Russian Purple or vice verca :)

[Volvo]

Plant have gotten to aprox 5' , single stemmed them for hopefully more fruitset which hasnt occured but still have a few fruit stems and think the problem may be too much food im feeding them plus other Tomato plants in their way from the Suns Rays ??.
Attatched another stake to each plant this arvo in good faith of more fruitset as read they arent too bad a taster ??..
Who onboard has grown this Tomato variety and what did yous think of Production and Fruit Taste ??.
Kind Thanks for replies..

[bower]

We grew one called Purple Russian and another one called "Ukraine Purple", that was a correction name because it wasn't really Russian, I was told.
Purple Russian was a medium sized, round iirc, decently productive. It had a really odd, unusual taste. Nobody liked it, unfortunately.
Ukraine Purple produced a lot of big paste tomatoes. I would say it's quite a productive cooking tomato, did not think much of the fresh taste.

You being in Australia, probably have something completely different!

[Shule]

I have a gardener friend in California who is a connoisseur of heirloom tomato taste, and if I recall correctly, she loves Purple Russian. I've never tasted it myself. I don't remember what all she said about it. It has a paste-type shape, and wispy foliage (I do know that she called it droopy).

I've been meaning to grow it for the last few years, but I hadn't felt like it was time, yet. Maybe next year!

[Volvo]

Thank you kindly for the replies , have four plants out and all different size and yes wispy foliage though look a little on the lean side re production but then again i am growing in our winter here as our Summer up this way gets a tad tropical .
Comming week or two might prove different though , will wait and see and am keen to put these through the taste bud test for sure as most Black varieties i have grown have been a winner ..

[root_grow]

I grew them last year. The plants were very wispy, around 4' by the end of the season, with beautiful purple paste-shape fruits. My SO especially loves sweet purple tomatoes so I grew them mostly for him - he said they were sweeter than the others, but overall found them too mild. I thought they were just way too mild, but friends seemed to really enjoy it at our tomato tasting. They have the classic paste shape, but a smooth, juicy texture more like a slicing tomato. I think they're meant for fresh eating, they'd be very watery as cooking tomatoes. Not very productive for me and seemed to struggle more with blight than the other varieties, but I might circle back sometime and try again with a different seed source because I have read some rave reviews from others on flavor, productivity and cool tolerance.

I'm interested to see how they do in your garden!

[Volvo]

Will keep you posted for sure in that arena ey:) , mine are also wispy as ive mentioned and not too many fruitsets thus far but will be doing everything to improve on that.
Supposed to be Interdeminate arent they ??..So should grow to take up the extra stake ive bolted to the present one hopefully ??.
Differnet soils and climate areas im sure would have an effect on taste and out of couple of dozen plants with aprox ten or so different varieties so far only three have tickled my taste buds to any extent though others have been good flavour but not what ive tasted in past years especially after Brandywines and Mariannas Peace which always left a lingering lasting taste behind well after eating ..
Those two will be two that goes into next winters crop all going well weatherwise ..

[bower]

The one we had called "Ukraine Purple" is the wispy leaf, pointy shape, paste type - yes we found them mild tasting too. Indeterminate, and here and at the farm they grew to the roof in no time, really loaded with fruit as well.

The one we had called "Purple Russian" was not wispy leaf - big indeterminate plant.

[Nan6b]

I got free seeds of Purple Russian with a seed order, so I'm growing it too. My plants were put in late, so I'm reading this thread with interest.

[Volvo]

Well im 5'8" and they are now above my height so had to bolt another Stake to each other stake give them room to grow , fruits are still green and aprox the size of your normal Roma Tomato.
Leaves are very spindly as previousely mentioned and go crumbly easy??, but overall looking good so far ..

[Nannon]

The crumbly leaves part sounds odd!

How far north are you? If you’re in the tropics I’d have expected them to be ripening by now. Or at least getting close. I’m really interested to see how they end up tasting for you.

[Volvo]

540 klicks north of Brisbane. Think the leaves like that may be due to cold wind ??, also live on the coast.
Mind you its only the bottom leaves i see this in and maybe a tad early for ripening but doubt they will be far off from ripening and also for taste test.

[Volvo]

Russian Putple leaf01.jpg

Russian Purple Leaf02.jpg

Know Pics arent too clear but taken with my mobile phone a little while ago. And do think it is due to the cold wind comming up from the South West as none of the other plants are effected , just think these plants may be more suited for Summer planting than our Winter up here.
Still, i they keep goingnad get a good feed from the fruit on there i shall be happy enough ey.

[Volvo]

Am wandering if it could possibly be late blight affecting my leaves like that ??..

