Geranium Kiss Tomato Review & Photos

Commercial vendor Dmitry Gusev writes the following about this variety: “Up to 100 fruits in a cluster. The shape and size of a walnut with a pointed tip. Bushy (tree-type), early ripening. For open ground.”

My Geranium Kiss tomato grew in a greenhouse, was not very early (I planted it late), and grew over a meter (~3.3 ft) tall, requiring tying up. It didn’t catch any diseases and grew healthy and beautiful. And oh, how it bloomed… It is now one of my favorites; I will definitely plant it again.

The seeds were from the aforementioned D. Gusev. The last photo is from the end of September. The “Kiss”, by this time, had already been heavily eaten.

My God, it’s a whole bouquet of flowers! How incredibly beautiful!!!!! How does it taste?

Just for you, I went and ate one right now. It has a normal tomato taste, sweetish, like a cherry. Only its little pointed nose is very sharp, it literally pricks you!

I also grew Geranium Kiss this year, and it did not disappoint. A beautiful and tasty little tomato, very productive. Unlike many other varieties growing in the greenhouse, it didn’t suffer from blossom end rot.

Mr. Gusev (the seed vendor) appropriated the popular name and sells a variety with similar fruits, but his is a tall indeterminate. When asked where he got the seeds, he replied: from T. Kushnareva. However, Tatiana never sent him seeds, which she publicly stated on the forum.

So, here in Russia, we have two “Geranium Kiss” varieties circulating: the real one (the seeds of which Tatiana originally sent to the forum), and the Gusev one. He never dropped the stolen name because it brings in revenue.

Here is the official description in Tatiana’s TOMATObase:
http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Geranium_Kiss

Wow! It’s like a reality TV show in here—Scandals, intrigues, investigations!

For the sake of objectivity, I want to note that Gusev’s “Geranium Kiss” (or Fake-Geranium Kiss) is also a very worthy little tomato. Yes, it’s not a dwarf, but it is so beautiful! Now we just need to find out its real name or invent a new one!

I have a proposal: Let’s call it “Geranium Kiss-2” or “Gusev’s Kiss” (which sounds slightly less appealing) 😂

Galina P. said:
“Gusev’s Kiss”

I actually really like “Gusev’s Kiss”! Sets a romantic mood…

My Geranium Kiss is from Kulik in Ukraine. His description: “A plant with huge trusses (up to 100 ovaries), lush flowering, fruits 30g (~1 oz), round with a spout, red color. For open ground and greenhouses.”

Indeed, the variety is incomparable, all characteristics match… I grew several bushes in buckets outdoors. The height of the bushes was 0.6-0.7m (2-2.3 ft). The taste of the fruits—sweet, firm, excellent for canning.

Well, thirty grams is no longer a cherry. It’s a cocktail tomato. I have the correct one too. But looking at the “incorrect” tall one, it seems to me that it is a relative of the Tarasenko lines, or maybe Riesentraube.

I bought Geranium Kiss seeds from a local company. The seed packet says the variety was bred by Dylana Kapuler (Peace Seeds). They should know, since it’s in the neighboring town and they carry other varieties from these breeders. Here is the official text:

“Geranium Kiss Bush Tomato. Stocky 2′ plants with hypertresses of 10-25 red fruits of 1 ounce size, excellent flavor, makes 2-4 sets of flowers and fruits. Plants last well into the fall and fruits maintain well on the dying bushes. Dylana considers it ‘a one stake wonder’. When a long cool rain comes in the fall, most of the tomato plants get late blight. This one does not.”

I read all the comments, but there is no description of the foliage. I am very interested, is it potato leaf type?

Olga said:
I am very interested, is it potato leaf type?

Olya, my Geranium Kiss has potato-type leaves.

In Tatiana Kushnareva’s database it says: Leaf type: regular, rugose (wrinkly). That’s how it should be originally.

They really don’t strive to grow fast; they don’t stretch. You should have seen what a tiny micro-plant I transplanted out last year. But in my opinion, it is a very late variety.

Mine is the short one, with corrugated/rugose leaves, and very late (I sowed it on November 26, planted it in the ground in May already blooming, and it only started ripening in mid-June).

My Geranium Kiss is from Natalya Pavlovna. People wrote on the forum that it’s a slow-starter, so out of fear I planted it in mid-February. I want to try it in buckets (Natalya plants it in planters, which I really liked).

My Geranium Kiss grows outdoors. The bush is short, with dark green foliage, very decorative—it looks like a tightly packed dark-green pom-pom. The trusses are huge, it sets fruit over a long period. As for pruning—😂, I tried crawling under it with scissors to lighten it up a bit, but I could barely snip off a few leaves. The foliage is thick, the petioles are fat, like mini-trunks. So I gave up on pruning. I will definitely plant it again—I really liked it.

I liked Gusev’s (tall) Geranium Kiss, but since I planted it for the first time, I didn’t quite understand how to train it. I let it grow as a single stem, but I should have done 3 or even 4, then all the bottom trusses would have bloomed at once.

But the original true dwarf Geranium Kiss is only just blooming and setting fruit now. I think that in our cold conditions, there is no point in planting the true dwarf at all, it’s better to choose something earlier. The bush is beautiful, low, powerful, but it’s an excessively late variety. No red ones yet at all.

For me, Geranium Kiss started setting fruit and turning red among the first. But I planted it very early. First it grew in a bucket, then I transplanted it outside. I hardly pruned it at all. The bush was absolutely smothered in fruit.

This year, from the seeds collected in 2013 (Gusev’s tall Kiss), I got seedlings with different leaves—regular and potato leaf ??? It seems by the third year, genetic splitting started occurring. I threw away the split ones, no time for experiments.

I planted the true dwarf Geranium Kiss outdoors this year, but with our terrible cold summer, it didn’t even have time to set fruit. I pulled it out in early September, still blooming. But last year I grew it in a large pot and carried it indoors and outdoors depending on the weather. That way, it managed to set fruit and ripen on the bush.

Because it is a late variety, you can definitely sow it early. Everything is determined by trial and error 😉.

After reading advice here that the variety is a slow starter, I planted it early: the true dwarf on Jan 12, and the tall “Fake” one on Feb 5. We liked the taste; the girls picked them for themselves just to snack on.

Here is the tall version (Gusev’s). Lots of flowers in the truss, but not all set fruit.

And here is the true dwarf (Kushnareva’s) outdoors, excellent fruit set.

Good day everyone, please help a beginner. This is my first time growing tomatoes. I bought seeds of collectible tomatoes, sowed Geranium Kiss together with a friend. As a result, both of my seeds sprouted with carved (regular) leaves, while my friend got one regular and one potato leaf. We don’t understand which one is correct and which one is crossed/wrong. Please help. The seeds are from the same source.

Nadin said:
We still need to find out what we got under the guise of the tall “Kiss”. Because, even though it’s not the real one, it’s still an excellent tomato!

RIESENTRAUBE.

Lenana said:
We don’t understand which one is correct and which one is a cross.

The potato leaf is a recessive trait. That means that from two regular leaf parents, you can get a potato leaf (if each parent carries 1 gene for the potato leaf). It is not a defect.

According to the official variety standard, the leaf is regular, dense, and wrinkly (rugose), like a rose leaf. But in reality, potato-leaf versions of Geranium Kiss pop up frequently for people. It doesn’t affect anything; the rest of the variety’s characteristics remain exactly the same.

This year, a branch broke off my Geranium Kiss, so I rooted it separately. Surprisingly, the tomatoes on it ripened much faster than on the mother plant and were larger. I harvested tomatoes from all the trusses on the “daughter” clone, while the ones on the mother plant were still green.