Rambo F1 Tomato Variety—Great Tomato Variety for New Farmers

Rambo F1 tomato variety

If you are new to tomato farming, I know you’re wondering if this Rambo variety is suitable for you…

and whether it is profitable to grow Rambo F1 tomato variety in Kenya

If that describes you, then you’ve come to the right place.

Here, I explain how I overcame confusion to settle on growing Rambo F1 tomato variety.

In great details, I narrate my real life experience growing Rambo F1 tomato variety…

so that you may save money and profit big if you decide to grow the variety!

To gain more out of this post, I urge you to spare a few minutes of your time to read through it.

By doing so—you may bump into rare insights…

that could transform you into a profitable tomato farmer—that you’ve always wished for.

Ready?

Continue reading…

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The dilemma I faced When I to grow Rambo F1 Variety Tomato Seeds

I clearly remember the first time I decided to grow tomato.

Filled with hope, I set out on a research journey.

My goal…

To find out which was the best tomato variety to grow in Kenya.

I started my quest by…

After asking some tomato brokers in Ukulima market the tomato variety they prefer to buy from farmers.

Most of them were non comital on what they want.

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Nevertheless, they strongly advised me against growing the traditional tomato varieties like:

• Onyx,
• Cal-j,
• Money-maker
• and Rio-Grande.

I wondered why the warnings—yet the seed for these varieties were very cheap compared to the F1 seed tomato varieties like Rambo being sold in Kenya.

When I probed them to give a reason why I should avoid the old varieties…

All they said customers no longer like the ‘old’ varieties.

Another reason they gave was, “the varieties have a short shelf life compared to the new varieties.”

(they gave me one major reason why they avoid the varieties like plague… details are further down this page. To find it continue reading)

“If that’s your advice, I will grow the modern tomato varieties.” I said to myself.

I take my Research Online To Discover There Are Quite a Number of tomato Varieties in Kenya:

Only to discover there are hundreds of the so called modern F1 tomato varieties.

There was…

1. Rambo F1 tomato variety from Royal seed company,
2. Ana F1 from continental seeds,
3. Elgon Ndume from Elgon Kenya
4. Star 9065 from Starke Ayres
5. M 82 from Simlaw Kenya
6. Roma VF from Seed Co Kenya
7. Asila F1 from Semenis
8. Eva F1 from Amiran Kenya
9. Corrazone from Amiran Kenya
10. Nemoneta from Amiran Kenya
11. And many more varieties that I haven’t listed here.

But I still had a big problem, Which I believe you’ll also face.

Continue reading to find out more…

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From this rather long List Which variety do I grow?

Someone said that the devil is in the details.

So to choose the best F1 tomato Variety, I poured my mind to find the details of each variety.

However, I was bitterly disappointed by the outcome of the research.

All these varieties I studied gave the same promise of–

• High yield,
• Resistance to verticillium wilt,
• Resistance to bacterial wilt,
• Long storage period among others.

A casual look at the differences between the tomato varieties showed they were minor.

They were so small that they could be ignored altogether.

But the question remained:

Which tomato variety is the best among this list?

To answer this question I had no option but to…

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To do an experiment on my own.

It’s only by experimentation that I would discover the best tomato variety to grow in Kenya.

Out of this long list, I settled on two varieties.

1. Star 9065 by Starkes Ayres
2. Rambo F1 tomato variety by Royal seed company

At the time of choosing the two tomato varieties above, there wasn’t anything so special that differentiated them from the rest.

When it came to the shape of the tomato, some varieties shared the same shape.

If it was about yield… some varieties had the same yield potential.

When it came to disease resistance—all of them had some sort of resistance.

So my decision in choosing the two was purely a gamble.

However, the good news is gamble paid itself.

By growing the two varieties, I made a lot of money.

And it is my hope that you get similar, if not better results… when you grow Rambo F 1 variety.

I shared my experience growing Star 9065 in a previous post.

Follow the link above to read about it.

Today, however, I want to share my experience growing Rambo F1 tomato variety.

My Experience Growing Rambo F1 tomato Variety

Let’s start with the:

 cost of the seed:

I did this project back in 2018, and unfortunately, I lost the sales receipt.

What I do remember about the cost of 50 grams of seed was over KES 15,000/=

At the time of writing this, I did a research on the current Rambo F1 price.

After searching here and there, I found…

An online shop was quoting the price of 50 grams of Rambo F1 seed for KES 21, 250/=

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Viability of the Rambo Seed

I sowed the seeds in a nursery, and from my observation, the germination percentage was 99%.

However, I committed a major mistake during sowing the seed.

I sowed the seed in a soil nursery.

“How could this be a problem?” “I thought soil is the best media for growing plants?”

You may ask.

You’re right. Soil is the best media for plant production.

However, it contains funguses and other disease causing organisms.

I lost a good number of Rambo tomato seedlings to Fusarium wilt soil infection.

That experience taught me a lesson.

Never grow expensive tomato seed in a soil nursery.

Instead, use seed trays that contain an inert media like coco peat.

It is only by growing expensive seed in a seed tray that you can guarantee 100% survival rate!

Best Seed Trays for Growing Rambo F1 Tomato

For the best tomato germination results, use cocopeat in your seed trays.

I asure you that you’ll get 100% sucess rate and avoid tomato seedling diseases like Fusarium Wilt  

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Time taken from sowing of seed to transplanting

Rambo F1 seed grows very fast.

