📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Andreevsky Syurpriz
- 🌍 Origin: A renowned Siberian selection. The name translates to “Andreev’s Surprise” (or Andrew’s Surprise).
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Officially listed as indeterminate and tall (1.6–1.8m / 5.2–5.9 ft) for greenhouses. However, growers note that when planted outdoors in open ground, it often behaves more like a determinate (bush) plant and stays quite compact.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Oblate (flattened-round), large, multi-chambered, and very meaty with few seeds. Beautiful pink-crimson color. Average weight is 200–250g (7–8.8 oz), but the first fruits easily reach 500–600g (1–1.3 lbs).
- 👅 Flavor: Exceptional! Sweet, meaty, and highly rated for fresh eating. Several growers consider it their favorite pink tomato.
- ⏳ Storage: Surprisingly for a large beefsteak, it has excellent keeping qualities. Fruits picked green or slightly underripe can be stored for months without rotting or getting spotty.
Description from the seed packet:
A beefsteak tomato of Siberian selection for greenhouses. Forms a consistently high yield (at least 8 kg/m² or 1.6 lbs/sq ft) in all regions. Begins fruiting 115-120 days after germination. Plants are indeterminate, vigorous, 160-180 cm (5.2-5.9 ft) tall. Fruits are oblate, large, multi-chambered, meaty, with a small amount of seeds. The color of ripe tomatoes is pink-crimson. Average tomato weight is 200-250 g (7-8.8 oz); the first fruits easily reach 500-600 g (1-1.3 lbs). Thanks to its high taste qualities, the fruits are ideal for fresh consumption and processing into juice.
Edited January 24, 2015 by Drosera
Large, meaty, and delicious. 😊
Very tasty, sweet, and meaty. My yield was just average, but it was such a stupid year for weather 😡.
I would say this is my discovery of the year! Grew it outdoors in open ground. There were a lot of quite large tomatoes on the bush! And the taste 😋. It arguably even eclipsed my favorite Kievlyanka (which had been my tastiest red-pink variety for three years in a row).
The best part: I picked a tomato for saving seeds on August 30th and only gutted it at the end of October. And it wasn’t even overly overripe, nor did it get spotty! So I think these tomatoes will store very well. 👍
Next year, I want to start a few bushes of this variety later in the season specifically so I can harvest them green and store them for winter.
So far, mine is behaving like a determinate (short bush type). Well, maybe it will eventually take off and get going…
Lyuda, when I grow it outdoors, it never gets very tall!!!! It’s an absolute favorite of mine!!!!
