Quick Summary of Shtraukh (Strauch)
- 🌍 Origin: A commercial heirloom originally from West Germany (FRG). The name “Strauch” translates to “Bush” in German. It is highly valued by Russian and Eastern European growers for its extreme reliability.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall) and extremely vigorous. In open ground it reaches about 1.8 m (6 ft), but in greenhouses, it can easily grow over 3 meters (10 ft) tall, often requiring growers to lower or trench the vines.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Red, perfectly round, smooth cocktail-sized tomatoes weighing 50–110 g (1.8–3.9 oz). The fruits have thick walls and firm flesh, making them absolutely perfect for whole-fruit canning and pickling.
- 👅 Flavor: A standard, balanced classic tomato taste with a nice hint of sweetness.
- ⏳ Maturity & Traits: Mid-season. Notably drought-tolerant and disease-resistant. It is famous for its non-stop production, blooming and setting fruit reliably until the very first frosts.
Here is its description from the seed seller (V.F. Syrai):
Strauch (FRG)
Bush: 1.5 – 2 m (5–6.5 ft). A real miracle, you can’t even see the leaves behind the fruit. In Germany, these tomatoes are twice as expensive as others. Fruit – red, spherical, smooth, weighing 50 – 100 g (1.8–3.5 oz). The variety is drought-resistant, blooms, and bears fruit until frost.
I completely agree with everything: they are still fruiting non-stop (today is October 10), they have great commercial appeal, and there is a nice sweetness to them. They will be great for canning, as the walls are quite thick and the fruit itself is firm. Mine grew over 3 meters (10 ft) tall (this year I had to lower the vines).
But I have two “buts”: first, the fruits are a bit small for me — about the size of a tennis ball, sometimes a little bigger, but they never quite reached 100 grams. Secondly, the internodes are a bit long, so my stems were clearly visible behind the tomatoes 😄, and I trim the leaves 😄. But this might be my fault; all my tomatoes tend to stretch in the greenhouse because the roof creates partial shade.
Here are photos from July, and the last one is from September 30.
Here is a photo from June 18 I found:
And this is the last one from September 30:
Growing outdoors in open ground. The height is about 1.8 m (6 ft). The first fruits ripened in late July. Fruit weight is 110 g (3.9 oz). The fruits on the second truss are larger than on the first.
Considering that the summer this year was “strange” (a drought in June, followed by heavy rains and a cold snap in July), the variety is good. It doesn’t get sick, and the fruits are perfectly uniform. The taste is standard.
Edited July 30, 2019 by Marusha
