Zach, a friend in Germany gets the seeds and then sends them to me.

She gets them there b'c the prices are much better than elsewhere.

BUT, what they sell are not local varieties, rather all from Russian seed companies, not all of the Russian companies are that good as to pictures on seed packs and what you find inside. And the seeds sold are from the best of those seed companies.

Below is a link to very few known varieties from EStonia, from Tania's website.

If it was Latvia it would be a different story b'c the last place I taught had a women's basketball team composed of ALL Latvian players, one of them was taking a course with me, and though her I was able to get some really nice tomato varieties. One I remember was Ilses's Yellow Latvian, that I do remember that is that;s what we named it for it had no name as received.

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: EStonian tomatoes

Seysonn, if you look at the link I put up above is says that SSE received the seeds from Marie Danilenko who was based in Moscow. For many years she supplied varieties to SSE which got listed in the Yearbooks and thus made available to SSE members and from there they went to many seed sites.

I used to do growouts for SSE with the new ones Marie sent.

Below is a link to those countries that are part of the CIS and some you said weren't, but they are.

Palm trees sway in the breezes in Sevastopol on the Crimean cost, also the southern parts of now W Ukraine.
And if you watched the recent Olympics you could see the palm trees in Sochi which is on the coast of the Black Sea.

I have a long time friend in Belarus and Andrey can grow whatever he wants to, and Reinhard Kraft in Germany has introduced several varieties from a waoman who moved from Kazachstan and brought family varieties with her to Germany. They all start with the woman's name Ludmilla, b'c it was she and her family that brought them to Germany, and yes, I've grown all of them as well.

I have in my collection many varieties from Moldova and Bulgaria as well. And Tania still has relatives back in Russia, the CIS state, and lists many many varieties from there, obtained from family or via her other contacts there.

Below is a link which indicates which states within the former USSR are now part of the CIS.

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: Commonwealth of Independent States

says that SSE received the seeds from Marie Danilenko who was based in Moscow

******************
OK. That is good enough to support what I have said about RUSSIA.

I am sure you can find some micro climates in Russia with warm weather too. But Kazakistan is not RUSSIA. So , I consider MOSCOW as an average Russian representation in everyway and it is above arctic circle, I think.

ALL I SAID was that the plant being brought from RUSSIA must be cold tolerant. I did not say it will not be grown in hot climates etc. Now that we know it came from Moscow, that settles.
Now lets talk about some characteristic of SFT tomato.
I like tangy tart tomatoes. Isn't it why we add oil and vinegar to our salads ? Also , I rarely eat plain tomato. Just use it in salads, sandwiches and cooking. So then SFT fits the bill for me. Given its ornamental features, I will grow it even just for that purpose.
We all have different preferences. I personally do not garden for just PRODUCTION. How about you ?

But we don't know where Marie Danilenko got her seeds from, we only know that she was based in Moscow and Kent Whealey, then head of SSE, met her there and set up the arrangement that resulted in so many varieties being sent to SSE in IA. Kent did pick up a few varieties, seeds for, at what's called the Bird Market in Moscow, one that became very popular but I just can't think of the name right now.

What are my prederences? Taste comes first. always. good production in different seasons is also important, and last on my list for the mainly OP varieties I've grown is disease tolerance, and most of those are foliage diseases for which there are no known good tolerances and vary from year to year based on the proximity of local spores and bacteria..

(ALL I SAID was that the plant being brought from RUSSIA must be cold tolerant. I did not say it will not be grown in hot climates etc.)

And very adroit back peddling say I.

Carolyn

mmm, grown last year, was nothing special. In regards to USSR or Russia for tha matter. There were plenty of novelties tomato released in last couple decades I would think SFT would belong to this group for simple reason. Oldies but goodies would not care about cute foliage, different mentality. With oldies but goodies one can be sure those will be fairly non demanding and cold tolerant as distribution of seed was centralized in USSR so collective farms will get to plant depending on what was sent from above. Main requirement for this type of seeds was high tolerance of varied conditions. For example look at Gribovsky gruntovyi circa 1940? http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Gruntovyi_Gribovskiy_1180

Old Brooks is close to SFT in taste but keeps growing longer for me. I live in a hot arid climate and SFT shuts down when it gets to be hot here. Siux is also quite tangy and good and takes my heat much better.

The silly argument over heat/cold tolerance aside, I am looking forward to this variety.

I don't care too much about fancy foliage either, I garden a lot for production since I like to get a nice return for my investment in time, energy, not to mention the dollars put in. But, I do like growing interesting varieties, so I'm okay with a slight sacrifice in production for things that I can't get in any old grocery store. But, if I'm only getting a half dz tomatoes from a variety then, it's not worth my time, no matter if it's unique or tastes great. That's why I probably wont grow Cherokee Purple again. Tasted good, and had an interesting look, but I got about 8-10 ripe fruits between two plants before frost killed them. I can get looks and taste from another variety that will also give me better production.

