📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Calcutta (Kalkutta)
- 🌍 Origin: Sourced and popularized by Russian seed collector V. Redko.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), reaching over 8 feet (2.5 m) in a greenhouse. Like many heart and paste varieties, it has long, droopy, “wispy” foliage that often looks wilted even when perfectly watered. It handles heat well but can burn in intense direct sunlight.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Bright orange, elongated spearhead or plum-shaped fruits. Average weight is around 5.3-10.5 oz (150-300 g). The interior is almost entirely solid meat with practically zero seeds or gel.
- 👅 Flavor: Sweet, rich, and often described as having melon-like dessert notes. Because it is so dense and meaty, it is considered a top-tier choice for making sun-dried tomatoes or thick sauces.
Seeds from V. Redko.
The fruits are elongated, orange, weighing 5.3-7 oz (150-200 g). A very beautiful and extremely tasty tomato! The shape is like a spearhead. Practically no seeds, just solid meat! Everything matches the description, except for the weight-my fruits were larger, especially on the upper trusses.
More Calcutta.
Does it look similar to Nizami at all?
The weight is definitely higher than stated, and there actually are some seeds.
What is the plant habit like?
Grew Calcutta in the greenhouse this season… Tall variety, mid-season, the vines are vigorous with heavy foliage, best pruned to 1-2 stems. Fruits are large, oval, orange colored with dense, tasty flesh, and very few seeds in the fruits… The trusses set 5-6 fruits at a time, weighing 9-10 oz (250-280 g)…
Pruned it to 2 stems. Yield was average. BUT it is incredibly tasty. Out of all the yellows and bicolors I grew, this one tastes the best. 😉
Forgot to write – I really didn’t like the looong, droopy leaves, that kind of stresses me out.
Liked the variety.
Calcutta is a rare treat. The leaves really are narrow and droopy, and it burns in bright direct sunlight, but that’s its only flaw. My vine had fruits shaped exactly as advertised, like a “spearhead”. A real beauty. Didn’t get sick at all. Will definitely plant it again.
Seeds from V. Redko. Indeterminate, mid-season. Growing one vine out in the dirt and one in the greenhouse. Yields are great in both spots. Really loved the taste, meaty and sweet. I had very, very few seeds in my fruits.
My Calcutta, seeds from Tanyusha (Eva 77). Really loved the taste, sweet, meaty, and when fully ripe the texture is almost crumbly. Kind of reminded me of a melon. There are seeds, but not a lot.
Nadine: “My Calcutta…”
Nadya, how gorgeous!!! I’ll definitely plant this one… thanks for the seeds! 😘
Calcutta also really impressed me with its taste. Grew it in the greenhouse…
Gorgeous variety, will definitely repeat it. Good yields in the greenhouse on two stems. It’s a tall indeterminate, I had to bend the vines along the roof, and it fruits for a long time. The fruits are orange plums up to 10 oz (300 g), meaty, extremely tasty, with plenty of sweetness, and very few seeds in the fruits. Out of all the similar varieties I’ve grown (like Southern Tan or Dusya Yellow), this one is the heaviest yielder.
tomatinka: “Does it look similar to Nizami at all?”
No, they are different, but similar in color and taste. With Nizami, the first fruit on the truss is a large blunt heart up to 18 oz (500 g), and the rest are also heart-shaped but smaller. And it’s also practically seedless, if there are any seeds they are located right along the edges near the walls.
Happily grew this wonderful variety again. Heavy yielder, tasty, and beautiful.
Very productive and tasty. Set every truss from top to bottom without skipping, just an orange waterfall in the greenhouse!
We are very happy with this variety too, planted it for the first time. Tasty, disease-resistant, and productive! And another thing that really surprised me – the hornworms completely ignored it. The tomatoes stored for a long time without spoiling (they are somewhat dry, very dense). Will absolutely plant it next year.
Seeds were from the thread starter, Eva77.
Productive variety. The fruits are large and the densest (but not hard) out of all the ones I’ve ever tried. Sweetish, aromatic. Really liked them. Planting again in 2019.
Grew it for the first time. Seeds from Sveta (Svetikk). Very heavy yielder, beautiful, vigorous variety. The vines are definitely hitting 8.2 feet (2.5 m) already. I was too greedy to top them, so it’s setting fruit right under the roof. The leaves – yeah, they stress me out. So long and droopy. The fruits are mostly large, meaty, chubby plums. The flavor is kind of dietary. The first one I gutted for seeds seemed a bit bland, absolutely zero acidity. But the ones ripening now come in various shapes and are very tasty – they picked up a little bit of tang. Here is how it looks today:
My Calcutta, seeds from Sveta (Svetikk). Really liked it!
Compared the taste to Chukhloma, Bochka Meda (Honey Barrel), and Ilya Muromets – and it loses to them in my book. Yield-wise it beat Ilya Muromets, but fell short of the first two. Granted, this was my first year growing it, but I don’t know if it’s worth repeating.
Lyusya: “The tomatoes stored for a long time without spoiling (they are somewhat dry, very dense)”
Agree, they dried out a little bit (kind of dehydrated on their own), but didn’t rot. Really liked Calcutta. Heavy yielder, beautiful, long shelf life, and totally tasty.
The tomatoes came out looking a bit pale in the photos. In reality, Calcutta is bright orange. And yes, thanks to Svetochka @Mama Antona for the seeds!
I really liked Calcutta. Mine was from Sveta @SVETLA. Dense, tasty (with a touch of sweetness), practically seedless, meaty, large, just feels nice holding it in your hand)) A very worthy variety for growing out in the dirt. I don’t really have any photos though. Just this one.
Grown Calcutta this year on Galina’s (Rosinka) recommendation, for which I owe her a huge thanks.
Turned out to be a wonderful variety, the best out of all the orange ones. In my conditions, it was an early-ripening tomato that stood up well to the abnormal heat.
Grew it in the middle of a bed right in the center of the greenhouse.
Fruits are slightly oval, elongated, weighing 8.8-10.5 oz (250-300 g). 3-4 fruits per truss. Average yield.
The flesh is dense, with few seeds, and has an amazing, rich dessert-like flavor.
Will grow this one permanently, and highly recommend it to other tomato lovers.
Excellent variety! Productive, tasty, beautiful. Very meaty, but not dry. Almost my entire harvest went straight into the dehydrator for sun-dried tomatoes. One BUT – it was the only variety out of all of mine that periodically caught Blossom End Rot.
Calcutta (Calkutta)
Wonderful variety – heavy yielder, set and plumped up every single blossom; fruits are beautiful and tasty. The only thing is – there are almost no seeds in the flesh.
Seeds from Svetlana (Mama Antona).
