Quick Summary of Tsindao (Qingdao)
- 🌍 Origin: A well-known dark/black tomato variety popular among Russian and Eastern European heirloom growers. Originally named after the Chinese city of Qingdao.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), but growers frequently note that the plant has a rather fragile, wispy structure (not overly aggressive in growth) and usually stops around 1.2–1.5 m (4–5 ft) in height.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Beautiful dark-mahogany/chocolate beefsteaks. Fruits average 300–400g (10.5–14 oz) but can easily reach 600–700g (21–25 oz). Some growers note a tendency for “green shoulders” (which can be fixed with potassium/MKP feeding) and occasional cracking if left too long on the vine.
- 👅 Flavor: The taste is the main reason growers keep this on their permanent list. It is consistently described as incredibly sweet, juicy, and fruity.
- ⏳ Pro Tip: Do not let it overripen on the vine, or it can become mushy. It’s best to pick it right as it gets soft or even slightly underripe (it finishes ripening beautifully indoors without losing its sweetness).
I first saw a photo of this variety in the magazine “Household Farming” No. 3-2011, and read about it there. I liked it, but couldn’t find any seed sellers. I wrote to one place (by mail), but didn’t get an answer (maybe it got lost, it happens with the mail).
I mentioned this on the forum and received seeds from our Marinessa, for which I am very grateful to her. Marina most likely got them from V. Monakhova.
Tsindao is indeterminate, but the bush is not very robust and wasn’t striving upwards too much (only one grew). After cutting it, I thought it wasn’t fully ripe yet, but it was already quite soft, and most importantly – sweet. The rest of the fruits are smaller and there aren’t many on the bush, but I am definitely going to grow it again.
Tsindao was my absolute favorite dark-fruited variety this past season. The taste is mind-blowing—juicy, sweet. 😋 The bushes in the greenhouse grew to about 1.2m (4 ft) (that’s an estimate, I didn’t measure them specifically). The fruits were 300-400g (10.5-14 oz) each. By the way, Tsindao didn’t burst at the seams, unlike my other black varieties 👍
Marinessa, it looks so chubby and cute! (Sorry for the off-topic, just couldn’t hold back).
Yeah, that was my firstborn from a megabloom (fasciated blossom). The rest were perfectly smooth and even, just like Galochka’s.
So which ones will you be planting now? The chubby ones or the round ones?
I saved seeds from the round ones. I ate that gnarly chubby one without mercy 😄
Galochka, THANK YOU for this variety too!
Very, very, very good 👍
Out of the black slicers I had, this was undoubtedly the best. The size didn’t disappoint, and the flavor was outstanding 👍 Mine is also from Marinessa. I’ll leave Kumato for canning.
Tsindao was quite a martyr for me 🙈 At first, it almost died from the cold while still a seedling, then the top stopped growing—so I pinched it off and planted the stump outdoors in open ground, thinking “let’s see what happens” 😇 It formed a decent little bush from the suckers and set several fruits—and then in early July, they were heavily beaten by hail 😛 They survived, but were covered in bruises. Then in mid-July, late blight arrived 😞 I picked them green, they ripened indoors during storage and turned out very pretty, especially when sliced 👍 The taste of the indoors-ripened ones wasn’t spectacular, of course, but the whole summer was just rain… rain… 😇
Seeds were shared by Galochka-Esme 😘
This year I compared Tsindao with Morado (both are good, but to my taste, Tsindao is sweeter):
I didn’t know what color Tsindao was supposed to be when ripe, so I picked it looking like this, since it was already soft and showed all signs of being ripe. It was tasty, almost fully ripe, but it turned out it hadn’t yet gained its proper color. A little later it turned into this…
The two round tomatoes in the middle are Tsindao.
It was about 1.3-1.5m (4.3-5 ft) tall in open ground. Tasty, I liked it, will grow it again.
Despite the cold and rainy summer (or rather, the almost complete lack of summer), Tsindao grew sweet and juicy, with just a tiny hint of acidity.
One of the tastiest varieties!
My Tsindao was also tasty and sweet, despite the cold summer, and its yield wasn’t bad either.
I liked Tsindao too—sweet, tasty, and productive.
Tsindao is very tasty, I will definitely keep growing it.
Drosera wrote:
Despite the cold and rainy summer (or rather, the almost complete lack of summer), Tsindao grew sweet and juicy, with just a tiny hint of acidity.
I agree. I liked my Tsindaos too. However, mine had these same green shoulders. Bad agrotechnique on my part?
My Tsindao was also top-notch. The tastiest of all the blacks. I didn’t have any green shoulders.
SvetaR wrote:
However, mine had these same green shoulders. Bad agrotechnique?
The shoulders on Tsindao are sweet too, just a bit firmer. You could try feeding them with MKP (Monopotassium phosphate), mine definitely went underfed 🙈.
As of the day before yesterday, the ones that ripened indoors from green are still sweet.
There was no room for Tsindao in my greenhouse. It grew outdoors in open ground, under a plastic film at first, and then I removed the film. Very tasty, productive, keeping it in my collection.
My Tsindao also had green shoulders, even though I fed it properly. But on the inside cross-section, those shoulders don’t look unripe. Maybe it’s just its natural coloring.
A worthy variety in every respect.
Esme wrote:
As of the day before yesterday, the ones that ripened indoors from green are still sweet.
I completely agree! Galenka, thank you for it! 🌸🌸🌸
A super-productive and super-unpretentious variety. It’s still growing and setting fruit, no cold weather scares it 👍. As for the green shoulders, mine has them, but they are not tough at all. You could wait for them to disappear completely, of course, but in my case the fruit started to turn to mush. And since the shoulders are soft and taste exactly the same as the rest of the “meat” (meaning you don’t need to cut them off)—I consider it a characteristic of the variety 😊
P.S. Whether the fruit turned mushy, was ripened indoors, or picked ripe from the bush—they all have the exact same taste, and that is not common at all 😉
Here are my little Tsindaos:
Polyushka, please write in more detail: how many stems, when did you start seeds, and when did you transplant? What does “super productive” mean in pieces/weight? Does it like shade or should I plant it in full sun? Is the bush sturdy or wispy? (Since I asked you for seeds of it, I am interested in all the details).
I sowed seeds on Feb 18th, planted in the greenhouse on April 16th. The seedling was short and stocky, and the bush didn’t strive upwards later (just like Galochka wrote). It wasn’t too aggressive with suckers, I pruned it to 2 stems, but based on my observations—it could handle more. I picked the first ripe one on July 29th (the one in the photo that was 608g / 21 oz) from a megabloom. But if I had removed that megabloom in time, it would have ripened earlier for sure. The trusses average 7-9 fruits, weight varies from 300 to 500g (10.5-17.5 oz), although there were a few specimens (about 3) around 700g (25 oz), and not even from megablooms. It grew on the sunny side, but it will easily handle the semi-shaded side of the greenhouse, in my opinion.
For me, super-productivity is this: I picked about 10 kg (22 lbs) from this single bush! I kept counting until early September, then gave up, but it’s still bearing fruit, so do the math 😉
I’m thrilled, thank you Polyushka for such a detailed explanation 🌸
My seeds are from Galochka Esme. I am absolutely delighted with this little tomato. Very tasty and it also pleased me with a good yield, even though it ended up in a not-so-great spot in the garden. Out of all my dark varieties, this one turned out to be the tastiest. 😋 Galochka, thank you so much, the whole family appreciated it!!! 🌸🌸🌸
