Quick Summary of Podarok Fei (Fairy’s Gift)
- 🌍 Origin & Name: A commercial Russian variety introduced by the Aelita seed company. The charming name translates to “Fairy’s Gift”.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Determinate (bush). It grows compact and sturdy, reaching just over 1 meter (~3.5 ft) in a greenhouse and remaining even shorter outdoors. Most growers report that it requires absolutely no pruning/suckering, making it a very low-maintenance variety.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Produces very uniform, dense, bright orange-yellow heart-shaped tomatoes.
- 👅 Flavor & Texture: Reviews on taste are highly mixed. Some growers found it sweet and delicious, while others reported the flavor as mediocre, bland, or even “woody.” This suggests the variety’s flavor profile is highly dependent on soil, sunlight, and growing conditions.
- 👯 Similar Varieties: One experienced grower noted that it makes a perfect bright-orange companion/pair to the famous pink Russian determinate variety, Nastenka.
Seeds from “Aelita”. A very productive variety! It won me over with its beauty and yield. A mass of cute, firm yellow-orange hearts with a good tomato flavor, slightly sweet. What is remarkable is that almost all the tomatoes on the bush are exactly the same size.
I liked the variety very much. The discovery of the season. Very productive, tasty, and beautiful. In the greenhouse, it was just over a meter (3.5 ft) tall. Seeds were from the forum.
A beautiful little tomato!! I am looking for determinates for my greenhouse, and this is a candidate. Tell me please, how heavily do you prune it, and how many stems do you lead it in?
Olena said:
Tell me please, how heavily do you prune it, and how many stems do you lead it in?
Olya, I didn’t prune/sucker it at all. But mine was in open ground outdoors.
I didn’t prune it either. I removed the lower leaves, and now if it gets too overgrown, I remove some foliage. The suckers grow out and produce new fruits on their own.
Honestly, I don’t really like the taste. Actually, besides the ‘Madeira’ cherry tomato, I haven’t really liked the taste of anything yet. So far, those are the tastiest. Although, to be fair, I generally only eat tomatoes in salads or marinated.
For me, Podarok Fei wasn’t very productive. The taste is ordinary, just a regular tomato. Nothing special.
The photos and reviews about this tomato made me happy, so I bought the seeds—we will give it a try! )
Fairy’s Gift did not bring me any joy. The yield was average, and the fruits were tasteless and woody. But that was in my specific growing conditions.
It makes a perfect bright-orange companion for the ‘Nastenka’ variety.
