The variety that will become your favorite is the Grapefruit tomato: large, easy to care for and amazingly tasty

Description of the variety

The plant is indeterminate, non-standard, reaches 2 m in height, and therefore requires staking and pinching. Tomatoes are disease resistant. Potato type leaf. The variety is mid-season (up to 180 days), yield is up to 9 kg per bush.

The tomatoes are large, flat-round, yellow-pink-orange when ripe, sometimes pink in color with yellow washes. The weight of the fruit is 300-500 g, but some specimens reach 1 kg or even more. When cut, the tomato flesh is yellow with pink stripes. The dry matter content is high, there are no chambers, and there are very few seeds. The taste is excellent: rich and sweet. Stored well.

Salad variety. The fruits are not suitable for whole-fruit canning, but are good for making sauces.

Variety - “GRAPEFRUIT”. Tomatoes from Fedor.

Planting and care

Seeds can be sown at any time of the year - the variety is intended for year-round cultivation in heated greenhouses. To obtain a seasonal harvest, seeds are sown at the end of February and in the 1st-2nd decade of March.

The depth of embedding is 2 cm. The soil on top is compacted and irrigated with water. Keep containers under film until germination.

To grow healthy strong seedlings:

• create a temperature regime of 22-24 degrees;
• irrigate through a strainer or spray bottle;
• watered with liquid complex fertilizers - “Kemira-universal” or “Krepysh”;
• dive with 2-3 true leaves in a 0.5 liter container.

Recommended tomato varieties

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Two-color large-fruited varieties of tomatoes - bicolors - are gaining great popularity among gardeners. One of them is the new Grapefruit variety. Its giant yellow fruits with a crimson top are amazing in taste and very healthy. They simultaneously accumulate large amounts of lycopene and carotenoids.

How to grow seedlings

There are a huge number of methods for growing seedlings, and each vegetable grower chooses his own, proven over the years. However, new technologies are emerging that may be of interest to gardeners. For example, the method of cropping the tops, or the Chinese method of growing seedlings, or rather, propagating. It is most suitable for tall tomatoes such as Grapefruit.

Advantages of the method:

• plants get sick less;
• bushes are stockier and more branched;
• higher productivity;
• increased resistance to stress;
• they take root better after being planted in a permanent place.

Seed preparation

Seeds are prepared for sowing in the traditional way. First, the largest ones are selected, then they are disinfected in a solution of brilliant green, without diluting, for 30 minutes, followed by washing and drying.

Container and soil

It is recommended to take containers for growing seedlings of sufficient volume and a height of approximately 10 cm for the successful development of the root system. If there are no holes in the containers, they must be made, for example, with a hot awl.

Soil for seedlings is most often purchased in supermarkets. It’s a good idea to add agroperlite to the soil. It takes away excess moisture in case of overflow and releases it in case of deficiency.

Sowing

The seeds are laid out on slightly compacted and moistened soil, spilled with a Fitosporin solution. Then sprinkle with a layer of soil no more than 1 cm high and spray with water from a spray bottle.

Growing and care

A month after sowing, at the stage of 2-3 leaves, an “operation” is carried out - cutting off the tops. The day before, the plants are watered abundantly.

The procedure consists of cutting off the above-ground part of the plant below the cotyledons and immediately placing it in an aqueous solution of Epin.

Next, the plants are transplanted into cups with soil and covered with a glass cap or plastic bag. This creates a greenhouse effect and improves rooting. After a few days, the plastic bag is removed and the plants are placed in a sunny place.

Important! In this case, the survival rate of tomatoes is not 100%; some plants (20-30%) may die for beginning gardeners. Therefore, it is advisable to calculate possible losses when sowing.

Secrets of cultivation

You can grow grapefruit tomatoes in absolutely any region of Russia. However, for successful ripening in some parts of the country it is necessary to use a greenhouse. It is better to start preparing seeds for seedlings in the first half of spring; to do this, you need to soak them in water for a day. By the way, you can add a small amount of a growth stimulator to the water. After this, they can be sown in prepared containers; “grapefruit” is not picky about soil. When the first grains germinate, they begin to sprout, a third leaf forms on them, and it’s time to pick. In order for plants to quickly adapt to climatic conditions, it is recommended to harden them.

If you plan to plant grapefruit tomatoes in a shelter, you should do this already in mid-May. But this variety of tomato should be planted in open ground only at the end of June, when warm weather sets in. Once you notice that the tomatoes have taken root, you can start feeding them. Complex mineral fertilizers are suitable for this, and organic matter will not be superfluous. Each time after applying fertilizer, the soil around the tomato bushes must be loosened and mulched.

