📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Agatha (Агата)
- 🌍 Origin: A classic, highly respected Soviet heirloom. It was officially entered into the USSR State Register of Breeding Achievements back in 1987.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Determinate (bush). Generally stays short and compact when grown outdoors (40–60 cm / 16–24 inches), but can reach 1–1.2 m (3 – 4 ft) in a greenhouse. Self-tops (stops growing) after setting 3-4 trusses, so it requires minimal to zero pruning.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Red, smooth, oblate (flattened-round) to perfectly round fruits weighing around 100–120g (3.5–4.2 oz). They grow in uniform clusters of 5-6 tomatoes and ripen together.
- 👅 Flavor: The definition of an old-fashioned tomato! Very well-balanced (not too acidic, not too sweet), highly aromatic, and intensely “tomatoey.”
- 💡 Pro Tip: This variety is beloved for its reliability. In this thread alone, multiple growers successfully revived the variety by sprouting incredibly old seeds (from 2000 and 2007) and reported high resistance to Late Blight!
The “Agatha” variety was introduced into the State Register back in 1987 (thanks to WIK for the info). If you manage to get your hands on the genuine seeds of this variety, despite its venerable age, it will give you a lot of pleasant impressions.
First of all, it has a very harmonious taste – it’s not sour, not overly sweet, very aromatic, and has a very strong “tomatoey” flavor.
The plant is determinate; it tops itself (terminates growth) roughly after the 3rd or 4th truss, setting trusses every 2 leaves. Because of this, you need to leave 2-3 suckers on the plant to keep it producing.
The ripening period is early. When planted in a greenhouse, it is one of the very first to turn red, growing to about 1 – 1.20 meters (3-4 ft) tall. The fruit shape is oblate (flattened-round) and slightly ribbed. Weight is about 100 grams (3.5 oz). There are 5-6 tomatoes per cluster, which ripen simultaneously.
In the photo below, you can see my bush which I absent-mindedly pruned of all its suckers while daydreaming, just like I did with all the indeterminate plants around it 🤦♂️.
Edited December 3, 2013 by Pomidoroved
What a beauty…
I didn’t buy the seeds because the stated weight was small… and considering that in our conditions you usually have to divide the seed packet’s weight claims by 2, I figured they’d be tiny. Hmm…
Dear Admin, where can one find the genuine Agatha variety nowadays? It is so beautiful, and especially enticing with that real tomato flavor! 👍
The last time I saw seeds for it, they were from the Aelita seed company, and that was about 4 years ago or even earlier (the photo above is an old one from 2007). I don’t have any seeds left right now, but if I see them again, I will definitely buy them!
I have Agatha from Aelita, expiration date 12.2015, but I haven’t planted it yet myself. Do you want it?
I have it too, in a sealed packet 😊. Anybody need it?
For the 2013 season, we planted very old Agatha seeds (expiration date 12.2007). Several bushes successfully germinated, and despite various “obstacles,” they produced a harvest. We saved the seeds and planted them again this year. The only thing that confuses me is the shape of the fruit 😊
Marina, what exactly confuses you about it?
Galya, I expected it to be a more “flat” (oblate) shape, but there’s a chance it just didn’t have enough time to widen out. For example, with the Siberian Early variety, you can get both flattened-round and perfectly round fruits on the exact same bush, so maybe Agatha has the same trait.
Well, Admin’s tomatoes don’t look completely flat either, and it even looks like there’s a hint of a pointed beak starting on them…
This season, I managed to successfully revive Agatha from seeds dating back to the year 2000!…
The bushes grew outdoors in open ground beds, the height was no more than 60 cm (24 inches). The fruits ripened fully on the vine, which confirms its early ripening period. The taste of the fruits is quite pleasant and harmonious, and the fruits themselves are not small-ranging from 100 to 150 g (3.5 – 5.3 oz)…
I truly got a ton of pleasant impressions from this variety 🙂, and I really hope this is the exact same variety that our respected Admin uses as his avatar! 😉
During this year—which was not a very pleasant one for growing tomatoes – my gardening neighbor planted Agatha from the Aelita company. The tomato grew outdoors in open ground, didn’t get sick at all, and the taste was very pleasing. I made a firm decision for myself: Agatha will definitely be in my garden next year 👍. I bought the seeds without any issues back in August.
I grew Agatha this season.
I liked the tomato; it grew in open ground and was the second determinate variety to start ripening. The bush is short, up to 50 cm (20 inches), prolific, and highly resistant to Late Blight (Phytophthora). I will definitely repeat it.
My Agatha outdoors was quite short, 40-50 cm (16-20 inches). I didn’t prune any suckers, and the bushes didn’t get sick at all. It turned out to be mid-season, weighing up to 120 g (4.2 oz). The flesh is dense, not watery, with a classic tomato flavor and a nice presence of sweetness.
Here is my Agatha. Thanks to Olya (Lyoka) for the seeds.
A very good short-growing variety. The bushes were about 60 cm (24 inches), and I didn’t prune the suckers. They didn’t get sick. Fruits are about 100 g (3.5 oz). Good, classic tomato flavor. Average yield.
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