Gribnoe Lukoshko (Mushroom Basket) Tomato Review

Growing it for the second year, seeds from SibSad. The plant was 4 ft (1.2 m) tall last year, and this year it’s even shorter, under 3.3 ft (1 m), just one bush. Yield is a solid 6.6 lbs (3 kg). It only showed its true flavor this year – tender flesh with mild sweetness, absolutely no acidity. 3.5-4 out of 5 stars.

It’s on the drier side, very few seeds, sits on the counter ripening for about 3 weeks without rotting. We will keep planting one bush of it just for the unusual shape. I flipped one tomato over to show the variety’s tendency for crazy fruit shapes. Photos from September.

Edited January 24, 2015 by Drosera

I really loved these tomatoes too 😋. Mine looked like this: Seeds were from Ninulia, HUGE thanks to her.

Quite productive for me, but maturity-wise it was late season. The color was a pinkish-crimson, quite tasty.

It was productive and tasty for me too. No hollow voids inside. The color of mine was red.

I liked them too – productive, tasty, lasted a long time without catching any diseases – what else do you need from a tomato? Plus the neighbors kept gasping, marveling at such a miracle, especially when sliced on a plate)))

Mushroom Basket from SibSad. Everything written on the seed packet is completely true. Planted it 3 years in a row. The first year some of the fruits were an irregular shape. I picked the prettiest ones to save seeds from. And for the next 2 years 🙌 – scarlet beauties with a tender flavor, very productive. They were mid-season for me. You absolutely have to tie up the trusses. I want to repeat it every year, but sadly I run out of space because of my other “experiments” 😢

What a gorgeous tomato, I need to buy this one for this year. 🌺

I plant Mushroom Basket every single year 👍 👍 👍, it’s on my permanent grow list.

Has anyone had this happen? I planted Mushroom Basket for the first time. I expected a solid fruit color, but they turned out very multi-colored, with stripes))) Can I consider my Mushroom Basket true to type, or should I toss it out?

Sveta, that is a very cool looking basket!! Most likely the tomato got cross-pollinated and you ended up with a first-generation hybrid (F1). Not guaranteed that the trait is stable, but definitely worth trying it out.

It most likely cross-pollinated not in my garden, but with whoever I bought the seeds from) Curious to see how it behaves moving forward.

Well that’s practically breeding! You definitely need to try it, who knows, you might get a brand new variety out of it!

@Svetlana F wrote:

Svetlana, you got an awesome tomato, how does it taste?

@Svetlana F wrote:

I had the exact same thing happen, but only on the last trusses, looked exactly like that. I was also very surprised.

Sveta, last year on one of my bushes I also had striped tomatoes, it was dark stripes on a light green background. Then as they ripened, the stripes turned yellow first, and when the tomato was fully ripe, you could barely see them. But I still saved the seeds separately and labeled them “Striped MB” (Mushroom Basket). And when I mailed them to people, I labeled them striped too. Just a heads up, there were very few seeds in those tomatoes :(.

@Bel Ami wrote:
Sveta, that is a very cool looking basket!! Most likely the tomato got cross-pollinated and you ended up with a first-generation hybrid…

Based on my humble knowledge of tomato genetics, the striped coloration is determined by the recessive gene gs, meaning the genotype must be gs/gs, so the trait will show up and breed true in subsequent generations.

So theoretically, if you pollinate it with a striped one again, there’s a chance to stabilize the trait? Sveta, am I understanding that right?

Wait, no. It must have already been pollinated by a striped one! Right?

@Ninulia wrote:
Sveta, last year on one of my bushes I also had striped tomatoes…

Ninul, that is exactly how your striped Basket turned out for me (when green) – productive and beautiful 👍 🌺 Though the ripe fruits do still have slightly visible stripes 🙂

@Bel Ami wrote:
So theoretically, if you pollinate it with a striped one again…

My understanding is the opposite. If the tomato is already striped, it already has the gs/gs genotype. Pollinating it with another striped one won’t change anything.

P.S. gs = (GREEN STRIPE)

@Svetikk wrote:
Ninul, that is exactly how your striped Basket turned out for me…

There you go, Svetul, looks like the trait is stable. I specifically sent the striped ones to people who asked for them 🌺

My Mushroom Basket from SibSad. I liked it, couldn’t find a single seed inside though 😲

My Mushroom Basket (SibSad), productive, mid-late season. The taste, when there were plenty of other tomatoes around, seemed a bit bland. It is meaty and great for sauces, stores very well. We ate the last one a week ago, and interestingly, out of all the tomatoes left in storage, this was the only one that actually developed a more pronounced tomato flavor with a bit of tang.

