Quick Summary of Rozamarin Funtovyi (Pound Rosemary)
- 🌍 Origin: A commercial Russian variety (often sold by Gavrish and Johnsons Seeds). The name translates to “Pound Rosemary”, hinting at its large, 1-lb fruits. Note: There is both an open-pollinated (OP) heirloom version and an F1 hybrid version circulating under similar names.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), vigorous, and sprawling. It has huge, dense foliage (some growers report a potato-leaf variation). It requires strong support and aggressive pruning (usually to 1-2 stems).
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Large, ribbed beefsteaks ranging from dark pink to raspberry red. Average weight is 300-400g (10-14 oz), but can easily reach up to 1 kg (2.2 lbs) under good conditions.
- 👅 Flavor: Highly praised for its tender, juicy, and meaty flesh. A classic sweet-and-tart balance. Excellent for fresh salads and diet/baby food, as it contains twice as much pro-vitamin A as standard tomatoes.
- ⏳ Maturity: Mid-season (111-115 days from emergence). It has great hanging ability on the vine—it doesn’t crack or get mushy even if left to fully ripen for weeks.
- ⚠️ Grower’s Note: This variety is somewhat controversial. In ideal conditions, it is a heavy yielder. However, in poor weather or if improperly managed, it can suffer from blossom drop and yield very few fruits.
Description from the seed packet:
Mid-season (111-115 days from germination to fruiting) indeterminate variety, recommended for plastic greenhouses and temporary tunnels. The fruits are very large, weighing up to 400 g (14 oz), with individual fruits reaching up to 1 kg (2.2 lbs). The flesh is tender, juicy, tasty, and sweet, containing twice as much provitamin A as regular tomatoes. Primarily meant for slicing and salads, especially recommended for baby and diet food. Resistant to Tobacco Mosaic Virus, Cladosporium (leaf mold), and Fusarium.
Photo author: Ekaterina
Photo author: Natalya
Natalya, thank you! 🌸
Last year, the seedlings were better than all the others, just a sight to behold 👍, but from 2 bushes in the greenhouse, I didn’t see a single fruit 😢 The seeds were from the Gavrish company.
My photos are used in the first post. The first truss was quite promising, but someone “helped” me pick the largest fruit that grew from a megabloom (fasciated blossom). The rest of the fruits seemed uninteresting. I didn’t take pictures of them when ripe, and I don’t remember the taste—it got lost in the general mass of tomatoes. And then there was massive blossom drop on the second and third trusses, the bush completely stopped growing, and I pulled it out.
I didn’t upload it to the catalog myself because I only had one bush, and the failure could have been just a coincidence. It grew outdoors in open ground.
In 2014, I grew 2 bushes (Gavrish brand, batch 7511). As a seedling, it was beautiful, but in the end, it turned out to be unproductive and prone to diseases for me. The taste didn’t impress me either. I have no desire to grow it again anytime soon. Did anyone actually get decent results with it? The salesgirls at the seed shop highly recommended it to me!
I grew it in 2013—it was awful, one and a half tomatoes per bush! And the plant itself was a beauty—so huge, leafy, and vigorous! A total freeloader!
I planted seeds from Johnsons Seeds. Plants of two types grew—some with raspberry-colored fruits and some with raspberry-red. The size and shape of the fruit were the same. The taste was excellent, I really liked them. I saved seeds from the raspberry one, the largest one (in the photo above). The bushes were not overly leafy, just normal. The first trusses are strong and produce the largest tomatoes. The main harvest is on the first two trusses, higher up they are small and then fruiting stops. You probably just need to leave two or three trusses and top the plant, since it won’t do much after that anyway. But I really liked this tomato for its flavor.
Grew several bushes in 2015 from Johnsons Seeds. I really liked it. It has potato-leaf foliage, the bushes are vigorous, healthy, and produce very few suckers. The tomatoes are large, oblate, and ribbed. Very tasty. The yield was decent. I want to plant it again in ’18.
Last season I grew Pound Rosemary in the greenhouse. Every single fruit was exactly 400 grams (14 oz). I was surprised by such uniformity! The bush is strong and spreading. There were no small fruits. I will sow it again next year. Delicious and productive. The color is closer to dark pink.
I bought “Rozamarin F-1” from Gavrish this year. I read the reviews—I guess I won’t be planting it… Judging by the description, they are the same…
I read the reviews and purposefully planted it in the wet, northern corner of the greenhouse.
The result: the first one ripened on July 21st, and then the first two trusses were ready all at once by early August. I didn’t pick them until August 17th. It hangs perfectly on the vine, doesn’t crack, doesn’t get overly soft, and doesn’t turn to mush inside (doesn’t overripen itself).
Lots of meat, very juicy. The taste is mind-blowing, you can distinctly taste both the sweetness and the tartness.
There are no small ones, they are all 300-450 grams (10-16 oz). If you prune it to two stems, it will easily yield a full bucket per plant.
On 12/20/2017 at 16:00, Galina said:
I bought “Rozamarin F-1” from Gavrish this year. I read the reviews—I guess I won’t be planting it… Judging by the description, they are the same…
I planted Rozamarin F1 from Gavrish in 2018, the description is identical. The result: high yielding, good keepers, indeterminate. My fruits were from 100 to 300 g (3.5 – 10 oz), with individual tomatoes up to 400 g (14 oz). The taste… sour.. but very productive, the branches actually snapped under the weight of the fruit. I picked the last ones at the end of September, and they kept well all the way until November. They didn’t turn to mush, they just slowly dried out. Maybe for someone who gets more sun, it will be tastier. But here in the Urals, we basically didn’t even have a summer. This year I’ll plant 1 bush just to “wait and see.”
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