Then there is taste. I value this equally with production. I'm not going to grow something that is no good to eat, even if I get bushels of it.

So, overall, like I said, I look forward to trying this tomato this year. Not for so much for the novelty, but because out of the three that Im growing this year, it is likely to be the best producer since it is a short season variety which tend to do well where I'm at, better then long season varieties IME. We will see how it holds up in taste if I will grow it again or not.

I've grown them for several years and sell the plants at our greenhouse too. They are a short plant, good for patio use. They don't get real tall, but you still want a large 3-5 gallon pot because they are real bushy and seem to have big root system. The tomatoes are medium sized, not large, usually around ping pong ball sized or sometimes a little bigger. They are tart flavored, not a sweet tomato, if you like them sweet you wouldn't like these. Overall, not a super high yielding tomato, but if you fertilize well, you'll get decent production. this is my take on silvery fir tree.

Thanks for the info, Sandy.

Probably I will plant it in a container too. I can live with tart taste. To me it is a novelty. I am growing close to 20 varieties, green, red, yellow, black, brown ...

Seysonn, Moscow is at 55 degrees latitude, about on par with Glasgow. It's north, but not arctic circle north.

Thank you Carylto, for the info.

My point was that generally speaking, Russia has more cold weather than even Canada. When I hear "RUSSIA", Moscow, one of the things that pops up in my mind is "Freezing cold" with all the Russian men wearing fur hats. I am sure they have few days of hot summer too(lol) They also have summer in Alaska

BUT we are talking about Silvery Fir Tree Tomato here ; Its plant, growth habit, fruits, flavor, etc. So lets stick to that.
.

I'm in the high altitude desert of New Mexico which is arid, arid, arid. In summer with humidity often in the single digits and temps day in and day out from 90F to 100F and above, Silvery Fir Tree has done just as well as any other tomato I've grown. I like the somewhat odd taste. And so do the grasshoppers.

OK. I finally planted out my SFT in a pot. So it is going to be a patio tomato. So far so good. It is stocky and even bigger than all my indets. It will be a while until its roots starts grabbing the soil. I hope to get some ripe matoes from it on or before The Fourth.
Our average normal temperature for April is 43F to 62F. So far has been ok, not much rain. That is a plus here

What size pot did you use Seysonn? I have a couple 1/2 barrels that are pretty big (probably hold 20-30 gallons of dirt a piece) and was going to try and fit 2 in each. I wish I could get some of my tomatoes outside, running out of room in the basement.

Zack, the pot that I planted in is roughly 7 gallons.

Since they say it is a patio type of tomato, I thought it should be enough. So I think your half barrel should be big enough for two.

It was definitely too big for a hanging basket, which was my original intent with this, I did 5 baskets and ended up taking them out so that they wouldn't need water every 5 minutes. If you just planted sft in a 1/2 barrel of standard size, bet you could plant 2 and maybe a few herbs to go with them. that would make a nice patio pot!

Well, good to know my plan isn't all crazy!

My SFT is going GRRREAT, It is loaded with flowers and buds and is about 18" tall , very bushy now. The picture you see is taken on or before Memorial Day. I will take new ones this weekend

I think I should try this variety. Thanks for sharing the pictures and info!

The fruits, remain to be seen. But the SFT plant itself is pretty, bushy , compact and so far has been flowering and keeps growing more buds as time goes on.
Being described as EARLY, the fruits should be appearing soon.
I will report on fruits when it happens.

Hers is a picture of my SFT that took today.
It is still in full bloom and no fruits set yet but it is getting ready

Thanks for sharing the progress!

Update:

It has half a dozen fruits (biggest size of a walnut).
The plant is happy and it is not growing much in size. Thta is why it is called a patio/dwarf.

I noticed that the fruits are not quite round and show some cat facing. I searched but did not find any info on it (SFT cat facing). Anybody has had that experience ?

My SFT fruits are more flattened than round. I haven't noticed a lot of catfacing, but we have been having quite the ups and downs in our weather patterns, so that is probably at fault! I have quite a few that are probably nearing full size, as this is a smaller tomato, and just the slightest blush on one.

Mandi

I've pulled 2 tomatoes off my SFT so far, starting on July 2nd, a third is currently orange and will probably be ready by the end of the week or sooner.

No cat facing so far, but I had a lot of blossom drop off of them, which is unfortunate because they were loaded with flowers and I had such high hopes for their productivity. Oh well...

Definitely agree with patio plant though, these guys are tiny!

