Sibirsky Skorospeliy (or Early Siberian) - compact det.?

[Tania]

I was going through my 2005 notes and noticed that the Sibirsky Skorospeliy (a.k.a. Early Siberian - I think this is how Andrey translated it) is marked as indet. My seeds were from Andrey (2004)

Andrey, your comment was also something about plant being 140 cm tall, and fruit about 200 g..., so mine matched the description.

However, Russian commercial vendors (PLANT, SeDek) list it as det., 30-50 cm tall, 60-120 g. (which btw made me wonder if it was something closer to Siberia var. )

Andrey, do you remember which commercial vendor your seeds were from? (I know, I should have been asking about it last year... )

Anybody else grew it? Do you remember what the plant looked like?

[Andrey_BY]

Tania, as far as I remember I can't say/write such "wonderful massive blurb" about Sibirskiy Skorospely just because this is standard well-known determinate cold tolerant Russian variety :wink: I remember I wrote my describtion for this tomato according to my own growing experience, but in greenhouse even in 2002 or 2003 and somehow it has never been revised my me. That's why I gave it 140 cm tall and about 120 g for the first and second trusses and later 60-100 g.
As for open soil conditions the height of Sibirskiy Skorospely usually varies from 40 cm to 90 cm (70-80 cm tall for me during last two years) and fruit size could be about 40-100 g. Fruits are bright-red, very aromatic and with rather good flavour. This tomato plant is very good adopt to different growing conditions, but of course its average yield in greenhouse is much higher in my Zone 4a. When I grew Sibirskiy Skorospely in my small greenhouse I has got 3 times more tomatoes than from outside because it is very flexible variety and bears until October when let more side-shooters substitute each other.
This wonderful early Russian variety has been developed by West-Siberian Vegetable Experimental Station (Zapadno-Sibirskaya Ovoshchnaya Opytnaya Stantsiya in town Barnaul, Altai region) as well as many other less known cold tolerant vegetable varieties for Zone 3-5 since their foundation in 1932.
And my seeds were originally from Poisk Seeds.

[PNW_D]

Greetings Tania,

I too received seed from Andrey for Sibirsky Skorospely (Siberian Early), red, early, sweet, most famous Siberian tomato, bred by Western-Siberian Potato-vegetable experimental lab 140/120/5. Here is a picture of the plant at June 1 and fruit at August 27.





My notes indicate mild, vaguely sweet and mellow when fully ripe. Good production, healthy fruit and plant – provided edible tomatoes well into October – not early.

I am somewhat confused, in that I copied information from another source that described Siberian as dwarf sprawling plants with very early set of fruits. Introduced through SSE in 1984 by Will Bonsall, originally from the Lowden Collection. Egg-shaped 2-3” fruits, good strong flavor. Not to be confused with Siberia, Siberian is superior in all qualities. Determinate, 57-60 days.

So perhaps there is a Siberia, Siberian and Siberian Early

[Andrey_BY]

What can I say - different growing conditions often provide different results in what some plants should look like, their taste and habits

But everything is possible and I can't be sure Sibirskiy Skorospely is either Siberian or Siberia you know well in USA or Canada. As far as I know your endless love to everything from Siberia it won't be a surprise for me that you would like to use "Siberia" in naming many early tomato varieties :wink:

[Tania]

Thank you D. and Andrey for sharing your observations.

on the 'Siberian Early' naming topic - I would strongly suggest to call this variety by the original RUssian name - 'Sibirsky Skorospeliy'

'Skorospeliy' can also be spelled 'Skorospely' or 'Skorospelyi', depending on your school :-), and it has a slightly different meaning than 'Early', the closest translation I can think of would be 'the one that ripens fast' - given mine and D.'s experience with it it was not early! But for sure it was a nice tomato.

D., was you plant large? Mine was pushing 4.5', and definitely didn't match the descriptions that PLANT and SeDek give for this tomato. Perhaps 'Poisk' vendor had a slightly different strain? (which does worry me, since this is not the first time I see different Russian vendors offering different tomatoes under the same name - Budenovka is being another example

[Andrey_BY]

Originally Posted by Tania

Thank you D. and Andrey for sharing your observations.

on the 'Siberian Early' naming topic - I would strongly suggest to call this variety by the original Russian name - 'Sibirsky Skorospeliy'

That's my point of view as well after seeing so many one and the same variety with double names (after direct translation from Russian to English and written in English (Latin) letters) in SSE Yearbook 2006 and in people's seed lists.
So now I'm gonna correct all old and new entries to my trade list according to "Direct English (Latin) writing" method and mostly use a.k.a to translate the meaning of Russian name to English in describtion.

'Skorospeliy' can also be spelled 'Skorospely' or 'Skorospelyi', depending on your school :-), and it has a slightly different meaning than 'Early', the closest translation I can think of would be 'the one that ripens fast' - given mine and D.'s experience with it it was not early! But for sure it was a nice tomato.

Tania, there could be another interpretetion of Skorospely or Skorospelyi" in this case. According to Russian classification of tomatoes based on the time from germination until the first ripe fruit there are Rannie, Rannespelye, Skorospelye, Srednepozdnie, Pozdnie varieties. Usually they just mention category in the name. And of course there is a strong dependance between earliness and time of the first ripe fruit apperance :wink:

D., was you plant large? Mine was pushing 4.5', and definitely didn't match the descriptions that PLANT and SeDek give for this tomato. Perhaps 'Poisk' vendor had a slightly different strain? (which does worry me, since this is not the first time I see different Russian vendors offering different tomatoes under the same name - Budenovka is being another example

That is the problem for me as well. And usually nobody is responsible for distribution of varieties with completely different features under the same name.
As for Budenovka there is A Siberian strain of it named Velmozha which had been developed by Sibirian Agric. Res. Breeding Inst. (Novosibirsk). I've bought seeds of Velmozha in Moscow this year and will give them a chance next year. Its describtion said: Midseason, det. 50-70 cm tall plant with rasberry-pink heart shaped fruits up to 800 g. The original Budenovka has got red heart shaped fruits of much smaller size...

[PNW_D]

Tania,

I honestly don't recall final height, but it was not one of my taller varieities. And, as described by Andrey, the plant did throw a lot a side shoots.

p.s. to Andrey - wow a 2 foot plant with 1 1/2 lb fruit - and heart shaped at that - please keep us posted on your results

[Andrey_BY]

Denise, actually I've got a dozen seed packets old and new of Siberian during this year from different sources and almost a half of all these varieties are compact determinate varieties and bear heart shaped beefsteaks It seems to me there is a strong tradition in Siberia (Central and West) to breed for such shaped fruits on compact early and mid-early plants suitable for growing in short season areas :wink: And it concerns both heirloom and commercial varieties...

[mdvpc]

Tania-For some reason my emails to you are getting stuck in my outbox. PM me with your regular email address-I have an email I have been trying to send you since last night. I can get emails from you, but when I reply, they just sit in my outbox.

[Tania]

Originally Posted by mdvpc

Tania-For some reason my emails to you are getting stuck in my outbox. PM me with your regular email address-I have an email I have been trying to send you since last night. I can get emails from you, but when I reply, they just sit in my outbox.

Michael,
this is because I wasn't visiting T-ville for a couple of days - things got quite crazy at work, and I didn't have time to get online...

I sent you the seeds on Wed this week - you might find quite a few extras there that you didn't ask for, my apologies for that.

You can always reach me via email through the e-mail button