Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA Zones 4-6 Experience)
Determinate, productive variety, seeds came from a Polish seed packet. The fruits are plum-shaped, intensely red colored, with good flavor, average weight around 1.7 oz (50 g). Perfect for canning and they store really well.
Sveta, what kind of leaves does it have? Potato leaf?
Dzhina wrote:
Sveta, what kind of leaves does it have? Potato leaf?
Yes, potato leaf!
Tell me, is this variety productive?
kusochek wrote:
Tell me, is this variety productive?
It wasn’t very productive for me, I used Polish seeds too.
kusochek wrote:
Tell me, is this variety productive?
It was productive for me, even though it grew in the greenhouse in partial shade from the cucumbers.
Spring 2016 was very late and brought tons of rain. We couldn’t even till the garden until the first days of June. I planted extremely overgrown seedlings, and as a result, they were only just flowering in early July. We also had two straight weeks of severe cold in June.
Kmicic was the only one that set fruit regardless of the weather. It’s sitting outdoors under a row cover. Sets every truss without dropping a single blossom, and the tomatoes are already getting quite large. The plant itself is vigorous and dark green. Excellent variety. I think I’ll give it a permanent spot in my garden.
I grew Kmicic outdoors last year. It sprawled out on the grass mulch and just produced fruit lying down. Extremely productive, literally dripping with fruit. Excellent in canning jars. In the fall, I took the unripe green and turning ones and made spicy pickled tomatoes with garlic and peppers, and they were absolutely delicious.
Full Summary: Plant, Yield, Taste and Storage
- 🌿 Plant: A highly robust, determinate bush with potato leaf (PL) foliage. It is remarkably resilient to cold weather and thrives outdoors. While it can be staked, some growers let it sprawl naturally over mulch, where it continues to set fruit without issue.
- 🍅 Fruit: Intensely red, plum-shaped paste tomatoes averaging around 1.7 oz (50 g). The firm texture makes them an ideal choice for processing rather than fresh slicing.
- 📈 Yield: Generally very high. It is praised for not dropping blossoms even during severe cold snaps or heavy rains, setting solid trusses from bottom to top.
- 👅 Storage & Use: Classic canning tomato. Growers note it stores exceptionally well, and even the unripe end-of-season fruits are fantastic for pickling.
Kmicic is a well-known commercial Polish variety named after a famous character from Henryk Sienkiewicz’s historical novel The Deluge. As highlighted by the growers here, it features Potato Leaf (PL) foliage. Many experienced gardeners notice that PL varieties tend to possess an inherent ruggedness against cool, wet weather, often shrugging off cold snaps that would cause regular regular leaf (RL) varieties to drop their blossoms. If you live in a region with unpredictable springs, keeping a cold-tolerant paste like Kmicic in your rotation is a smart insurance policy!
