🍅 Quick take: Fuego Rosa is an indeterminate, pepper-shaped paste variety bred by Fred Hempel. It produces beautiful, glossy pink fruits with gold striping. Growers report good yields, but flavor reviews are wildly mixed: greenhouse growers found it sweet and juicy, while outdoor growers reported thick skins and dry, rubbery flesh. Full summary ↓
Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA Zones 4-5 Experience)
Fuego Rosa. A new variety from Fred Hempel. Indeterminate, grew in the greenhouse pruned to 2 leaders. Heavy yielder, the fruits are absolutely beautiful, glossy pepper-shaped, pink with gold stripes. Meaty, firm, but still juicy and sweet, weighing 5.3-7 oz (150-200 g). Very few seeds 😫 Makes a great pair with Yellow Fire.
Edited October 2, 2021 by Svetikk
I grew it out in the dirt in 2021. Beautiful, pretty productive, but it was completely “rubbery”. Tasteless, crazy thick skin, dense, dry and bland. I was honestly surprised, a striped variety from Fred Hempel and such a total flop on the tasting plate. Maybe I underfed it or maybe the variety just doesn’t suit our conditions, but I was disappointed.
Full Summary: Plant, Yield, Taste and Storage
- 🌿 Plant: Indeterminate vine. Produces elongated, pepper-shaped paste tomatoes that are pink with bright gold stripes.
- 📈 Yield: Both reviewers agreed that it yields well, setting plenty of 5.3-7 oz (150-200 g) fruits. Noticeably low seed count.
- 👅 Taste: Highly variable. Svetlana (growing in a greenhouse in Moscow) found them meaty, juicy, and sweet. Oksana (growing outdoors in Kazakhstan) found them rubbery, dry, bland, and burdened with excessively thick skin.
- 🌎 Who Reviewed It: Two veteran growers across USDA Zones 4 and 4b, comparing greenhouse vs. outdoor results.
🍅 Have you grown Fuego Rosa? Leave a comment below! Did you get juicy, sweet tomatoes or dry, rubbery ones?