That is two plants in a half barrel planter, with room to spare. My third plant is in the ground and is about 2/3 the size of these ones. My 4th plant got torn out of its pot about a week and a half after planting by either wild animals or a toddler, investigation is ongoing.

I grew the SFT from seed this year as a novelty. I read so much about its unique leaf structure I wanted to experience it for myself. Most of my varieties are planted in containers. This is in an approx. 5 gallon+ size one. I have observed that it does take more water than my other varieties planted in the same size container. Currently it is 22" tall and was re-potted on May 12! I'm enclosing a picture. Mine is loaded with fruit. I'm anxious to experience its taste.

Looks nice , Joe.

The fruits on mine are NOT round. They are lobed/ribbed and cat faced too. Probably it has to do with our PNW climate, as Mandi from the area has mention just above.

I will post picture later to show what I mean.

I'm looking forward to seeing your pic seysonn. Thanks. I'm patiently waiting for mine to begin ripening its fruit. I red where the time is 55 - 70 days. I planted mine on the 12th of May. Today is day 56 and counting. I'm also curious as to it s taste as well but we know that taste is subjective. I'll be just excited to taste it. Growing "toms" is a hobby of mine. Next year I'll germinate and grow all new varieties. I can't wait!

Joe,
Here is a picture that I took few hours ago.
As you can see they are not round at all, but are ribbed/lobed .

This post was edited by seysonn on Tue, Jul 8, 14 at 16:20

Not to return to this topic, but the weather in Russia varies quite a bit. My ex-husband was born near the Black Sea, near Sochi, where it is quite warm. It is a popular vacation spot with beaches and palm trees. There is a ferry from Sochi to Turkey which is on the other side of the sea.

My mother-in-law grew up in a dirt shack in rural Siberia. Of course the winters were dangerously brutal and lasted a long time. (The test for whether or not you went to school was to throw a cup of water in the air and if it froze *before* it hit the ground then you stayed home.) But they also told me stories about it being very hot and humid during the summer.

In the areas where the family lived-Siberia, Sochi, and Minsk (Belarus), the only affordable produce was rotten, so many people had their own garden plots. My mother-in-law was an expert in cooking, gardening, cleaning, with next to no resources. It was impressive- she was the McGuyver of home-making. But she grew the best tomatoes I ever tasted.

Sorry to be OT, but wanted to share the knowledge I had on the subject.

It might be OT, aphid, but interesting nonetheless. Even places with long, cold winters can have hot and humid summers. Maybe that's why so many of the tomatoes with Russia or Siberia in their names have short DTMs. One of my favorite tomatoes is Anna Russia, both for taste and a DTM of about 65 days. Thanks for posting.

Caryl

Exactly- cold winters don't mean the summers aren't brutal too.

I wouldn't assume anything about a tomato grown in Russia, simply because there are so many vegetation zones. To quote Wikipedia:
"Because the terrain and vegetation are relatively uniform in each of the natural zones, Russia presents an illusion of uniformity. Nevertheless, Russian territory contains all the major vegetation zones of the world except a tropical rain forest." The area near Sochi in the Krasnodar Krai has warmer weather than where I grew up in Ohio. It's damn near perfect for tomatoes.

The stories I have heard about Siberia would make your toes curl. I'm amazed people farm and survive there because the climate is all kinds of crazy. In the Omsk Oblast, the weather can range during the year from -50F in the summer to 104F in the winter. Because the weather swings so wildly, the snow melts very quickly and floods the entire landscape in the spring. During that time people then use boats to travel between towns instead of cars. Btw, in 2007 the snow was ORANGE in southern Siberia, because of a sandstorm just over the border in Kazakhstan.

OK, I'm done now. Off the cuff, unsupported claims are a major pet peeve of mine and I couldn't bite my tongue anymore. The argument "the silvery fir tree tomato is cold tolerant because Russia is cold because of fur hats" is one of the dumbest things I've ever read.

OK, I'm done now. Off the cuff, unsupported claims are a major pet peeve of mine and I couldn't bite my tongue anymore. The argument "the silvery fir tree tomato is cold tolerant because Russia is cold because of fur hats" is one of the dumbest things I've ever read.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Fine, that is your pet peeve.
here are some facts:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Moscow has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfb) with warm, sometimes hot, somewhat humid summers and long, cold winters. Typical high temperatures in the warm months of June, July and August are around 23 ðC (73 ðF),
...
in summary:
summer months: 46F to 73F, mediam, statistical average...

We were talking about the weather in areas of Siberia and other parts of Russia, because you made the blanket statement:

"I suppose, having its origin in Russia, it should like cool weather."

