Quick Summary of Tsarskiy Lyubimets (Tsar’s Favorite)
- 🌍 Origin: A popular Russian commercial and collector’s variety. The name translates to “Tsar’s Favorite” or “Royal Favorite”. Note: There appear to be two distinct strains circulating in the community (a red-orange regular leaf version and a raspberry-pink potato leaf version).
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), typically reaching 1.5–1.7 m (5–5.5 ft) in a greenhouse. Depending on the seed source, foliage can be either regular leaf (RL) or potato leaf (PL).
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Massive, oblate (flattened), and slightly ribbed beefsteaks. First-truss fruits can reach up to 1 kg (2.2 lbs). Very meaty with tiny seed locules (cavities).
- 👅 Flavor: Sweet, aromatic, with a classic “granular” meaty texture. Excellent for fresh eating and salads.
- ⏳ Maturity: Mid-season (112–115 days from germination), though some growers report surprisingly early harvests when grown outdoors.
- 📈 Yield: Exceptionally high. Growers report yields of up to a full bucket per plant.
Description from the seed packet:
Tsarskiy Lyubimets is intended for growing in glass and film greenhouses in temperate climates, and outdoors in open ground with staking in the south. Time from full germination to the start of ripening is 112-115 days. The plant is indeterminate, very vigorous, reaching 1.5-1.7 m (5-5.5 ft) in a greenhouse. The leaf is regular, broad, double-pinnate. The first flower truss forms above the 8th-9th leaf, and subsequent ones every 1-2 leaves. There are 3-4 fruits per truss. The fruit is oblate, ribbed, weighing up to 1000 g / 2.2 lbs (on the first truss), red-orange in color. The flesh occupies almost the entire space of the fruit (seed chambers are very small), granular, aromatic. Best for fresh eating/salads.
(Mentions Galya-64. Photo author: vavladi)
Svet (Svetlana), I had seeds from Terentyev [a private Russian breeder/collector], and here is his description:
Tsarskiy Lyubimets
Tall, with potato leaves (PL). Fruits are raspberry-pink, oblate, weighing up to 1 kg (2.2 lbs), excellent taste. Yield – up to a bucket of fruits per bush.
My grow-out confirmed this description, they grew exactly like that.
I grew Tsarskiy Lyubimets from the “Biotechnica” seed company.
It was pink, or raspberry-pink, with a soft yellow shoulder (cap), just like the one on the packet picture.
Of course, growing outdoors in open ground (ОГ), it fell a bit short of its maximum size and yield potential, but it was delicious and surprisingly early.
Girls, these tomatoes grew on my Tsar’s Favorite bush…
Is this an off-type (wrong seed)? 😕
I finally tasted these red-orange tomatoes. They sat on the counter for a long time, weren’t very soft to the touch, but looked fully ripe… honestly, because of the small weight, I was expecting some kind of bland “hybrid” taste… but they turned out to be very sweet! 😋
