Quick Summary of Chelnok (Shuttle)
- 🌍 Origin: A well-known Russian commercial variety. The name “Chelnok” translates to “Shuttle” (as in a weaving shuttle), referring to its elongated shape.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: A true tree-type determinate (compact bush). Usually maxes out at just 40-45 cm (16-18 inches) tall. No pruning or suckering is required! The seedlings are stocky, thick-stemmed, and do not get leggy on the windowsill.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Red, elongated plum/paste tomatoes with a distinct little “beak” (nipple) at the blossom end. They weigh about 50-60 g (1.8-2 oz).
- 👅 Flavor & Uses: A classic meaty paste tomato. Makes very thick juice and sauce. Excellent for whole-fruit canning because they hold their shape and have a long shelf life.
- 💡 Growing Tip (BER Warning): Like many elongated paste tomatoes, Chelnok can be prone to Blossom End Rot (BER) if soil calcium fluctuates. Growers highly recommend preparing the soil with dolomite lime or wood ash before planting.
Description from the seed packet:
Early ripening, cold-tolerant, consistently productive variety with an extended fruiting period. From emergence to ripening is on average 110 days. The bush is tree-type (sturdy determinate), 40-45 cm (16-18 inches) tall. The truss has 5-6 fruits weighing 50-60 g (1.8-2.1 oz) each. The fruit is elongated-oval, smooth, meaty, with a small beak. Transportability and shelf life are good. Recommended for fresh consumption, pickling, and whole-fruit canning.
I planted it for several years, the variety description perfectly matched what I grew, but I had to give it up due to severe damage from Blossom End Rot (BER). I lost almost the entire harvest to it.
plohih2007 said:
…had to give it up due to severe damage from Blossom End Rot…
Oddly enough, my Chelnok had absolutely zero BER 🤷♀️ In the fall or spring, I top-dress my tomato beds with dolomite lime, wood ash, or a fertilizer containing various macro and microelements, including Calcium. I rarely get BER, usually only on 2 or 3 highly susceptible varieties out of the 70 I grow.
Chelnok turned out to be an excellent, unpretentious, productive early variety. I grew one bush in open ground and one in the greenhouse, didn’t prune the suckers at all. Quite tasty fresh 😋, but mainly used for canning jars 🙂 It started ripening around July 10th from an early March sowing.
The seeds were shared by a local gardener, for whom it ripens by mid-June in an unheated greenhouse 😛 He sows at the end of February and actually prunes it to achieve such an early harvest.
Mine was also heavily affected by Blossom End Rot. I won’t be planting it this year.
In the seedling stage, it looks absolutely perfect, like a little doll 🌺
Even under natural light without grow lights, it doesn’t get leggy at all. Every single seedling looks like a sturdy little matchstick. Meanwhile, the other varieties right next to them were stretching towards the light.
Not a single one of my fruits got BER, even though neighboring plants were suffering from it.
It only suffered from Blossom End Rot in pots; no symptoms were noticed on the ones planted in the ground.
Good, dense tomatoes. A productive variety, perfect for processing. The juice from them turns out very thick. We had no BER, the bush grew in open ground.
I had a few tomatoes with BER in open ground. My advice: do not pinch off the suckers, and you will get even more fruit.
I repeated this variety, grew it in the greenhouse, didn’t prune the suckers. Despite being shaded by neighboring tall bushes, it was absolutely loaded with fruit. A trouble-free, early variety. By mid-August, it had ripened completely. There was no BER on it whatsoever. The fruits are smooth red plums up to 60g (2 oz), quite tasty, and moderately dense.
In the seedling stage, it is a very compact tree-type bush, so you can sow it earlier without worrying about it stretching.
Edited August 28, 2019 by Svetikk
I’ve been planting it for five years, and I will plant it forever. Both in open ground and in the greenhouse. My most favorite variety, I consider it a win-win. Never had any blossom end rot. The tomatoes look perfectly calibrated, heavily loaded on the bush, and have quite a long shelf life. Good for both pickling and making juice. But bushes from different seed companies varied a lot, so now I only save seeds from my own plants.
I planted Chelnok in 2020. The seed company was “Seeds for Siberia”. The bushes in the greenhouse grew to 1.5 meters (5 ft) tall. Cold-tolerant, productive. They kept fruiting until I pulled them out in October. The downsides: they require staking and frequent pruning of suckers.
Irina Novichok said:
…The bushes in the greenhouse grew to 1.5 meters… The downsides: they require staking and frequent pruning of suckers.
Most likely you didn’t have the real Chelnok. That does not match the appearance or habit of this variety at all.
And mine grew without the signature little “beak” at the end. Seeds were from Gavrish. Looked exactly like the Novichok variety.
