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Old August 31, 2007   #1
cottonpicker
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Default SIBERIAN TOMATOES

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

LarryD
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Old August 31, 2007   #2
carolyn137
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cottonpicker View Post
Would like to hear comments on the following Siberian varieties I saw on a website: Aurora, Glasnost, Grushovka, Mother Russia, Perestroika.

LarryD
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), , 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.
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Old August 31, 2007   #3
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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
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Old August 31, 2007   #4
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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
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Old August 31, 2007   #5
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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!
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Old August 31, 2007   #6
akgardengirl
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Default 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

Last edited by akgardengirl; August 31, 2007 at 03:34 PM. Reason: Forgot a tomato
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Old August 31, 2007   #7
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Default 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

Last edited by OmahaJB; August 31, 2007 at 08:49 PM. Reason: Deletion of a word
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Old September 1, 2007   #8
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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
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Old September 1, 2007   #9
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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

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.
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Old September 1, 2007   #10
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Wonderful to get such experienced & helpful responses from ALL of you!! Thanks so much!!

LarryD
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Old September 1, 2007   #11
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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.
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Old September 1, 2007   #12
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Here's the blurb from their website ......

http://www.seedstrust.com/st/siberia.html
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Old September 1, 2007   #13
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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...

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Old September 1, 2007   #14
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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
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Old September 3, 2007   #15
Andrey_BY
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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...
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