Zolotoe Runo (Golden Fleece) Tomato Review & Photos

Here’s the description from the seed packet: Early season variety for open ground and greenhouse growing. Matures in 85-98 days from germination. Forms determinate bushes 20-24 inches (50-60 cm) tall. Fruits are elongated-oval, smooth, moderately firm, weighing 3-3.5 oz (90-100 g), with great flavor.

This supposed “determinate” grew over 6.5 feet (2 m) tall in my greenhouse! The plant was pretty spindly, yield was just average, but it didn’t catch any diseases. Flavor was mediocre, though it was early. It is great for canning, though-nice and firm. So the only things that actually matched the “Poisk” seed packet description were the fruit shape, size, and ripening time.

Mine was definitely a determinate, but nowhere near early.

Where did you get your seeds from? Did you grow it in a greenhouse?
I was 100% sure mine was Golden Fleece until today. Now you’ve got me second-guessing myself. Then again, everything goes absolutely crazy and overgrows in my greenhouse; just look at what happened with your June variety.

Yep, in the greenhouse, seeds were from Tanya in Penza.
That definitely wasn’t my June variety, Tanya! There is zero chance it could stretch and overgrow that much, unless your greenhouse is built in a dark basement 😄

I grow Golden Fleece every year outdoors. I can’t even imagine putting it in a greenhouse since it’s a no-prune variety (you don’t sucker it at all). Outdoors, it stays around 24-32 inches (60-80 cm) tall, absolutely no taller. My seeds are from the “Poisk” brand.

Golden Fleece. I give it a solid 4 out of 5, as long as you know what you are planting it for. Seed germination was 100%. Super resilient, low-maintenance variety that bounces back quickly after transplanting. I put 3 bushes in the greenhouse and 5 outdoors. Very disease resistant, a real workhorse. I let them grow out on multiple stems. It loved the greenhouse, fruits started ripening early. Outdoors, the seedlings took a long time to recover after the June frosts, then finally started setting fruit right as the weather went bad again. So, just bad luck there. In the greenhouse, the yield was actually pretty darn good.
The fruits aren’t overly firm, but not too soft either – they are juicy. The taste is a bit tart, which I don’t really care for in fresh salads, but it’s absolutely perfect for canning and pickling. Also makes great sun-dried tomatoes. We were short on red paste tomatoes this year, so Golden Fleece really added some nice color variety to our jars.

I’ve been planting Golden Fleece (2-3 bushes) for about 5 years now specifically because it yields heavily in literally any conditions. The original seeds were from “Poisk”, but now I save my own. Height in the greenhouse is never more than 32 inches (80 cm), fruit weight is 2-3 oz (60-90 g), very firm. Early season. I pinch out the suckers up to the first truss and then just leave it completely alone. It pumps out fruit from early July all the way into October. Flavor is a 4/5, but it looks absolutely gorgeous pickled in jars, like perfect little golden eggs.

Planted 2 bushes of Golden Fleece in the greenhouse. They stayed determinate, growing to about 28 inches (70 cm). I didn’t bother suckering them. They produced from June all the way to October – very tasty, meaty, and attractive. At first, I was bummed out when the plant didn’t look like the picture on the packet (I bought it from some unknown brand specifically because of the picture). But later on, I saw “Gavrish” seed packets in big box stores with a picture of exactly what grew for me. The folks on the forum helped me realize that the Novgorod seed company just used the wrong stock photo on their packet, but the tomato I grew was actually the true variety.
I’ll plant it again this year for an early harvest. I love orange tomatoes, and you don’t see many early orange varieties.

My Golden Fleece seeds were from “Poisk”. Description on the back: “Excellent flavor, unique fruit shape. For open ground and hoop houses. Early variety. 85-98 days to maturity. Plant height 18-22 inches (45-55 cm). Fruits are elongated-oval, smooth, yellow-orange. Weight 3-3.5 oz (90-100 g). Valued for disease resistance, high yields, and commercial appeal. Great for salads and whole canning.”
My Golden Fleece bushes grew completely unprotected outdoors. Honestly, everything matched the breeder’s description perfectly.

Beautiful little tomatoes! I wonder how they actually taste?

Inna, how do they compare to the Elisey variety? Are they pretty similar?

TatianaSh (Tatyana) said:
Are they pretty similar?

Tanya, generally speaking, yeah, they are similar. But grown outdoors, the Elisey bushes get about twice as tall as Golden Fleece. And the fruits on Elisey have a slightly different shape- -more like an elongated egg. Though, if you just put photos of Elisey and Golden Fleece side by side, they look basically identical.

Elisey (Left) vs Golden Fleece (Right):

Mine looked exactly like Inna’s and Nadezhda’s. I grew them outdoors in 2021. Considering how much heat we got that summer, the flavor definitely wasn’t a 5 out of 5. Firm, early, but with just an average yield. We were planting in fresh, virgin soil that first year, and a lot of our other varieties gave us record-breaking harvests, but Golden Fleece really let us down. Persimmon (Hurma) has way better taste and yield. I’ll stick to planting that one.