Golden King of Siberia

[Tania]

I got this interesting information from my good old seed exchange partner, Valery Popenko in Kazakhstan, and I thought that I need to share it.

Valery noticed that I have 'Golden King of Siberia' in TOMATObase, and he told me that this was actually two different Russian tomatoes that he sent to Bakers Creek in the late 2000s. One was 'Korol Sibiri' (translates as 'King of Siberia') and other one was 'Zolotoy Korol' (translates as 'Golden King').

Valery does not speak English, and he had been communicating with a Baker Creek employee who knew Russian, and this is how they have been swapping seeds and exchanging information.

Valery told me that the person he has been in contact with at BC told him that they grew out both and found the two tomatoes to be very similar. The seeds were offered to customers as 'Golden King of Siberia', a combination of both translated names.

It is not clear which one of the original Russian variety is being sold in NA as 'Golden King of Siberia' - could be either one, or even a mix or the two (?).

Valery is very adamant about the 2 Russian varieties to be different. Somehow he could not get his story across, probably due to the language barrier. I promised him that I will post the story at TOMATObase. Then I thought, I will also post it here.

Valery's story certainly explained the name mystery for me, as I have been searching for the original Russian variety and could not find any matching the 'Golden King of Siberia' translation!

I thought we only had some confusion with tomato names that get translated back and forth and result in the same variety known under different names. Now it looks like it is also possible to get two varieties 'combined' into one and offered under a 'combined' translated name!

Translations often give a person a certain natural 'room' for naming varieties. Sometimes it results in complete loss of its history, and it becomes impossible to trace it. The more I look into this, the more I understand why we should not be offering varieties under their translated names and honor the original names, no matter how weird they may sound or be spelled.