Quick Summary of Francuzskiy Grozdevoy (French Cluster)
- 🌍 Origin: A highly popular commercial Russian heirloom, originally popularized by the “Siberian Garden” (Sibsad) seed company, with various lines kept by private collectors. The name translates to “French Cluster”.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: There are two distinct lines circulating among growers. One is a determinate (bush) topping out around 1 meter (3.3 ft). The other is a vigorous indeterminate reaching 2–3 meters (6.5–10 ft). Both produce incredibly massive, complex clusters (up to 12–18+ tomatoes per truss).
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Red, elongated plum or “icicle” shaped fruits with very dense, meaty flesh and a thick skin that prevents cracking. Weights generally range from 70–100 g (2.5–3.5 oz), though some cocktail-sized variants exist.
- 👅 Flavor: The ultimate processing tomato. During the summer, the fresh flavor is often described as average or “technical.” However, growers note a magical transformation: fruits ripened late in the season (or ripened indoors in October) become surprisingly sweet and delicious.
- 🍳 Culinary Use: An absolute superstar for whole-fruit canning, pickling, and freezing. They hold their shape perfectly when thawed.
- ⏳ Maturity & Health: Mid-to-late season. It sets fruit non-stop until frost, has an excellent long shelf life, and shows strong resistance to Blossom End Rot (BER) compared to other paste varieties.
My discovery of 2013. From Sibsad (Siberian Garden). The packet said it grows up to 1 meter (3.3 ft) with 6-8 fruits per cluster. Mine grew to almost 2 meters (6.5 ft), and the clusters had from 12 to 18(!) beautiful tomatoes. It didn’t get Blossom End Rot (BER) at all, even though I had to treat many of my other “icicle” types with calcium nitrate. It didn’t drop any blossoms whatsoever, and it’s still fruiting and setting right now. In the photo is one of the clusters and the approximate size of the fruits. Sadly, I don’t have a scale.
Edited January 24, 2015
I have seeds of this variety from Redko, but the size is much smaller and the shape is like little fingers, though the clusters are just as multi-fruited. Very tasty and sweet.
Mine is determinate. True, I pruned it heavily… I think I grew it to just two stems. A mistake on my part.
I didn’t prune it. I liked it back in 2012. In 2013, I planted it in a different bed — and it wasn’t the same… maybe it got offended! Zasolochnoye Chudo (Pickling Miracle) was sitting in its old bed this year, and it turned out more productive.
Very productive, (Lyubushka, thank you! 🌸) it really impressed me this year (in the greenhouse).
The taste was average for me, next year I’ll try it outdoors in open ground.
It kept setting fruit until the frosts. Mine was about a meter (3.3 ft) tall, fruits were not large, I didn’t prune it.
Francuzskiy Grozdevoy from Sib. sad. Productive, dense, very good for canning. Stores well. Eaten fresh, the taste seemed uninteresting to me. The Francuzskiy Grozdevoy from Redko — seems to me like a different variety or clone. The shape definitely doesn’t match.
My “Frenchman” was from Balashov, the shape was like Alya’s. The clusters were rich, it tried to catch BER (Blossom End Rot) but survived.
Compared to paste tomatoes like San Marzano 3 and Roma, it yields more, because the bush of French Cluster overtakes these 2 varieties in height. Seeds from Sibsad.
Mid-September, one of the last tomatoes of this variety ripening indoors. It even has a “waist”. And it didn’t suffer from BER.
My seeds of French Cluster are from Ukraine. The plant is almost two meters (6.5 ft), I grew it to two stems like all my varieties. Productive, didn’t get sick with anything. The taste seemed a bit dry to me. I think they will be very good for canning.
A wonderful all-purpose variety — one of the pleasant discoveries of the season!!! 👍 👍 👍 Seeds saved and sent by Alya (Elfiya) 🌸
Tall, very productive, grew in the greenhouse to 3 stems, short internodes, sets fruit without skipping any, the fruiting period is long and stretched out — the first fruits started turning red in the second half of July, and the last ones are still ripening indoors. All of them are even, perfectly calibrated, beautiful — a joy to look at! There was no BER, they didn’t crack, they store well, and surprisingly, they turned out very tasty eaten fresh — I expected them to be dry and planned to use them only for canning jars.
