📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Kino
- 🌍 Origin: A forum-exclusive Russian variety. It started as an accidental cross between Vater Rhein and Siberian Tiger discovered by a grower in 2017. After several years of growing it out and stabilizing it to the F7 generation, the community officially named it “Kino” (which means “Cinema” or “Movie”) in 2021.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), reaching about 5.9-6.2 feet (180-190 cm). It is a well-behaved plant with wispy, droopy foliage and long trusses. It is incredibly heat and cold tolerant.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Beautifully ribbed, pleated beefsteaks with dark anthocyanin splashing on the shoulders. Average weight is around 4.2-5.6 oz (120-160 g), but they can easily reach 10.5-12 oz (300-340 g).
- 👅 Flavor: Early fruits can be a bit mild, but as the season progresses, they develop a fantastic, sweet flavor.
Kino is an accidental cross discovered by @Alisa between Vater Rhein and Siberian Tiger. It only got its official name in 2021. I planted mine in full sun. The plant is well-behaved, about 5.9-6.2 feet (180-190 cm) tall, with long, droopy trusses. It just kept setting fruit without skipping a beat right up until the cold weather hit. It didn’t care at all about the heat or the cold nights.
The fruits are pleated and ribbed with anthocyanin. The bulk of them were 4.2-5.6 oz (120-160 g), but I had some larger ones hit 10.5-12 oz (300-340 g).
The first tomatoes tasted a bit bland to me, but the later ones developed a nice sweetness.
I’ll add a bit more about Kino. It was one of the very first to ripen for me. And I actually planted it later than the rest of my tomatoes. Shushechka Kuznetsova shared the seeds with me.
I’m getting a little confused about this Kino… Who exactly did it come from? I think I read that Natasha (@Petrofka) and Irina were discussing the name, but originally I grew out this accidental cross for two years and then shared it with Natasha. I don’t know what happened after that…
Ninulia: “I’m getting a little confused about this Kino… Who exactly did it come from? I think I read that Natasha (@Petrofka) and Irina were discussing the name, but originally I grew out this accidental cross for two years and then shared it with Natasha. I don’t know what happened after that…”
You got it exactly right, Ninulya. This is Irina’s (@Alisa) cross. You were handing out the F2 seeds at our meetup, and I planted them every year after that. I was just really interested in it. In 2021, Irina suggested I finally give it a name. And so it started circulating around the forum under the name Kino at the F7 generation. It’s a shame Irina left the forum.
Petrofka: “You got it exactly right, Ninulya. This is Irina’s (@Alisa) cross. You were handing out the F2 seeds at our meetup, and I planted them every year after that… And so it started circulating around the forum under the name Kino at the F7 generation.”
Well, in my notes, I have it written down that Vater Rhein crossed with some antho variety, but it didn’t specify which one, and that’s exactly what I gave you. I think I still have those original seeds somewhere. Back then we got some segregation. One line looked a lot like Sgt. Pepper’s, and the other had absolutely no blue on it, which I think is this one. I first planted Irina’s seeds way back in 2017. So many years have passed! The variety definitely had time to stabilize. But my question is, where did the Siberian Tiger part come from? Did Irina confirm that?
Ninulia: “But my question is, where did the Siberian Tiger part come from? Did Irina confirm that?”
I messaged back and forth with Irina about this cross a bunch of times. She dug through her notes and specifically confirmed to me that it was Siberian Tiger. I can’t link to her blog because she deleted it completely when she left the forum. There was so much good info in there.
I originally planted the seeds you gave me in 2017. And then I just grew it out every year from my own saved seeds. So practically speaking, I stabilized it myself.
I just dug out my old seed packets of these crosses from my stash… I might end up with something that isn’t Kino at all haha. They are going into my grow box. Seeds from Ninulya 🌹
