📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Azhur F1 (Ажур F1)
- 🌍 Origin: A commercial Russian F1 hybrid, commonly sold by the SeDeK seed company.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Determinate (bush), growing to about 80 cm (31 inches) tall. A true workhorse variety. To get the best yield, growers recommend pruning suckers only up to the first flower truss and letting the plant branch freely above that.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Red to red-crimson oblate (flattened-round) fruits. Official weight claims are 240–400g (8.5–14 oz), but real-world growers average 160–180g (5.6–6.3 oz). They are uniform in size and very even.
- ⏳ Storage & Transport: The packet claims an extreme shelf life of 2-3 months. Growers speculate this is only possible if they are picked completely green, held in commercial cold storage, and then ripened indoors.
- 👅 Flavor & Use: Surprisingly good and sweet flavor for a commercial hybrid. Highly productive with a concentrated ripening window (perfect for batch processing). Mostly used for canning.
Description from the packet:
An early-season (105-110 days) high-yielding hybrid with high taste qualities for open ground and plastic shelters. The plant is determinate, 80 cm (31 inches) tall. The fruits are oblate, red-crimson, with a tough skin, weighing 240-260 up to 400 g (8.5-14 oz). The flesh is sweet, meaty, with a high and very balanced content of sugars, organic acids, and vitamins. Yield is 10-12 kg (22-26 lbs) per plant.
Hybrid values: resistance to a complex of diseases, heat resistance, super yield, fruit density, resistance to cracking, and the ability for long-distance transport and storage for up to 2-3 months in cold conditions. Suitable for large-scale commercial production. Universal purpose.
This is a real workhorse. It sets fruit very well. Very uniform and concentrated fruit ripening. For a hybrid, the taste is not bad at all. But I mostly use it for canning.
I agree with Irina, Azhur F1 sets fruit very well. I planted 2 bushes. One had 28 fruits on it, the other had 24. Visually, they are all perfectly uniform and identical… weighing between 160-180 g (5.6-6.3 oz). Grown outdoors in open ground.
I liked the taste; you can definitely feel the sweetness. Possibly, if I had let them hang on the vine longer, there would be even more sweetness. I think the shelf life of 2-3 months claimed on the packet is a bit exaggerated, as the fruit walls are not that thick and the skin is not tough. It is meaty, but not dry.
Elvira, Azhur looks red in your photo, but the packet says crimson (is the flesh brightly colored inside?) What color is it really?
I guess if you pick them green and keep them in cold storage, they might lie there for 2-3 months, and then you ripen them indoors in the warmth.
My packet has an expiration date of 12.2019, batch 2249. Is it different from yours? (I’ve been getting off-type seeds from SeDeK every single year with other hybrids, which is why I’m asking).
Zulfiya said:
Elvira, Azhur looks red in your photo, but the packet says crimson…
The packet does say red-crimson… But in my opinion, the flesh is more of a deep, saturated red. We picked the first 9 fruits yesterday, tasted one, and the rest are sitting on the counter for now. Maybe later a crimson tone will appear as they sit, we will see 😉. I sowed 5 seeds, 4 germinated, my relative is growing two of the bushes, and she is also very happy with them…
Info from my packet: expiration 12.2018. Batch # 9695.
Oh… and my seed packet has a different design too.
Girls, do you prune the suckers on this one?
Marina 111 said:
Girls, do you prune the suckers on this one?
I pruned it only up to the first flower truss, and after that, I let it grow however it wanted.
Elvira, thank you. Are all determinate hybrids pruned like that?