Svetikk said:
A wonderful all-purpose variety — one of the pleasant discoveries of the season!!! 👍 👍 👍 Seeds saved and sent by Alya 🌸
Tall, very productive, grew in the greenhouse to 3 stems, short internodes, sets fruit without skipping any… All of them are even, perfectly calibrated, beautiful…
Svetlana, it’s all thanks to your golden hands 🌸🌸 I didn’t have such massive garlands 😳😳
My Francuzskiy Grozdevoy seems to differ in fruit shape 😉
Seeds from Ukraine… I grew it indoors in a greenhouse. It really pleased me this season — the clusters set from bottom to top, without any gaps. I pruned the bushes to 4-5 stems, which didn’t stop it from bulking up full clusters of uniform, plum-shaped fruits.
A tall, highly promising, and productive variety. Ideal for whole-fruit canning.
Grew in the greenhouse; it doesn’t show its full potential outdoors (I planted it there in 2014 😉). Height is about 2 meters (6.5 ft). A very productive tomato, heavily loaded. 🙋♀️🙋♀️ You can eat it fresh, but the skin is a bit thick. Definitely grow it to 3 stems.
I really liked it for pickling. A candidate for 2016, I’ll grow 2 of them.
My tomatoes. Thanks to Elena (Lisenok)! 🌸
My French Cluster is from a neighbor, and she got it at a seed swap with the girls. Grew outdoors, proved to be productive and disease-resistant, grew up to 160 cm (5.2 ft). True, due to a cold summer, it turned out late. Next season I’ll plant it again: one outdoors and one in the greenhouse.
An absolutely gorgeous variety for canning 🙂
Interesting. Tomatoes of different shapes on the same bush.
Svetlana, indeed the fruits on the bush are different. Maybe a branch of another plant got in the frame? For me, the fruits of this variety were all uniform, one to one, like small plums.
Girls, it is ONLY this plant, all the little fruits are different on the first clusters, higher up they are more uniform in shape.
Semechka said:
Girls, it is ONLY this plant, all the little fruits are different on the first clusters…
Svetlana, and for me, right up to the end of fruiting, they had different shapes — both plums and almost pear-shaped.
I planted 3 variations of French Cluster:
In 2014 — from Sibsad. I wasn’t impressed — technical (canning) flavor, a bit late. 70-80 grams (2.5-2.8 oz).
In 2015 from Redko — complex clusters, grew to 2 stems, tasty, productive 👍 Around 40 grams (1.4 oz).
And from our Angelina — smaller, cocktail type, shiny as if varnished, tasty. Thin leaf. A real beauty! Around 15 grams (0.5 oz).
They don’t resemble each other at all in shape, size, or leaf. It turns out all three are different varieties under the same name 🤷♀️
In 2014, the one from Sibsad was early, very productive, weighing 70-80 grams (2.5-2.8 oz).
Borisovna said:
In 2014, the one from Sibsad was early, very productive, weighing 70-80 grams
Yes, from SS (Siberian Garden) it was 70-80g, processing type.
My seeds were from Svetikk, and it turned out like this:
Svetlana, thank you so much!
My Francuzskiy Grozdevoy in 2014 outdoors. Seeds from Alya (Elfiya). 🌸🌸🌸
This variety is simply SUPER for canning!!! 👍👍👍
Can be grown both in the greenhouse and outdoors.
And this is already from my own saved seeds in 2015 in a film greenhouse.
Galina P. said:
Can be grown both in the greenhouse and outdoors… And this is already from my own saved seeds in 2015 in a film greenhouse.
Galina, how tall did it grow in the greenhouse?
Very productive. But I didn’t like the taste, neither pickled nor fresh. It doesn’t even come close to Legend Tarasenko or De Barao Tsarskiy.
mopsdad1 said:
Very productive. But I didn’t like the taste, neither pickled nor fresh. It doesn’t even come close to Legend Tarasenko or De Barao Tsarskiy.
But I really liked it for canning. 👍👍👍 De Barao Tsarskiy is also delicious for canning, but I can’t say that one of them is worse or better — they are just different. But both look great in jars.
This year I’ll be growing 6 bushes of French Cluster — 2 in the greenhouse and 4 outdoors.
Galina P. said:
But I really liked it for canning. 👍👍👍 … But both look great in j