I don’t remember the taste of mine… but I definitely remember the shape. I happened to be in the hospital during that time, and all the doctors and patients kept running over to look at it and take pictures, to everyone this miracle tomato looked like a UFO.. 😂

For next season I want the striped one, I’ll plant Nina’s 🌺 😘

Edited December 12, 2014 by ZhavoronoK

Could you guys tell me what other tomato varieties besides this one and Accordion have such deeply ribbed fruits? Next year I want to plant something similar, but a specific variety isn’t always available in stores. I grow outdoors in open ground, is it realistic to get fruit from these varieties? From what I understand, they are quite late season?

@elena0508 wrote:
Could you guys tell me what other tomato varieties… have such deeply ribbed fruits?

There are many: American Ribbed, Tlacolula, all the Accordions, Beauty of Lorraine (Beauté Lorgnaise), Yellow Ruffled, Izmailovsky Ribbed, Etoile.

@elena0508 wrote:
Could you guys tell me what other tomato varieties besides this one…

– also Reisetomate or Garlic tomato.

@elena0508 wrote:
I grow outdoors in open ground, is it realistic to get fruit from these varieties? From what I understand, they are quite late season?

Beauty of Lorraine too. It is late season. Mushroom Basket ripens earlier.

Can anyone tell me, should the flower on Mushroom Basket be a regular one or a megabloom (fused flower)?

On the seed packet, this tomato has green shoulders. But in the photos from you gardeners, there aren’t any. I actually skipped buying it in the store purely because of those green shoulders.

@elena0508 wrote:
Could you guys tell me what other tomato varieties… have such deeply ribbed fruits?

“Gift to my Wife” (Podarok moey zhene). It’s also very delicious. I have a photo in my album. 🌺

Wow, indescribable beauty. Whose seeds are those?

Something is wrong with my Mushroom Basket this year. And it’s not just one bush, they are sitting in completely different greenhouses. Two ugly flowers per branch, and even those eventually drop off.

Don’t forget that this thread is about Mushroom Basket, and “Gift to my Wife” has its own entry in the catalog.

Here are my Baskets))) Grew very stocky, about 3.3 ft (1 m) tall. Fruit set was good. They ripen all together. Taste is worthy, the seeds are not sour. And of course, they are beautiful. All my neighbors come over to look at them)

Grew Mushroom Basket outdoors. The variety is productive, ripens late. Tasty. Absolutely ideal for tomato paste, because it’s not very juicy, just pure meat. Few seeds.

Look what grew for me this year. SvetiKK shared the seeds with me. I planted two bushes. And, OH MIRACLE!!!, I grew two completely different Baskets – one was striped red, and the other was a true striped bi-color. The red one was very productive and tasty. And the bi-color didn’t shine in terms of yield, but the taste was magnificent!!! Sweeeet!!!

Girls, Svetik and Ninulechka!!! HUGE THANKS!!! Such miracles!!! 😂

I got the variety from Batatovy Kusty. Indeterminate, mid-season, ribbed, productive, red. Grown in the greenhouse. It took a long time to set fruit. The first one set in late July. Then it suddenly went crazy and produced a ton—maybe not a mountain, but for such a late variety, it’s a lot. And they ripen well. We tasted it – very, very delicious!!! I planted it to compare with Beauty of Lorraine (Beauté Lorgnaise). Beauty of Lorraine lost in every single category! Not even worth comparing.

No massive fruits, they were up to 7 oz (200 g). Flimsy, tall bush. You absolutely must tie up both the bush and the branches holding the tomatoes. I tied mine, but it still somehow kept sliding down. As a result, one truss ended up lying on the ground, and ripened right there. Somewhat resistant to gray mold, but a few fruits eventually rotted (during storage), most likely because they got infected on the ground.

@Galina P. wrote:
Look what grew for me this year… I grew two completely different Baskets – one was striped red, and the other was a true striped bi-color.

Galochka, that’s awesome! Now you have to share the seeds of the ribbed bi-color! See, back in 2013 I noticed that Mushroom Basket wasn’t entirely stable – it gave me 2 clones – just ribbed, and ribbed with stripes… and now you’ve got a Bi-color! 👍

@Ninulia wrote:
Galochka, that’s awesome! Now you have to share the seeds of the ribbed bi-color!

Ninulechka, I will absolutely share. 🙂 It resulted in two varieties – red with yellow stripes and yellow with red stripes. The red one’s interior color is just like a normal red tomato, and the bi-color… well you can see in the photos what a beauty it is. 🙂

My Mushroom Basket (the striped one). Indet, not prone to disease, meaty and sweet… but not as large as the regular red MB. I will repeat it this year… I didn’t quite figure it out 🤔 😂 For comparison, I’ll plant it right next to the standard SibSad one… photos from July 25.

And from my saved seeds (originally SibSad) it grew very beautiful and productive, but the taste was – nothing 😞… the most tasteless of all my varieties. Last season the yield was lower, but the taste was slightly better, though still not great, probably won’t plant it again…

My M. Basket from SibSad was 4 ft (1.2 m) in the greenhouse, around 10.5 oz (300 g) with green shoulders, but it wasn’t deeply ribbed, just slightly wavy. It cracked, and the cracks were deep – storage was poor. Turned them all into juice. Tasty, few seeds.

