Boni MM (Boney M) Ultra-Early Tomato Review

Boni MM, seeds from Gavrish, now using my own saved seeds.
On the packet: “Ultra-early (80-85 days), short (40-50 cm / 1.5 ft) variety, recommended for growing in open ground. The plant is a dwarf (tree-type), does not require staking or pruning suckers. Sow for seedlings in early to mid-April. Prick out (pot up) at the first true leaf stage. Fruits are oblate, weighing 60-70g (2-2.5 oz), slicing type. Fruiting begins at the end of June. Yield per plant is 2 kg (4.4 lbs). Seeds can be sown directly into the ground in April under double plastic row covers.”

In reality: the first tomatoes ripened on June 25th from a March 3rd sowing. In the greenhouse.
Weight was 80-90g (3 oz) – that was the first ones, then they got smaller. The first tomatoes had absolutely no seeds 😲 – and I didn’t treat them with any blossom set sprays.
As a seedling, it was stocky and short. When I planted it out, I didn’t stake it at first 😂, but when it swelled up with tomatoes, it fell over, so I had to tie it up.
Didn’t pinch the suckers.

Oh, about the taste…..

Tomato flavor, almost no acidity, meaty, the first ones had no seeds at all.
The skin seemed a bit thick to me… But for an early tomato, I liked it.

When we had eaten all the early ones, I fed it properly, and it gave another flush of tomatoes – those went for juice. It grew until September.
As for yield – not amazing. There are a lot of tomatoes, but only a few decent-sized ones per truss, the rest is small stuff under 50g (1.7 oz).
It didn’t quite reach the claimed 2 kg (4.4 lbs) per bush for me…..

Edited December 11, 2014 by Zolushka

Looks cute in the photos. I have seeds from Gavrish, haven’t planted them yet, but now I want to.

I didn’t get 2 kg either, but on the bright side, it was the very first one to ripen on the bush. I will plant it again, seeds from Gavrish.

I planted it too just because the name matched my favorite band 😂
It’s an okay tomato taste-wise, but also definitely nowhere near 2 kg per bush.
There are better dwarf/tree-types out there. I’m not planning to plant it again…

Zolushka said:
Oh, about the taste…..
Tomato flavor, almost no acidity, meaty, the first ones had no seeds at all.
The skin seemed a bit thick to me… But for an early tomato, I liked it.

Someone on Odnoklassniki (social network) commented under a photo of my Iyunskiy (June) tomato from Sveta in St. Petersburg that it looks very much like Boni MM. And now reading that your first fruits didn’t have seeds either… the similarities are adding up 📝

Do you have any photos of the tomatoes sliced?

Svetikk said:
Do you have any photos of the tomatoes sliced?

Sveta, I planted Boney-M, it has a tart flavor, while people say Iyunskiy is quite tasty.

Olga said:
Sveta, I planted Boney-M, it has a tart flavor, while people say Iyunskiy is quite tasty.

Olya, mine wasn’t “tart”, it had a normal tomato flavor…. Maybe because it was in the greenhouse.

Zolushka said:
Olya, mine wasn’t “tart”, it had a normal tomato flavor…. Maybe because it was in the greenhouse.

Olya, mine was in the greenhouse too, though this was a long time ago. It ripened very early, it was the very first one. Well, now I want to plant it again for an early harvest.

Yield of one plant is 2 kg – that’s what the packet says.

The State Register says otherwise: “Yield of marketable fruits is 5.5-6.5 kg per sq. meter.”

And you can easily cram a dozen Boni MM plants into one square meter.

I grew it a couple of years ago, now the packet sits in the “most likely will never plant again” pile. I don’t remember exactly, but I think the taste and yield just didn’t satisfy me. Grew it outside.

Svetikk said:
Someone on Odnoklassniki commented… that it looks very much like Boni MM. And now reading that your first fruits didn’t have seeds either… the similarities are adding up 📝

No, Sveta, they are not similar. Sveta’s Iyunskiy clearly shows dark green stripes on a lighter background when unripe. Boni MM didn’t have that. And the bush size of Iyunskiy is much more miniature.

