Quick Summary of Sgt. Pepper’s
- 🌍 Origin: A highly famous anthocyanin (blue/purple) cross bred in the USA (by Jason Haynes). It is named after the iconic Beatles album.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate. This variety is famous for its extremely “wispy”, slender, and weeping foliage. In the seedling stage and in the garden, it looks incredibly frail and skinny (many growers joke it looks “half-dead” or like a “skinny young soldier”), but this is completely normal for this genetic line. It sets fruit well but requires good staking.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Beautiful heart-shaped fruits (oxhearts), often ending in a sharp point or “beak.” They feature a pinkish-raspberry base heavily splashed with dark blue/purple anthocyanin on the shoulders. Weights usually range from 150g to 300g+. Note: Because the variety was released somewhat early, there is a known “Pink” line (without blue shoulders) floating around in seed circles.
- 👅 Flavor Profile: Highly debated and heavily dependent on climate! In sunny, warm regions (or with high potassium), it develops a rich, sweet, caramel-like flavor with a hint of citrus. In cold, cloudy, or excessively rainy conditions, it can turn out bland, watery, or overly sour.
- 🥫 Usage: Stunning on a fresh platter. Growers also note that its dark flesh makes incredibly beautiful, dark-crimson sauces and pastes.
I got seeds from three different sources just to be absolutely sure I grew the real thing:
Bunny Hop Seeds
Muddy Bucket Farm
Valdis Pulins (a private collector from Latvia).
The seedlings were wonderfully sturdy. But after planting them out, like many others this summer, they got hit with stress from a mix of constant cold, heavy rains, and a long lack of sun. They all survived, but the first flowers suffered and dropped off.
In the end, the bushes grew over 2 meters (6.5 ft) tall! Skinny. The foliage is dark and very thin, the stems on the trusses are long… basically, you just want to hug them and cry 😄
The trusses have the potential for up to 10 fruits, but I got a maximum of 5 tomatoes per truss. Where there were three, they all weighed 160-170 grams (5.6-6 oz). The smallest fruits were 100-120 grams (3.5-4.2 oz). So under normal conditions, it’s very realistic to get about 5 kg (11 lbs) or more per bush. The potential is there!
I liked the variety very much, except for the unexpectedly super-slender structure of the whole plant. You basically have to weave macramé to tie it up properly.
It didn’t push out too many suckers, it immediately split into a fork; in a greenhouse, you can grow it in 2-3 stems. Ripening time – mid-season.
Outside and inside, of course, it’s a beauty! It really has violet-burgundy splashes here and there. The taste—imagine a sweet caramel candy with a fleeting hint of citrus acidity.
Alena, was the taste the same from all the sources, or did it differ?
My results are not as impressive. I wouldn’t say the bushes make you want to “hug and cry”; they are quite slender, but compared to Vater Rhein, they are sturdier. Maybe because I put compost and a little horse manure in the planting holes? The yield is impressive, although in the heat (over +30°C / 86°F) they stalled with fruit setting; this variety definitely prefers more moderate weather. But the yield potential is veeery high. My trusses had 5-7 medium-weight tomatoes (100-170 g, the largest tomato was 330 g / 11.6 oz).
From the German source, the first fruits turned out to be pink, but when the nights became cold (+8 to +12°C / 46-53°F) and I trimmed all the lower leaves, blue shoulders started to appear (not on all bushes). But not all bushes showed anthocyanin; some remained entirely pink. The genetic line is apparently still not completely stable.
On the Florida version, there was quite a lot of anthocyanin on the fruits right from the start, even in the shade.
But I was out of luck with the taste this year. Despite feeding them with ash, organic ferments, and other organic fertilizers, having dolomite and calcium supplements in the soil, and mulching with cut grass, they turned out terribly sour. I don’t know where I made a mistake in my growing technique, but it is what it is. According to reviews from other people to whom I sent seeds from these exact same sources, the taste turned out good and sweet. Perhaps the weather affected the taste: very hot days and cold nights.
Conclusion: incredibly stunning in beauty, yield in my conditions is good. I grew them in two stems and I think that’s the ideal for this variety. 6-9 trusses per bush in my conditions is a good indicator. Outdoors they are behaving well both in full sun and in dense plantings, although the yield is smaller in the shade. Let’s see how they survive the rains and fogs. But I had no luck with the taste. I want to try repeating it from another source, or tweak my agrotechnics. I’ll see how it goes, but for now I plan to repeat it, they are just so beautiful!