Very tasty tomatoes. Here’s how mine turned out

Here are the beauties that grew for me.

And mine were a bit smaller in weight 😳 Mushroom Basket (seeds from Lyubochka (Alaviya))

Can someone tell me how demanding it is regarding sunlight? For example, all De Barao varieties are shade-tolerant, I plant them in the northern part of the greenhouse with no loss in yield. I really want to try Mushroom Basket, but space is tight for new varieties, I’m shuffling the greenhouse layout every which way 🤷‍♀️

@Sanka wrote:
Can someone tell me how demanding it is regarding sunlight?

It handles it fine! This year I have Mushroom Basket, but not the regular one, the striped and bi-color one! Galochka sent it to me 🌺 🌺 🌺. She said it grew from my striped mushroom seeds 😲. Maybe the variety is still segregating… But I absolutely loved it! Much tastier than the regular Mushroom Basket! It’s still growing, even in the greenhouse that is practically under the neighbor’s birches – it only gets sun in the morning, and the other side gets it towards evening. This basket is planted on the morning side 😄.

And I have a couple more in a tunnel greenhouse – it was in full sun all summer, but now it’s in the shade again, this time from the neighbor’s fir tree 😞. That’s our neighbor for you 😞. She’s quite old now, the former principal of the local school. She never really tended the garden and just left whatever grew on its own. Now she has 4 huge birches and 2 equally huge firs on her plot 😞. Because of this, not only do our greenhouses end up in the shade, but our satellite TV gets terrible reception 😞. The satellites are exactly on her side, and well… it’s a mess. The TV actually works better when it’s cloudy and raining – the signal bounces off the clouds and hits the antenna 😂 😂. But I refuse to argue with her on principle, she’s 87 years old… why would I shorten her days…

This variety was a fail for me. The fruits were small and bland.

Either the seeds came from tomatoes that were just as bad, or it just didn’t like my garden. Probably the former.

I’ll give it one more chance next year.

I got fruits like this: There are a lot of them, good yield, but the fruits are completely dry, practically zero juice.

This season – it’s the largest tomato by size in my garden bed. Still hanging there for now)

About MB… Planted it for 3 years (2016-2018)… from SibSad with green shoulders.. (photos of the packets have already been posted, won’t upload). The tomatoes surprised me with their shape right in the store, which is why I bought it))) I live near Yekaterinburg (Urals).

So, 2016 – by August it shot up to almost 6.5 ft (2 meters), set some fruit… nothing spectacular…. but then I left for vacation in the South, asked my husband to at least water them… Came back in late August and was stunned….. On the bottom truss alone there were !!!!!15!!!!! tomatoes!!!! And 3 of them were the size of a grown man’s hand!!!!! Brought them to work, ate them ourselves, used them for canning!!! Spectacular!!! Taste wasn’t wow! But very edible!

In 2017 – same huge tree-like vines, set fruit in mid-August… but there were barely any, maybe 5-6 per bush, and no huge ones (like in 2016), around 7-9 oz (200-250 g)…

2018 – exact same story…

I don’t know what to do with it. The euphoria from 2016 whispers: “plant it”.. But my brain says: what if there’s something more interesting out there!!!

But I saved my own seeds, I’ll try again, just not this year. Because the competition for a spot in my greenhouse is harder than getting into an Ivy League college )))

Sorry for no photos, didn’t take pics in 2016, and the 2018 ones aren’t on hand.

Edited January 20, 2019 by Lena Vanyushka

Here, found a photo )) from 2018..

Seeds from 2014, the first tomato is from a megabloom, quite juicy, no green shoulders, taste is 4 out of 5. Next to it is Swan Song from Svetikk.

This is a new variety for me this year, turned out verrrry large!

Planted for the 1st time in 2019 outdoors without hoops, without film cover. The variety is very resistant to diseases. Thrilled with the yield. From 2.8 to 5.3 lbs (1300-2400 g) per bush. Fruits averaged around 7 oz (200 g). Flowered beautifully, fruit set was wonderful. The bush wasn’t tall, grew to about 4-4.5 ft (1.2-1.4 meters). Attaching a video.

M. Basket grew without problems, didn’t get sick, seeds from SibSad, sooo big, average was fist-sized, no hollow voids, normal taste, outdoors 5.2 ft (160 cm).

Grew in 2021 from SibSad seeds. Grown outdoors, height about 4 ft (1.2 m), didn’t prune the bush. Yield was above average. Fruits are bright red, without the green spot at the stem. Weight 7-9 oz (200-250 g). Fully ripe tomatoes tasted slightly sweet, absolutely no acidity at all. Caught BER (Blossom End Rot) on the top truss.

Adding a photo of my basket))

Tasty sweet tomato.