Alsou (Alsu) Tomato Review

ALSOU

A variety from “SibSad”. Pink-fruited, heart-shaped.

I grew it in 2012. It grew in my greenhouse, reaching a height of about 1.5 m (5 ft). The plant looked frail, the main stem was thin, and the foliage was wispy/drooping. My seedlings had a “late start” (I bought the seeds late), maybe that’s why it didn’t perform to 100% of its potential. I pruned it to a single leader, and it managed to set 3 trusses. The fruits weren’t overly huge—roughly between 200 and 400 grams (7-14 oz). Quite juicy, good balanced taste, but not mind-blowing (I had other pinks to compare it with). I want to stress again that my seedling was a bit stunted at transplanting, so my conclusions from 2012 aren’t entirely objective. Plus, you can’t judge a variety based on just one year. So please take my description as a first impression, not a definitive verdict. I’ve read many positive reviews about this variety, including here on our forum.

Please add your thoughts, those who have grown it!

Olya, I also grew this variety in 2012. Also in the greenhouse. Fruit set was low, but I think that was due to the heat. However, the fruits were huuuuge, approaching a kilo (2.2 lbs). I’ll try it again this year. If it turns out like last year—I’ll have to cull it. But I really liked the taste, it was sugary-sweet. Actually, in 2012, all the varieties I grew in the greenhouse amazed me with their sweetness. There wasn’t a single sour one.

I thought I heard that Alsou isn’t very tall? I was looking at it as a determinate variety…

Verochka, it WILL act as a determinate for you if you plant it outdoors in the open garden, you were right to look at it that way. For example, the famous Pink Honey (Rozoviy Myod) only grew to 1 m (3 ft) for me outdoors, but in the greenhouse in August it took off with a second growth spurt (after some feeding) and ended up being 1.8-2 m (6-6.5 ft) tall. Can you imagine the difference? So go ahead and try Alsou outdoors—it will stay short.

I also planted it for the first year, in the open garden. The plant height was about 80 cm (31 inches). I removed suckers up to the first flower cluster, and after that, I didn’t touch it, just like I normally treat determinates. There were a lot of tomatoes. The one in the photo is an average one; the first ones were larger, 600 grams (21 oz) or more, but even the last ones weren’t too small. The plant didn’t look overly frail, probably because it was short. The flavor is very good, sugary, with solid meat inside. It’s a pity I didn’t think to take a photo of it sliced. They ripened all at once, quite early. I will definitely be planting it again.

What a beauty—I can’t stop looking at it! 👍

For some reason, Siberian Garden seeds have been out of stock for this one. I included it in several orders, and they never sent it… an unfulfilled dream.

OLGA said:
And I can share seeds. But my fruits were shaped like a turban on top, really interesting. And it had yellow shoulders.

Olya, like this? I didn’t have any green/yellow shoulders at all.

Yep.

I grew “Alsou” in 2011. As a seedling, it looked frail with thin vines, but later it showed itself in all its glory. It grew outdoors (under temporary row covers), reached about 1 meter (3 ft) tall, was highly productive, had huge fruits, and the taste was excellent. This year I’ll plant it in the greenhouse to see how it performs there.

Planted it in 2012. I agree with previous speakers: the fruits are large, it sets fruit well, and because it has sparse foliage, it’s perfect for dense planting or putting 2 plants in 1 hole.

It was in the greenhouse this year, I’ll try it outdoors next time.

Here are my ALSOU.

Alsou from SibSad is one of my absolute favorites. Heavy yielder, so many tomatoes that I had to prop the plant up from all sides. Pink, large fruits with excellent taste. It grew outdoors and was about a meter (3 ft) tall.

The summer of 2013 turned out cold, and spring was very late, so I didn’t plant tomatoes outdoors. Alsou in the greenhouse grew much taller than it does in the ground—like an indeterminate. The bush is compact, productive, with meaty pink tomatoes that tasted good even in that cold, sunless summer. It was less productive outdoors, but that’s natural—it was getting too tall for the open garden, so after the 3rd truss, I topped it (cut off the growing tip), otherwise it wouldn’t have fit under my low tunnels, and we have to cover our outdoor tomatoes in August. I will definitely keep planting it.

Here is the first truss on the Alsou plant. It only set three trusses, then the leaves started curling, and as a result, the plants quickly gave up their harvest and dried up by late July. The fruits were quite large, around 350-400 grams (12-14 oz).

In my open garden, the bushes grew small, weak, and rather frail. I didn’t get any massive tomatoes, but the taste of the ones that ripened on the vine blew me away! I never thought we could grow something like this outdoors up here in the north of the Leningrad region! Sweet, as if sprinkled with sugar… However, the ones that I had to ripen indoors on the counter were nothing special in flavor. Seeds were from Nadine. Thanks, Nadyusha!

