📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Giant of Siebenburgen
- 🌍 Origin: A historic European heirloom originating from the Siebenbürgen region (modern-day Transylvania, Romania). In Russia, it circulates as Gigant Zibenburgena.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), reaching over 6.5 ft (2 m) inside a greenhouse.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Large, red, classic oxheart-shaped tomatoes. They are very meaty and dense.
- 👅 Flavor: The taste profile varies depending on how it is grown-some report a tart, acidic kick, while others get perfectly sweet fruits.
- 📈 Growing Traits: A mid-late season ripener. Yield can sometimes be spotty in its first year, but growers report massive improvements when saving seeds and planting seedlings deeply (trench planting) to build a massive root system.
Photo by Alena
Giant of Siebenburgen – a tall (in the greenhouse it reaches 6.5 ft / 2 m or more) tomato variety, mid-late season ripening time. The fruits are large, heart-shaped, and red. Meaty, with a nice tart/acidic kick to the taste.
I liked the variety, tasty and sweet, but the yield was severely lacking. I will repeat it next year and feed it much better.
I repeated it, and growing it from my own saved seeds gave an excellent result. I planted the seedlings horizontally (trench planting) so they would develop a much larger root system. And here is the result: the variety rewarded me with large, tasty fruits. Maybe varieties like this need to be trench planted? At least here in the south.
On 10/8/2019 at 11:24 AM, Lana_s_Kavkaza said:
I repeated it, and growing it from my own saved seeds gave an excellent result.
Svetlana, did the yield actually improve? I have seeds from Kulik sitting in my stash, but I can’t quite bring myself to test them out yet.
On 10/8/2019 at 2:11 PM, Inn@ said:
Svetlana, did the yield actually improve?
Yes, the fruits turned out heavier by weight, and way more trusses set fruit. Though I have to admit, I did spray the very first trusses with “Zavyaz” (Blossom Set spray).
Svetlana mentions two fantastic growing techniques to boost the yield of this variety:
- Planting Horizontally (Trench Planting): If you have leggy seedlings, don’t dig a deep hole. Instead, dig a shallow horizontal trench, lay the stem down in it, and gently bend the top few leaves upward. Tomatoes have adventitious roots – meaning the entire buried stem will sprout a massive, vigorous root system to feed the plant!
- “Zavyaz” (Blossom Set Spray): She mentions spraying the early blossoms with a product called Zavyaz. In Russia, this is a popular agricultural spray based on gibberellic acid (a natural plant hormone). In the US, the direct equivalent is products like Bonide Tomato Blossom Set Spray, which helps flowers set fruit even when the weather is too cold or too hot for natural pollination.
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