Dwarf Uluru Ochre Tomato: Real Grower Reviews and Photos

So far, the tastiest of what I’ve tried this season: VERY SWEET, with a barely perceptible tartness. The flesh is dense and juicy, I just really, really liked it. In addition, the variety is incredibly beautiful, a true ochre color, plus there are faint stripes showing through from the inside. The yield is also decent, but I will make my final conclusion at the end of the season.

There is only one such large fruit on the bush, the rest are around 300-400 grams (10.5-14 oz), and there are a couple of smaller fruits.

Edited August 8, 2016 by Drosera

Hello! Is this variety from the “Dwarf” series? What kind of leaf does it have, and what is the height?

Irina, good night. Yep, it is exactly from that series.

The leaf is regular (rugose), but I can barely bring my tongue to call it a dwarf-in the greenhouse, the bush reached about 1.5 meters (5 ft) in height, and the wingspan of the leaves is like a pterodactyl. It’s narrower, of course, than full-fledged indeterminates, but it is not compact at all.

My Uluru Ochre grew outdoors in open ground. From mid-July, I had to cover it with plastic film due to endless rains. It was 80 cm (2.6 ft) tall, with dense, rugose (wrinkled) leaves on short, thick petioles. The main stems had short internodes and a massive amount of everything; flower trusses, fruit sets, suckers, and leaves. The fruits were no smaller than 200g (7 oz) and no larger than 350g (12 oz), but there were many of them. As you can clearly see in Masha’s photos, the seed locules are small and located right under the skin, while the rest is deliciously tender, melting flesh with a rich taste.

It is slightly later than Sleeping Lady and Rosella Purple (Pink Passion), but much larger-fruited. I liked it very much!

I grew 2 bushes, one in open ground, the second in the greenhouse. The outdoor one was much more productive. I really liked the taste – it’s not simple, just like its appearance! 🙂 The tomato is from the Dwarf Tomato Project. Rugose leaf. The color of the fruit when ripe is ochre, meaty, 200-350g (7-12 oz). The taste is very pleasant, sweet with a fruity note.

The variety grew outdoors, the bush is a typical stocky dwarf. The fruits are quite large, 200-300g (7-10.5 oz). It kept bearing fruit until the very end 👍. When other varieties outdoors were hit by late blight (phytophthora), this dwarf didn’t even get sick! The fruits have a great shelf life and store well!

Girls, how long do the seeds of this variety take to germinate? Mine were sown a week ago and there’s not a peep (no signs of life).

I’m starting to get nervous…

I really wanted to grow this tomato…

I will also be growing this variety this year. Mine germinated just like all the other varieties, on the 3rd-4th day.

Just as I complained on the forum about my Uluruchka, it went ahead and popped up! So far only one little sprout.

There is hope that I will still manage to grow this beautiful and delicious thing.

What an unappetizing look. I don’t want this one.

The dwarf Wild Fred has just a killer taste… I grew that one.

I hope this one is no worse.

Anyway, dwarfs rock! 👏

But I like the look of it – it’s exotic, after all. Too bad I didn’t buy the seeds – I messed up 😡. At least I’m growing other dwarfs 📝.

Out of 100 varieties, this was the tastiest – sweet, buttery, and the sweetness remains even when ripened indoors off the vine. Productive, spreading bush, it needs constant pruning (suckering) and leaf thinning, otherwise, it turns into a jungle inside, leading to fungal diseases. And the color is beautiful. But it is not a mid-season, rather a late-mid season; if you plant it earlier, the yield will be excellent because it keeps setting fruit until the bitter end. The only thing is, it wasn’t very disease-resistant for me.

A very worthy variety. Tasty, productive, buttery, and the color is very interesting. It has been added to my permanent grow list.

Cross section.
I couldn’t find a photo of just it alone. The 4 tomatoes on the right are Dwarf Uluru Ochre.

This was the only dwarf I have grown so far, and I haven’t regretted it one bit.
Thanks to Lidia for the seeds.
I sowed them in late February. They took a long time to germinate.
I grew four bushes, all in the greenhouse. The height was about 1.2 m (4 ft).
Weights varied: from 100g (3.5 oz) up to over 600g (21 oz).
I really liked the spicy-sweet taste.
Good harvest.
The fruits in the trusses are located very tightly against each other; it’s difficult to cut a tomato without injuring its unripe neighbors on the truss.

I adore this tomato, tasty, productive, and trouble-free. Though I didn’t have any weighing 600g (21 oz). It grew outdoors.

Lidusha, what an interesting tomato! Especially surprised by the cross-section, what color is the flesh, yellow or rather greenish?

Edited December 26, 2017 by Drosera

Galochka, it depends on the stage of ripeness. The flesh is an ochre color, lighter toward the edges than in the middle. Oh… I would gladly eat this tomato right now 😋😋.

The bush in the greenhouse was medium-tall, up to 1.3 meters (4.3 ft) in height. The variety is productive, mid-season ripening. The fruits are medium-sized, oblate, orange (ochre) in color. Very tasty, juicy, and sweet.

