Gardeners are asking how to grow the Ekaterina Velikaya f1 tomato, which they've seen reviews of on online forums. Specialty stores now offer a variety of tomato varieties, each with a striking variety of names. These can include names of fruits (Yellow Banana), professions (Hairdresser), cities (Volgograd), animals (Tambov Wolf), and personal names (Lyubasha, Katya).
There are even "royal" varieties, the most popular of which include: King of the Early, King of Kings, King of Giants, King of Large, and Pink King. You can also purchase "Imperial" and "Princely" varieties, also known as "Great" varieties: Catherine the Great, Vladimir the Great F1, and Alexander the Great. Let's take a closer look at the Catherine the Great F1 tomato, examine its key characteristics, and read reviews from gardeners who have grown this variety.
Description of the Catherine the Great variety
Characteristics and description of the variety:
- The seeds of this tomato variety are produced by the company "Sedek", which is one of the leading companies engaged in the production and sale of seeds of various garden crops.
- Tomatoes are mid-early varieties. The first harvest can begin 3.5–4 months after sowing.
- The variety is quite tall: the average height of plants is 2 m, and some specimens can grow up to 2.5 m, which requires repeated tying of plants to supports, as well as timely pinching of side shoots to increase the yield of the bushes.
- The fruits hang in clusters of about 5-6 pieces each.
- The fruits are round in shape with fairly dense skin and juicy and fleshy pulp.
- The skin structure prevents the fruit from cracking even when overripe, so tomatoes tolerate long-distance transportation and long-term storage in fresh form well.
- The color of the tomatoes is scarlet.
- The weight of each fruit is about 250-500 g.
- With a planting pattern of 50x40 cm, 1 m² can yield about 25-30 kg of sweet tomatoes, suitable for fresh consumption, salads, ketchup, juices, pastes and various sauces.
The variety in question is only suitable for growing in greenhouse conditions, and it is preferable if the greenhouses are heated.
The seeds undergo high-quality treatment at the factory against diseases, so tomatoes are not susceptible to diseases such as verticillium wilt, brown spot, and mosaic disease.
Advantages of the variety:
- average maturity;
- large fruits, which are maintained throughout the entire fruiting period;
- high yield;
- tolerate sudden temperature changes well;
- suitable for long-term storage and transportation;
- resistance to most diseases that affect tomatoes.
Despite the positive aspects of the Catherine the Great variety, it also has a number of significant drawbacks that prevent it from being in high demand among gardeners:
- This variety is a hybrid, so there is no point in harvesting seeds yourself - some of the properties from the mother bushes will not be preserved;
- The maximum yield can be obtained if tomatoes of this variety are grown in greenhouses, especially heated ones;
- additional tying of plants is required due to their very significant height;
- The fruits are not suitable for whole-fruit salting and pickling.
Reviews from gardeners
Let's look at the reviews of those who have planted this tomato variety in their gardens. Due to a number of characteristics and disadvantages of this variety, tomatoes Ekaterina Velikaya tomatoes aren't very popular among gardeners, so the number of gardeners planting these tomatoes isn't growing as rapidly as they'd like. Here's what gardeners have to say about the results of their efforts growing these tomatoes.
Inna Dmitrievna, Moscow:
"I was looking for new tomato varieties and came across this one. The picture showed some really beautiful tomatoes. I decided to try growing them. I liked everything, especially the taste. The only thing is, on the seed package, the manufacturer stated that the fruit size would be roughly the same throughout the growing season. That didn't work out for us: some were particularly large, weighing 300-350g, but others were half that size."
Evgeny Alexandrovich, Perm region:
"The tomatoes are very tasty, but they grow very tall, so I'll be looking for an alternative."
Marina Vitalievna, Saratov:
"We planted this tomato variety for the first time last season. We have a greenhouse, but it's unheated. The fruits were of varying sizes, but very tasty. We managed to harvest about 18 kg from five plants. That's a record for us."
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I've been growing only this tomato variety for the past few years. I love the way it looks and tastes. I haven't had any problems growing it, and I only use [fertilizer]. BioGrow.