Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA Zones 3-4 Experience)
Mid-season, short det variety. It grew to about 18 inches (45 cm) outdoors in the dirt. No need to prune suckers. The variety yields pretty well, with round red fruits averaging about 5 oz (140-150 g).
The taste was absolutely nothing like candy – they were total duds. This is one of the very few varieties where I didn’t even bother saving seeds for my collection.
Lenochka, do you know the original English name for this? Or did you just have it in Russian? 😳 I have a sneaking suspicion that what I grew is a completely different animal 😛
Pol! I had it written in Russian 😉 But the original name is this: Sweet Seedless.
ElenaN wrote:
Pol! I had it written in Russian 😉 But the original name is this: Sweet Seedless.
Len 🌺🌺🌺, that means I definitely didn’t have the real thing 😞, even though my plant tag had the exact same name 😕
Polya! 🌺 So whose seed stock did you grow? And how did it taste?
ElenaN wrote:
Polya! 🌺 So whose seed stock did you grow? And how did it taste?
Len, I got mine from SvetlanaF (from our forum), but she hasn’t been online in a while, so I have no idea where she got them from 😳. My bushes grew to about 3 ft (1 m) tall, with wide, almost PL foliage. Even though it set fruit early, nothing ripened until September. The fruits were large, pink, meaty, sweet, and completely seedless. Definitely not a variety meant for outdoors in the dirt. I couldn’t find any photos of ripe ones, but here’s a green one. Oh, and another downside: it dropped a ton of blossoms during the heatwave 😳
Oh Pol, my seeds were from Sveta too. I was planning to plant them next year, but after reading all the bad reviews, I changed my mind. Now it turns out Sweet Seedless has multiple strains floating around. Since I grow exclusively outdoors, it sounds like even the second version isn’t worth the garden space 😞
Got it, ladies! 🌺 I just ran this variety through our forum search – a couple other girls grew it, and their reviews were just as bad.
Len, the thing is, you and the other girls grew the “true” Sweet Seedless. From what I understand, it’s *supposed* to be short, red, and have small fruits. Whatever I got was completely different, but it was actually a solid producer. If I can fit it onto my 2015 grow list, I’ll run it again, but in the greenhouse this time. I have a few guesses as to what actually grew for me 😉
I strongly suspect my “Sweet Seedless” was actually Sweet Linda. Looked it up on Tatiana’s TOMATObase, and my plant is a dead ringer for it. If it hadn’t dropped so many blossoms, it would be identical. But I can’t say for sure until I find out where Sveta bought her seeds 😳
I asked her. She says she bought them from TradeHouseSeeds.
Well well… it turns out this variety was originally an F1 hybrid 😲 🙄
http://t.tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Sweet_Seedless_F1
ElenaN wrote:
Well well… it turns out this variety was originally an F1 hybrid 😲 🙄
Now it gets even more interesting 😛
Also, I wonder why they call it seedless? I can clearly see a totally normal seed count in your photos.
ElenaN wrote:
Well well… it turns out this variety was originally an F1 hybrid 😲 🙄
Len, that Sweet Linda variety is also an unstable F1 hybrid 😉
Bel Ami wrote:
Also, I wonder why they call it seedless? I can clearly see a totally normal seed count in your photos.
Lera, my fruits literally had zero seeds in them. I would have saved them otherwise, it was delicious.
Honestly, I’ve been thinking about this variety (and Linda) a lot. Since neither of them are stable OPs, you can expect all kinds of wild segregations to pop up 😉. So we can’t even really call it a seed mix-up or crossed seed! 🌺
Pol, you said it was delicious but late (scratching my head here), and I grow everything outdoors. Maybe I should start the seeds earlier and use bigger nursery pots? 🙈
My Sweet Seedless looked exactly like the one ElenaN posted at the top of the thread. Except mine grew a bit taller, almost 3 ft (1 m) outdoors.
But it was loaded with seeds, and the flavor was totally mediocre. I didn’t even bother taking pictures or saving the seeds.
The commercial description sounded amazing, which is exactly why I fell for it! Seeds were from Kulik.
Full Summary: Plant, Yield, Taste and The F1 Genetics Issue
- 🌿 Plant: Determinate. The original description calls for a short bush around 18 inches (45 cm). However, because the seed pool is corrupted with unstable F2/F3 segregations, plants often reach 3 ft (1 m) and display erratic leaf types (including PL mutations).
- 📈 Yield: Average, though off-types are prone to severe blossom drop during heatwaves.
- 👅 Taste & Texture: Poor. Most growers describe the standard red version as a bland “spitter.” (Ironically, the accidental off-types seem to taste much better).
