Quick Summary of Fatima
- 🌍 Origin: A highly popular and widely discussed commercial variety from Ukraine/Russia. However, the commercial seed market is flooded with conflicting strains, making it a true “mystery tomato” among collectors.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: According to the original packets, Fatima is supposed to be a compact determinate (bush) reaching 40-70 cm (16-27 inches). Yet, a massive number of growers report receiving seeds that grow into huge, sprawling indeterminate vines with classic “weeping” oxheart foliage. Recently, even Potato Leaf (PL) off-types have appeared in commercial packets.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: True-to-type Fatima should produce large, beautiful pink heart-shaped (oxheart) tomatoes weighing 200-600 g (7-21 oz). Some commercial strains mistakenly produce round or oblate red fruits.
- 👅 Flavor: The “true” pink oxheart Fatima is universally praised for its delicious, sweet, and meaty flesh. It has very few seeds and a classic old-fashioned tomato flavor.
- ⏳ Maturity & Yield: Generally very early to mid-early. Growers love it for its ability to produce massive, heavy fruits on relatively small (or early-producing) plants.
Description from the packet:
A large-fruited dessert early-ripening variety with a growing period of 85-90 days. The bush is sturdy, short, 40-60 cm (16-24 inches) high. The fruits are large, weighing 400-600 g (14-21 oz), pale pink in color, heart-shaped, very tasty, sweet, meaty, juicy, do not crack. The value of the variety lies in the high commercial quality of the fruits, a long fruiting period (until September), and resistance to late blight.
Photo author: Pani Tomat
Mine was about a meter (3.3 ft) tall, or even a little higher. Grew outdoors in open ground. It wasn’t early, rather between mid and late. Tasty, meaty, juicy. You can see it in the photos.
Galina, and what is the yield like? (I read: tasty, but low-yielding…)
The yield was indeed not great – very average. But the seeds were from the south, and they grew outdoors in my northern garden. I will try to adapt them, I liked the tomato.
The main thing is that it is resistant to late blight, this is a huge plus for the variety.
My Fatima is from Balashov. The complete opposite of the description. Grew in the open ground, two bushes. The bush is thin, “weeping” like all hearts have (wispy foliage), mine turned out to be closer to a meter (3.3 ft) in height, didn’t terminate its growth, looks like it’s not a det. The fruits are pink “hearts” weighing 200-300g (7-10.5 oz), dense, of good taste. Didn’t get sick, but last summer no one got sick in my garden.
I grew it in 2013 from a packet, description is above.
I liked the variety, matches the description, the fruits are large, sweet, the yield was average.
In 2014, I grew it from saved seeds, the yield was much higher, maybe it was just a good year? Or maybe I picked a really good fruit for seeds.
The photo is a bit unsuccessful.
The variety was early-ripening, and it ripened first for me this year, even overtook the Zolotaya Kaplya cherries, which are usually my first to ripen.
I couldn’t find a photo of Fatima, but the variety was early, crimson hearts 250-300 g (8.8-10.5 oz), very resilient and productive. But for me, it was a huge indeterminate, although the packet said it was a short bush det up to 50 cm. Regular leaf, the taste is slightly inferior to Pink Honey (Rozovyi Myod), but still a worthy competitor to many hearts.
Fatima turned out to be a real revelation 👍 I didn’t expect to get such large fruits from a small bush, about 50 cm (20 inches) high – about 300 grams (10.5 oz) each 👍 Very tasty, sweet. The bush grew outdoors in open ground.
Fatima surprised me too, here in the Urals, where there wasn’t even a hint of summer, this miracle grew outdoors in the open ground.
Is Fatima resistant to late blight or does it finish fruiting before it arrives?
I didn’t have any (late blight) on it *knock on wood*.
There are still a few hanging on the bush, no late blight in the open ground. But this year the summer is not typical: Dry.
Tamara said:
Fatima turned out to be a real revelation 👍 I didn’t expect to get such large fruits from a small bush…
You got lucky. From which producer did you have the seeds? No matter how much I hunt for the determinate Fatima, I always end up with tall indets.
Alisa said:
You got lucky. From which producer did you have the seeds?
I don’t know who the producer is. The seeds were sent to me from Ukraine.
Tamara said:
I don’t know who the producer is. The seeds were sent to me from Ukraine.
And who sent it to you from Ukraine, if it’s not a secret?
Alisa said:
And who sent it to you from Ukraine, if it’s not a secret?
I have seeds from Balashov from Donetsk. Det. Grew in the garden, all fruits 400-500 g (14-17.6 oz). I planted 5 bushes, but my husband said to plant more next year.
Alisa said:
And who sent it to you from Ukraine, if it’s not a secret?
They weren’t sent by forum members. Passed on through friends. Therefore, I don’t know where the roots come from.
Tamara said:
They weren’t sent by forum members. Passed on through friends.
Understood. Thank you!
