📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Izmailskiy Rebristyi (Izmail Ribbed)
- 🌍 Origin: Sourced from Russian collector Valery Popenko. Named after the city of Izmail.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall). An aggressive, vigorous vine that can easily support 3 to 4 main leaders. Known to be a very heavy yielder.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Medium-sized red fruits weighing about 5.3 to 7 oz (150-200 g). They are deeply ribbed (fluted). Depending on growing conditions, the locules can be slightly hollow or completely filled with gel.
- 👅 Flavor & Use: Has a mild, pleasant sweet-and-sour flavor. Because of its deep pleats, it looks exactly like a starfruit when sliced horizontally, making it fantastic for culinary garnishing or baking.
I grew this variety in the greenhouse. The seeds originally came from Popenko. The plant is a tall indeterminate. I pruned it to about 3 or 4 leaders. The fruits are medium-sized, weighing 5.3 to 7 oz (150-200 g). I really liked the taste, a very pleasant sweet-and-sour balance. It’s a heavy yielder. The plant has massive potential, but it couldn’t show its full force for me this season because we had a terribly cold summer.
Do you happen to have a photo of it sliced open? It gives me the impression that it might have a lot of hollow locules inside.
I posted a photo on the old forum, but for some reason, it disappeared. Here is my plant. Seeds were from Popenko.
I posted a photo on the old forum, but for some reason, it disappeared.
It disappeared because the third-party image host didn’t save it 🤐
And there isn’t a single sliced photo of this variety in the old catalog either.
Do you happen to have a photo of it sliced open? It gives me the impression that it might have a lot of hollow locules inside.
Svetlana, I found a photo.
Thank you 🌸 It would be great to use for garnishing dishes, it reminds me of a starfruit (carambola) 🙈
Very heavy yielder. Unfortunately, I didn’t take a sliced photo, but mine didn’t have any hollow locules inside… all the seed cavities were completely filled with seeds and gel. As for the flavor, it was a bit bland/mild to me.
Svetlana (Drosera) points out one of the coolest traits of deeply ribbed (fluted) tomatoes. When you slice them horizontally (across the equator rather than top-to-bottom), the deep pleats create a perfect flower or “starfruit” shape, which looks incredible on a charcuterie board or salad! Also, notice the debate about whether it is hollow inside. Fluted tomatoes often develop hollow seed locules (making them great “stuffing tomatoes”), but as Oksana points out, depending on watering and climate, those locules can sometimes fill up completely with gel and seeds.
