Azoychka - huge blossom clusters

[Fert1]

My Azoychka has huge blossom clusters that look rather odd. I've never seen clusters with this many blooms on anything other than a cherry. It's not a truss though like cherry tomatoes have. It's just a really huge cluster. I think I counted something like 25 blossoms in a single cluster. This plant looks like it intends to be a real powerhouse as far as production is concerned.

I just wondered if that was typical of Azoychka. I know it's an early tomato, and most seem to think it has a pretty good flavor and production is good. I think good is going to be an understatement, (if the ratio of blooms to set is good). It has already set a few tomatoes.

Is that typical or do I have mutant plant?

[Adenn1]

This is my first year with Azoychka...I have a few blossoms--nothing like you report though. What gets me about this plant is the huge leaves I am getting...the only other potato leaf plant I have grow was Black Brandywine. The Azoychka's leaves are twice as big and my neighbors just can't believe its a tomato plant! I have to get a picture of this...

I hope you get some nice fruit...keep us updated with how thing progress...

[Fert1]

Is it supposed to a PL plant? The reason I ask is that mine definitely is NOT PL. Curioser and curioser!

[Adenn1]

There seems to be a discrepency on this issue of leaf type...the source I purchased it from did not note leaf type. Victory seeds notes it to be regular...Tanger Song states potato. Craig notes on his site that it should be regular leaf.

????

[Fert1]

After reading your post, I got curious and looked it up on other sites. Most seem to say it is a RL plant. I did see one person reporting a huge PL plant, and someone else responded that it sounded more like Yellow Brandywine instead of Azoychka. Sounds like we are definitely not growing the same plant. Maybe they will both taste good regardless. I know Yellow BW is supposed to be quite good, if that should wind up being what yours is.

With these huge blossom clusters, I'm not all that sure that I'm growing the real thing either. It looks to be productive whatever it is. There was one triple-blossom in that huge cluster, but it does not appear to be growing a fruit. I think it may have been just a little too deformed to actually produce a fruit. Some of the other blooms have set though. Most of the blooms have been average sized, except for that weird triple-bloom.

[Fert1]

Yesterday, my husband pointed out to me that the huge blossom cluster on my Azoychka may be 3 different blossom clusters that merged together into 1 for some reason. It does look like that might be the case. Odd! I would still love to know if that's typical or if I have a mutant plant. LOL!

[cottonpicker]

This is my first time to grow Azoychka also. Mine is loaded with blooms & several small fruits have already set -- way ahead of any other variety I have. Looks like it could be very productive & is definitely RL.

LD

[Adenn1]

Here is a picture of my Azoychka...will see what I get for fruit...

[nctomatoman]

Adenn - unforunately, you don't have authentic Azoychka. Your picture indicates you have the potato leaf mystery variety that was being sold as Azoychka for a few years. Azoychka is a regular leaf variety with bright yellow tomatoes - the potato leaf that some people received gave large gold fruit. I resent the real deal to Tomato Growers Supply a few years ago, and they offer it these days.

[Adenn1]

Craig:

That's what I feared...as it shoud be regular leaf. I did go back to my commerical source and found they did note it to be a regular leaf...so who knows what I will get. I had three Azoychka seedlings...that I thought were all potato leaf. I went over to my neighbors garden and looked at the plant I gave him. That one is regular leaf---that is if he put the right marker with the right plant. I have to go over and check the remaining plant at another neighbor's garden to see how it turned out.

Only time will tell what will come out for fruit...I am not upset by all of this...a little suspense is fun. I am just glad it is so healthy and coming along at a good pace.

Will keep this thread updated with what happens...

[Fert1]

Well ... after I got so excited, I have to admit that in spite of all those blooms, the set rate hasn't been all that good. The huge cluster of 25 blossoms only set 3 fruit. The plant has 2 other fruit, and that seems to be it. A total of 5 tomatoes on the whole plant. I'm guessing it's the heat. Our summer heat hit early and strong this year, with temps. in the high 90's. I'm getting really crappy fruit set on all my plants, except for the cherries and early varieties. Even varieties I've grown before that have done well in previous years, aren't doing so hot this year. As advertised, Sioux is handling the heat better than most. I have a feeling it's going to be a very disappointing year for tomato growers here.

[Sorellina]

Ciao Fert,

How far apart are your plants? Tomatoes need air-flow between them, but the heat and humidity do also contribute to blossom drop. Last year, we had a horrid spell of hot, humid, drought conditions, but later in the season, it evened out and we ended up with a nice second harvest. I hope that happens for you as well.

Cheers!

[Fert1]

Oh, I probably do have them placed a little closer than I should, but no worse than in other years. Pretty sure it's the heat this time. I'm hoping for a late crop, or a weather change at this point.

[Andrey_BY]

Actually the real initial name for this Russian RL variety is Zolotoy Borago. Then it was renamed here by somebody as Azochka (not Azoychka!) and seems to be delivered to USA like many other our varieties by M. Danilenko with mistake in names.
So you all can now choose how to name this variety :wink:

[carolyn137]

Memories!

When SSE first got Azoychka, already named by Marie Danilenko as Andrey has noted, I trialed it for SSE as did Craig.

Fast forward to 1998 when I had to sow seeds for varieties to put in my book. Because I couldn't find any of my saved seeds of A, and perhaps I never did save them, I got some from TGS.

When it came time to take pictures what I saw was a huge PL plant with large gold fruits. I scratched my head and said well, that's not my memory of A. I remember calling Craig and he confirmed my suspicions b'c it had been many years since I'd last grown it.

So yes, no doubt it's another wrong Seeds by Design distributed variety and yes, Craig did send new stock to Linda at TGS so ignore any references to a PL plant and large gold fruits.