De Barao Tsarskiy Krasnyi (Royal Red De Barao) Tomato Review

Grew it in the greenhouse in a sunny spot. Mid-season variety, plants are highly vigorous, indeterminate type. Average fruit weight was 4.5-5.3 oz (130-150 g) though the packet stated 7-8.8 oz (200-250 g). The fruits are red, meaty, and surprisingly feature a very pronounced sweetness 😋. Whoever took this tomato to eat fresh would take a bite, look at me questioning, and say “Wow, what a delicious tomato, what variety is this?” 😂

It was highly productive, resistant to bad weather and diseases, and was one of the very last bushes I pulled from the greenhouse in autumn. This variety is my discovery of 2014! I don’t know how it holds up canned in jars – they simply didn’t survive long enough to be preserved. My seeds were Ukrainian.

Edited January 29, 2015 by Drosera

Continued.

And here it is under the greenhouse roof in autumn:

Lena, my Royal De Barao had a little beak (nipple) on the end. Olga sent me the seeds, and it was also very delicious.

Lena, are “Royal De Barao” and “Royal Red De Barao” different varieties?

Quote from SvetaR:
Lena, are “Royal De Barao” and “Royal Red De Barao” different varieties?

There is also a Royal Pink and other colors.

Quote from Abika:
Lena, my Royal De Barao had a little beak on the end…

Golsirya! Is Olga from Voronezh? I grew that one back then too, it was super last year, but failed this year because I planted it outdoors in open ground, whereas last year it was in the greenhouse. Apparently, the “Royal” strains are all heat-lovers.

But my Royal Red De Barao does not have a pronounced beak/nipple.

Quote from SvetaR:
Lena, are “Royal De Barao” and “Royal Red De Barao” different varieties?

Sveta, yes, they are all different. There’s even a yellow one 😋.

Lena! 🙏 On the Ukrainian packet from the “Radomir” company for Royal Red De Barao, it states: “vine-like plant, up to 10 feet (3 m), fruit weight 5.3-7 oz (150-200 g), yield up to 25 kg/sq.m.” The photo shows them without a beak. Did I understand correctly that you grew this variety, but from a different company? It’s great that the fruits are larger and meatier (4 seed chambers) than standard De Barao which only has 2-chambered fruits.

There’s also a top-seller – Royal Gold De Barao from Radomir. Fruit shape – no beak. The description matches the red one word for word.

However, the description for Royal Pink De Barao from Radomir differs in weight: 2.8-5.3 oz (80-150 g), it doesn’t say “vine-like”, and the photo has no beak. Meanwhile, the Russian version of Royal Pink (which many on the forum got from Olga in Voronezh) DOES have a beak. Are they different varieties? I found the answer in the relevant thread: they are the same, the beak just appears sometimes and disappears other times.

Raya-Amira 🙏, you once wrote: “In Ukraine, every garden has its own De Barao.” 😂 Have you grown the variations described above? Which ones did you like and why?

Edited October 11, 2014 by Zulfiya

Zulya, it’s like Pink Giant – every yard has a different tomato 😂 And my Royal Red De Barao looks like this. Mid-early, very sweet and tasty, high yielding, somewhat cubic shape. Looks very similar to Elena’s variety. My seeds are from “Folk Breeding” out of Dnipropetrovsk. Overall, I love all the De Baraos. 😊

Girls! I messed up the stated weight in my original description. I don’t know what company they are from, maybe Radomir, but the seeds were sent to me – both Royal Pink (which should also be without a little beak) and Royal Red. I’ll grow the pink one next year. Here was the description I got:

Royal Red De Barao: Height up to 10 feet (3 m). For outdoors and greenhouses. Fruit weight 5.3-7 oz (150-200 g). Excellent taste qualities, yield up to 20-25 kg per sq.m.
Royal Pink De Barao: Height up to 10 feet (3 m). Weight 2.8-5.3 oz (80-150 g). Up to 20 kg per plant. High taste qualities.

And I found another photo of my Royal Red:

Lena, I understood the main point: It’s called “Royal” because it ripens earlier 👍 and is larger than standard De Barao. But all the other De Barao benefits 😋, massive yields, and disease resistances are fully preserved! 🙌

Royal De Barao (mine was pink with a beak) definitely starts ripening relatively early in July, but there is one big “but” – it only gave me one or two tomatoes a week. It builds up its trusses very slowly.

By September, it had set and filled out a ton of fruit, but they didn’t even have time to blush/break color. For me, it’s just too late of a variety.

I really loved the flavor and texture. But I was hoping that by September it would have a massive flush of ripe fruit, and nope, it didn’t happen.

Elena, the exact description you posted for the red one is exactly what’s on my packet. But your pink one is different. My pink packet has the exact same description as the red one. The pink strain appeared relatively recently.

Raisa, thank you! They are probably the same then. But my fruits were definitely more elongated. Though that might just depend on growing conditions. I’ll try to find out who the original seed vendor was.

Quote from Zulfiya:
Lena, I understood the main point: It’s called “Royal” because it ripens earlier…

Zulya! Yes, I came to the exact same conclusion 🙏 But I’ll add one more thing – they only thrive in heat, so it is strictly a greenhouse variety.

Quote from Sweet:
…For me, it’s just too late of a variety.

Svetlan! Last year I planted Royal Pink De Barao – I started the seeds in early May because I received them late. As a result, it only managed to set 5 trusses. Ultimately, I think Royal De Baraos need a very sunny spot and lots of heat (greenhouse), and only then will they be superb!

