Quick Summary of Yuzhniy Zagar (Southern Tan)
- 🌍 Origin: A very famous commercial/heirloom variety from Siberian breeders (Sibirskiy Sad). The name translates to “Southern Tan”.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, but usually remains quite compact (1-1.2m outdoors, up to 2m in a greenhouse). It features classic “wispy” (weeping) foliage — the seedlings look skinny, frail, and dropping, which is perfectly normal for this variety.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Large, elongated orange plum/paste tomatoes (often resembling “blimps”) weighing 150-250g (5.3-8.8 oz) up to 350g (12.3 oz). They have thick walls, very few seeds, and a famously buttery, meaty texture.
- 👅 Flavor Profile: The absolute main selling point of this variety. It is renowned for having an exceptionally rich, sweet, and decadent flavor. Growers forgive all its flaws just to eat it.
- ⏳ Yield & Challenges: It is notoriously a low-to-average yielder. It is also somewhat capricious: it demands a lot of heat/sunlight to maximize yield and can be susceptible to Blossom End Rot (BER) on the first few fruits. Saving your own seeds for a year or two drastically improves its adaptation and yield.
- 💡 Comparisons: Frequently compared to Zolotoy Kenigsberg (Golden Königsberg), though growers note Southern Tan is slightly smaller and more elongated. It is considered identical to Zoloto Vostoka (Gold of the East).
I grew 1 bush in the greenhouse, indet, trained to 2 stems. The yield turned out to be small – set 6 large plum tomatoes 150-250 grams (5.3-8.8 oz), orange in color, very tasty! 👍😋
I’ve been growing this variety for about 10 years. The whole family likes the large, orange, sweet plum tomatoes 😋😋😋
As a seedling, it is very wispy and thin. It has always grown outdoors in the open ground for me. The bush is about 1.0 – 1.2 m (3.2 – 4 ft). The yield is average, but we forgive it everything for its taste!
Only have this photo; this year, due to a cold spring, it turned out late, I picked them all green, but they all ripened fully indoors.
Grew it this year, had 2 bushes in the greenhouse (skinny, frail wispy bushes), the yield was very low, but the taste is excellent, a sweet, juicy tomato. Next season I want to try “Radunitsa”, maybe it will prove to be more productive.
Just bought it today, let’s see what Siberian Garden (SibSad) writes…
We’ll see in the upcoming season.
Indeterminate, mid-season variety developed for growing in greenhouses and under temporary covers. This beautiful variety produces vigorous plants up to 5.5 feet tall, bearing clusters of large, pepper-shaped fruits in a rare orange color.
The tomatoes are meaty and substantial, weighing 5–12 oz. each, with excellent flavor and a high content of vitamins and polyunsaturated fatty acids. The fruits are firm and dense, making them ideal for pickling and canning, while their fresh flavor makes them a great choice for healthy, diet-conscious eating.
Yield: up to 18 lb. per plant.
Start seeds 50–60 days before transplanting outdoors. The optimum temperature for seed germination is 73–77°F. When transplanting into the garden, plant 3 plants per 10.8 sq. ft. The variety responds well to regular watering and feeding with complete mineral fertilizers. Grow plants as one or two stems, with regular pruning of suckers and staking for support.
To speed up germination and seedling development and improve fruit set, the use of specially formulated plant growth stimulants is recommended.
Quote by Vladvlad:
Just bought it today, let’s see what Siberian Garden writes…
Sib. Sad has been writing this on the packaging of Southern Tan for about 5 years now, so it’s far from a novelty, although the variety is not yet registered in the State Register.
And as for the “8 kg (17.6 lbs) per bush” claim, in my opinion, no one has managed to harvest that much yet.
And I planted it this year for the first time. Everyone liked it for its color, taste, density, and the amount of fruit too. It didn’t get sick, kept setting and setting fruit. The bush is indeed frail, leaves pointing downwards (weeping foliage) – I will plant it more often. Definitely moving to next year’s list! 👍
Quote by Drosera:
And as for the “8 kg per bush” claim, in my opinion, no one has managed to harvest that much yet.
8 pieces per bush – is much closer to reality 😉 But the variety is very tasty! 😋 It’s worth growing for the taste, especially since the bush is compact, a short indeterminate with weeping foliage, not aggressive, and doesn’t take up much space.
Quote by Kaliningradka:
And I planted it this year for the first time. Everyone liked it for its color, taste, density, and the amount of fruit too…
Elena! Perhaps you got the highest quality seeds and your conditions pleased this capricious variety! You should not only repeat it but also save more seeds, there will be many who want to grow a productive Southern Tan!
