Sunset Red Horizon question

[Tomatovator]

Is Sunset's Red Horizen (Misnamed Rostova) kind of a droopy plant? Of the 17 plants I put in this year all seem to be stout and standing tall except both of my SRH. They are still kind of limp and droopy. The leaves have good color. I put them (and all the rest) in the ground a week ago.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Tomatovator

Is Sunset's Red Horizen (Misnamed Rostova) kind of a droopy plant? Of the 17 plants I put in this year all seem to be stout and standing tall except both of my SRH. They are still kind of limp and droopy. The leaves have good color. I put them (and all the rest) in the ground a week ago.

The correct name is Rostova. Gary Ibsen at Tomatofest changed the name to Sunset's Red Horizon due to an agreement with the original folks who had been lsiting it.

There's a problem here. The original Rostova was an excellent large red beefsteak with great taste. And those were the seeds sent out in the first couple of years that TF listed it. And someone sent me a pack from those frist two years, half full, so I have grown it, and I also know what the original description was for it from the palce that Gary got it, which he does mention in his blurb for SRH. But then things changed.

Probably due to a cross the seeds from the last few years have given a heart shaped fruit with droopy wispy foliage, which is typical of a heart variety, but is not what Rostova should be, which had normal foliage as well as large red beefsteaks.

Linda at TGS offered the wrong Rostova, as she notes in her description that it's also called SRH, and shows a heart shaped fruit.

I shared with her that she and many others didn't have true Rostova and sent her the last of the seeds of true Rostova that I had.

The original source of Rostova kept saying they were going back and trying to capture the true Rostova but that was several years ago and nothing has happened to date.

I wish I'd saved seeds from the true Rostova that I was sent but I didn't, and of course I had no idea that the variety would become something else other than true Rostova.

So I hope Linda's seeds germinate and she'll be able to offer what Rostova was and should be in her listings at TGS.


I hope that helps, and cutti8ng to the chase, you don't have true Rostova.

[Tomatovator]

Carolyn, I know I don't have the true Rostova but I grew these last year and whatever they are, they produced a lot of very tasty heart-shaped tomatoes. I saved seeds and I am growing them again this year. I got the origional seeds from a fellow who bought them from Tomatofest. I just don't have any notes from last year and I can't recall if it was a droopy plant or not. I do seem to recall that it did not like to be touched or tied. It would go limp for a day or so after I tied it up from time to time as it grew.