Elena, the Royal Red De Barao I grew in the greenhouse from your seeds grew over 10 feet (3 meters) tall! The yield and taste were excellent, it didn’t get sick, the trusses were mostly simple, but with a lot of fruits per truss. My only correction – the yield could have been even higher, but I overfed all my tomatoes with nitrogen and had to fix the situation later with superphosphate. Oh, and yes, my tomatoes did have little beaks on them. I will definitely plant it again in 2015, and keep a close eye on the nitrogen. Sorry for the late review due to circumstances beyond our control.

Volodya, thank you so much for the review! 😊
However, the Royal De Barao seeds I sent you were actually a different strain, not this exact one 😉

I’m a bit lost on which thread to post this in. The variety was sent to me specifically as “Royal Red De Barao”, but it looks more like just regular “Royal De Barao”. Maybe they just clarified for me that it was red instead of pink, and I misunderstood? If this is the wrong place, please move my post.

The seeds came from vepa061, who got them from Danko. Here is the compiled description I saved from the forum before sowing: Indeterminate, mid-season, can be grown in multiple stems, plum-shaped (no beak), not huge (3.5-4.2 oz / 100-120g), red, disease resistant.

Grew it in the greenhouse. It was completely loaded with beautiful, uniform little plums with beaks. The taste was good, but compared to some of my other discoveries this year, it didn’t totally blow me away. I ended up sun-drying all of them, and it turned out to be incredibly convenient for that. The skin is thick and the flesh is meaty. Tall. Mid-season. Here it is pictured alongside Black De Barao (with a tiny bit of Ildi tomatoes mixed in).

Edited October 19, 2015 by kalinka-malinka

Quote from kalinka-malinka:
If this is the wrong place, please move my post…

By shape, your fruits look more like Royal De Barao (but those are usually pink); the Royal Red De Barao fruits are generally more elongated. 🤷‍♀️ Let’s leave it here for now.

Indeterminate, grew in the greenhouse pruned to 2 stems, extremely productive with a long fruiting window. One of the absolute tastiest tomatoes of the season! 👍 😋 Seeds from ElenaN 🙏

The fruits are juicy, sweet, do not crack, and store pretty well if you pick them slightly underripe. Weight up to 5.3 oz (150 g).

Quote from ElenaN:
And here it is under the greenhouse roof in autumn…

Dear forum members! Somehow everything has gotten mixed up lately. The photos show Giant De Barao, but Royal De Barao are supposed to be round tomatoes.

This variety appeared a very long time ago, in red and pink. Over 30 years ago, while vacationing in Gelendzhik, we bought seeds from a tomato grower – they were small, oval tomatoes with a characteristic green spot at the stem. I liked them for their decent yields and disease resistance, but they were strictly for canning. Personally, I didn’t like the green shoulders (even when pickled, they stayed hard in that spot), but my husband loved them.

Later, breeders used that base tomato to create Giant De Barao, Black De Barao, and Royal De Barao. Giant De Barao only differs from standard Red by its massive size – oval shape, green shoulders, just huge. Royal De Barao, however, are ROUND tomatoes, very productive. I haven’t grown them yet, but I really want to. I saw a video of an amateur grower raising them outdoors in 5 stems and getting a massive harvest (down south, of course).

I just wanted to ask, is the Royal version as tasty and meaty as the Giant?

Quote from irunchik:
I just wanted to ask, is the Royal version as tasty and meaty as the Giant?

Giant De Barao is meaty, but the flavor is ordinary; I grow it purely as a processing tomato just for canning/sauce. It makes incredibly thick juice and paste. Even though it’s one of my favorites, for fresh eating, there are much tastier varieties. Next season I want to change how I grow them to get a truly massive yield. I mentioned before I have several packets of genuine, tested Giant De Barao seeds – if anyone needs some, message me, I’ll send them for free.

Ira, I haven’t grown Giant De Barao, but I’ve tried many of the other variations. For the second season in a row, my Royal Red De Barao confirmed its sweetness, even in this year’s cold, rainy summer. If you want to try growing this exact strain, send me your address in a PM and I’ll mail you seeds.

It is definitely a greenhouse variety. This year I had 2 bushes – one in the greenhouse, one outdoors. The outdoor ones were 1.5 times smaller and lacked that sweet flavor.

Edited December 15, 2015 by ElenaN

Girls… I am completely confused now. Is it worth planting Royal De Barao or not? Can someone describe the exact variety?

Here is what my Royal Red De Barao looked like. Indeterminate, sowed in March. Very sturdy seedlings, grew in the greenhouse. Ripened around August 20th. Like all the “little De Baraos”, it never got sick. I regretted all winter that I didn’t save seeds as a backup. I’ll try to multiply the 3 seeds I have left. The flavor was nothing special, but maybe it’s meant for pickling/canning. I’ll test it out next summer.

Royal Red De Barao, seeds from @ElenaN 🙏

An absolutely excellent variety 👍, I grow it almost every single year, and I’ve shared seeds with all my friends.

Indeterminate, pruned to 3 main stems in the greenhouse, very high yielding 👋, long fruiting window. The fruits are fat red icicles weighing up to 4.5-5.3 oz (130-150 g). They are not dry, have medium density, and are incredibly tasty with a nice sweetness 😋 I have never once seen Blossom End Rot (BER) on it.

Edited September 25, 2019 by Svetikk