Danko is a red heart-shaped or ox heart type tomato. I thought it would be fitting to spotlight a heart-shaped variety this week beings it is Valentine's Day week. The determinate plants have wispy regular leaves and produce in abundance. I did not realize at first that this variety was supposed to be short and wispy, I thought my plant was sick. I was relieved when I found out is was not sick. I did have to support the branches of my plant because the weight of the tomatoes pulled on the branches. The tomatoes formed in clusters of 3-4 tomatoes, so there was a lot of weight on each cluster branch. This plant could easily be grown in a bucket or container with some type of support. The tomatoes averaged between 5-10 oz. and had a delicious flavor.
Danko is a Russian commercial variety that was developed by Siberian Research Plant Breeding Institute. Danko is a hero from a legend/story by Maksim Gorky. Danko sacrificed himself to save his people by tearing out his heart and holding its burning heart to lead them from darkness to freedom.
I enjoy growing heart-shaped tomatoes because they have the meatiness of a paste tomato, but have the flavor of a standard tomato. I try and grow a few heart-shaped varieties every year in my garden. I will be spotlighting the other heart-shaped varieties I grew last year in upcoming posts. I definitely recommend giving this variety a try in your garden! Stop by next week to see which tomato variety I will be spotlighting from my 2014 garden. Happy Valentine's Day!!!!!
interesting. :) I read that in the 1920's in USA, tomatoes were considered valentine symbols and were often called "love apples". kinda fitting.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting indeed! Ironically when tomatoes were first introduced to the U.S. they were considered poisonous!
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