Quick Summary of Vater Rhein (Father Rhine)
- 🌍 Origin: A famous German heirloom. “Vater Rhein” translates to “Father Rhine”, named after the iconic European river. It is highly prized by collectors across Russia and Eastern Europe.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall). This variety is notorious for its extremely weak, frail, and “weeping” (wispy) foliage. Growers frequently joke that the seedlings look so pathetic “you just want to hug them and cry.” Do not let the sickly appearance fool you—it is a genetic trait, not a disease.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Stunning, bright red, heart-shaped fruits featuring a very pronounced, sharp, elongated beak (nipple). They typically weigh 200-400 g (7-14 oz), though massive specimens approaching 1 kg (2.2 lbs) are possible. The interior is pure, dense “tomato meat” with very few seeds.
- 👅 Flavor: Consistently ranked as top-tier. It has a divine, sweet, rich, and buttery flavor profile that easily beats many other red varieties.
- ⏳ Maturity & Yield: Mid-season to mid-late. Yields can be average initially, but the variety adapts well over time. The plant requires heavy feeding to support the large fruits due to its sparse foliage.
Seeds from Valentina Redko. The variety is indet, medium yield, the taste is simply fabulous. It tastes a bit like Babushkino, only in a meatier version. There are few seeds in the fruit, solid sweet meat, but not bland (for my taste), there is a slight tanginess. There are 3-4 tomatoes in a truss. I grew one bush outdoors in the open ground (it ripened earlier and was slightly more productive than in the greenhouse), and two bushes in the greenhouse. Because of the taste, I will definitely plant it again 😋 👍.
From the truss posted above, one tomato was tasted 😄. Here is a photo of a cut tomato from the truss, as you can see there are practically no seeds.
Svetlana! And I didn’t like the taste of Vater Rhein at all, the fruits were rather bland on both the first and second trusses 😞 But they are very beautiful. This is a fruit from the first truss, the fruits on the second truss are also beautiful, but the beak is slightly less elongated. Seeds were also from Redko.
The bush is very frail/wispy, there are indeed very few seeds.
Elena, my bushes are not frail, I’d even say they are sturdy. Not spreading, not many leaves, and they don’t overgrow with suckers much, maybe my variety got mixed up. Tomorrow I’ll take a picture of the bush in the greenhouse and post it.
Svetlana, mine also grew very few suckers, and there are indeed few leaves, but the structure of the bush is very wispy and frail, and it was the same in the seedling stage. It grew in my greenhouse. I can’t take a picture of the bush anymore, I already “took care” of it 🤫 (Today I cleared out half of the greenhouse).
I still have a few tomatoes ripening on these bushes, so I’m not touching them yet, and they aren’t sick with anything so far. But as seedlings, yes, they were also very frail for me.
I also have Vater Rhein from Redko. The favorite of 2014.
You can’t call the bushes powerful by any means. There were few leaves and suckers too. Led it in 3 stems. It coped quite well. The fruits are all of the same shape with elongated noses. It was one of the first to start ripening. Regarding the taste, I completely agree with Svetlana. Under the greenhouse roof, a few green fruits are still hanging.
Definitely in the plans for planting in 2015.
Here is yesterday’s photo of the bush:
I liked the variety, candidate for planting in 2015.
Could you please tell me how the variety name sounds in the original (in English)? 😳 ✍️
Here Alexander talked about its name:
Aleksander said:
The variety Vater Rhein does exist; it is a very old German variety. Its seeds are even preserved in the Gene Bank of the German Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics. This name translates not just literally as “Father Rhine”, but more affectionately as “Father-Rhine” (Rhein-batyushka), implying that for Germans, the Rhine holds the same deep cultural significance as “Mother Volga” does for us Russians.So, the recommended name is: Fater Reyn (Vater Rhein) or, translated, Father-Rhine.
I planted it this year. One of the girls sent the seeds. But… it turned out to be an off-type, I was so upset, what grew was completely not it. Even though it seems our girls sent it, unfortunately I don’t remember who, maybe she got an off-type too?
Svetlana said:
I liked the variety, candidate for planting in 2015.
Svetlana, thank you for the seeds, a wonderful variety! 🌺
It grew in the greenhouse in 2 stems, charming red hearts 150-200g (5.3-7 oz), meaty and very tasty 👍 😋 And what a nose! 😘 I adore the pointy-nosed ones! 😄
