Principe Borghese Tomato Review & Photos

Grew outdoors. A vigorous indeterminate. Fruits are cherries, red, oval with a little beak/nipple. Weight 15-20g (0.5-0.7 oz). Productive and tasty. Thanks to Marinichka for the seeds!

Store-bought seeds, don’t remember the brand. Not overly aggressive in growth, cocktail size—I liked it better than the ‘Finik’ (Date) variety. I will plant it again.

Grew it for the first time. 1 bush in the greenhouse pruned to 2 stems, but you can definitely leave much more stems than that. The bush is powerful. I didn’t top it, and it shot up to 3.5m (11.5 ft). The tomatoes are the size of a small chicken egg. The first ones appeared in early July, and the last ones in mid-October. The photo isn’t great, but it’s all I have.

Oksana, if I plant it in a greenhouse, it needs a lot of space judging by your photo, right?

Here is the classic description: “The best variety for canning of all time! In preserves, it retains its tomato aroma brighter than all other varieties. Since the century before last, it has been the only variety for making sun-dried tomatoes and tomatoes in olive oil. Highly productive, unpretentious in cultivation, resistant to diseases, and has a very balanced taste. Tall. In Italy, bushes with ripe tomatoes are simply pulled up by the roots, turned upside down, and hung. That is how the fruits of this variety are dried right on the bushes. Then they are gathered in jars and covered with olive oil. This dish is considered a delicacy all over the world.”

This year it was my absolute favorite tomato. Today is September 17, and it is still setting fruit after fruit. The trusses are very beautiful. It is extremely delicious when sun-dried. Definitely planting it again.

A good, rewarding variety. I plan to plant more of it next year.

I found a seed packet I bought a long time ago. But I wasn’t sure if it was the real deal. The thing is, the photo looks suspicious. Look at the wooden board in the background—it’s the exact same board as on the ‘Cherry Ira’ seed packet! Is the rest of it just Photoshop…??
{photo lost, sorry}

Most likely, the seed company took a photo from a foreign site and did a little Photoshop. This happens a lot.

That’s not just Photoshop, they literally mirrored the image.

Yes, a mirrored image. Not only that, but they added +1 extra tomato separate from the truss. So, they inserted it. I wonder who stole the picture first? I’ll take a risk and plant it anyway.

Olvia said:
That’s not just Photoshop, they literally mirrored the image.

Olechka! How many stems did you lead yours in? And did it skip setting fruit on any trusses?

Elena 62 said:
How many stems did you lead yours in?

Lena, mine was from the vendor Gusev, not from a commercial store packet. I planted 2 plants in one hole, led them in 2 stems each. I wouldn’t say it skipped trusses, but mine was planted near the door in a very well-ventilated spot.

My seeds from Gusev grew into a determinate bush, about 0.7m (2.3 ft) in the greenhouse. It set fruit from every single flower that bloomed. The taste was ordinary tomato flavor. They stored for a long time, dried well, didn’t spoil, and we ate the last ones in November.

I grew 1 bush in a polycarbonate greenhouse this year. Pruned to 2 stems, it turned out massive, reached the greenhouse roof, and then I topped it. It set trusses of cocktail-sized plums from bottom to top. But it started ripening very late, at the end of August.

The taste fresh was a 4 out of 5. I didn’t manage to dry them. I pulled the plant in early September along with everything else. Almost all the fruits were still green. Unfortunately, it is too late of a variety for my region.

Planted it this year. Right next to De Barao Black. The yield was identical. The taste is inferior. But the tomatoes are meaty. Maybe if I sun-dry them they will be okay. Most likely I won’t plant them again.

Principe Borghese.

Indeterminate. You can leave it unpruned after the first truss. A beautiful, powerful bush with long fruiting. Cherries up to 20g (0.7 oz), red oval with a beak, 7-10 pieces per truss. The taste is closer to a good tomato flavor with a slight sweetness. They don’t fall off the vine, don’t crack, and store well. An excellent variety!

Seeds were from Aelita. Planted in the greenhouse. The variety disappointed me. Compared to its neighbors, the foliage growth was excessively aggressive. All summer it set trusses of just 5 tomatoes. Only in September did it produce trusses remotely resembling the photos at the beginning of this thread.

Meaty, but absolutely no taste. De Barao Black is at least good in salads and has a higher yield. I did sun-dry the tomatoes, but I made a mixed batch. Borghese, De Barao, Flaschentomaten, Sanka, Lyana, and even surplus Königsberg went into the dehydrator. In the finished dried product, you can’t tell them apart by taste. So when it comes to sun-dried tomatoes, it’s not about the variety, but about having a good recipe.

The discovery of the season! Planted 1 bush specifically for drying. But it doesn’t even survive to be dried—it gets eaten straight off the bush!

The highlight, in my opinion, is that it tastes as if a pinch of salt has already been added to it—it’s savory/salty, but in moderation. A few went into marinades, but I can’t leave a review on its canning performance yet. The person who recommended it to me said it wasn’t great fresh, but perfect for drying. However, in my greenhouse, the fresh taste is absolutely amazing! I think this is the first time I’ve ever encountered a variety with a “salty” undertone. Seeds were from Aelita.