Cosmonaut Volkov Tomatoes :)

[Chessnut23]

I just wanted to share this with fellow tomato lovers.
For 4 or 5 years now I have grown a little known tomato variety called Cosmonaut Volkov.
They always die off before September, but before that happens, they produce massive amounts of the best tasting tomatoes you will ever find.
Probably 40-60 tomatoes. (I dont think that they are determinate)
I am wondering if the heat is a factor, but according to Page 15 my book "How to Grow Juicy Tasty Tomatoes" by Annette Welsford and Lucia Grimmer (in Australia) they are supposed to be more heat resistant than most varieties.
But the leaves always turn yellow & brown and production slows down later in the summer no matter where I rotate them to.
None of the other varieties do that.
Anyways, I wonder if that information may be incorrect and they thrive better in colder weather rather than warm weather (they are from Russia where it's cold in many places) so this year, In an effort to keep them going longer, I'm going to try shading them.
It is well worth the trouble, believe me, they are soo productive and tasty. I'd say that they rival Brandywine, but they out produce my Brandywines by about 700% !!

Gary

[Robert Brenchley]

I tried them two years ago, but had them wiped out by blight before they fruited. It sounds as though I ought to try again.

[ddsack]

I tried them two years in a row, and they succumbed to some kind of blight both years, so I have crossed them off my list unless I get a different seed source.

The first plant was from a nursery, and stayed healthy until it was a couple of feet high and starting to set many blossoms. The disease progressed rapidly and defoliated most of the leaves, though it had set fruit, which grew and ripened slowly, among that last to turn red. I assume because of the reduction of leaves for photosynthesis. Near the end of the summer, it seemed to recover somewhat and newer suckers managed to retain some healthy leaves, but because the plant looked so sickly, I really was not tempted to eat any of the tomatoes. I did ferment and save seed, but the following year, both of the plants grown in different gardens followed the same pattern as the parent in yellowing and spotted leaves appearing early in the growing season. None of the surrounding tomatoes had a similar problem ( I have a limited spraying program with Daconil) and not wanting to take a chance of spreading the disease, I pulled both plants. A volunteer from another part of the garden replaced one of the plants, in the same soil hole with no added care, and it never developed the disease.

I can only surmise that my strain of Cosmonaut Volkov must either be super suceptible to disease, and/or the seeds I fermented must have carried the disease in some way. All the other tomatoes (some 30+ varieties) remained healthy. The other tomato I have had some similar problems with is Turkey Chomp, but at least I have managed to get a few nice ripe tomatoes from that one each time. Just too many untried great varieties out there to give too many chances to one that won't cooperate!

[Chessnut23]

I am growing even more of them this year again for canning because they are always noticeably the best tasting of our maters.
But I'm starting them about a month earlier (in a tunnel with an electric heater set at 70 degrees) to give them more growing time before the summer heat & diseases become a problem.
I may also grow more Cherokee Purple (or Black Krimm) which were both very productive and had great flavor.
Cherokee purple is known to be very disease resistant.

[KLorentz]

I grew Cosmonaut Volkov last year with similar results here in Michigan. While it did produce well and flavor was good Thessaloniki and Al-Kuffa edged it out in flavor and production with Cowlicks Brandywine edgeing it out in flavor and almost catching it in production. We will grow it again this year as weather was not the greatest so maybe it will do better.


Kevin

[Chessnut23]

After growing Cosmonaut Volkovs for years now and reading input from people in other climate zones I wonder if the location has a more noticeable effect on them.
Here, for us here in North Carolina, they always outproduce Brandywine by a landslide, and taste like them.
I use automators and liquid fertilize them with fish emulsion every 2-3 weeks

I have eight 7 week old plants now. (Transplanting 5 or 6 of them)
I started them indoors in a Park Seeds "Bio Dome" on a heat mat.
Ferilized with a 1/2 strength liquid fertilizer mixture.
When they all had their first set of true leaves I transplanted them into 4 inch peat pots and moved them into a grow box in the garage.
Using a low setting on a small electric heater I kept them at 50 degrees for 2 weeks.
I used four 23 watt (same light as 100 watt) natural light bulbs for 18 hrs a day on a timer.
That made them get stocky and strong.
I wanted to get them in on March 13th with a tunnel over them for a month, but I didnt harded them off enough in time so they're going in on March 16th.
I covered the garden soil with clear plastic for about 3 weeks and now it's just over 60 degrees
I'll try to update the progress in a few months.

They are always early so we should have maters from them by late May this year.
If they produce from Late May through mid July they should give us 500 - 700 tomatoes for canning etc.

PS: I dont recommend buying seeds from Park Seeds unless you are familliar with the variety because they are still promoting "Country Taste" which I tried for 2 years with the same results..Tomatoes with little taste and skins as thick as a green pepper that took forever to ripen.