Quick Summary of Chelyabinskiy Meteorit (Chelyabinsk Meteorite)
- 🌍 Origin Alert: There is significant confusion surrounding this name in the Russian seed market! There are actually two completely different tomatoes sold under this name:
- Version 1: The F1 Hybrid. Sold by “Sady Rossii” (bred by L. Myazina). This is a large, early-season, red-orange beefsteak claiming weights up to 350 g (12 oz).
- Version 2: The Open-Pollinated (OP) Variety. Sold by “Uralskiy Dachnik”. This is a smaller, sweet cocktail tomato weighing 50-70 g (1.8-2.5 oz), perfect for whole-fruit canning. Growers successfully save seeds from this one.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Both versions are indeterminate but relatively compact, reaching about 1.5 to 2 meters (5 to 6.5 ft) in a greenhouse.
- 👅 Flavor: Universally praised for its outstanding, sweet taste. Both the large hybrid and the small cocktail version are described as delicious.
- 💪 Disease Resistance: Very high. Both versions show excellent resistance to stress, temperature swings, and common tomato diseases, fruiting well into late autumn.
I grew it in 2018. Seeds were from the “Sady Rossii” (Gardens of Russia) brand—a gift from Vera (Vzhik).
Description on the packet: “A fiery-flaming alien from space. The fruits are red-orange, of impressive size, weighing up to 350g (12.3 oz), slightly flattened-round shape, slightly ribbed, gathered in small trusses. The flesh is meaty, tender, deliciously tasty, sweet—simply unearthly pleasure. The bush is very spectacular, compact, open, forms six bouquet-like trusses. Ripens early, an ideal salad variety.”
It grew in the greenhouse. Beautiful fruits, though they didn’t quite reach the claimed 350g weight. The fruits are so tasty, they never even “made it” to the salad bowl—I just munched on them like a hamster straight off the bush!
Edited March 2, 2019 by Drosera
This hybrid is simply the bomb. The taste is amazing. The yield is too. In my greenhouse, it grew to 2 meters (6.5 ft). The fruits didn’t get larger than 200 g (7 oz). A real handsome tomato.
mopsdad1 said:
This hybrid is simply the bomb. The taste is amazing. The yield is too…
Mikhail, it’s not just about the breeding genetics (by L. Myazina), but also your warm climate and proper growing techniques. Which disease resistances were confirmed? Did you spray them with anything?
Do you no longer plant tomatoes in open ground?
I mainly plant in open ground. My greenhouse is small, mostly used just for seedlings. Later, I plant about 30 tomatoes in it. It just so happened that all my Chelyabinsk Meteorite plants ended up in the greenhouse.
In the greenhouse, I only did one single preventative spray (with Stroby fungicide). We picked the last tomatoes at the end of October. They didn’t catch any diseases at all.
The “Uralskiy Dachnik” (Ural Gardener) seed company also has a variety in its collection called Chelyabinsk Meteorite. I’ve been planting it for 5-6 years now, I save my own seeds from it, and it perfectly repeats all its characteristics, meaning it is an open-pollinated variety (not an F1 hybrid).
I classify it as a cocktail tomato. It is sweet, good for both pickling/canning and salads, and has excellent yield. It is indeterminate, but not very tall; mine reached a maximum of about 170 cm (5.5 ft).
My photo shows exactly this Chelyabinsk Meteorite.
Here is what is written on my seed packet:
Tomato Chelyabinsk Meteorite – a super low-maintenance variety, 120-150 cm (4-5 ft) tall.
The fruit is round, red, weighing 50-70 g (1.8-2.5 oz), sweet, excellent for whole-fruit canning. Great in salads and for pickling.
Value of the variety: Resistance to stress caused by adverse weather conditions, high fruit set in extreme heat and in cool, cloudy weather, stable yield.
