Quick Summary of Rugantino F1 (and the “Chocolate” Controversy)
- 🌍 Origin: A highly acclaimed commercial F1 hybrid developed by the Dutch breeding company Rijk Zwaan. It is a “Cor de Boeuf” (Bull’s Heart) ribbed/pleated type.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, extremely vigorous, and tall. Growers describe it as a “monster” that will grow to the roof of the greenhouse and back down. It is an incredibly heavy feeder.
- 🛡️ Disease Resistance: Absolutely bulletproof against Leaf Mold (Cladosporium) and highly resistant to Botrytis (Gray Mold), even when planted right next to heavily infected varieties.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics & Flavor: Ribbed, pear/bag-shaped red tomatoes. Unlike many “cardboard” commercial hybrids, growers universally praise Rugantino for having a fantastic, rich heirloom-like flavor. It is meaty, excellent for sun-drying, fresh salads, and has an exceptionally long shelf life (storing well into winter).
- 🧬 The De-Hybridization Experiment (F2/F3/F4): A massive talking point in the Russian community! Many growers bought supermarket Rugantino tomatoes, saved the seeds, and successfully grew out the F2, F3, and F4 generations. They report almost zero loss in vigor, yield, or disease resistance in the subsequent generations!
- 🕵️ The “Chocolate Rugantino” Scandal: In recent years, Russian seed sellers started selling “Chocolate Rugantino” and “Pink Rugantino”. As documented in this forum thread, an eagle-eyed grower called the official Rijk Zwaan representative, who confirmed these do not exist. It was later discovered that rogue sellers were rebranding Italian Unigen hybrids (Othello F1 and Yuji F1) to illegally piggyback on the famous Rugantino name. The fakes proved susceptible to Leaf Mold.
Hello everyone. There have been many arguments and discussions on our pages about the Rugantino F1 tomato. I suggest we gather more information about it and add it to the catalog.
Edited December 9, 2019 by Sergey Prazdnichnov
I grew RUGANTINO for the second year, and I plan to grow it next year too. The last tomato is still sitting in my fridge; just last week I made a salad with Rugantino and a store-bought cucumber.
My Rugantino was very productive, not early, indeterminate, very tall. It’s tasty, not a “technical” (cardboard) hybrid! I picked the last tomatoes green, and it turned out to be a great keeper.
Sergey Prazdnichnov said:
Sergey, this is one of the many hybrids I’ve tried. Thank you for the seeds and the opportunity to try Rugantino.
The tomato is tasty, stores well, sets fruit easily, and carries everything it sets to term. It grows as high as it possibly can and produced right up until the frosts. It loves to eat (heavy feeder). I haven’t noticed any diseases on it; it definitely doesn’t get Leaf Mold (Cladosporium).
September 15
One of my favorite hybrids. Tasty, productive, disease-free. Stores for a long time while remaining tasty. I still have some breaker ones sitting around, they redden slowly, and we eat them in salads with pleasure. You can’t even compare it to store-bought tomatoes; it’s much tastier. It looks slightly sun-dried now, which is not surprising since the tomatoes were picked at the end of September. They’ve been stored for over two months now.
The journey of the Rugantino RZ F1 tomato started from here. Back in 2014.
Then there was my short review of it in 2017.
And after that, a lot of people started growing it. It means I didn’t make a mistake choosing this hybrid back in 2014.
Edited December 13, 2019 by Astero
Rugantino RZ F1
RZ is the abbreviation for RIJK ZWAAN (Holland) — the originator of this hybrid.
Edited December 13, 2019 by Astero
I couldn’t believe that a hybrid like Rugantino could taste just as good as the Best Bestos variety, and compared to Cuore di Bue Albenga, it’s even better.
My Rugantino is in no hurry to ripen, not huge, but productive. Only one tomato has ripened so far. The photo only shows the lower part of the bush; the top part wouldn’t fit in the frame.
This winter, I bought some Rugantino tomatoes in a supermarket (“Perekrestok”). The taste was quite decent for a hybrid. I sowed the saved seeds this season, and grew 2 bushes that grew true to type, productive, haven’t ripened yet. In my greenhouse, even though I don’t close the doors and there’s no high humidity, Botrytis (Gray Mold) has been raging for the second year. But Rugantino is completely clean, both the stems and the tomatoes. The saved seeds will last me for several years.
The yield is excellent. But the taste turned out to be mediocre for me.
I grew F1 Rugantino this year, the seeds were from a group buy with @Zolushka. I liked the tomato in every aspect: its health is excellent — it didn’t catch Leaf Mold (Cladosporium) even when it was growing right next to heavily infected tomatoes; its yield is insane — hung with large pear-bags, it set fruit without skipping a single truss; and I was also surprised by the taste — when fully ripe, I liked the taste a lot, not worse than heirloom varieties, and even better than some! I am very satisfied with this tomato!
I just tore out a huge monster from the greenhouse; I don’t even know how many stems it had, but no less than four branched ones. It was still covered in flowers and fruit, it was a pity to rip it out, I removed it in the company of F1 Snowfall, F1 Etude, and Belgian Beauty, but I decided it was time to prepare the greenhouse for winter. I can confidently recommend Rugantino for greenhouse growing! Oh, and I didn’t feed it any differently from the others, fed it rarely, on drip irrigation.
Edited September 28, 2020 by Lyudasik
bony said:
I sowed the saved seeds this season, and grew 2 bushes that grew true to type… The saved seeds will last me for several years.
So it turns out you planted the F2 generation and it turned out well?
Rugantino F2 was productive and did not get sick.
Yesterday on another forum, I read about a “Chocolate Rugantino”. And they even write that seeds are for sale. I almost fell off my chair.
I called today.
To Islam Dolov,
Tomato Specialist for the film-greenhouse segment at Rijk Zwaan.
Astero: Do you have “Chocolate Rugantino” and “Pink Rugantino” tomatoes in your assortment?
Islam Dolov: No, and we never have. Rugantino is a company trend and a registered trademark. Using it to name tomatoes of unknown origin is prohibited and prosecuted by law.
Edited February 7, 2021 by Drosera
This year I planted Chocolate Rugantino and Pink Rugantino. Both got sick with Leaf Mold (Cladosporium), unlike the real Rugantino F1. And the Pink one turned out to be red, not pink.
The Chocolate Rugantino produced a fruit shaped like this.
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POVINI said:
The Chocolate Rugantino produced a fruit shaped like this.
Handsome! A tomato circulates on the forum under the name “Monkey’s A$$” (Obez’yanya Opa), this one could definitely be called exactly that.
Rugantino F1: a productive technical hybrid.
bony said:
Rugantino F2 was productive and did not get sick.
I was gifted F2 seeds — I’m very happy with it.
Elizara said:
I was gifted F2 seeds — I’m very happy with it.
This season I planted F3. I didn’t see any difference.
