Quick Summary: Scheherazade (Fuzzy Peach Tomato)
- 🌍 Origin: A highly unique commercial variety developed by the Russian seed company “Siberian Garden” (SibSad).
- 🌿 Plant Habit: The official packet claims it is a determinate bush up to 1 meter (3.2 ft) tall. However, nearly all growers report it behaving like a tall semi-determinate or indeterminate, easily reaching 1.3 meters (4.2 ft) or more in a greenhouse. It has a beautiful, sprawling habit with weeping, silvery-green leaves.
- 🍑 Foliage & Fruit: This is an “Angora” type tomato! Both the leaves, stems, and fruits are covered in a dense, velvety fuzz. The fruits are cylindrical or oval with a small beak on the blossom end, looking exactly like bright red, velvety peaches.
- 🍅 Fruit Size & Pruning: Officially stated at 200-300g (7-10.5 oz). Grower’s Warning: If you do not aggressively prune (sucker) this plant and limit it to 1-3 stems, the fruits will shrink drastically to just 50-60g (2 oz) each.
- 👅 Flavor & Maturity: A classic, pleasant tomato flavor with a unique texture—a thick, meaty wall combined with very juicy internal flesh. While advertised as mid-season, most growers agree it performs like a mid-late to late-season variety.
⚠️ Heat Tolerance Warning
Despite its “desert” name, growers note that Scheherazade is highly sensitive to extreme heat and direct, scorching sun. The velvety foliage can get severely sunburned in early summer if not acclimated properly. If you live in a hot climate (like USDA Zone 7+), consider planting it where it receives some afternoon shade.
Variety: Scheherazade.
Description from the SibSad seed packet:
“An unusually interesting large-fruited variety with beautiful velvety leaves and fruits. The plant stands out brightly against other varieties with its large, densely pubescent, dark green foliage. The bush is determinate, up to 1 m (3.2 ft) tall. The fruits are cylindrical with a small beak, resembling large, velvety, orange-red peaches (you could jokingly call this variety a ‘tomato peach’). The tomatoes are firm, very tasty, weighing 200-300 g (moreover, when grown with a single stem, the fruits are large, but without pruning/suckering they become much smaller). They are perfectly suited for fresh consumption and whole-fruit canning. The variety is mid-season, intended for growing in film greenhouses and in open ground.”
My fruits grew up just as fuzzy as promised (the foliage is also fuzzy), the taste is standard tomato, but pleasant. One big drawback—it was unproductive for me! And they definitely exaggerated about it being “mid-season” in the advertisement; the variety is closer to late-season.
And regarding the unproductiveness of Scheherazade, I will add: It was most likely related to its late-ripening nature.
In places where the growing season is longer than ours in Siberia, Scheherazade will probably yield a more or less normal harvest.
Galyush, what about the weight? Did it match the description? 😉
I didn’t weigh them, but they seemed clearly smaller than the promised 200-300 g. 🙁
I came to the conclusion for myself that this is just an exotic novelty, something to play around with once…
I agree with what was said above. My fruits were also smaller than stated, and in terms of timing, I would classify it closer to late-season. However, everyone who sees it will get moral satisfaction just from its unique appearance.
The seedlings look like this. It’s very sprawling, and I had to tie it up. The stem doesn’t seem thin, but it is somewhat unstable.
My Scheherazade in the open ground doesn’t have a single fruit set yet, but it is blooming profusely. A sprawling little fuzzball.
I picked the first tomato on July 3rd. The taste was ordinary—I wasn’t thrilled. I guess I expected more from it. They are furry, like peaches.
I don’t know about others, but my bushes in the greenhouse got quite large. I left three stems and am removing the rest of the suckers. The distance between the flower trusses is slightly larger than on other varieties. About 2-3 tomatoes per truss. The heat affected them more than other varieties, and several trusses are now completely without fruit sets—everything dried up and fell off. 🙁
I really don’t like their sprawling branches (they hang long and limp like rags). They probably won’t be on my grow list next year.
A beautiful pubescent variety, I started admiring it right from the seedling stage 👍. It grew in the greenhouse trained to 2 stems, about 1.3 meters (4.2 ft) tall. The yield was good (about 15 fruits per bush), the fruits are red, up to 230g (8 oz), and quite tasty.
I liked the variety 👍
It grew in open ground, was productive, the tomatoes turned out to have a good tomato flavor—and they all ripened on the vine.
The tomato is mid-late. Tasty. An amazing and unusual combination of a thick, meaty outer wall and juicy flesh inside.
During the growing season in early summer, it got severely sunburned—the only one out of all my varieties to do so. This variety reacts very poorly to high temperatures. And it absolutely requires pruning/shaping. Otherwise, the fruits become tiny—the weight drops to no more than 50-60 g (2 oz).
In my opinion, this is a variety for a refined gourmet. I won’t be sowing it anymore.
Here is the fuzzy beauty growing for me.
I repeated this beautiful exotic variety. It grew in the greenhouse trained to two stems, a tall indeterminate with long, weeping, pubescent leaves with a silvery tint. It set fruit well along the entire height of the bush; the fruits are red, oval, velvety, up to 250g (9 oz), with a good taste.
