Rebel Starfighter VT16 Tomato Review & Photos

Rebel Starfighter VT16 is another selection from Russ Crowe’s Xanadu Picasso x RHK GWR Heart cross. I grew three vines: two in the greenhouse and one out in open ground. Maturity-wise, it was definitely early. The vine is spindly with sparse, wispy foliage. Fruit shapes on the plant vary quite a bit, you get both blunt plums and pointed hearts, running anywhere from 3.5 to 10.5 oz (100-300 g). On one vine, the fruit segregated with a pale yellow skin. Absolutely stunning! The interior has that classic Brandywine-style melting flesh: juicy, dissolves right on your tongue, you could literally eat it with a spoon. Sweet flavor with a lingering fruity finish.

I have seen mixed reviews on flavor out there, and I really want to urge anyone who didn’t love it the first time: don’t give up on this variety. Give it another shot next season. Summer weather has been tricky for all of us, and maybe growing conditions were just off. In my garden, the flavor never wavered from the first cluster to the very last pick, it stayed exceptionally sweet all season long.

Really enjoyed this variety. Delicious, gorgeous, and productive.

Edited July 24, 2020 by ilja

Folks, how on earth do you tell when this variety is actually ripe? Growing it for the first time this season, and I’m totally lost on whether they are ready to pick or not. With straightforward green-when-ripe varieties it’s easy, they are solid colored and you can clearly see the yellow tint when they turn. But this stunner is covered in starburst streaks, silvery tones, and all shades of purple anthocyanin. How do you know when it’s done?

Folks, how on earth do you tell when this variety is actually ripe? Growing it for the first time this season, and I’m totally lost on whether they are ready to pick or not. With straightforward green-when-ripe varieties it’s easy, they are solid colored and you can clearly see the yellow tint when they turn. But this stunner is covered in starburst streaks, silvery tones, and all shades of purple anthocyanin. How do you know when it’s done?

You have to do the squeeze test with your fingers. That is how I checked my first fruits, and later in the thick of the harvest they ended up cracking on the vine, letting me know they were overdone 🙂 The skin tone does shift slightly lighter at full ripeness, turning more of an olive-green, but you have to watch them like a hawk to catch that color change.

You have to do the squeeze test with your fingers. That is how I checked my first fruits, and later in the thick of the harvest they ended up cracking on the vine, letting me know they were overdone 🙂 The skin tone does shift slightly lighter at full ripeness, turning more of an olive-green, but you have to watch them like a hawk to catch that color change.

Yep, I go by touch too. Once they soften up under your fingers, they are ready to pick.

Got my hands on Starfighter seeds this season and grew these beauties for the first time! I fell head over heels for them. I can stand there forever just admiring their crazy patterns, those swirling starburst trails. The coloring transforms over time, shifting with layers of purple anthocyanin, metallic silver, and finishing with golden-olive hues at full maturity. It sets fruit reliably on long, gorgeous trusses, and the flavor is truly unique and memorable!

An absolute Ural gemstone straight out of folklore! 👍

Grew 2 vines. Spindly, scrawny plants, honestly felt like yanking them out half the time. They grew in full blazing sun. Dropped quite a few blossoms from the heat, and wild temperature swings caused a lot of mega-blooms.

Turned out to have a wonderful, balanced, sweet and refreshing flavor.

Outstanding fresh slicer: skins are tender, flesh has a melt-in-your-mouth sugary grain.

Giving this variety a solid 5+ rating. It has officially earned a permanent spot in my yearly lineup!

Edited January 27, 2021 by Ellis_Cu

Heavy producer, but the vine ended up thin and willowy.

Fruits are loaded with juice. It was tough for me to judge ripeness, you strictly have to feel them by hand: either soft or dead-ripe soft. Has that distinct sweet green-tomato tang. Stunning fruits marked with emerald streaks. Plenty of seeds inside each fruit.

Edited November 8, 2021 by OlyaSashina

Rebel Starfighter VT16 is early, delicious, and has that tender marmalade texture. Just a gorgeous, striking tomato. My husband went crazy for the taste: he specifically picked through the harvest crates hunting down this variety and happily ate them up 😏 Very solid yielder. Ripeness can only be judged by touch, which meant a few tomatoes overripened on the vine and split.

Huge props to @OlgaYar for sharing the seeds, thank you Olya! 🌹

Edited November 25, 2021 by neLENtyayka

Didn’t have room for VT16 in the unheated greenhouse this year (space is strictly limited, started plenty of seedlings but handed them out to eager fellow gardeners). Well, VT16 went ahead and popped up as a volunteer seedling on its own! Identified it immediately by its wimpy, sparse foliage, and it ripened completely on the vine. No escaping this one…

Matured five full trusses in the greenhouse before October.

To say I was floored is an understatement. In my 10 years of growing tomatoes, this is the only variety I can remember that managed to fully ripen from an unexpected volunteer seedling. And it even grew tucked under the shade of an eggplant because there was zero room left.

First photo is the first truss from July 7, 2022.
Second photo is the first overripe fruit picked August 9 (wasn’t hovering over this volunteer plant much, so it overripened since you gotta check them by touch, and I just didn’t have the time).

Edited January 19, 2023 by Ellis_Cu

Grew it outdoors in the open ground, turned out very early! This was the first slicer tomato we ate all season, besides a couple early cherries, picked July 1st.

Split slightly due to a freezing, rainy spring.

Wonderfully sweet and flavorful. Squeeze test was the only way to tell when it was ready 🙂