PPI Tomato

PPI (USA) – dwarf

Seeds from Angelina. Mid-season, indeterminate variety. I grew it outdoors in open ground, pruned to 3 stems. The bush grew just over 150 cm (5 ft). The variety is productive and very, very tasty. What is especially valuable—it is delicious right from the very first tomato!!! It has plenty of both sweetness and tartness, but the sweetness dominates, making the flavor very bright and intense. The flesh is dense, not overly juicy. It stores well and doesn’t crack. I will definitely be growing this again.

I repeated both dwarfs from my “sweet couple” – OPO and PPI. Both are among my season favorites again. Both delighted me with taste and yield.

Seeds were sown on February 20. I planted 1 bush outdoors and 3 bushes in the greenhouse.

As a seedling, PPI is just gorgeous! The little plants are strong, stocky, they don’t stretch, and just radiate health! They somewhat resemble plants from the Dwarf Tomato Project, but they behave more like classic indeterminates, and by transplant time, they grow into rather tall little monsters, about 70-80 cm (2.3 – 2.6 ft).

The seedlings were already blooming by planting out time.

The greenhouse bushes reached about 160 cm (5.2 ft), the outdoor one about 120 cm (4 ft).

The first fruit ripened in the first ten days of July. Tomatoes are of medium weight, roughly between 150 – 350 grams (5 – 12 oz). The flesh is firm, without excessive juiciness, and the seeds sit in a green gel.

The flavor is intense, sweetness dominates, and the tartness is barely noticeable. Delicious right from the first fruits! They can sit on the counter for about 10 days without losing their flavor.

Here it is next to OPO, for comparison…

Is PPI a dark tomato? My garden label faded in the sun. It’s a good thing you photographed them side by side, thank you! I knew I had either PPI or OPO planted there. Seeing this, I realize I have PPI. A very tasty tomato.

Galiy said:
Is PPI a dark tomato?

Yes, Galya. PPI leans towards the “blacks” (dark purple/brown). It most likely is a true dark variety. And OPO is pink-crimson-red.

Tatka said:
Yes, Galya. PPI leans towards the “blacks”… And OPO is pink-crimson-red.

Thank you, Tanyusha, for the seeds. The tastiest tomato.

Tanechka, I logged in specifically to thank you for the info about OPO and PPI, and also for the seeds. I got a couple of seeds of each, and I will definitely be saving my own seeds now, because these are very tasty, beautiful, productive, and trouble-free tomatoes.

My seedling was brutally chewed up by invisible pests right at the beginning; only one leaf remained… I waited and hoped a sucker would grow. And it did! It was late, but it survived, grew out, pushed through the struggle, and bore 2 full trusses! Thank you!

Good afternoon! I also wanted to add my review of these beauties—I will definitely be replanting them! Tatiana, these plants are from your seeds, thank you!

My bushes grew to 1.5 – 1.7 meters (5 – 5.5 ft), and the fruits were all large. I pruned them to 4 stems. The tomatoes are delicious and meaty. I want to try planting them outdoors next year. This year all my other Dwarfs (except these two) are sitting outside and have performed wonderfully.

Elena G. said:
My bushes grew to 1.5 – 1.7 meters, and the fruits were all large…

Lena, I’m so glad they were to your liking. And they turned out so huge for you! Mine were much more modest in size.

Dwarf PPI.

Tanyusha, it completely won my heart too, thank you for the seeds! This season I planted several bushes in different spots in the greenhouse, and it was a huge success! It grew like a full-fledged indeterminate. I pruned it to 2 and 3 stems. It set a lot of fruit—beautiful, uniform, meaty, and of excellent taste, weighing up to 360g (12.7 oz).

Svetikk said:
It set a lot of fruit—beautiful, uniform, meaty, and of excellent taste, weighing up to 360g…

Svetik, thank you for making me so happy with this! And they turned out so weighty for you!

For some reason, my PPI had rather small fruits this year, staying around 200 grams (7 oz), no more. I want to plant at least 4 bushes of it again next season.

@Tatka, I have 2 PPI seedlings. One has regular leaves, and the other has potato leaves. Is that possible? (I couldn’t have mixed up the seeds).

Rara Avis said:
One has regular leaves, and the other has potato leaves. Is that possible?

Lena, that hasn’t happened to me. It’s unknown exactly how “young” this variety is—if it’s a newer breeding line, it’s possible that the leaf type genetics are not completely stable yet.

Dwarf PPI.

Another dwarf that you just want to keep growing again and again. Productive and tasty. At the seedling stage, it truly is a dwarf—sturdy and stocky. But in the greenhouse, it behaves like an indeterminate, albeit a shorter one. It grew to about 1.6 m (5.2 ft).

The fruits are dark beefsteaks, averaging 200-300g (7-10.5 oz). Very tasty, just like its “stepbrother”, Dwarf OPO. It’s perhaps even more productive than OPO due to the larger fruit size and overall plant vigor. It’s a mid-season variety, and the ripe fruits store quite well.

I decided to test these two dwarfs (PPI and OPO) based on numerous positive reviews, and I definitely made the right choice. I liked both; each is good in its own way. Even though they aren’t strict dwarfs in the classical sense, they still maintain the main advantage: compactness as seedlings and relatively modest height at their final planting spot. And most importantly—they are NOT late-season, and they are delicious. Before this, most of the dwarfs I tested in our region wouldn’t fully ripen on the vine, even in greenhouses.

PPI is a good variety, but I expected more. It didn’t quite reach “masterpiece” status for me.

Chrizantema57 said:
PPI is a good variety, but I expected more. It didn’t quite reach “masterpiece” status for me.

For me, it never really gained vigor. I planted it for three years. Got about 2-3 tomatoes per plant. Taste-wise, it was just an ordinary tomato flavor for me. It remained short in the greenhouse.

I’ll show my PPI too.

It was of medium height, grew near a wall with direct sunlight only until noon. Dark fruits with a juicy, excellent tomato flavor. Photo from August 7.

OlyaSashina said:
…grew near a wall with direct sunlight only until noon.

Olya, I’ve come to the conclusion that this exact placement—where direct sun hits only until noon—is the absolute best for this variety.

Although, over the last five years, I’ve planted it in every possible spot in the greenhouse, and it felt fine everywhere.

Tatka said:
Olya, I’ve come to the conclusion that this exact placement… is the absolute best for this variety.

Yes, Tanya, it made me very happy! I finally got around to growing it. My greenhouse gets full sun all the time now, but at least this specific side only gets PRE-noon sun. I was afraid to put it directly in the baking midday heat since it was my first time growing it. And it’s a good thing I did—the other side of my greenhouse floods during heavy rains (the drainage from the house roof isn’t adjusted yet), and a lot of tomatoes on that side cracked completely.