Gardeners also recommend pinching every 10 days. It is necessary to plant tomatoes until August. Please note: stepsons that have grown more than four centimeters should not be removed, otherwise the plant may simply die.

Due to the fact that the stems are very long and the fruits are large, the bushes can break. To avoid this, plants should be tied up. Both trellises and large stakes for each bush will do. These structures will ensure the integrity of the plants - right up to the moment of harvesting.

How to grow tomatoes

Planting seedlings in open ground is carried out when the danger of return frosts has passed, and in closed ground - 1-2 weeks earlier.

Landing

It is recommended to grow the Grapefruit tomato in closed ground (a greenhouse or greenhouse), although in open ground, as many vegetable growers testify, it gives a good harvest.

The soil is watered with a Fitosporin solution two weeks before planting.

The distance between plants is maintained at 0.5 m from each other and 0.4 m between rows.

Add ½ humus, 1 tbsp to the holes for seedlings. spoon of potassium sulfate, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of superphosphate, 1 glass of ash, 1 tbsp. spoon of fish meal and mix.

Plants are placed in prepared holes, oriented from north to south, covered with soil and watered.

After 10 days, the plants are watered with a yeast solution (100 g of yeast per 10 liters of water) so that the seedlings grow well and do not stretch.

Care

Tomatoes do not like frequent watering. If it is not very hot, watering them once a week is enough.

Feeding with mullein and mineral fertilizers is required, which is carried out three times per season.

Foliar feeding is very good for development: iodine, manganese, boric acid, Epin, Zircon, Fitosporin, NV-101. Spraying is carried out every 10 days.

In hot weather, tomatoes are sprayed with a solution of boric acid or “HB-101” (preferably “HB-101”, since if there is an error in diluting boric acid, the plants are damaged).

During the flowering of the third cluster, the plants are fed with a calcium solution in a ratio of 1 tbsp. spoon per 10 liters of water.

Be sure to mulch the soil with grass or hay. The thickness of the mulch layer is 8 cm.

Features and possible difficulties

Grapefruit tomato requires the formation of 2-3 stems and a garter. As vegetable growers note, this variety is very light-loving and does not tolerate the slightest shade.

How to form a tomato bush? The first stepson is left below the first brush, on the left is the main stem, on the right is the stepson - the second stem, and the stepson below the first stepson is the third stem. The remaining stepsons are removed.

Particular attention should be paid to the prevention of late blight, since Grapefruit fruits begin to ripen in late August - early September. To do this, it is necessary to improve the ventilation and illumination of the plants: when tomatoes the size of a nut are tied to the brush, all the leaves under the brush are removed.

Attention! You can’t cut too many leaves at once, about two leaves a week!

Diseases and pests

Grapefruit is a disease-resistant tomato variety, but to prevent the plants from getting late blight, the most common disease of tomatoes, the bushes are sprayed with solutions of Trichodermin and Fitosporin every two weeks.

The most common pest of tomatoes is the whitefly. The biological method of combating it is the settlement of a parasitoid wasp, Encarsia formosa, every two weeks in the form of infected puparia.

Spraying with Fitoverma solution helps well against other insect pests.

Diseases and pests

Late blight of tomatoes
Prevention - will help avoid infection and prevent the need for treatment.
It is necessary to regularly spray tomatoes with special solutions against pests. The main damage is caused by: the Colorado potato beetle, aphids, spider mites, slugs and mole crickets. There is no need to stock up on pest and disease control products for future use; use different products to prevent pests from getting used to them. If preventive measures do not help, insecticides can be used.

Grapefruit tomatoes begin to ripen in cold weather - in early September, so spraying procedures against late blight are required. To do this, use the following recipe: dissolve 1 liter of milk and a few drops of iodine in a bucket of water. If the disease appears, special microbiological agents should be used. Read about varieties resistant to late blight here.

We also bring to your attention information about tomato diseases such as fusarium and verticillium.

The nuances of growing in open ground and greenhouses

It is recommended to grow the Grapefruit tomato in a greenhouse primarily due to the late ripening of the fruit.

It is known that in a greenhouse, tomatoes often suffer from extreme heat, but at temperatures above 40°C, tomato flowers are sterilized, therefore, ovaries do not form.

To reduce the temperature in the greenhouse, the roof is covered with lutrasil, and the doors and windows are also opened.

When watering tomatoes in a greenhouse, adhere to the following rules:

• water for irrigation should be at a temperature of 20-22°C;
• water at the root without touching the leaves;
• water in the morning, since during evening watering condensation forms, which favors the proliferation of pests and diseases.

