Quick Summary of Soldatovo
- 🌍 Origin: A highly prized authentic family heirloom from Minusinsk, Siberia (a region famous worldwide for its giant, hardy tomatoes). Originally sourced from local collector Natalia Shcherbinina.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate and highly vigorous. Reaches about 1.8–2 meters (6–6.5 ft) in a greenhouse and about 1.5 meters (5 ft) outdoors. It has Regular Leaf (RL) foliage. Growers recommend pruning it to 2 stems for the best yield. Note: It produces suckers aggressively, so stay on top of pruning!
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Large, elongated blocky/plum-shaped fruits with a blunt tip. They ripen to a beautiful pinkish-red color. The average weight is 150–300g (5–10.5 oz), with some reaching 350g (12 oz).
- 👅 Flavor & Use: Very meaty, dense, and sugary sweet. Because they are thick-walled and large, they are excellent for fresh eating, but also absolute perfection for making thick sauces and juices.
- 💪 Climate Tolerance: A true “workhorse.” It completely resists Blossom End Rot (BER) and continues to set fruit all the way to the top of the vine, even during extreme heatwaves (though the leaves may curl under heat stress).
Soldatovo
“A mid-season, indeterminate, highly productive folk heirloom variety from Minusinsk. In the middle latitudes, it is recommended to grow it in a greenhouse. The bush is 1.8-2 meters (6-6.5 ft) tall with regular type leaves. It requires staking and sucker pruning. The fruits are elongated, blocky, and take on a pinkish-red color when ripe. They weigh 150-300g (5-10.5 oz) and are meaty, sugary, with excellent taste. “
My growing results perfectly matched this description. I planted 2 bushes: one in the greenhouse, the second outdoors in open ground. Both were incredibly productive; they only differed in height.
Here is a photo of the bush in the greenhouse:
The fruits on the truss were very uniform, with a blunt tip:
Throughout our rather hot summer, it didn’t get sick with anything, it was completely unaffected by Blossom End Rot, and it was incredibly prolific. The tomatoes themselves are tasty, meaty, with dense and sweet flesh:
This variety has earned a permanent spot on my favorites list. 🙂
Natalya! What a wonderful variety. 👍 I foresee myself planting this one soon! 🙌
Tell me, did you prune it to two stems in the greenhouse? And what height did it reach outdoors in the open ground?
I apologize, Elena, I didn’t see your questions right away. To answer: yes, in the greenhouse I pruned it to two stems, and it reached about 2 meters (6.5 ft) in height. Outdoors, it grew to no more than 1.5m (5 ft).
I grew it from seeds provided by the original source—Natalia Shcherbinina from Minusinsk (it is their local regional heirloom). Indeterminate, grew in the greenhouse pruned to 2 stems. The fruits are round-plum shaped, weighing up to 350g (12 oz). The color is red, but the flesh has a distinct pinkish tint. Very delicious, with a very obvious sweetness!
I dug through my entire computer and couldn’t find a decent photo of this variety, even though I’m sure I took some. So for now, here is just a photo of the first bottom trusses.
I can confidently call this variety one of the most productive and reliable tomatoes capable of growing in my poor, gray dust (soil)! I grew it 2 years in a row (I didn’t plant it this year only because I was tempted to try new varieties). During extreme heatwaves, it doesn’t drop its blossoms en masse like some other varieties do, although the foliage did suffer from physiological leaf roll which made me quite nervous just looking at it.
It sets fruit relentlessly all the way to the top of the vine without any problems, although it is very generous with producing suckers. Of course, it isn’t the most “sugary” tomato in the world, but it is firm, delicious, and an absolute “workhorse” variety in my conditions. Mine was also slightly prone to cracking, but the cracks healed and never rotted.
