Anna Russian

[habitat_gardener]

I was looking at the tomato descriptions for the spring master gardener tomato seedling sale in Santa Clara County, and the one for Anna Russian says, "Pink oxheart w/ orange shoulders...excellent acidy tomato flavor, great for sauces...too wispy to cage. 4' tall." Yet the seed source is TGS, which describes it as "pinkish red...Flavor is superb...Small foliage and wispy vines...outstanding taste."

I've never seen it described as having an "acidy" taste before. One of my fellow gardeners is looking for "acidy" tomatoes, and since I have some extra Annas, I'm wondering if, by any stretch of the imagination, they could possibly be described as acidy.

If you've grown it, does it vary a lot in color and flavor and size? Is it possible the MGs were growing something else the year they wrote that odd description?

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by habitat_gardener

I was looking at the tomato descriptions for the spring master gardener tomato seedling sale in Santa Clara County, and the one for Anna Russian says, "Pink oxheart w/ orange shoulders...excellent acidy tomato flavor, great for sauces...too wispy to cage. 4' tall." Yet the seed source is TGS, which describes it as "pinkish red...Flavor is superb...Small foliage and wispy vines...outstanding taste."

I've never seen it described as having an "acidy" taste before. One of my fellow gardeners is looking for "acidy" tomatoes, and since I have some extra Annas, I'm wondering if, by any stretch of the imagination, they could possibly be described as acidy.

If you've grown it, does it vary a lot in color and flavor and size? Is it possible the MGs were growing something else the year they wrote that odd description?

I've grown Anna Russian many times and it is a pinkish red and not once have I ever seen orange shoulders.

And it definitiely is not aggressive tasting, a word I use instead of acidic since the pH of almost all tomato varieties tested is within a very narrow range.

So no, I wouldn't give your neighbor Anna suggesting that it has a more aggresive, strong taste.

There are about 400 organic compounds associated with taste, few of them IDed.

If you want a stong more aggressive tasting tomato variety then I'd suggest any of the older commercial varieties.

[Vince]

Taste varies from per to per but I would not descibe this tomato as acidy. The most odd description is "too wispy to cage. 4' tall." I have never had a tomato I could not cage, even though they usually grow out of the store bought cage. Also the annas I've grown were well over 6 feet tal when staked. Strange, 4 foot tall is in the upper dwarf catagory.