although "the best tomato in Siberia" is perhaps
an exaggeration (no offense to Sasha; Galina
and Aurora simply both taste better to me).

Gregori's Altai: consistent plants, as described
(big, early, prolific fruit set even in bad
weather; flavor sweet, a little washed out
this year).

If you expect to get exactly what was described,
this vendor is not a good choice on average.

Have to say similiar results from Seed Trust in my garden last season!

Randy

Andrey or anyone else,

Can you tell me anything about Sasha's Siberian? And is it the same as sasha's Atlai?

Alex

Gregory's Altai isn't Siberian but it's close enough. Very early and tasty. Only drawback is that you need to pick them early if a big rain is coming. They split very easily.

mater

Mater,

I've grown Grerori's, not sure if it is the same as Sasha's.

Alex

[quote]I've grown Gregori's, not sure if it is the same as Sasha's.[/quote]

They are quite different, although both are indeterminates
and set ripe fruit early. Sasha's produces 3-6 oz orange-red,
somewhat seedy, juicy fruit, not particularly sweet but with
a good balanced flavor, some uneven ripening. Quite a small
plant for an indeterminate, similar to Aurora in that respect.

Gregori's Altai is a larger plant, with good production of large
pink fruit, kind of rough and gnarled looking in rainy weather.
It had mild, sweet flavor, a bit bland in cold weather to my
palate. It was the first plant with fruit 12oz and up to ripen
for me in last year's "rained half the summer" weather.

[quote=velikipop;91176]Andrey or anyone else,

Can you tell me anything about Sasha's Siberian? And is it the same as sasha's Atlai?

Alex[/quote]

Alex,

actually nobody heard about Sasha's Altai or Gregori's Altai here in former USSR countries. They were named in USA after people who sent them to Northern America (I hope that is true) or gave the seeds to Americans when they visited Russia in the past.
Probably we know them under other vareity names or/and these are two local varieties from Altai region (Western Siberia) of Russia not well-known outside this area...
Will try Gregori's Altai this year for the first time as well ;)

Andrey,

Thanks. Gregori's produced well for me but taste was bland. I will tray Sasha's this year.

Alex

Always welcome, Alex.

Are you interested in a new seed trade with me? Now I'm ready for this.

Have you a room for some more varieties from Easrern Europe? ;)