📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Betta (Бетта)
- 🌍 Origin: A commercial Russian dwarf/bush variety widely praised for its ultra-early production.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: A true dwarf/tree-type (штамб). The plants are very compact and sturdy, typically reaching only 16-20 inches (40-50 cm). They feature broad, rugose-type foliage. Despite their sturdy trunks, they usually require staking once loaded with fruit so they don’t tip over.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Small to medium round red tomatoes weighing around 1.7-2.1 oz (50-60 g), though some growers report fruits up to 3.5 oz (100g).
- 👅 Flavor: For an ultra-early variety, the flavor is generally considered very good. It has a classic tomato profile with a noticeable, well-balanced tartness (typical of early varieties).
- ⏳ Yield & Growing Traits: Ultra-early. It produces fruit in 85 days from emergence, allowing it to beat the late blight season. It is extremely low maintenance and does not require pruning (suckering). Excellent for growing in open ground or in containers.
Description from the seed packet:
An ultra-early, short-growing tomato variety, intended for growing outdoors in open ground. The first fruits are ready to harvest just 85 days after seedling emergence, thanks to which they completely avoid late blight. The plants are short (40-50 cm / 16-20 inches), tree-type (sturdy dwarf habit), and do not require staking or pruning/suckering. The fruits have juicy flesh and weigh 50-60 g (1.7-2.1 oz).
Photo author: Lara
They look great! What do they taste like?
I planted one like this, Betta-Lux, it looked beautiful and compact as a seedling, but the fruits were on the small side and quite tart, as is typical for early varieties.
My neighbor gave me Betta. It’s a good variety for an early harvest. She grew it from her own saved seeds; last year they were a bit small. But they really do ripen all at once, and it grows with zero problems. The skin is very thin, they tend to crack/split. The flavor was sweet. Maybe it just got a really good, sunny spot.
P.S. It grew outdoors in open ground.
Zelenoglazaya wrote:
I planted one like this, Betta-Lux…
The tomatoes Betta and Beta-Lux are two different varieties.
I planted Betta last summer. They ripened the very first, right alongside Boni-MM. They are actually very similar in appearance, shape, and taste.
I sowed both of them again this year; I really liked them. For an early, small plant, it’s a very worthy variety.
Zelenoglazaya wrote:
I planted one like this, Betta-Lux, it looked beautiful and compact as a seedling, but the fruits were on the small side and quite tart…
Could you please tell me what kind of foliage Beta-Lux had? The description said it has Potato Leaf, but mine germinated with Regular Leaf. How tall did the bush get? It’s a pity it was tart, because the description claimed it was sweet.
The plant is a tree-type (dwarf); the bush is sturdy and wide. There are a lot of fruits, and they were larger than stated in the description — about 3.5 oz (100g). The flavor is normal for an early variety, with a moderate tartness. Under the weight of the plumping fruit, the bush still ends up falling over — I had to tie it up during the fruiting stage. But it wasn’t as early as promised on the packet; it wasn’t the first to ripen.
By its looks and description, Betta is very similar to Alpha 😄 and even the foliage is Potato Leaf.
The description on the seed packet doesn’t specify what kind of foliage it has. Mine was Regular Leaf, although the leaves were very broad (like in the first photo of the seedling). By the way, Alpha also had similar foliage for me — broad, but still not Potato Leaf. That’s why I’m not writing about Alpha; SeDeK seed company has way too many crossed seeds (off-types). I expect more truth from Gavrish seed company (who makes Betta).
I’ve been growing Betta outdoors in open ground for about 5 years now specifically for pickling. We love them cold-brined (fermented with salt + sugar in cold water); they turn out super delicious. But this little tomato is also very good for fresh eating. The flavor is very intense, true old-fashioned tomato, well balanced, with a nice tang and plenty of sweetness. The most important thing is that it’s not bland at all, and the very first fruits to ripen naturally on the vine are already tasty.
Oddly enough, it turns out tastier for me than the large beefsteaks grown in the greenhouse (and I’ve tried about 120 varieties, including almost all the top forum favorites from the last four years). The yield is great; the whole bush is just plastered with fruit. The tomatoes are of mixed sizes, ranging from medium-apple size down to apricot size. You definitely still need to stake/tie up the bushes, otherwise all the branches will end up laying on the ground. I’ve tried starting the seeds in early, mid, and even late April. Next year, I plan to increase the number of bushes so we have enough not just for pickling, but to eat fresh to our heart’s content. And I want to try planting them at the feet (as underplanting) of my tall indeterminate varieties in the greenhouse.
Edited July 29, 2020 by T@tk@
T@tk@ wrote:
…And I want to try planting them at the feet (as underplanting) of my tall indeterminate varieties in the greenhouse.
Tanyusha, did you end up planting them at the feet of the indets this year like you wanted to?
Edited December 7, 2021 by Lyubitel Tomatov
Lyubitel Tomatov wrote:
Tanyusha, did you end up planting them at the feet of the indets this year like you wanted to?
No, Natasha, the planting in the greenhouse was way too dense, so I just grew them outdoors in open ground again.
I didn’t like them — the fruits lacked density, there were very few seeds, and the ones that were there were undeveloped. Saving my own seeds became impossible because of this parthenocarpy…
I grow Betta for an early harvest. I love this little tree-type plant.