Uluru Ochre was sown on February 25, and we tasted the first ripe fruit on July 26. I think that’s normal. It grew in an 8-liter (2-gallon) pot. During the day it was outside in the sun, and during cold weather, we carried it into the greenhouse. By the way, it didn’t get sick with anything, unlike its sibling that grew directly in the greenhouse soil. On average, it produced about 10 large tomatoes with a truly vibrant flavor. The girls here were looking for something similar in taste among regular (non-Dwarf) varieties and couldn’t find anything. I liked it very much, will repeat.

Edited December 4, 2018 by Kirina

I also really liked this variety. Two bushes grew in large pots, height about 60 cm (24 inches), no pruning/suckering. Both the bushes themselves and the fruits (up to 250g / 9 oz) were very beautiful. And what a rich flavor! Mid-season, it fully ripened on the bush, quite productive. The pots were kept in the greenhouse at the beginning and end of the season and during heavy rains; the rest of the time they were outdoors.

Among non-Dwarf varieties with a similar taste, the variety Nizami (indeterminate) comes to mind. If you ate it with your eyes closed, you wouldn’t even realize it’s a tomato. Also very tasty, rich with various nuances.

The tastiest of all my dwarfs, very beautiful and productive. Grew in the greenhouse.

My most favorite dwarf of the 2018 season. Very tasty, will definitely repeat in 2019. Outdoors, the bushes were 0.8 m (2.6 ft) tall, sturdy. The yield was decent, there were no small fruits at all.

How on earth have I not shown my favorite of this season yet?! It grew in a polycarbonate greenhouse on the sunny side. I pruned it up to the first truss, and then it formed itself. It’s not arrogant (doesn’t take up too much space), it’s a dwarf, after all. Beautiful, large, tasty! I want to repeat it so much!

I found another photo.

And here we are just little babies (seedlings).

Repeating it from last year)

A repeat for this season. Uluru Ochre remains among my favorites, though the yield let me down a bit… but with such a “great” (terrible) summer, I’m not surprised.

Dwarf Uluru Ochre. Repeated this variety in the greenhouse; it is among my favorites for determinate/dwarfs. Bush height up to 70 cm (28 inches), no pruning, productive, and still a very tasty and beautiful, unique variety unlike any other! Fruits are quite large, up to 400g (14 oz).

A magnificent variety in terms of taste! The flavor has notes of mango and papaya. Otherwise, a worthy representative of the Dwarf Tomato Project series, but it does not like the heat of greenhouses.

Quote by Agnia Agarthy:
A magnificent variety in terms of taste! The flavor has notes of mango and papaya.

I haven’t tried either mango or papaya, so I found it difficult to describe the taste of this variety… maybe something spicy.

Grew outdoors in 2019. Sown for seedlings in mid-February, potted up twice, the last time into 2-liter (0.5 gallon) pots. It is amazing as a seedling. Moved to its permanent grow spot on May 11, we didn’t cover it at all. It ripened from late July, the color is distinctive, the bushes are extremely dense, productive, and it can crack. I didn’t like the taste; apparently, it’s an acquired taste.

For me, this is tomato number 1… taste, yield, beauty…
Grew outdoors (Kaliningrad)…

P.S. Here’s a little secret to this tomato… you have to wait for it, let it get overripe, right up until it’s almost a soft mush… and then you peel the skin off and eat it whole… it tastes like an exotic fruit… there is absolutely no classic tomato flavor present…
I can eat like four of them (about 300 grams / 10.5 oz each) in one sitting…

Grew outdoors. A slow starter (stubborn), like all dwarfs; the first fruit was on August 15 (sown February 15). The yield wasn’t thrilling, the fruits were a bit small, but given such a short summer and wild weather swings, it’s not surprising. Until the end of June, it was under row covers due to cold nights, and in early August the summer suddenly ended, so I had to pick them green from the bush. But I did like the taste! Dense, buttery flesh. Will repeat it in the greenhouse.

A superb variety. The taste is the bomb. Beautiful on the outside, even more beautiful on the inside. Rich tomato aroma, sweet with a hint of tartness. Gorgeous, there are no other words for it.

Outdoors, the bush height was 1.5 m (5 ft). A stocky, handsome plant. Doesn’t get sick. It took a very long time to get going, didn’t want to set fruit. Today is August 28, and there are still many green ones. About 15 fruits on the bush.

It was a very slow starter, despite the hot summer. It bore fruit in waves, a lot at a time. I had to sweat a lot while trying to prune/shape it. It produced a literal jungle. The fruits and branches grew so close together that there was nowhere to squeeze a knife in to harvest. I didn’t fully appreciate the taste fresh, because it ripened when other varieties were already sitting in crates in every corner of the house. By late September, it was completely weighed down with green fruits. I fermented/pickled them in a barrel with other latecomers; the taste is the bomb! I will repeat it. Next year it will go into pots outdoors. The greenhouse is too cramped and hot for it.

