Zolotoy Kenigsberg (Golden Königsberg) Tomato Review

Seeds are from SibSad. The bush looks like it’s about to die without water, the leaves are always drooping. Ours stayed pretty short, up to 4 feet (1.2 m) tall. We absolutely loved it for its taste. We were literally racing each other to eat them straight off the vine, they never even made it into salads. Our whole family gives it 5 stars for its rich, sweet flavor enhanced by just a tiny hint of acidity.

Yeah, the variety is delicious, we loved it too, but mine grew super tall right up to the greenhouse roof.

I totally agree about the permanently drooping leaves.

I really like this variety too. I plant it every single year. The foliage really does hang down forever.

It grew as a very wimpy seedling. Loved the taste, it has this buttery, sweet flesh and very few seeds.

A very tasty, sweet tomato, the flesh inside is buttery. The bush was short and compact.

Always a heavy yielder, always delicious, and has a great shelf life. I plant it every year.

Quote from Russi: always a heavy yielder, always delicious, and has a great shelf life. I plant it every year.

I completely agree. Mine are exactly the same. I plant three similar varieties: Orange Pear (the biggest and meatiest, 3 per truss, around 14 oz / 400 g each), Golden Königsberg (medium, 5 per truss, around 7 oz / 200 g each), and Orange Roma (7 per truss, around 3.5 oz / 100 g each). They are all similar: tasty, sweet, and meaty.

As seedlings, they are a huge pain to deal with: the leaves are long, thin, twisted, and constantly tangle with each other. But I would never give them up. No matter what kind of weather we get in the summer, they are always delicious.

I liked this tomato. I read that it was a low yielder, but I planted it anyway because I love elongated varieties. The yield actually turned out pretty good. The first ones were larger and thicker, then the later ones got more elongated. I pulled the bush at the end of September. I thought it was going to be super frail, but it was tolerable. The leaves hang down a bit, but the bush itself is quite sturdy. (My Orange Heart, on the other hand, made me think it was going to die completely at first—all twisted up with drooping leaves).

The fruits are dense, very little gel or seeds, and tasty. I will always find room in my garden for a couple bushes of Golden Königsberg.

Yes, I agree with everyone, it’s a very delicious tomato. Mine were a yellow-golden color from SibSad. Yield was average, but the taste forgives everything. Height in the greenhouse was up to 6.5 feet (2 m), pruned to 2 stems, and it ripens gradually over time.

I’ve been planting Golden Königsberg for 4 years now and it’s one of my absolute favorites. And the yield isn’t even that small, this year I got 16 fruits off it (grown to two stems). A beautiful orange color, really good flavor, and the ones higher up on the plant grew more elongated. Keeping it on my grow list for 2015.

Quote from Pani Tomat: Grew Königsberg from SibSad. Liked the variety, meaty, tasty fresh and canned, but even in the greenhouse I didn’t get the yield they claimed on the packet.

My Golden Königsberg wasn’t a very heavy yielder either, but it was tasty. I’m replacing it with Limon-2, it yields better and tastes just as good.

Quote from Rio: … We aren’t planting that this year – going to try Golden Königsberg instead.

My Golden is a low yielder, although my overall impression is still pretty good – it gives you fruit at the very end of the season that you can use all throughout the fall, and I really like how compact the bush is. In general, I just haven’t ever found a high-yielding Königsberg. Maybe if I manage to acclimate it by saving seeds over several years that will change, but for now I get 3 to 4 trusses with 2 to 4 fruits each.

This season, I either got a cross-pollination or something else weird happened, but my Königsberg (got the seeds from Larina in winter 2013-2014) is acting very strange. I grew it in 2004 and last year, and both times it was a late, medium-sized variety. This year I’m growing it from my own saved 2014 seeds.

First off – it was the VERY FIRST out of my 100+ varieties to flower, right after transplanting. It is currently loaded with large fruits and is setting its 4th truss. Second – it is way bigger than it used to be (usually it barely breaks 3.5 oz / 100 g for me).

