Quick Summary of Sanka Zolotoy (Golden Sanka)
- 🌍 Origin: A golden-yellow variation of “Sanka”, one of the most famous and widely grown ultra-early commercial heirlooms in Russia and Ukraine. The name translates to “Golden Sanka” or “Sanka Gold”.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Determinate (bush). It grows to about 1 meter (3.3 ft) tall outdoors. It is a bushy, heavily foliated plant that performs exceptionally well in the open ground.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Smooth, round, yellow fruits that develop a deep orange tint when fully ripe. They typically weigh 150-200 g (5.3-7 oz).
- 👅 Flavor & Texture: Sweet with a very delicate, balanced acidity. What makes this variety special is its texture—growers describe the flesh as feeling “like butter or marmalade,” incredibly tender in the mouth, yet the fruit itself is firm and doesn’t bruise easily.
- ⏳ Maturity & Climate Tolerance: Categorized as early. Its greatest asset is its extreme resilience; it thrives and produces heavy yields even in cold, wet, and heavily overcast summers where other varieties fail.
Seeds were from our Vera-tomatinka.
According to the description: an early determinate, round yellow fruits, the first ones reaching up to 200 g (7 oz).
Grown outdoors in the open ground under temporary row covers, it reached a height of about 1 m (3.3 ft). The bush is voluminous and has good foliage. Quite productive. For me, it didn’t turn out to be very early, but I sowed the seeds for outdoor planting around March 9th and transplanted them into the ground around May 10th. I only tasted the first ones at the end of August. 🤷♀️
The fruits were uniform, no larger than 150 g (5.3 oz), yellow with an orange tint.
Sorry for the upside-down image, that’s just how it uploaded from my phone.
I consider this a very worthy tomato. For me, here in the Perm Krai, during the extremely wet and cold summer of 2019, it turned out to be one of the most productive varieties in my garden. The fruits averaged 200 g (7 oz) and were delicious.
There is a delicate hint of acidity, but it is mostly sweet. The flesh of this tomato is highly unusual — it feels like butter (or fruit jelly/marmalade). It seems incredibly tender when you eat it, but at the same time, the fruit itself doesn’t squish or bruise easily. It’s tasty, and highly resilient to cold, high humidity, and gloomy overcast weather.
Decided to share a picture. Here is Sanka Zolotoy side-by-side with the ‘Apelsin’ (Orange) variety for comparison.
Nadya:
Decided to share a picture. Here is Sanka Zolotoy side-by-side with the ‘Apelsin’ (Orange) variety for comparison.
Sanka Zolotoy is an interesting variety! I am attaching photos of my ‘Apelsin’ (Orange) tomato variety for further comparison. When fully ripe, the color is deep orange.
