Quick Summary of Jade Gem F1 (Samotsvet Nefritovyi F1)
- 🌍 Origin & Name: A Russian commercial green cherry tomato from the popular “Gem” (Samotsvet) series by the SeDek seed company. The name translates to “Jade Gem”.
- 🔍 The F1 Hybrid Confusion: Officially registered in the Russian State Register as an F1 hybrid. However, SeDek has notoriously printed packets both with and without the F1 label. This has led many growers to save seeds, essentially attempting to “de-hybridize” and stabilize it into an open-pollinated (OP) variety over the years.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall) with regular, dark green foliage. It is highly praised for being extremely resilient, tolerating temperature fluctuations and low-light conditions very well.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Small, round cocktail/cherry tomatoes weighing 20-30g (0.7-1 oz). It is a Green-When-Ripe (GWR) variety, meaning the fruits stay a light olive-green color even when fully mature and soft. The skin is very thin.
- 👅 Flavor: Exceptionally sweet. Growers note that it completely lacks the typical tartness of green tomatoes, maintaining a pure, sugary flavor even when grown outdoors in cooler, cloudy climates.
🍅 Have you grown this variety? Scroll down to add your review and photos in the comments below!
I couldn’t find this variety in our catalog, although I remember it being discussed more than once… 😕
It grew for me in open ground outdoors. Indeterminate, regular leaf, the fruits are round, olive-colored, weight is 25-30g (0.9-1 oz), very sweet, the skin is thin…
Oksana said:
I couldn’t find this variety in our catalog, although I remember it being discussed more than once…
Oksana, most likely this is the hybrid from SeDek called Jade Gem (Samotsvet Nefritovyi).
Here is the excerpt from the official State Register:
“For fresh salads and whole-fruit canning. Mid-season. Indeterminate plant. The leaf is large, dark green. Simple truss. Jointed pedicel. The fruit is round, smooth, medium firmness. The color of both unripe and ripe fruit is light green. Number of locules: 2. Fruit weight 20-30 g (0.7-1 oz). Excellent taste. Marketable yield is 5.4 kg/sq.m. The plants tolerate temperature fluctuations and low light levels very well.”
We do have Sugar Gem F1 in the catalog.
Svetlana said:
Oksana, most likely this is the hybrid from SeDek…
Svetlana, I’ve seen the SeDek packet without the letter “F1” on it… and I received it as a stable open-pollinated variety…
All the “Gems” (Sugar Gem, Emerald Gem, Radiant Gem, Golden Gem, Jade Gem) are officially registered as hybrids (we talked about them about 5 years ago on the old forum). And they are sold here specifically with the F1 label.
And your description of the Jade one matches the State Register perfectly.
Look, I just found this “miracle of miracles” on the internet 😃 How are we supposed to trust them? 😕
(Oksana attaches photos of two identical packets from SeDek, one labeled F1 and one without it).
But there wasn’t even a hint of tartness in it – it’s a very sweet tomato, despite the fact that it grew in open ground in “sunny” Belarus 😃.
Oksana said:
Look, I just found this “miracle of miracles” on the internet 😃 How are we supposed to trust them?
Looks like they “de-hybridized” it! 😃 🤦 😳
I will still add “F1” to the thread title just to be accurate.
