🍅 Quick take: Summer Cider is an indeterminate, mid-season heirloom beefsteak featuring distinctive potato-leaf (PL) foliage and large, oblate apricot-orange fruits ranging from 7 to 18 oz (200-500 g). The variety is famous for its complex flavor contrast: rich, sweet flesh paired with brisk, cider-tart locular gel around the seeds. Growers report mixed yields outdoors in cool ground, but sheltered vines produce heavy sets of giant slicers. Full summary ↓
Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA Zones 4-5 Experience)
Seeds were shared with me by Lyubushka, if I remember right. The plant is indeterminate, but it wasn’t particularly vigorous. Potato-leaf foliage. Yield was on the lower side of average, but that might improve once the variety acclimatizes to local soil, and the same goes for fruit size (mine barely pushed 7 oz (200 g), some even smaller). Mid-season.
The fruits are flat-round and orange. When green, you can see faint dark green striping. Very juicy, and the juice itself, unlike the sweet pulp, had a noticeable tangy kick, making for a truly unique flavor profile.
Edited November 9, 2013 by Pomidoroved
The fruits are flat-round and orange. When green, you can see faint dark green striping. Very juicy, and the juice itself, unlike the sweet pulp, had a noticeable tangy kick, making for a truly unique flavor profile.
Edited November 9, 2013 by Pomidoroved
Summer Cider (seeds from Redko). Grew two plants outdoors in the dirt. One set just a single small fruit. The second gave three large ones. Potato-leaf foliage. The fruits are oblate and large, showing green striping before they ripen up. On the palate it is quite tangy. And yes, Galina hit the nail on the head: that sharp acidity comes straight from the seed gel inside the cavities.
Edited July 28, 2014 by Ovechka
Edited July 28, 2014 by Ovechka
Spitting image of mine. Lyubasha must have ordered her original seed stock from Redko as well.
Galya, it turned out to be a really stingy yielder for me 😢 Otherwise it would have been great, such a handsome, hefty slicer.
Seeds were from Redko. Loved both the flavor and the look of this tomato. Productivity was right around average.
Really enjoyed this variety: attractive, productive, and delicious. Potato-leaf foliage, seeds came from Popenko.
I liked this variety a lot as well, super tasty and very productive. Strong, sturdy plant with potato-leaf foliage. The fruits are large, weighing between 11 and 18 oz (300-500 g). Huge shoutout to Lyudmila (Aleksan9ra) for the seeds! 🙏
Edited November 26, 2015 by Drosera
Edited November 26, 2015 by Drosera
Full Summary: Plant, Yield, Taste and Storage
- 🌿 Plant: Indeterminate vine with distinct potato-leaf (PL) foliage. Vine vigor varies: in open ground without cover it can struggle, while greenhouse conditions produce robust, stout growth. Fruits are oblate, apricot-gold to warm orange, displaying subtle green striping prior to full ripeness.
- 📈 Yield: Climate-dependent. Unprotected outdoor plants in cool continental summers were notoriously stingy, setting as few as 1 to 3 fruits per plant. In contrast, sheltered greenhouse cultivation rewarded growers with strong, regular crops of massive slicers running 11 to 18 oz (300-500 g).
- 👅 Taste: Complex and dynamic. Multiple growers independently noted that while the dense meat is sweet and mellow, the locular gel and juice surround the seeds pack a brisk, refreshing acidity reminiscent of fresh apple cider.
- 📦 Storage: Soft, thin heirloom skin. Best enjoyed fresh from the vine or sliced into sandwiches and summer salads.
- 🌎 Who Reviewed It: Five experienced gardeners comparing outdoor open-dirt performance against greenhouse growing in USDA Zones 4 and 5.
