Quick Summary of Tsar Kolokol (Tsar Bell)
- 🌍 Origin: A famous Russian commercial heirloom, officially entered into the State Register in 2005 (bred by V. Dederko). The name translates to “Tsar Bell”, named after the massive historical bell on display in the Moscow Kremlin.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Determinate (bush). The plant is relatively compact, typically reaching 80–100 cm (32–40 inches) in height, making it manageable for smaller spaces, though its heavy fruit load requires sturdy support.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Large, dark red tomatoes. The official shape is a “truncated heart”, though growers often report variations from elongated hearts to broadly rounded beefsteaks on the same plant. Very meaty with small seed cavities. Size is impressive, averaging 300g (10.5 oz) but easily reaching 400–700g (14–25 oz).
- 👅 Flavor: Sweet and mild. Because it is incredibly dense and not watery, it’s not only a great slicer but also phenomenal for making thick sauces, paste, and homemade ketchup.
- ⏳ Maturity: Mid-season (often performing as mid-early).
- 💡 Pro Tip: Like many Russian varieties, it often performs better, sets heavier yields, and produces larger fruit outdoors in open ground rather than in a greenhouse. However, in regions with high humidity, preventative spraying is recommended as it can be susceptible to Late Blight.
Description from the seed packet:
Elongated fruits, dark red. Advantages of the variety: large fruits (from 400 to 700 g / 14–25 oz and above) with relatively early ripening times combined with a short bush (80-100 cm / 32–40 inches). Excellent taste qualities of fleshy, sweet fruits. The variety is quite resistant to many diseases, as well as to adverse weather conditions. Can be grown in open ground and under plastic film shelters. The bush is vigorous. Plant no more than 2-3 plants per 1 sq. m (10 sq. ft).
Photo author: Olena (Olga, Moscow)
My fruits turned out not elongated at all… Is this the right variety or not? 🤷♀️
Mine was somewhat heart-shaped, I think…
Vera, now it’s a mystery to me… and I haven’t even tasted it yet.
Well, this is an incredibly interesting variety. The name speaks for itself. It’s delicious, and oh, so prolific—there is no end to picking fruits! I will probably harvest about 10 kg (22 lbs) from a single bush. Huge fruits, doesn’t get sick, mid-season ripening. I recommend it to everyone.
Irina, if possible, please show a photo of your Kolokol, because none of the photos presented here match the description in either shape or color. Also, which seed company is your successful strain from? Where is it growing: greenhouse or open ground? How tall is it?
I don’t remember the seed company. It’s in open ground, and the bush height is approximately 165 cm (5.4 ft).
Now I am doubting my variety… the fruits are huge, but they are round, not elongated. One woman told me that this isn’t it.
This is how mine turned out.
It handled the heat well, though there might be some yellow shoulders. The foliage is rather wispy, grew in a shaded greenhouse. The taste is excellent.
Mine looks more like Irina’s from Kazan; Svetlana got a different one.
I had fruits of different shapes growing on 1 single bush: rounded-elongated, broadly rounded (oblate), and closer to heart-shaped. I saved seeds from the one that looked the prettiest to me. I like them more even and neat 😉.
It’s a productive variety, the tomatoes ripen quite early and have a very good tomato flavor! The gnarly-shaped ones also went to good use for juice 👍. In total, 17 fruits grew on 1 plant in my polycarbonate greenhouse, averaging 300 grams (10.5 oz) each (the gnarly ones were even larger 😄).
Tatyana Kemerovo wrote:
I had fruits of different shapes growing on 1 single bush… In total, 17 fruits grew on 1 plant in my polycarbonate greenhouse, averaging 300 grams…
Tanya! Super! 👍 Please write 📝, how tall was the bush in the greenhouse? And how many stems did you prune it to? 🙂
It didn’t work out for me. The bush was vigorous, set fruit reasonably well, but turned out to be very sensitive to late blight (phytophthora). Grew in open ground, out in the country. These bushes were the very first to be hit by blight, and the developing fruit clusters were getting infected literally right before my eyes! Every 30 minutes, lesions appeared on new fruits. By morning, all the fruit clusters were infected, and the bushes had to be pulled out. The other varieties held on for a week until I sprayed them, and I at least got some sort of harvest from them.
On 8/27/2018 at 1:27 PM, ALIANNA said:
Tomato Tsar-Kolokol, seeds from the online store “Dachnik Podmoskovya”.
Included in the State Register of the Russian Federation for garden plots, household and small farm enterprises for growing in open ground in 2005. Originator and patent holder of the variety: Dederko Vladimir Nikolaevich.A wonderful tomato, determinate, mid-season. The bush is not tall, about 1 m (3.3 ft). Strong stem. Simple inflorescence of 3-4 fruits, the first one forms above the 9th leaf, subsequent ones every 1-2 leaves.
The fruits are truncated-heart-shaped, red in color. The flesh is solid meat, very tender, seed cavities are small, few seeds, sweet-mild flavor, tasty. Not watery, perfectly suitable for ketchup and other tomato products. On my permanent grow list for sure!
I fell for the pretty picture about 5 years ago, thankfully I only planted 2 bushes. People on the forum were writing about another variety calling it a “freeloader” (darmoed) — well, this one was exactly like that for 4 months… so disappointing..
This is what my Tsar-Kolokol looks like.
From the description of the State Variety Commission:
Salad type.
Mid-season.
Determinate plant. The leaf is large, dark green. Simple inflorescence. The first inflorescence forms above the 9th leaf, subsequent ones – every 1-2 leaves. Jointed pedicel. The fruit is heart-shaped, smooth. Unripe fruit color is green with a dark spot at the stem; ripe – red. Number of locules: 3-4. Fruit weight 211-350 g (up to 600 g / 7.5-12.5 oz, up to 21 oz). The taste qualities of fresh fruits are good.
Marketable yield: 8.6-18.0 kg/sq.m (1.7–3.6 lbs/sq.ft).
Tolerant to adverse weather conditions.
Author(s): DEDERKO VLADIMIR NIKOLAEVICH; POSTNIKOVA OLGA VALENTINOVNA; YABROV ALEXANDER ALEXEEVICH
Characteristics:
– Usage: Salad
– Ripening time (maturity group): Mid (mid-season)
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This variety didn’t perform very well for me in the greenhouse in 2024. In 2018, it grew outdoors and was much heavier and more productive.