Season 2016.
The Alsou tomato in the greenhouse. Still among my favorites because of the large, meaty, tasty fruits and early ripening.
I’ve been planting 5-6 bushes of it for 5 years now. And I’m not going to stop.

I planted Alsou for the first time. In the hoophouse, the variety reached 2 meters (6.5 ft) tall and showed good yields. The heart-shaped fruits had an excellent sweet taste and delighted the eye with their beauty and size.

I’ve been planting Alsou for 3 years and have no intention of stopping. I love it for its earliness, yield, and taste… the frail plant structure is actually a plus for me—it takes up very little space. I suppose in hotter regions the fruits might get sunscald due to the sparse leaves. During the hot summer of 2016, it performed very well: sowed on Feb 27, first ripe fruit picked on June 28 👍

I grew Alsou in 2015 outdoors in the garden, and got an early, highly productive, and tasty tomato. I was hesitant to repeat it in 2016 because I was moving almost everything into the greenhouse, and I thought it might lose its flavor. But if it does well in greenhouses down in Volgograd, then I should reconsider! 🌸

By the way, Sensei was very similar to it in shape, timing, and yield. The taste was also excellent. I planted them at the same time.

I’ve been growing it for several years now. Outdoors in the open garden. It doesn’t get leggy as a seedling, and it establishes itself very quickly after transplanting. The plants are sturdy, about a meter (3 ft) tall. The first fruits are large, the subsequent ones are medium-sized and uniform. In sunny years, both the yield and the flavor are a delight.

I’ll chime in about Alsou too (no photos though; I’ll try to photograph my tomatoes this year). I’ve been planting it for about five years. I don’t put it in the greenhouse, I don’t have enough space there for anything but my elite varieties. From SibSad. A very reliable variety. Outdoors it grows to about a meter, maybe 1.2m (4 ft), with fruit weights ranging from 200g up to 700-800g (7-28 oz). The tomatoes are large, sometimes (depending on the weather) they get green shoulders, but that’s only when the summer isn’t very hot. It always yields well and tastes great. I don’t can them whole because they are too big, but they are perfect for juice, Achuchuk (tomato relish), Lecho sauce base, etc… I planted it again this year, in mid-March, as usual for outdoor planting.

I plant it every year outdoors in the Moscow region. Always productive, not acidic. I’ll probably keep planting it forever.

I’ve been planting this variety for several years now (3-4 years). Seeds from Nadine. I always loved it for its taste, but it wasn’t a standout for yield. But this year, it turned out to be highly productive too. Loved it.

Katrinka said:
I always loved it for its taste, but it wasn’t a standout for yield. But this year, it turned out to be highly productive too.

You tamed it! 😄

My Alsou is also from NADINE, I grew it for the first time. Really liked it—tasty, and the yield wasn’t bad at all! 👍

The Alsou variety didn’t let me down in the 2018 season either. The yield was excellent as always. The fruits are tasty and sweet.

Nadine said:
Season 2016. The Alsou tomato in the greenhouse. Still among my favorites…

Nadezhda, thank you for the seeds! We liked them too. Tasty, productive favorites.

These seeds had been sitting around in my stash since 2013. I sowed them without much hope—figuring their turn had to come eventually… It turned out to be a good variety, productive and early—it was the first of the big beefsteaks to ripen. It’s a keeper!

I grow Alsou as an early variety. I sow it in late February. I let it set 3 trusses. I pick the first fruits at the breaker stage (blushing). They ripen beautifully off the vine. It’s the fastest and tastiest of the early large tomatoes. In June, I plant a late-season seedling in between the Alsou plants. Everyone gets along just fine.

The best of the early ones. Alsou photo from June 10th. A late-season tomato is planted between the bushes. Second photo is from June 28th, in the top corner there are 2 Alsou fruits that ripened indoors on the counter.

Alsou. Grew in the greenhouse, pruned to 4 leaders/stems. It set fruit on every single truss and grew to about 130 cm (4.2 ft) tall. The fruits are pink hearts with very good flavor, meaty, with few seeds, weighing up to 300g (10.5 oz). A wonderful variety, productive, and quite early for an indeterminate.

I planted several oxheart varieties from Siberian Garden this year, including Alsou. Excellent variety, very large-fruited, tasty. It started ripening later than Krasnomordina. All my oxhearts from SibSad (Alsou, Batyania, Pink Honey, Krasnomordina) had the exact same thin, wispy plant structure, with most of the fruit load concentrated on the lower half of the plant. I planted 2 Alsou vines per hole and pruned each to 2 stems. The yield was solid, the fruits were large, beautiful, and tasty. Alsou and Batyania are roughly similar.