Golden Nut (Zolotoy Orekh) Tomato Review

Early season variety. 90 to 100 days from emergence to first ripening. The bush is short, about 20 to 24 inches (50-60 cm) tall. Small, round, yellow fruits weighing around 1 to 1.7 oz (30-50 g).

Now for my thoughts after growing it:

The fruits are incredibly sweet with a real classic tomato sweetness. At first, it got to the point where I couldn’t even save a single tomato for seeds, let alone let them ripen to their true golden color on the vine. My little “fruit monsters” (the kids) were gobbling them up at the very first sign of color, even though there were plenty of other fully ripe varieties nearby. I only managed to finally pick a tomato for seed-saving after my main consumers left for college.

As for the yield, I’d say it’s about average for this type of bush, but then again, because they taste so good, I might be underestimating it. My student and school-aged kid started every single morning by patrolling the rows of this specific variety.

I absolutely loved them for canning in jars. I’m usually not a fan of growing tiny “currant-sized” tomatoes, and I originally just planted this one as an experiment. But the size turned out to be perfect. Not too small and not too big.

I practically didn’t prune them at all. More specifically, there were almost no suckers below the first truss, maybe only on 1 or 2 bushes. After the first truss, the growing tip just naturally forked on its own. Overall, I really loved it in that regard, minimal labor required.

The trusses have 5 to 7 fruits that are almost all the exact same size. Smaller ones only started appearing towards the end of the season. You can easily wait for the whole truss to ripen and harvest it on the vine, but I only managed to do that in September (again, because my kids were actively eating them).

Seeds were from a commercial packet, I’ve attached a photo below.

Regarding disease resistance, this tomato handles fungal issues very easily, practically no issues at all. Viral diseases were a bit worse. A couple of bushes got hit, but they didn’t completely die off and still produced some fruit.

I also want to point out that it’s a very beautiful bush, especially during the growth and flowering stages. The leaves are a gorgeous dark green color. At one point, I even thought to myself: if it doesn’t give me tomatoes, it would work just fine as an ornamental plant.

A few doubts I have:

Before planting, I searched online for descriptions and reviews. I kept seeing mentions of an indeterminate (tall) “Golden Nut”, and some descriptions even labeled it as an F1 hybrid. This one clearly doesn’t fit that description based on the seed packet. It’s highly possible there are completely different tomatoes out there sharing the same name.

Also, as for height, mine didn’t stay at 20 to 24 inches (50-60 cm); it got closer to 3 feet (80-90 cm). This might be because I promoted deep rooting in three tiers when potting up, used heavy grow lights on the seedlings, and gave them plenty of fertilizer. In any case, it wasn’t just this Golden Nut that grew taller than the packet claimed, my other varieties did too.

Overall though, I will absolutely be growing it again this year.