Tatyana said:
I have seeds from Balashov from Donetsk. Det. Grew in the garden, all fruits 400-500 g…
Tell me, please, how tall did your det turn out?
Alisa said:
Tell me, please, how tall did your det turn out?
60-70 cm (24-27 inches).
My Fatima from a commercial packet sent from Ukraine grew into a gorgeous… indeterminate.
The fruits are very good, dense meaty hearts, and the yield is fabulous. It kept the frequent truss setting of a determinate, but I had to limit its growth with scissors, it was stretching like crazy, I had to lay this variety down along the outdoor beds, right on the ground, it’s that tall… I liked the uniformity of the fruits – both in the first and subsequent trusses, even, identical fruits the size of a fist grew. The flesh impressed me – very rich, even, quite dense, and the shape is perfect. Absolutely no crooked or ugly fruits. In this regard, it reminded me of hybrids. From 5 lying bushes, I took 50 liters (13 gallons) of fruits. The ones left blackened on the bed were fewer than on others, so I almost completely harvested it. Late blight covered it too, but not in the front rows.
I’m moving this variety to the greenhouse. Liked it a lot. I’ll see how it behaves from my own seeds, because from the commercial ones it slowed down in the cold at the beginning of summer. Thanks to Raisa (Amira) for the variety!!!
Alyona said:
I’m moving this variety to the greenhouse. Liked it a lot…
It should like it in the greenhouse. For me, it grew in the greenhouse the first year. I won’t say it was the very earliest, yielding in ripening time to Batyanya, but it can still be classified as early. I planted it almost every year, this year it died at the seedling stage from my experiments and I missed it. A very reliable variety in terms of yield and quite good in taste, although with each season I become more and more picky.
And I have this description on my packet:
Early ripening. Ripening begins 102-117 days after full emergence. The plant is standard, determinate, 70 cm (27 inches) tall. Regular leaf of medium size, dark green, medium corrugated. The inflorescence is simple and intermediate type. The first inflorescence is laid above the 6-7th leaf, the subsequent ones every 1-2 leaves. Jointed pedicel. The fruit is flat-round (oblate), smooth, pink, 4-5 locules. Fruit weight 200-250 g (7-8.8 oz).
Variety value: high yield, simultaneous formation, and uniformity of fruits.
Seeds are from SOLNECHNY MART (Sunny March), seems to be Lugansk.
Has anyone had such a Fatima? Just bought it for this year, will try it.
And here is the description from their website:
They generally recommend it as a variety for seedless culture, direct sowing into the ground.
Viktoriya said:
Seeds are from SOLNECHNY MART… Has anyone had such a Fatima?
I had it. Only I was unlucky, mine turned out to be an indet. And my mistake was that expecting it to be a det, I didn’t sucker it at all in the first year of planting. Prune suckers just in case, leaving 2-3 stems. My packet said 85-90 days, but for me it started ripening later, because in June our nights are not warm enough in the open ground. I would really like to find a determinate Fatima. Overall, a very worthy variety: unpretentious, not sickly, acclimatizes well, resilient, handles cold-heat-cold fluctuations and high humidity well. It didn’t drop blossoms for me in the heat.
Alisa said:
I had it. Only I was unlucky, mine turned out to be an indet…
Thank you, I don’t always trust what such companies write on packets. Last year the Belosnezhka (Snow White) tomato basically matched almost everything except the claimed white color 😂, it was light yellow. But doubts always remain.
Alisa said:
I would really like to find a determinate Fatima. Overall, a very worthy variety…
Irina infected me with Fatima 😂 Now I want it too 😂 Fatima, open your face! (Russian movie quote)
My Fatima grew into a powerful bush, 70-90 cm (27-35 inches). At first it bloomed and dropped blossoms. Even though it seemed to turn out as a det, especially those that weren’t suckered at all (they were generally lower and the fruits smaller but there were more of them), I think shaping/pruning is needed. Because of the blossom drop, it wasn’t particularly productive, but I liked the taste. Quite a dense consistency, but not “rubbery”, the fruits were not heart-shaped. There were a couple of plants with red fruits. Now I think it was a random mix-up, or maybe “Solnechnyi Mart” collected seeds from some F1 hybrid and now they are showing off like this.
Viktoriya said:
My Fatima grew into a powerful bush… the fruits were not heart-shaped. There were a couple of plants with red fruits…
The very first Fatima from a packet (I don’t remember which company) also gave me a couple of bushes with bright red beautiful hearts, dense ones, I didn’t particularly like the taste. But the second time, my Fatima was a tall indet, but the fruits were crimson hearts of a very beautiful shape, liked the taste. It didn’t drop blossoms, set everything. Such a hard worker, a real workhorse. This year I bought it on eBay from Ukraine again, but who knows what will grow. If it fits into the 2017 planting, I will have to test what they poured into the packet. Suddenly I’ll get lucky?