[Volvo]

Purplae Russian.jpg

What can i say other than yes the Plant has ample fruitset , one fruit starting to get to the ripen stage and think the rest shouldnt be too far to follow suit .
For a Plant thats been given the "Purple Russian " name i would have thought it be more tollerent to the cold Westerlies and fog we have had these last few weeks on and off and that is i am sure what the folliar proble of the plants stems from.
Not Disease , Blight or other but just cold. Gave a few Seedlings to a friend close by and he had the same to say about the plant re the cold here of late though his grew about four feet high with few fruit set and Died on him!!..
One Plant ive put in more so effort than others and keen to see how it developed/Developes than most others so far and keen to see how many Fruit i end up with off this plant before it karks it on me ..
Also the Colour , even though of the Black variety i doubt it will stand up to the Purple tag within the Name , maybe the Name should have read "Chocolate " more so than Purple ??.
If the taste is there i will give it a Summer trial as well see if the results turn out differently and Yes i know that Taste is also what the ground gives off to a Plant like the old saying for us Humans
"We are what we eat ".
Talking to a few Europeans of late regarding tastes of Tomatos and they went back to their heritage saying their soil over there although rocky and hard to cultivate Gave off Excellent tasting Tomatos due to what was within the soil plus the quallity of the water that came off the Land .
Anyway shouldnt be too far off and i can come back with my thoughts regarding taste of this variety , and Keen ?? Yes i am..

[Volvo]

Purplae Russian.jpg

[Volvo]

Did have the Pic inserted within the Post but dissapeared when i saved the Draft after editing??.

[HL2601]

Here are my Purple Russian from this year, I really like them. They have come in in clusters of 5. The leaves really are droopy and I was a little worried about them in the beginning. They have given lots of fruit during an exceptionally hot, dry summer here. I don't find them overly juicy, but not altogether typical paste like either. Rootgrow gave a nice description above.
Heide

[Volvo]

Nice looking fruit Heidi , i have three more ripening aprox the same colour as yours . The first two i picked , one went for seed and the other to the taste test and for now i have to say it wasnt bad .
Will wait for the others to colour like yours and see how the taste compares then and if i have enough time i might just place some more seeds in a seed tray and see if they can make it through our Summer although i doubt it and the long term prediction for us is above average rainfall this Summer with the possability of a few Cyclones to form and if that happens well the i shall Kiss my Toamto patch Bye Bye til next Autumn lol.
Leaves on my plants are drying slowly to the top of the plants with a fair amount of fruitset which i hope ripen before they kark it though im hoping they last the distance ..
Thank you for the update of yours ey..

[Nannon]

Get ready for another cold wind blast coming up early next week! It’s cold and windy down in NSW at the moment. This time of year I start to really miss QLD.

540ks north has to put you somewhere around Gladstone. Hopefully you don’t get any big cyclones up that way this season. You should get another decent season in for tomatoes the other side of summer, but it’s sounding like it’s potentially going to be a shocker over summer with a proper wet season. It’s been a while since there has been a decent wet season I think.

Do your plants have any leaves left now? My over winter tomatoes that have somehow survived the cold up til now are succumbing to powdery mildew.

[Volvo]

And good to see another Aussie onboard . Yes mate live in Happyrock (Gladstone ) and these Cold Westerlies have certainly played havoc with a couple of my varieties " Purple Russian " being one , though think i will manage to reap most of the fruit before they ianilate the rest of the plants lol,
Am expecting a rough Summer wetwise and normally dont plantout in our Summers due to Heat , wet , and heaps of nasties crawling all over the plant but this year i have planted out more Tomatos see how i go for a back to back crop.
Mostly because ive been out of my Tomato growing for quite a spell and with this winter being rather kind to me so far got all excited and started more seedlings especially when Good Friends send you more seeds lol..
And yes it has been awhile since weve had a decent wet , with the last one we were stuck on the Gold Coast in a Caravan Park which seen us abandon our Caravan for fear of us including the Van being flooded or blown away.
Fell back to the Sons house in Brisvages and when we came back to recoup our Van all was good and the Van was still standing and in good shape which gave the Van a good rep ey.
Powdery Mildew with your Tomatos ?? , have you tried 3% Hydrogen Peroxide mixed with water to combat it ??. Tablespoon or a wee bit more per 5 ltres of water ??.
I used it on my Cukes earlier on when i had a sever bout of Powdery Mildew and worked for some but not the others ??..
Originally from Wollongong and an ex Shunter down that way so know what the August / September Westerlies can do ey..
See its snowing in Orange at the moment and remember one Christmas driving from katoomba through Orange and snowed all the way and that wa December ey..