All three sources were sitting in three different greenhouses; someone was in the sun, and someone was in a dark and wet corner. It didn’t happen on purpose, circumstances just aligned that way.
Regarding the thinness of the plants – proper sun only came out for me at the end of July, so a lot of my tomato population this year is a bit leggy.
The stems on the Sergeant are sturdier, somewhat springy, not to the point of fainting if you compare them to Vater Rhein, but they are thin.
The soil is different in all the greenhouses; you can feed them all the manure and potassium you want, but the taste won’t be identical. But they still turned out sweet—some more, some less. I reported on the bushes that grew in the coziest spot.
And all of them had anthocyanin right away. My nights only warmed up around August 10th; before that, it was +10 to +12°C (50-53°F) at best. The scarce sun and low temperatures really splashed those shoulders with blue.
Quote from Krasnaya Shapka:
The soil is different in all the greenhouses; you can feed them all the manure and potassium you want, but the taste won’t be identical. But they still turned out sweet—some more, some less. I reported on the bushes that grew in the coziest spot.
I think in my case, the daily watering due to the heat played a role. And when I skipped a day, Blossom End Rot (BER) immediately appeared. The sun was just too scorching, and the nights were cold for tomatoes with sharp temperature drops. The daytime heat will subside soon, and there won’t be such sharp drops, I’ll see how that affects the taste. But next year I will try to give them a different soil mix based on banana peels.
But I forgot to mention: this variety behaves excellently in a pot! I grew it in a 15-liter (4 gallon) pot, if anyone wants to take note. Although in the heat I sometimes had to water it twice a day.
P.S. Just to back up my words, here are the pink-fruited Sergeants in the pot (late sowing, May 8).
Edited September 4, 2017 by Alisa
And these are the Sergeants from Florida, grown in a dense planting, in the shade.
The first truss of the Sergeant.
About my Sergeants 😊
Our Olesya from Canada kindly shared the seeds of these beauties with me, for which I am immensely grateful! 👏 👏 👏
4 plants were planted in different greenhouses – 2 in each… the ones that grew in the dry, smaller greenhouse felt better.
Of course, this year is not representative and doesn’t give a complete picture of the variety, but I agree with the girls – Sgt. Pepper’s has good potential!
I shaped the plants mainly into 3-4 stems, which suited me fine – the soil preparation before planting was quite substantial – rabbit bedding, ash… and during the growing process, naturally, additional feedings.
Now, at the beginning of September, the plants are right under the greenhouse roof and trusses with small, blue hearts are still hanging…
The ripe fruits are, of course, a sight to behold!!! First, blue-violet shoulders and longitudinal stripes appeared on the fruits, then the anthocyanin pigmentation intensified and “spread” over the entire fruit, mostly on the sunny side…
Delicious, juicy, a perfect balance of acidity and sweetness. Simply the find of this season!!!
You can forgive this handsome guy for anything! For his flawless look, for his refined shapes!
I will definitely grow and observe it again next year!
Edited September 5, 2017 by Yaroslavna
The Sergeant conquered me immediately and irrevocably. Productive, beautiful, and tasty. The bush is like almost all heart-shaped varieties (wispy).
I have the variety from two sources: from Olesya and from Irishka (Alisa). A huge thanks to them. I don’t see a big difference. At first, the bushes seemed a bit different in height. But then they evened out, in taste, color, and yield. Right now, the ones on the smaller bush are ripening a bit later. But I think something stunted that bush, which is why it lagged.
My Sergeants are from three sources: Marianna’s Seeds (2015 and 2016 variations), Bunny Hop Seeds (thanks Svetochka 777), and from a Norwegian collector. There is no difference in taste, bush structure, or yield. The bushes actually turned out a little sturdier than standard oxhearts. Unusually sweet and beautiful fruits. The yield was also pleasing, despite the weather. Definitely this year’s favorite! 👍
In the photo, fruits for comparison from the different sources.
Beautiful, productive, tasty. I will repeat it.
Quote from Yaroslavna:
About my Sergeants 😊
Now, at the beginning of September, the plants are right under the greenhouse roof and trusses with small, blue hearts are still hanging…
These little noses/beaks drive me crazy! Maybe pointedness will appear on my highest trusses too? Natasha, did you save seeds from them?
Quote from Alisa:
These little noses/beaks drive me crazy! Maybe pointedness will appear on my highest trusses too? Natasha, did you save seeds from them?
Mine up under the roof have noses too.