With a February planting, it ripens in June. They are small, not very tasty, but they are the first ones, and for that reason alone they are delicious. They yield in one concentrated flush, and by the time the “real” tomatoes arrive, I pull the bushes out. I plant them in a single row, no staking. I immediately sow daikon radishes in the spot where I pulled the bushes. I won’t plant them this year. My Rozovaya Stella (Pink Stella) ripens just as early, but the taste and yield are incomparable.

I didn’t get 2 kg per bush, taste – ordinary tomato.
I had no desire to repeat it…

Borisovna said:
My Rozovaya Stella (Pink Stella) ripens just as early, but the taste and yield are incomparable.

Can I ask you here about Rozovaya Stella – whose seeds were they?
I have a packet sitting here, I think from Alena Lux, for a few years now I’ve been wondering whether to plant them or not. And I didn’t find it in the catalogs here.

The seeds were from Sibsad, I really liked them, they were early and quite sweet, meaty.

A good, small, early tomato. Last year I harvested the first flush green, and it continued to bloom after that. This year I planted them in pots, because the seedlings don’t get leggy even without grow lights, they will bloom soon.

I pity the garden space for them and I’m too lazy to weed around these little things)). Just growing them for fun.

I don’t remember the taste. But for an early outdoor tomato, it tastes like a tomato.
It’s decent.

I totally agree with Sveta-Semechka. Early – yes. The taste is uninteresting, too much acid, the late flush turns into mushy flesh. In addition, despite the dwarf nature of the plant, I had to tie the branches, because they kept breaking under the weight of the fruit.

Planted them last year in open ground, planted them densely, didn’t stake them. Liked them – the bush is short, about 25cm (10 inches), sturdy, ripened first, tomatoes are sweet. I left a few tomatoes for seeds and we devoured the rest, but when I tried to extract the seeds, it turned out there weren’t any 🙁

This year I bought seeds from Gavrish. They turned out completely different from last year. They got leggy as seedlings, I had to stake them, and they are only just starting to ripen. Either an off-type or they really vary. Last year the seeds were from a different company but I don’t remember the name. Didn’t keep the packet.

My Boni MM was also very early – it ripened the very first – on June 2nd. And both as a seedling and as ripening fruits, it looked very similar to the forum’s Iyunskiy (June), and yes, it had green stripes 😉. Not sour at all, perfect for early eating! And regarding yield, it was just like Iyunskiy – nothing to write home about 🙁 Seeds were from Gavrish.

I found pictures of bushes with green tomatoes for comparison – Boni MM vs Iyunskiy.

Planted Boni MM for the first time in 2013, also from Gavrish, but my fruits are specifically oblate and run larger than stated, and the height is closer to a meter (3.3 ft).

Decided to repeat it this year, here is what came of it:

Grew Boni M for the first time this year during a season with very capricious weather. Sowed on March 19th, planted it out on both of my plots: on one – in late May, on the second – in early June.

On the second plot, it turned out to be a Spartan. Having been planted out into open ground as overgrown, frail seedlings, over the course of three weeks in June it survived frosts that even damaged the leaves of a Manchurian walnut tree, and severely hit the uncovered pumpkins and zucchini growing nearby. I didn’t cover it during the frosts. I didn’t water it during the abnormal July heatwave, I didn’t feed it any fertilizers, and I never pinched a single sucker or restricted its growth. In other words – it was planted for survival (survival of the fittest). Planted on the principle: if it lives – fine, if it doesn’t – no big loss.

And in such extreme conditions, despite the August cold and endless downpours, by mid-August it threw out a multitude of suckers, which grew a multitude of oblate, slightly ribbed tomatoes over 100g. The largest of them weighed 150g (5.3 oz).

At the same time, the bush didn’t catch late blight, despite absolutely no fungicide treatments and a potato field located nearby. This Saturday we harvested 5 liters of green tomatoes from the bush, but only because mice/voles started gnawing on the fruits lying on the ground. So it turns out it fully justified the claimed yield of 2 kg per bush.

On the first plot, the yield of the bushes was much more modest, because there I pruned the suckers and topped them in the second half of July to restrict growth.

For canning/pickling, tomatoes of this size should be perfect, since, as someone already wrote here, “the skin is a bit thick”.

The variety is also perfectly suited for growing in open ground in the northern regions of the European part of Russia, in the Urals and in Siberia, distinguishing itself with its endurance to changeable weather and high yield.

I am giving Boni M permanent residency in my open ground garden.

Edited August 24, 2020 by Sergey-EKB