📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Vladimirskaya Neznakomka (Stranger from Vladimir)
- 🌍 Origin: A fantastic “lucky off-type” discovered by a Russian grower that eventually became a beloved local pass-around heirloom. The name translates to “Stranger from Vladimir” (referring to the Vladimir region of Russia).
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall). Reaches about 5.2-5.5 feet (1.6-1.7 m) out in the open dirt, and grows taller in a greenhouse. It responds incredibly well to being pruned to 4 main stems without sacrificing size.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Red fruits ranging from 7-14 oz (200-400 g). The craziest thing about this variety is its shape-shifting ability: you will find round beefsteaks, elongated plums, and heart-shaped tomatoes all growing on the exact same bush!
- ⏳ Maturity & Yield: Its biggest selling point is its earliness. It is frequently one of the very first large-fruited varieties to ripen in the garden, capable of producing ripe fruit by early June in a greenhouse. Yield is massive.
- 👅 Flavor: Highly dependent on weather and soil. It can range from slightly tart to mild/bland. It’s grown more for its bomb-proof early yield than for gourmet flavor.
I’ve gifted this tomato to a lot of people because I absolutely love it. As you might have guessed, this is a local pass-around heirloom, my own “lucky off-type”. I’ve been growing it for 3 years now, and every season it never ceases to amaze me.
As for the taste… sometimes it even has a little tartness to it, but this year it was actually a bit mild/bland, growing in the greenhouse. But as I’ve said many times on this forum, I’m afraid to make definitive statements about taste, because even in my own garden, the exact same variety behaves differently in different garden beds.
This tomato always blows me away with its yield and earliness. Out of all my large-fruited varieties, it’s one of the very first to ripen.
The bush height is 5.2-5.5 ft (1.6-1.7 m), taller in the greenhouse of course. The fruits are 7-14 oz (200-400 grams), and the shapes are completely all over the place: you get large elongated plums, round ones, heart-shaped ones, some are smooth, some are slightly ribbed, all on the exact same bush. I prune it to 4 main stems. I think if I ran it to 2 stems, the fruits would be even bigger. The color is red.
Here is a photo from 2013 and here it is in 2014:
Edited February 4, 2016 by Galya-64
Galina, have you compared it to Babushkino (Grandma’s)?
Zulfiya wrote:
Galina, have you compared it to Babushkino (Grandma’s)?
Zulya, they are definitely different from Babushkino. First of all, Babushkino has a standard fruit shape, round, maybe slightly oblate (flat-round). But with these, you will always find at least a couple of heart-shaped or oval fruits on the bush. Plus, there’s no way it got mixed up with Babushkino that year, because I planted the seeds I got from Redko separately and a bit later.
Galya-64 wrote:
This tomato always blows me away with its yield and earliness.
Would it work for an early harvest, like in June? 🤷♂️ 📝 🙂
nimoff wrote:
Would it work for an early harvest, like in June?
Vitaly, well, in my greenhouse the early ones actually start ripening in the first week or so of June. Out in the open dirt, it’ll be a bit later, of course.
I’ll try planting it out in the open dirt a little earlier then… 🙂
