Quick Summary of Surpriz
- 🌍 Origin & The Translation Mix-Up: There is massive confusion surrounding this name in the Russian seed market! The true Surpriz is a French striped heirloom. However, some Russian seed vendors (like Gusev) took the American bicolor heirloom Serendipity and directly translated its name to “Surprise” (Surpriz) in Russian.
- 🔍 How to Tell the Difference: If your plant produces dark red fruits with green stripes, you have the true French Surpriz. If you get a large yellow-red bicolor, you are actually growing the American Serendipity!
- 🌿 Plant Habit (True Surpriz): Indeterminate (tall). It thrives in open ground and has a very stretched, continuous fruiting period.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Dark red/mahogany with metallic green stripes. While official vendor descriptions state “up to 150g” (5.3 oz), growers report that the fruits are extremely uniform and consistently weigh at least 150g, with no small “runts” on the trusses.
- 👅 Flavor: Described as highly harmonious, perfectly balancing sweetness and acidity.
🍅 Have you grown this variety? Scroll down to add your review and photos in the comments below!
Indeterminate. Very productive 🧺. The fruiting period is long and stretched out, and the taste is perfectly harmonious. This variety was my discovery of the year! 👍 It grew outdoors in open ground.
My seeds are from Popenko (private collector). Here is his description: Surpriz (France). Indeterminate. Fruits are oblate, dark red with green stripes, well-balanced taste, weighing up to 150g (5.3 oz).
Usually, a description like “weighing up to 150g” gives a lot of wiggle room for smaller fruit, but with Surpriz, the tomatoes were absolutely uniform. There were no tiny ones at all; I would describe the weight as “no less than 150g,” which is confirmed in my photos.
And my Surpriz turned out to be a bicolor! Seeds were from Gusev. Yellow-red, indeterminate, large-fruited, but low yield. It only set 2 trusses of 3 tomatoes each. Mid-season ripening. It was tasty though.
Vera said:
And my Surpriz turned out to be a bicolor! Seeds were from Gusev. Yellow-red, indeterminate…
Gusev sells a completely different variety under the name “Surpriz” – it is the American variety Serendipity.
He just used an approximate Russian translation of that English word.
