In January 2020, I received a surprising blessing in the form of a letter from Kazakhstan. The envelope contained packets of tomato seeds—20 of them. The varieties were labeled on the packets.
I found information about several varieties online. The tomatoes vary in size and shape – large-fruited, heart-shaped, pepper-shaped, plum-shaped, and round. They also come in a variety of colors – red, pink, orange, purple, bicolor, and striped. Some of the packets were labeled “Pepper from Maria,” “Yellow from Voronkova,” and “From America.” Naturally, there's no information about these seeds, but I'm really curious about what the fruits will be like. My brother Andrey and his wife Anya gave me this gift – I'm very grateful to them.
Tomatoes are my favorite crop. I love growing them, caring for them, treating my family and friends to delicious, juicy tomatoes, and sharing seeds with my neighbors at the dacha. In addition to my own seeds, I sowed all of these seeds, and my neighbor Lyuda gave me three more varieties, which I also sowed.
I decided to plant tomatoes in the spot where I grew eggplants last year. I have a ton of problems with my eggplants: they're attacked by flea beetles and spider mites, their tops wilt, their ovaries fall off—in short, it's pure misery—I have to constantly treat them for pests. I don't want to grow eggplants anymore.
I planted all the tomato varieties in separate cups and labeled them. Almost all the seeds sprouted well. I transplanted the best seedlings into separate containers, selecting two or three of the best seedlings.
I planted two of each variety in the greenhouse at the end of April. The seedlings varied: some were strong and beautiful, others were spindly and elongated. Some tomatoes just didn't seem to want to grow, and the bushes were small.
The plants that weren't quite as good remained in pots in the greenhouse until mid-May, during which time they grew a bit. Then I planted them in open ground and covered them with a covering material for the first few days.
May was warm and sunny, with only a few light frosts at night early in the season. But on May 25th, cold rains began, with nighttime temperatures only reaching 6-8°C. All of June was cool and rainy, with only a few sunny and hot days. And in July and early August, it rained almost daily. Daytime temperatures were just above 20°C, with cool nights. This weather isn't ideal for tomatoes. Pollen doesn't ripen well, and on some tomatoes, most of the blossoms fall off, and fruit doesn't set. But the tomatoes still grew, bloomed, and set fruit.
Some of the bushes were sick - their leaves were turning yellow, the tops were wilting, I had to treat them with phytosporin, pick off the leaves, cut off the top shoots, new side shoots grew on them, and they still produced a harvest.
My tomatoes were all healthy, and only a few new varieties had problems. Perhaps the seeds were infected, even though I disinfected them before planting the seedlings. Or perhaps the pathogen was in the soil. We've been planting tomatoes in the same spot for years, but every spring we treat them with greenhouse water, spray them with disease control products, and cultivate the soil, adding compost, growing green manure, and watering with a phytosporin solution.
But I'm still happy with the harvest; I have plenty of tomatoes in the greenhouses, and it's fine outside too. It's mid-August now. We're already picking ripe tomatoes en masse in the greenhouse, and tomatoes are starting to ripen outside, too.
I only pick the green ones at the end of the season, before the first frost.
These are the tomatoes we have this year, different in shape, size and color.
I really liked some varieties - productive, with beautiful and tasty fruits.
Other varieties had only a few tomatoes - very large ones - 700-800 grams.
I will definitely collect the seeds and sow some varieties for seedlings next year.