Growers’ Notes and Photos
My seeds came from Lena Danko (@Danko). Here is her original description:
“Kozula/228 (KX 83) – Polish breeding by Anna Kozula! KX 83. The breeder has now assigned it the permanent number Kozula/228!
Tall indeterminate, mid-season variety. Tomatoes weigh 7-10.5 oz (200-300 g), featuring ochre flesh and olive stripes over an ochre base on the outside. A very tasty variety with a bright and rich aroma!”
This variety deserves the highest praise. It matched the description perfectly and performed exceptionally well for me. To my taste, Yarson-17 was just a tiny bit sweeter, though Yarson might have lost out to this stunner in total yield. (Or maybe it was just user error on my end with the fertilizer, things happen!)
Olya Pskovishna said:
This variety deserves the highest praise. It matched the description perfectly and performed exceptionally well for me…
Despite the really tough weather conditions this year, it set fruit reliably all the way up to the roof. For me, it acted more like a mid-early variety (I sowed seeds on March 17). The trusses held up great under the weight, and the fruit didn’t crack at all. Extremely beautiful and tasty. Best of all, it ripened perfectly on the counter without losing any of its flavor.
Full Summary: Plant, Yield, Taste and Storage
- 🌿 Plant: An indeterminate, tall-growing vine. It has strong, sturdy trusses that don’t easily snap under the weight of the fruit, even when fully loaded.
- 📈 Yield: Excellent and dependable. Growers note it powers through difficult weather and continues setting fruit reliably all the way to the top of the plant without dropping blossoms.
- 👅 Taste: Very flavorful with a rich, bright aroma. The flesh is dense and ochre-colored. While one grower found another striped variety (Yarson-17) to be slightly sweeter, Kozula 228 still ranks incredibly high for overall taste. It is also highly crack-resistant.
- 📦 Storage: Outstanding for a striped heirloom. It is specifically praised for its ability to be picked green or at first blush and ripen indoors on the counter without suffering any loss in flavor quality.
- 🌎 Who Reviewed It: Successfully grown in Zones 3 and 4, proving it is robust enough to handle the short, unpredictable summers of Siberia and Northwestern Russia.
If you see “KX 83” and “Kozula 228” used interchangeably, don’t be confused—they are the exact same tomato! Polish breeder Anna Jankowski (known online as Kozula) used working numbers for her crosses as they were distributed globally for stabilization. Once a line was fully stabilized and deemed successful, it was assigned a permanent official Kozula catalog number.
