📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Akademik Sakharov
- 🌍 Origin: A Russian heirloom tomato named after the famous Soviet physicist and dissident, Andrei Sakharov. The specific strain discussed in this thread carries a remarkable backstory: the seeds were saved and evacuated by a grandmother fleeing the Donbas region conflict.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, very vigorous, and tall. In a greenhouse, it easily exceeds 2 meters (6.5 ft). It produces a mix of simple and intermediate (forked) flower trusses.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Red, oblate beefsteaks. Fruits on the lower trusses weigh around 160-350g (5.6-12.3 oz).
- 👅 Flavor: A mild, well-balanced tomato. Growers in very cold, cloudy regions note it lacks intense sweetness due to lack of sun, but importantly, it never turns sour.
- 💪 Performance: An absolute champion in cold and damp climates. It sets fruit reliably without skipping blossoms even in terrible weather, and yields heavily (up to 7.5 kg / 16.5 lbs per plant).
I started the seeds on February 23, and transplanted them into the greenhouse on May 10.
It grew over 2 meters (6.5 ft) tall – by September it was already growing horizontally along the greenhouse roof. I planted two roots (plants) per planting hole; I pruned one to two main stems, and the other to one stem.
The lower flower trusses were of the intermediate type, the second ones were intermediate and simple, and the third were intermediate. From those two bushes, over the season, I harvested 14 kg (30.8 lbs) of fully ripe and breaker-stage (partially ripe) tomatoes, plus about 1 kg (2.2 lbs) of small green nubbins at the very top at the end of the season.
The first three trusses on all branches had fruits weighing 160-250 grams (5.6-8.8 oz), with a few reaching 300 grams (10.5 oz).
The summer of 2015 was cloudy and cool, yet it set fruit reliably, without dropping any blossoms. It sized up and turned red among the very first varieties in my garden. Overall – I was highly impressed!
I highly recommend it for the Northwest region!
What do you mean by intermediate trusses? And how did the tomato taste?
The taste of the tomato has no acidity, but it doesn’t have an intense sweetness either. But weather conditions could have definitely affected this – my summer was very cool and cloudy. The most important thing is that it didn’t turn out sour! 🙂
A tomato inflorescence (truss) can be simple, intermediate (forked), complex, or highly branched.
🙂 Alena, what was the source of your Akademik Sakharov seeds? Mine, last year, were from Petrov. I sit here trying to remember, and I think my trusses were just simple/regular ones. If they were as huge as yours, I would have remembered… The size was a bit larger though, 300-350 grams (10.5-12.3 oz) on the lower trusses.
Your Akademik has some absolutely gorgeous trusses 👍.
My seeds are from Petrov too, I am planning to plant it in 2016.
Nadin said:
Alena, what was the source of your Akademik Sakharov seeds?
There is a bit of a story here. A year ago, my husband’s grandmother was evacuated from the Donbas region, and the seeds of the Akademik Sakharov and Donskiye varieties arrived with her.
Edited October 13, 2015 by Krasnaya Shapka
I looked at your Akademik, felt quietly envious, and decided I will definitely repeat it next year. 😄
.jpg.309e17db342c2cd840455ca12aafb78e.jpg)