Of course, on the one hand, it is better to grow tomatoes in a greenhouse. But on the other hand, varieties for closed ground cause more trouble and do not produce such a bountiful harvest as for open ground. Don’t chase the best varieties, experiment and choose ones that suit your weather conditions. If the climate of the region allows, the Grapefruit variety can be grown in open ground. With this method, the main thing is to choose the right landing site. This should be a sunny place without stagnant water, preferably where radishes, carrots, beets, cabbage, legumes or lettuce previously grew.

The soil in open ground is fertilized in the same way as in a greenhouse.

Video: Grapefruit tomato variety, review

If you grew Grapefruit tomatoes, please write whether you liked them or not. What was the yield and taste of the fruits like under your climatic conditions? Would you grow them again and recommend them to others? If possible, attach a photo of your tomatoes to your review. Thank you!

Your reviews of the Grapefruit tomato and additions to the description will help many tomato lovers evaluate this variety objectively and decide whether it is worth planting or not.

For other rare varieties of tomatoes with photos, descriptions and reviews from gardeners, see our Tomato Catalog in alphabetical order.

Advantages and disadvantages of the variety

The advantages of the Grapefruit tomato include:

• amazing taste;
• rich aroma;
• unusual appearance and colors;
• good keeping quality;
• resistance to many diseases and pests;
• productivity;

The disadvantages are the need for garter and late ripening.

Fruit

You may be interested in: Tomato “Siberian giant”: variety description, characteristics, reviews

Tomatoes of this variety are round, slightly flattened. On average, the weight of one ripe fruit reaches 300-500 grams, but quite often gardeners grow real giants, whose weight is about one kilogram! Ripe tomatoes are characterized by a yellow tint with a slight pink tint. When cut, the vegetables resemble grapefruit. That is why the variety received the name of the famous citrus. Juicy and sweet tomatoes are best consumed fresh, but they are unlikely to produce juice: it contains a large amount of dry matter, which makes the tomatoes dense and fleshy. “Grapefruit” is also not particularly good for canning, because the fruits are very large. Another distinctive feature of tomatoes of this variety is their low seed content.

Farmer reviews

Vegetable growers unanimously admire the taste and beauty of the Grapefruit tomato.
Nadezhda, Kaluga region: “My Grapefruit is seeds from Redko.
Indeterminate, has grown to 1.5 m. Very tasty, but the yield is low, I will repeat and tame.” Ekaterina, Orsha: “Very productive - I’m surprised. It turns out about 5 kg per bush - for me this is a lot. The bush is powerful, initially it had two stems, now it seems to be growing into four. Late, the fruits are large, sour, juicy. I repeated it from my seeds and realized that this variety does not tolerate the slightest shade - it grew in the middle of the central ridge. The yield and size of the fruits are significantly lower than last year (then tomatoes grew right next to the entrance).”

Vitana, Izhevsk: “In 2015, I planted Grapefruit for the first time. In the greenhouse it turned out to be one of the largest, although it was a little late and did not have time to show itself in all its glory. I liked both the taste and the size! This year, Grapefruit surprised and delighted me even more. Its fruits were the largest. The best harvest was on a bush that grew freely in a grape greenhouse. It grew into two stems and was about 2 m high. The tomatoes on the upper clusters were even larger than those on the lower ones. I harvested the last fruits in October, and recently ate the last one. The taste is very good! And handsome."

Best reviews from our readers

• I really liked this tomato. I grow it in open ground. The taste is very tasty, beautiful. I will definitely be planting this year.
• There are no words for how good it is!
• I've been growing it for three years and I really like it. the taste is excellent, the weight of the fruit is from 200 to 600 g. Grown in open ground. The most interesting thing is that for 2 years at the place where the plant was planted, the next year seedlings grew from seeds that had overwintered the winter in an open garden bed. Such plants do not suffer from any disease, they are strong and do not cause trouble. This is my family's favorite variety.
• The tomatoes correspond to the description, taste great and the color of the cut really resembles a grapefruit, the weight of one fruit is at least 600 grams, 3 pieces in a bunch, up to 2 m high. Late ripening (early September), but worth it. A fleshy fruit with a very small number of seeds, little susceptible to disease. I advise you to purchase seeds of this variety once and you will grow it constantly.

You can buy Grapefruit tomato seeds from the sellerValery MedvedevRoyal GardenAssessment of those who grew:

The Grapefruit tomato will always appeal to lovers of orange tomatoes. The new product has many valuable characteristics and useful properties. 15-16 giant tomatoes are harvested from 1 bush.