By the way, in the magazine “Priusadebnoe Khozyaystvo” No. 11-2014, I saw a photo of a Southern Tan of enormous size.
Southern Tan seemed to me the tastiest of all. The yield is low, but to me, quality is better than quantity.
Tasty, beautiful variety. Meaty and sweet. Average yield. It was the first time I saw Blossom End Rot (BER). And exactly on this variety. The first 2 fruits got sick. Then there was none.
It grows slowly but surely. And, unfortunately, this is the only variety that showed Blossom End Rot on one fruit (none of the others suffered from BER, although I have more than 30 long-fruited varieties). Prevention didn’t help. But otherwise, it develops logically and unhurriedly. Again, I planted it as a tall variety, but so far the growth is very slow, hasn’t even reached a meter (3.2 ft) yet.
Southern Tan, by the description of the foliage and the look of the fruits, including the cross-section, is a twin or the closest relative of Golden Königsberg (Zolotoy Kenigsberg). SibSad even lists the bush height of both varieties as identical. I’m waiting for opinions from those who have grown both of these varieties.
I am growing both. So far the conclusion is – they are different. Königsberg for me is early-season – I already have ripe fruits and their shape is different. Here is its photo from today and from a while ago (I already picked some of the fruits).
The fruit weight is 300 grams (10.5 oz), they are more spindle-shaped.
This year I planted Golden Königsberg and Southern Tan, I’m watching them with interest. For me, they are completely different. Königsberg seeds were originally from Sib.Sad, Southern Tan from Berezhnova. Königsberg is a larger plum tomato, Southern Tan is smaller, more elongated, and more productive. Both varieties are just starting to ripen. I’ll post photos later.
I will include Southern Tan among the favorites of the season. Grew two bushes, one in a warmer greenhouse, it showed the best results, was quite productive, grew over 2 m (6.5 ft) tall, two stems, tomatoes weighed 200-350g (7-12.3 oz), the flesh is buttery, incredibly tasty, juicy and meaty, didn’t crack.
The second bush grew in a greenhouse but got less sun, the yield was also lower and the bush didn’t grow as tall. I assume the variety is demanding for heat, you should choose a sunnier spot. On the photo aren’t the largest fruits, but the very first ripe ones, later there were larger ones too. Tied fruit up to the very top, picked a few half-ripe, they ripened at home and were also tasty. Yesterday we ate the last Y.Z. tomato, incredible pleasure.
I planted Southern Tan in 2014 – really liked the taste – downright buttery, few seeds. Trained it to 2 stems, it fruited until October, until the frost got it 😎
On one bush there were both plum shapes and more elongated tomatoes with a little nipple.
The yield is average, definitely more than 8 pcs. If it weren’t for my craving for variety, I would plant it again 😄
Picked in October before the frosts, they all ripened indoors and were eaten.
Here I found another photo – August 11, 2014
Olya (Zolushka), my Yuzhniy Zagar is from your seeds. Thank you. Liked it very much and, despite planting a wide variety of tomatoes, it will definitely be included in next year’s plantings, even 2 bushes. We’ll hope for better weather conditions.
Liked the variety 👍 Planted 3 bushes, each produced 6 trusses, 3-4 fruits per truss, weighing 150-220 gr (5.3-7.7 oz). The bush is quite flimsy (wispy foliage).. The taste is very good 😋 Long-lasting – started to ripen in late July, right now one third hasn’t ripened yet.
The variety is very tasty. Sowed it the first year with seeds from Sib. Sad – it wasn’t productive, the next year when sowing from my own saved seeds, the yield increased significantly.
I planted 2 plants of Southern Tan and Zoloto Vostoka (Gold of the East) from Poisk side by side. Exact same bush and fruits. A favorite for me. I forgive the average yield. Girls, is there an orange variety with the same superb taste, but more productive?
I grew Southern Tan this past summer – 2017. Grew in the open ground. For such a summer as 2017 was, it showed itself well. Not very productive, but a tasty little tomato.
I repeated this variety, indet, grew in the greenhouse in 2 stems, sooo tasty, fruits up to 220g (7.7 oz). The yield turned out to be not bad for this variety, about 13-14 fruits per bush.
Planted this variety, taste is a five out of five, yield is average, but the trusses were full, didn’t drop blossoms.
Quote by Murka:
Planted this variety, taste is a five out of five, yield is average, but the trusses were full, didn’t drop blossoms.
Like all “blimps” – varieties with elongated fruits. They always set fruit along their entire length, regardless of heat or other adverse circumstances. Unlike beefsteaks, which are much more capricious in this regard.
Poltava. Open ground. Bush in 2 stems. Not a lot of fruits, but not bad. Dense plum tomato, almost no seeds.