Whether or not the Silvery Fir Tree came from Moscow is irrelevant, and really I don't care if it's cold tolerant. I was speaking in response to your conclusion that a tomato from Russia must be cold tolerant based on your completely uninformed and obnoxious generalizations about another country, about which you know nothing.

BTW, this statement:

"So , I consider MOSCOW as an average Russian representation in everyway and it is above arctic circle, I think."

is also stupid.

aphid squish ,

accoring to Tania's website :
History

Traditional Russian variety attributed to Moscow seedswoman Marina Danilenko, brought to US by SSE in early 1990s.

..........................
So the seeds came from Moscow.
And I just explained how Moscow's summers are like..
46F to 73F..statistical average,
And that was the point about SFT. I am not saying that you cannot grow it in warmers climate. What interested me among other characteristics is that it is ALSO cold tolerant.

CASE CLOSED >

You can be Moscow's weatherman all you want. It doesn't change the fact that I wasn't addressing SFT or Moscow. But if you think that's a competent rejoinder feel free to recite the climate data again.

"46F to 73F, mediam, statistical average..."
Well now. I think someone needs to revisit their math vocabulary.

"46F to 73F, mediam, statistical average..."
Well now. I think someone needs to revisit their math vocabulary.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Now that you've exhausted the Russian Geography, started about nitpicking on typos.

on a unRussian related note, catfacing can be caused by weather conditions. We are seeing some on our mountain spring and mountain pride tomatoes this year, which aren't prone to that kind of thing at all. We have been having a lot of cool nights and that seems to bring it on more. So if that is the weather you're having too, that might be why you're seeing that.

Here is a link that might be useful: catfacing article

Thanks Sandy,

Some tomatoes are prone to cat facing, I think. SFT is one of them. Black tomatoes ( as far as I have experienced) are also prone to cat facing.
It also happens early on. Now newer fruits are back to normal shape.
RIPENING:
I have already picked 1/2 dozen. It keep ripening fast now. The taste is good to me. Not as juicy and tangy that I prefer tho. But it has been my 3rd earliest tomato this season. Other than the fruit, I find the plant ornamental, with its short bushy determinant growth form.

What's the max height of your SFT plants, Seysonn?

I've been playing around with tomatoes in landscaping. Patio Princess is rather nice and neat (though eventually toppled under the weight of tomato clusters) with pretty foliage. Both plants are maybe 12" wide and 18" high. Filled the landscaping space pretty nicely and stayed nice looking through most of the season. Thinking about trying some different types next year and see what I like best.

Hi Cara,

I have planted my SFT in a container.
I would estimate its height under 24" (not counting the pot. I have placed couple of short stakes in the pot and tied the branches to them.
I am also growing Husky Red Cherry and Bush Steak in pots that are fairy short and manageable. HRC is similar in size to SFT but BS can get up to 36" tall.

thanks for starting this thread and sharing about this unique tomato variety you are growing on this open forum.

You are welcome, macbettz,

Indeed, this is a unique tomato plant. I will grow it regardless of the fruits taste and productivity, as an ornamental, as I do with some peppers. But The fruits taste good to me too.

Ok Everyone here is an update on my SFT. I got my 1st fruit on the 13th of July which was 62 days after putting it in the container. To date I've gotten 17 fruit that range in weight from 3oz. to 8oz. I still have approx. 20 fruit on the vine but no blossoms. I find the fruit very tasty and juicy. I'm posting 2 pics. The 1st shows my SFT approx. 24+" in height. The second pic is very interesting because it shows a silvery residue on the stems. This is the only place where I saw this. So the Silvery Fir Tree gets its name from the silvery residue it produces! BTW I love this variety. I have 17 other varieties that I grew from seed.

Follow up to my message above. This is the picture that shows the Silvery residue on the 2 stems. It is the only place where I saw it.

Are you sure that's not slug slime? Looks like it to me!

No it is not slug slime. I'm quite familiar with that. Thanks!

Joe, mine does not have anything like that.
I think the word "silvery" refers to its silver/grey foliage.
I am not sure.

Hi seysonn
Yes I thought so too regarding the leaves but I discovered this silvery residue only on one branch pretty high up. No residue anywhere else nor any damage from a slug as someone suggested. I haven't seen it again on this or any of my other tomato plants nor have I ever seen any signs of slugs. Who know LOL. Anyway my SFT is still giving me fruit. No more blossoms though I'm sad to report. Of the 18 varieties that I'm growing this year the SFT has lived up to its hype! I'd recommend it to anyone! Thanks for your response.

My SFT has stopped flowering. Right now she is raising her babies. :-) It shows new growth and probably will resume flowering after the current fruits have ripened . It lost lots of flowers during the recent heat wave. It did not like hot weather and kept wilting everyday even when fully watered.