📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Altaysky Shedevr (Altai Masterpiece)
- 🌍 Origin: A highly acclaimed Siberian heirloom variety. The name translates to “Altai Masterpiece,” and it truly lives up to its name among collectors. Often sold by Russian seed company Aelita.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), with a very thick, sturdy main stem and short internodes. Despite its vigor, it doesn’t produce an overwhelming amount of suckers. Warning: Ensure strong support ties, as the massive fruit loads can easily snap standard garden twine!
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Giant, red, oblate (flattened-round) beefsteaks. They ripen evenly with no hard green or yellow shoulders, and the trusses are thick enough that they don’t kink under the weight of the heavy fruits.
- 👅 Flavor: Universally rated 5+ out of 5 by growers. Known for a rich, unforgettable, old-fashioned tomato flavor.
- ⚖️ Yield: Extremely high. Growers report up to 7 kg (15.4 lbs) of tomatoes from a single plant when grown in a greenhouse.
I grew Altaysky Shedevr (seeds from Angelina). A super variety!!! Very delicious and highly productive. The taste is one you remember for a long time, and the flavor remained consistent throughout the season. I will be planting it every year from now on.
Sofia, could you please describe where it grew, what the bush looked like, and how you pruned/trained it? I bought seeds from the Aelita seed company, and I really want to grow a handsome tomato just like yours.
I also bought seeds from Aelita… I can hardly believe that such a miracle can grow from commercial Aelita seeds.
Alaviya said:
Sofia, could you please describe where it grew, what the bush looked like, and how you pruned/trained it?
It grew in the greenhouse. I pruned it to two main stems. It is a tall plant, the bush is quite robust, but it didn’t throw out too many suckers. I sowed the seeds on February 2nd, and the first ripe fruits were ready by early July (July 8-10). It has a very long fruiting period; I still had ripe tomatoes on it in October. I transplanted it into the greenhouse on April 22nd. The yield is great, and the taste is a solid 5+.
My seeds originally came from Angelina (it’s listed in Redko’s seed catalog).
Grew in the greenhouse. Trained it to two stems. The main stem is thick and powerful, the bush is dense with short internodes, and not many suckers. Interestingly, every fruit truss threw out a vegetative sucker extension at its tip. The variety is mid-season, oblate, red, with absolutely no green/yellow shoulders at the stem. Yield is above average. The tomato flavor is 5+.
Seeds were from Sofia 27.
I grew one bush in the greenhouse, pruned it to three main stems. The bush is powerful, although I’ve seen even more powerful ones. Lenochka from Moscow sent me the seeds. I absolutely loved it for both its taste and yield. The total yield from that single plant was around 7 kg (15.4 lbs). All the photos below are tomatoes harvested from just one bush.
I grew 1 plant in a polycarbonate greenhouse, pruned to a single stem. It produced 14 large fruits of very good flavor. The trusses are sturdy and didn’t kink under the weight. However, it was so heavy it snapped the support twines and collapsed, but thankfully it didn’t suffer much damage. I really liked that even during the intense heatwaves, the fruits had no white cores or tough green shoulders. I will definitely repeat it, although it was a bit late for me. I will start the seeds earlier next time.
This variety delighted me as well. I grew one bush in the greenhouse, counted 10 large fruits, and then stopped counting. Taste is a 5.
It absolutely blew me away! Truly a masterpiece tomato 👍. At the beginning of the season, I fed my tomatoes with Agricola (a commercial liquid fertilizer), and my Altai Masterpiece went into severe vegetative overdrive (too much nitrogen). I had to spend a long time nursing it back into a balanced reproductive state. Because of this, it turned out to be quite late for me. But it was incredibly tasty, beautiful, and massive! My yield was only average, but that was entirely my own fault. Seeds were from Angelina.
