Quick Summary of Yantarnyi Med (Amber Honey)
- 🌍 Origin: A Russian commercial heirloom, most famously distributed by the “Uralskiy Dachnik” (Ural Summer Resident) seed company. The name translates to “Amber Honey”.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall). There is an ongoing debate and mystery regarding its foliage—some seed batches produce Potato Leaf (PL) plants (as usually advertised), while others produce Regular Leaf (RL) plants. Can be grown in open ground or greenhouses, but it appears to be heat-sensitive and may drop lower blossoms if greenhouse temperatures get too high.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Large, flattened orange-yellow beefsteaks. Weight usually ranges from 150–220 g (5.3–7.7 oz), but can reach up to 400 g (14 oz) under good conditions. Visually stunning, often described as looking like “honey under a thin skin”.
- 👅 Flavor: Highly praised for a tender, sweet flavor with a perfectly balanced hint of tartness. Fleshy, meaty, and very aromatic.
- ⏳ Maturity & Yield: Mid-season. Yields can be variable; some growers report heavy harvests outdoors, while others report low fruit counts indoors due to blossom drop. Interestingly, some growers note it is nearly identical to Mikado Zolotoy (Golden Mikado).
The variety grew in open ground, even though it is recommended for greenhouses. It is productive, fruit weight is 150-220 g (5.3-7.7 oz). The taste is good and tender.
Oh, it looks exactly as if there is honey right under a thin skin! 😋 👍 👍 👍
Is it a potato leaf?
No, regular leaf.
And whose seeds are they?
It’s just that in the official description, it has a potato leaf. But I haven’t grown it yet myself.
I don’t remember exactly — I think from “Uralskiy Dachnik”.
None of us got the seeds from the PKOZ to germinate at all.
Tomatanya wrote:
None of us got the seeds from the PKOZ to germinate at all.
Ah, PKOZ, what is that? My “Yantarnyi Med” is from Uralskiy Dachnik, I will try it next year.
Do the fruits crack in open ground?
St. Petersburg Club of Organic Farming.. probably. 😳
No, not a single one cracked, there weren’t even any hints of it, and just by their appearance, it seems to me they are not prone to it.
Mine had a potato leaf! Just like in the picture, a very tasty tomato, both sweetness and a little tartness are present. However, it did crack on the bush, even though it’s advertised as crack-resistant (surely it’s just my clumsy hands 😆). By weight, all the fruits were large, from 200 to 400 g (7 to 14 oz). Seeds were from Uralskiy Dachnik, I grew them in the greenhouse.
Now I’m starting to doubt myself. It’s possible mine had a potato leaf too, I don’t remember exactly, it somehow didn’t register in my memory. But it seemed to me it was regular, although…
I planted it last year and wasn’t really well-versed in leaf types, but I remembered this variety. Because until the tomatoes actually grew, we completely doubted they were even tomato plants 😂. At first, we were even afraid to eat them 😆, but then I read the label.
Sasha, please tell me, how tall does it get in a greenhouse?
Mine grew outside, maybe it reached a meter (3.3 ft), but it is an indeterminate, so it will grow tall in a greenhouse.
I am growing Yantarnyi Med this year, I bought the seeds in St. Petersburg last year, right at that Organic Farming club. The leaf is definitely NOT a potato leaf, it is regular. And the tomatoes have already started setting in the greenhouse.
I planted it in 2015. Potato leaf, 1.8 m (6 ft) tall, from Uralskiy Dachnik. It only started setting fruit at a height of 1.5 m (5 ft), all the blossoms at the bottom dropped off. Pruned to 2 stems, it only set 4-6 tomatoes total, but what tomatoes they were! Beautiful, huge, flattened beefsteaks, tasty dense meat, very aromatic.
I had Mikado Zolotoy (Golden Mikado) from the same company growing next to it, and they were literally twin brothers. Sure, their descriptions are similar, but not to that extent! Now I’m deep in thought: it is very tasty, but what about the yield? Maybe I should assign it to the outside garden? Was it just too hot for it in the greenhouse, which is why the lower blossoms burned off? 😕
