Shapka Monomakha (Monomakh's Hat)

[amideutch]

Was doing a little maintenance on my tomato vines and what did I find buried in the foliage, three ripe Shapka Monomakha's. Here's the pic's. Ami

[Tomstrees]

Good growin ! Hows the taste ? Sure look nice ~

Tom

[amideutch]

Taste test tomorrow,will post. Tom I hear they be frying eggs on the sidewalks in the Med. Ami

[Tomstrees]

lol ~ yeah high 90's - kinda like here in NJ !
Really, the blight has gotten real bad around here ...
Always happens with rain plus high temps ~

But plenty maters comin in !

Lemme know how flav is !

~ Tom

[feldon30]

It's a top 20 tomato for me. Flavor is outstanding. Not sure why it got translated as Monomakh's Hat since the English translation is Monomakh's Cap which refers to the Russian Crown Jewels.



Suze tells me it's productive and on a semi-determinate, well-behaved plant, which is unusual for a heart shaped tomato. It's on my grow list for '08. I see this one being as popular in coming years as Earl's Faux has been.

[amideutch]

I'll hold my judgement on taste till I sample some later ripening fruit. This plant is anything but semi-determinate. I'm growing 4 heart varieties and the only one that is growing like a semi-determinate for me is Latvian-Heart. I've got EF loading up and will give a comparison later down the road. Ami

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by amideutch

Top 20 and never grown it, interesting. I've got EF loading up and will give a comparison later down the road. Ami

Top 20 based on flavor when I tasted it at Suze's house. I've grown Earl's Faux and find it excellent but not very productive.

[Rena]

Those things are like bricks they are so dense. I could of used it as a weapon. I have had better tasting hearts but its productivity makes it back for 2008.

[montanamato]

I grew it last year and had great production, size and vigor from it...I have only grown a few hearts before, but mine were juicy, dense (not anywhere near hard), and very good tasting...Perhaps a bit bland, I like more of a bite to a tomato , but for fresh eating very good.
I am patiently waiting on Yasha Yugoslavian, and that plant is much smaller and more semi determinate acting than Mon. Hat is....

Jeanne

[Andrey_BY]

Yes, it's more indeterminate, usually has a great production and outstanding flavor. Actually I've translated it as Monomakh's Hat, because we usually think about "cap" as a casual cap or sports cap, but this is a ceremonial kind of cap/hat which was used as a crown by Russian Tsars. Sorry if I was not correct in my English translation...

I'm very glad many of you enjoy this variety as much as Mazarini another great heart-shaped variety from Russia. Will do my best to discovery more from our very best varieties to you, folks, for the next season

[feldon30]

Yes, "Cap" seems informal to me. Surprised it's not Monomakh's Crown. I don't know, I only know what Wiki tells me which is just 1 source of information.

[Andrey_BY]

It was not called a crown just because it looked more like a hat/cap and was used by Tsars mostly in cold time of a year as a crown Actually Wiki is a place for private non-professional articles

[Suze]

Originally Posted by Andrey_BY

Yes, it's more indeterminate, usually has a great production and outstanding flavor.

Thanks for the correction, Andrey. I'll change my comments in PlantFiles to say "compact indeterminate", instead of semi-det.

Where I originally got the idea it was semi-det was from your trade list below. Also, my one plant was quite a bit more compact (especially in height) than any other heart or elongated wispy/droopy leaved variety I grew this year. Plant was maybe 5 ft. at most. In my garden, that is rather short for an indet as most of them will eventually reach 8-10 ft tall.

Shapka Monomakha ~Monomakh's Hat (Rus.>Eng.) >determinate *midseason, semi-det. (90-130 cm tall) plant with a good yield of dark-raspberry, round-oval shape (topped heart shaped) 400-900 g fruits, sugar sweet and tasty, desease tolerant, named after famous crown-hat with diamonds by Russian Tsars 120/600 Siberian amateurish variety

[Deer Park]

I grew both MH and Mazarini this year.

Production was greater with MH and some of MH get as large as Mazarini 1lb+. Critters love them both. LOL

MH was much better behaved at 5ft.
Mazarini is still growing at 8ft., as I have laid the vines on the ground and covered with soil to get roots growning out of stems.

If you are looking for high production on a short plant then EM Champion is the ticket.

While MH and Mazarini are both very good hearts, neither holds a candle to Dagestanskiy or Donskoi. High production of very large hearts.Just my two cents,
Michael

[Andrey_BY]

Suze, that my mistake as well in my trade list. I had this feeling about semi-determinism of Shapka Monomakha after my first year of growing it. But later have seen description on original sleeve describtion from originator of seeds and they called it indeterminate (for some reason we still don't use officially the term "compact indeterminate" here).
Also now I'd like to call Korol Gigantov (The King of Giants) as a compact indeterminate variety. Its plants have been reaching only 120 m in height in my greenhouses during this and last year. Sure will be a winner for Zones 4-5!

EM Champion is from the same production league, you are right, Michael