Quick Summary of Teshchin Yazyk (Mother-in-Law’s Tongue)
- 🌍 Origin: A fantastic heirloom variety originating from Ukraine. The hilarious name translates to “Mother-in-Law’s Tongue”, a playful nod to the long, slightly pointed, “sharp” shape of the fruit.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Mid-sized plant (often growing as a compact indeterminate), highly productive, and well-suited for greenhouse cultivation.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Bright red, elongated, pepper-shaped (or icicle) tomatoes. They grow in simple trusses containing 4 to 5 fruits each.
- 👅 Flavor & Texture: Firm, extremely meaty, and dense with a very pleasant, classic tomato flavor.
- 🎯 Best Uses: An incredibly versatile processing tomato. It is absolutely perfect for making juices, freezing, sun-drying, and whole-fruit canning/pickling. It is also quite tasty eaten fresh.
- 🛡️ Disease Resistance: Exceptionally healthy. The most important feature noted by growers is that it does not suffer from Blossom End Rot (BER)—a huge advantage, as many elongated/paste tomatoes are notoriously prone to this issue.
I grew the “Teshchin Yazyk” (Mother-in-Law’s Tongue) variety in 2011 (seeds were from Ukraine)… Mid-sized, productive, with beautiful pepper-shaped fruits of bright red color. The fruits are firm, meaty, with a pleasant tomato taste. The truss is simple, holding 4-5 fruits.
I grew it in closed ground (greenhouse) conditions. It was not affected by any diseases, and most importantly, it did not suffer from Blossom End Rot (BER).
This variety is absolutely ideal for making juices, freezing, sun-drying, and fresh consumption.
Natashenka, when do you sow it and when does it start to ripen? I want to figure out its ripening timeline.
Natashenka, is it suitable for canning/pickling in jars?
Zulfiya, my timelines generally stay the same every year… I’ve developed a formula over many years of practice:
- For greenhouse varieties — I sow in several batches.
- First batch: early February — I start working with the seeds (treatment, soaking, germinating, sowing)…
- Second batch: mid-February (provided I have the seeds on hand, of course)…
Specifically for this variety (I checked my notes for 2011) — I sowed the seedlings on February 16th… planted them out in the greenhouse on April 23rd. I didn’t write down exactly when the very first fruits ripened… But the usual ripening time for fruits under this schedule is early July…
Thank you, Natasha! 🌹 So that means it is mid-season, which is excellent! The older pepper-shaped varieties used to be much later to ripen.
Galina P. wrote:
Natashenka, is it suitable for canning/pickling in jars?
Yes, of course, it’s suitable 👍 It is meaty and dense (I should have just mentioned that right away in the description 📝)…
I grew it in 2013, I liked it very much! 😋👍