A tomato with a very beautiful color. Seeds from @Svetikk

Copying this from last year’s report. Didn’t plant it this year due to an abundance of green-fruited types, but I will definitely plant it next year.

Just some pics of my favorite. The yield didn’t disappoint this time either.

Quote by Pico:
P.S. Here’s a little secret to this tomato… you have to wait for it, let it get overripe, right up until it’s almost a soft mush… and then you peel the skin off and eat it whole… it tastes like an exotic fruit… there is absolutely no classic tomato flavor present…

Hmm, I need to try that, because it’s very productive, gorgeous stocky strong bushes, but I didn’t like the taste – it was spicy and sort of had a tobacco aftertaste… But the community uniformly praises this very specific flavor.

Edited January 17, 2022 by Oksana Evgenievna

Quote by Oksana Evgenievna:
…spicy and sort of had a tobacco aftertaste…

You describe it like a good red wine) I will plant it in 2022.

Quote by nierika:
You describe it like a good red wine) I will plant it in 2022.

You know, it is similar! There is a certain astringency present in the fruits. I just don’t like wine, maybe that’s why the taste didn’t click with me.

Quote by Oksana Evgenievna:
You know, it is similar! There is a certain astringency present in the fruits. I just don’t like wine, maybe that’s why the taste didn’t click with me.

Well, if I read “tobacco notes” in a wine description, I buy it immediately. Alright, I’ll stop going off-topic now.

Quote by Oksana Evgenievna:
Grew outdoors in 2019. Sown for seedlings in mid-February, potted up twice, the last time into 2-liter (0.5 gallon) pots.

Hello. Tell me, do I understand correctly, did it continue growing in the 2-liter pots or did you later move it to a large bucket?

Quote by Tatiana77:
Hello. Tell me, do I understand correctly, did it continue growing in the 2-liter pots or did you later move it to a large bucket?

No, it only grew in 2 liters as a seedling before going to its permanent spot, because it was planted way back in February. It was transplanted in May into open ground in a regular garden bed and fruited there. For heaven’s sake, no buckets or pots! We have unfathomable heat – tomatoes won’t survive in buckets here, the roots will overheat. Tomatoes self-shade themselves, but a limited soil volume in our conditions is just not an option. The air heats up to +32-+40°C (90-104°F) in the shade, and such temperatures last for weeks. Accordingly, the soil in a pot would be the same temperature. Here, tomatoes drive their roots deeper not so much in search of water (they are regularly watered in the irrigation trenches), but to get away from the scorching surface into normal temperature conditions.

Edited April 24, 2022 by Oksana Evgenievna

So my Uluru Ochre has ripened. An absolute favorite, I will plant a whole bed of it. Yes to papaya, no to tobacco notes? This is not a tomato in our traditional understanding; it is a fruit. I’ll try planting one in the greenhouse, if it retains even half of its flavor – it will be on my list forever.

Also my favorite. Primarily for the taste. Not a tomato, an exotic fruit. Beauty and yield are both there, despite the fact that it is short in stature.

Quote by nierika:
Yes to papaya, no to tobacco notes?

Hm, well, the taste of papaya actually reminds me of tobacco. That’s exactly why I don’t eat papaya. 😂 True, I’ve never tasted actual tobacco, it’s just a similar “aftertaste” like when someone nearby has been smoking.

Sowed for seedlings on March 8, it popped up quickly, developed just like a regular indeterminate. Planted out in open ground in early June. Made me happy with both yield and taste, did not get sick. Stored and ripened indoors very well.

By April 6, the dwarfs had 4 true leaves. The first fruit was picked on July 29.

Mass coloring of the fruits began on August 5.

The tomatoes that were picked green ripened perfectly indoors and lasted until November, maybe they would have lasted longer, but we ate them. The last photo is from October 21.

Picked the first tomatoes from Uluru Ochre yesterday. It is a very tasty dwarf, it didn’t disappoint at all, so sweet! I’m definitely saving seeds and growing it again next year.

Maria Suvorova wrote:
Picked the first tomatoes from Uluru Ochre yesterday…

Masha, where did you grow it, in the greenhouse or outdoors? This is my second year trying to grow this one in buckets, and it hasn’t been very successful for me.

Da4nitsa wrote:
Masha, where did you grow it, in the greenhouse or outdoors?

Katya, I grew them in the greenhouse. I have 4 plants, and the absolute best one (the one with the most fruit) is the one that I potted up into a 1.3-gallon (5-liter) pot during the seedling stage! The others were kept in smaller seedling cups and they set fewer fruits.

But outdoors in a 5-gallon bucket (20-liter), I have Dwarf Wild Fred growing. I put 2 plants in one bucket, and one fruit is almost completely ripe, I can’t wait to taste it!

I’ve been wanting to grow Uluru for a long time. My family and I are huge fans of green/amber varieties – meaning we absolutely love the sweet ones!