Quick Summary of Tolstoi F1
- 🌍 Origin: A highly popular commercial F1 hybrid, widely praised for its reliability and massive yields.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (very tall) and exceptionally vigorous. Growers report it easily grows up to the greenhouse roof. It can be pruned to 1 or 2 stems.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Dense, firm, round-to-plum shaped red fruits, generally weighing 80-120g (3-4 oz). The lower trusses may produce slightly larger fruits (up to 150g).
- 👅 Flavor & Texture: This is a processing tomato first and foremost. In its fresh state, many growers find the flesh too hard, firm (almost “woody”), and lacking in sweet flavor. Pro Tip: One forum member notes that a heavy dose of Potassium (K) fertilizer at the blushing stage drastically improves the flavor.
- 🎯 Best Uses: An absolute superstar for processing. It holds its shape perfectly in traditional barrel fermentation (pickling) and whole-fruit jar canning. Also excellent for cooking down into sauces and juices.
- 🛡️ Disease Resistance: Exceptional! Growers consistently highlight that Tolstoi F1 is virtually immune to Leaf Mold (Cladosporium) and late blight, remaining healthy when other varieties succumb. Note: It is a heavy feeder and can be susceptible to Blossom End Rot (BER) if lacking Calcium.
“For film greenhouses and open ground (on a trellis). Mid-early, high-yielding hybrid. From germination to the start of fruiting is 115 days. The plant is indeterminate, tall. The fruit is round-cuboid, firm, red. Weight 80-120g. The taste qualities of fresh fruits are excellent. The hybrid is resistant to Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV), Verticillium wilt, Fusarium, and Cladosporium (Leaf Mold). Recommended for fresh consumption.”
(Seed packet description posted above)
Photo author: Natusik77
I planted Tolstoi F1 in 2015.
Despite the weather, it set fruit without skipping any trusses.
I pruned it to 2 stems. It is a very powerful plant with large leaves—I had to cut them back by half.
It is truly immune to diseases; it completely sneezes at Leaf Mold (Cladosporium) 👍
It grew all the way to the greenhouse roof and ripened about 12 trusses with 6-8 tomatoes each.
The tomatoes are red, meaty, slightly sweetish, very uniform in size (about 80-100g / 3-3.5 oz), shaped somewhere between a ball and a plum.
The only sad thing is that you can’t save seeds from it (since it’s an F1)…
It probably loves heavy feeding 😳
The gloomy northern summer of 2015 did not affect the health of this hybrid at all.
I will confirm everything said above.
My Tolstoi F1 grew outdoors in open ground. I bought the seedlings. I grew 5 bushes. All five were like identical twin brothers. It produced and set fruit until late September or early October, right up until I pulled the plants out. It didn’t catch a single disease. The fruit weight on the lower trusses was up to 150g (5.3 oz), and 80g (2.8 oz) at the very top. It is perfect for those who love firm tomatoes for canning. I do love that, so I really liked this tomato.
Galina P. wrote:
It is perfect for those who love firm tomatoes for canning. I do love that, so I really liked this tomato.
But how does it taste fresh?
Mine felt like eating wood, and the taste matched that texture.
I also like Tolstoi!
But ONLY for canning. Eaten fresh, it is hard and completely tasteless. But it doesn’t get leaf mold and it is very productive!!
Olena wrote:
I also like Tolstoi! But ONLY for canning…
I also designated all of it for canning. 👍 And for salads and eating fresh, I grow other varieties.
Tolstoi is excellent for traditional barrel fermentation (pickling) with mustard. Eaten fresh, it’s barely edible.
I grew it, I don’t remember what year. I liked its yield and disease resistance. The taste was good—sweetish with a slight tang, I actually liked them. I bought the seeds from Hupta. Later I replaced it with Hybrid 2 Tarasenko — which for me is the absolute ideal cluster-type tomato in all respects.
I also like Tolstoi F1 for canning 👍
I read somewhere that giving it a massive dose of Potassium (both foliar spray and root feeding) at the blushing stage radically changes its flavor for the better. It supposedly becomes extremely tasty. I need to try it. Too bad I didn’t sow it this year.
mopsdad1 wrote:
I read somewhere that giving it a massive dose of Potassium… radically changes its flavor for the better.
I planted it this year. I will try to hit it with a heavy dose of Potassium. 😳
I have two bushes. It is very beautiful during the seedling stage. An A-plus for appearance.
It’s handsome while fruiting as well.
It was the only tomato in my garden to get infected with Ring Spot Virus.
Tolstoi was the only one for me that suffered from Blossom End Rot (BER) resulting in underdeveloped fruits. It needs a lot of Calcium to support such a large harvest!
Zulfiya wrote:
Tolstoi was the only one for me that suffered from Blossom End Rot (BER)…
Mine also suffers from BER, and the yield for me was quite weak. Right next to it is Chudo Rynka (Miracle of the Market), which is completely disease-free with full trusses of fruit. I won’t plant it again, even though I actually liked the taste.
I have been growing Tolstoi for several years now just for juices and sauces. It’s a real lifesaver tomato. I’ve never had Blossom End Rot with it, and I didn’t fertilize it with anything (except in the spring, I just dug in a little bit of chicken manure bedding). I watered it very rarely, just like all my other tomatoes. The taste is a normal tomato flavor; when it gets fully ripe, it becomes juicier. I really like it, here is how it looks right now:
I’ll add my two cents about this tomato! I planted it just to try it out)) An exceptionally healthy plant! It was one of the very few tomatoes in the greenhouse that didn’t catch Leaf Mold (Cladosporium) at all! I will definitely be planting it next year specifically for processing/canning.
If you prune it to two stems, does it lose yield? I am ready to feed it heavily))) What is the risk? Losing the number of fruits or losing the weight/size of the fruits?
