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.