So this year I have a very unusual Königsberg: fruits weighing 9 to 10.5 oz (260-300 g), and showing traits of an early-season variety. Just waiting for them to color up so I can confirm it’s still orange.

And the crazy part is, I saved these seeds from a late, small fruit in September (the parent tomato was barely 100 g). The only other plant showing this kind of speed and size for me is Pink Banana (and they were growing directly across from each other… maybe a bumblebee helped out?).

The fruit weights are accurate, I picked three today and weighed them on a scale.

Alena, my Golden Konig is doing the exact same thing. I grew it in the greenhouse in either 2010 or 2011. Yeah, it was wimpy and a low yielder, but I saved seeds anyway. This year I sowed it and planted it outdoors in the dirt. To say the seedlings were ugly is an understatement 😖 But man, it just took off growing like crazy 😲 It’s sitting in the second row, totally shaded, setting its 3rd truss, and the fruits at the bottom are huge (much bigger than the greenhouse one I took the seeds from). What is going on? I’m pruning it to 2 stems.

Quote from o-lya-lya: Alena, my Golden Konig is doing the exact same thing… What is going on? I’m pruning it to 2 stems.

I honestly cannot explain such massive differences in the exact same variety, grown in the exact same spot, with similar weather (our 2014 and 2015 seasons were very similar – late, cold, with extended frosts until mid-to-late June). Either we are cross-pollinating them (maybe it’s prone to crossing? though usually they say only potato-leaf varieties cross easily due to flower structure, and regular leaves are only at 5%), or it’s just a highly adaptable variety that adjusts to specific conditions…

Anyway, here is what is growing for me. These are green, unripe fruits (I had to mail them out, so I picked them green and weighed them by variety). They could have easily grown a bit more since I pulled them two weeks early, but they are still very “impressive” for a Konig.

The tastiest, sweetest tomato I grew in 2015. My absolute favorite!!! Grew in a polycarbonate greenhouse. Not the heaviest yielder, but the fruits had decent weight to them, around 8.8-10.5 oz (250-300 g), the largest hitting 14 oz (400 g). Dense, meaty, and genuinely sweet. There is a reason this variety is nicknamed the “Siberian Apricot”. Keeping it for 2016.

The leaves on this variety are very strange: narrow, twisted, hugging the stem. Your first impression is that they are sick.

Zolotoy Kenigsberg tomato

Quote from Russi: always a heavy yielder, always delicious, and has a great shelf life. I plant it every year.

THANK YOU Russi – my Golden Königsberg grew from the seeds you gave me.

Good afternoon. Tell me, do the Red and Golden Königsbergs differ much in yield… and which one is better…? I have a packet of the red one lying around… just debating if I should plant it?

Quote from VALENTINA/Abakan: Tell me, do the Red and Golden Königsbergs differ much in yield… and which one is better…?

You can check the reviews on the Red Königsberg’s yield in its specific catalog thread.

Taste-wise, the Golden one should be better. (I’ve had a packet of the regular red Königsberg sitting around for years too, just can’t seem to get around to planting it).

Golden Königsberg grew in my greenhouse. It reached about 6.5 feet (2 m) tall. Heavy yielder. I really loved the taste of the fruits. They were sweet and very meaty.

I absolutely adore this variety, I consider it one of the best-tasting out there. They were always the first to disappear from our harvest crates. The bush is frail (can confirm), and as seedlings they are completely unpresentable. I grow it in the greenhouse – sweet and delicious.

Really loved this variety! The fruits are beautiful, uniform bright yellow eggs weighing up to 7.7 oz (220 g). Moderately firm, store well, and are incredibly tasty. Indeterminate, grew in the greenhouse pruned to 2 stems. Yield was average (it was a tough summer, only set about 15 fruits per bush), but the potential is great!

Mine were from a commercial store packet and clearly a bad batch. Only got a couple fruits per plant, both in the greenhouse and outdoors. They were tasty of course, but… Plus, the bush in the greenhouse looked like it was dying the entire season. I have no desire to go hunting for a better clone right now.