📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Illini Gold (Zoloto Illini)
- 🌍 Origin: An American heirloom variety that is widely circulated in Eastern Europe as “Zoloto Illini” (Gold of Illini).
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall). Usually reaches 5-6 feet (1.5-1.8 m) in a greenhouse, and stays around 5 feet (1.5 m) outdoors. Standout feature: It has very “wispy”, droopy, and frail-looking foliage, which is typical for many elongated/oxheart varieties. Do not panic, the plant is perfectly healthy!
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Bright orange, elongated or oval-heart shaped fruits. Most develop a distinct pointed nose. Very dense and meaty, weighing up to 7 oz (200 g).
- 👅 Flavor: Excellent, sweet flavor with virtually no acidity. While its meaty texture makes it perfect for canning and dehydrating, it is sweet and juicy enough to be used as a fresh salad tomato.
ILLINI GOLD. A mid-early, heavy-yielding variety. The bush is 5-6 feet (1.5-1.8 m) tall. The fruits are beautiful: elongated or oval-heart shaped, most have a very distinct pointed nose. They are firm, orange, weighing up to 7 oz (200 g), juicy, meaty, and have excellent flavor. The variety stands out for its pretty high resistance to diseases.
Illini Gold. Fruit set is absolutely excellent. The ripe fruits are bright orange. Height in the greenhouse was about 6 feet (1.8 m).
Lenochka and Svetlanka, could you give some more details about the taste? What is the fruit like, sweet or with a tangy kick, meaty or juicy? Is it good for salads, or is it mostly just for canning? I’m planning to plant it next season, which is why I’m asking so many questions.
I would definitely classify it as a salad tomato. The taste is sweet, you can’t feel any acidity at all, but the tomato doesn’t taste bland because of it.
Honestly, I felt bad putting it into canning jars, it was too good. And the color of the fruits is so bright, it looks like they are glowing like fire. At least mine were like that.
Sveta, thanks for the photo 👍. Seeing how many tomatoes it pumped out for you, I’m absolutely planting it now 🙌
Svetochka, what beauties!!! Do they perform like that outdoors in open ground too? Or only in a greenhouse?
Valyush, I don’t usually grow outdoors, but I had one extra bush that didn’t fit in the greenhouse, so it had to live outside. We got hit with hail, and then in July, we had two straight weeks of non-stop rain and cold. It didn’t get sick at all and performed practically the same, just a bit battered by the weather.
Also, in May and June, we had a massive heatwave. Almost every plant in my greenhouse was dropping its blossoms from the heat, but this one didn’t drop a single one.
Taking notes to plant this in 2015 📝 📝 📝
Valyush, my yield was lower outdoors in the dirt 😞, but it is an absolutely worthwhile variety 😋 👍. It belongs right in that top-tier category with Radunitsa, Golden Königsberg, Reina…
Lenochka, are those determinates? Because if they take off growing wild in the open ground, no stakes are going to hold them up. I don’t know any of the ones you just listed by face 🙂 I’ve never grown them!!!
Valyush, it is an indeterminate. Outdoors it stayed around 5 feet (1.5 m) tall. The bush looks really wimpy and has very sparse foliage. Svetlanka got much better results, it obviously liked her greenhouse a lot better! 😉
It didn’t look very vigorous in my greenhouse either. For me, it turned out to be late-season. Tasty, prolific, and the bushes were very healthy. Excellent variety.
A really great little tomato. I used mine for “elite” sun-drying alongside Berkeley Tie Dye, since by the time the massive harvest rolled in, I was already sick of eating fresh tomatoes. Unfortunately, I accidentally ripped the second truss completely off while pruning. But I was still incredibly happy with it. It sets fruit in clusters and is a heavy yielder! Grew outdoors in the dirt. Pruned to 2 stems. Seeds were from Ruslan Dukhov.
Found another photo of a truss.
It looks like it sets a truss every two leaves? Or am I seeing that wrong? 🙂 I’m trying to decide between planting Reina or Illini Gold right now.
Illini Gold turned out to be a very heavy yielder for me. The fruits were tasty, and once they fully ripened (when they take on a much deeper orange hue), they were very sweet.