You plant them today, and in five days the seedlings are already 3-4 cm tall.

And by the 15^th day, 90% of the seedlings are ready for transplanting.

One caution that you must consider:

“Prepare your garden at least 2 weeks before sowing the Rambo seed.”

This will allow you transplant the seedlings as soon as possible when they reach transplanting age.

One more thing you mustn’t forget is to have sufficient farm-help during transplanting.

A little delay in transplanting (because of lack of labor) may result seedlings overgrowing in the nursery.

Overgrown Rambo F1 seedlings are weak, and prone to breaking.

Overgrown seedlings become weak plants and eventually produce low yields.

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Pest and Disease Management in Rambo F1 Tomato Variety

During my project period, I never experienced major issues with pests or diseases.

I guess it’s because I was pro-active in pest and disease management.

Never did I let a situation out of control.

Whenever I noticed a pest—say aphids, I would spot spray immediately.

This stopped the disease or pest from spreading.

That’s not all.

Week after week, I did preventive sprays against tuta absoluta.

When doing so, I was careful not to overuse one chemical.

What I did was to alternate pesticide and insecticide use.

This involved the using of once class of chemicals during one spraying week,

Then changing to another class—so as to prevent pesticide tolerance.

This regular change ensured that I was ahead of the pests’ every time.

Nevertheless, when Rambo F1 were maturing and ripening, I met two unlikely pests whose control was a pain.

These pests were birds and rats.

The ripening fruit was very attractive.

Fruits were bright red, so from a far—they would attract human thieves, birds, and rodents like rats and moles.

 This forced me to guard the farm 24 hours to stop thieves.

However, I did not know how to deal with rodents—that would sneak below the foliage and chew out holes on the fruit.

To minimize loses, I had to devise a queer strategy.

It involved the daily harvest all tomato fruits that were showing signs of ripening…

i.e. those that were at the red breaker stage.

If I were to rank myself on pest and disease management, I think I scored 8 out of 10.

The best soil to grow Rambo F1 Variety

I grew this variety on a farm that had loose red soil.

The soil had some bits of marram…so the soil was well aerated.

My soil was very similar to the soil found in Kiambu-Ruiru area.

From my assessment, Rambo F1 performed very well in that soil.

That said…I know you are probably asking…

“What if my soil is of a different type?”

“Will the variety work for me?”

The truth is, “tomato can grow in a variety of soil types.”

Whether clay, loam, sandy soil, alluvial soil—tomato can grow in all of them.

All you need is to apply some amendments if your soil is deficient in any way.

If your soil has lots of clay, consider adding lots of organic matter from farmyard manure, rice stubble, maize stalks, and other plant debris.

If your soil is sandy, consider adding some organic matter, or mixing it with clay to make it better at retaining moisture.

Blossom End Rot in Rambo F1

Every tomato variety is prone to this deficiency caused by the lack of calcium.

To prevent the occurrence of the disease, I did the following:

1. During transplanting, I soaked the seedlings in water containing calcium foliar feed for 10 minutes.
2. I also top dressed the soil with CAN 3 weeks after transplanting.
3. To eliminate the problem completely, I also ensured that irrigation was consistent… for without water, calcium and other nutrients will not be available for plant use.
4. Once every 3 weeks, I applied calcium foliar feeds.

One precaution:

don’t overfeed the tomato plants with any fertilizer.

Excess fertilizer use may cause fertilizer burns and the eventual death of plants.

CAN and DAP fertilizers are known to cause serious burns and eventual death of plants.

To avoid this, it’s better to split the application of fertilizer.

Instead of applying a lot of fertilizer in one go, apply little dozes over a period of time.

The irrigation system that works best on Rambo F1—and any other Tomato variety.

When it comes to tomato irrigation, I would go for drip irrigation and no other.

Why?

Tomato does lot like to have wet leaves.

So whatever irrigation system you use, avoid one that would leave water spots on the leaves.

That said, sprinkler irrigation is a no-no for Rambo tomato.

The other irrigation system that could work is furrow irrigation.

However, it has a major disadvantage.

It easily spreads tomato bacterial wilt from one area of the field to another.

How you may ask.

When the water flows from one end of the field to another by furrows, the water carries fungal spores.

And in a few days, the whole field is infected by bacterial wilt.

Because of this reason, I discourage the use of furrow irrigation for tomato.

Nevertheless, if you have no history of bacterial wilt, in your farm, you can try furrow irrigation.

Resistance of Rambo F1 to leaf miners and Tuta Absoluta

These two pests…leaf miners and tuta absoluta have become serious tomato pests. in Kenya and the whole of East Africa.

One thing I noticed about the variety is, “It is highly resistant to leaf miners and tuta absoluta.”

It is unlike Cal-J, Onyx, and Rio- Grande that are highly susceptible to the two notorious pests.

Marketability of Rambo F1 Fruits.

Now this is a big part of tomato production.

Without it, you’ll be doing monkey business that only results in loses.

From my experience, I never had issues selling the Rambo fruit.

Why?

The plant produces 80% percentage of grade A fruits, and 20% grade B fruit.

You could be wondering—what’s up with this tomato grading…

To end your query…

Grade A fruits consists of large uniform shapes fruits free of shape imperfections.

Grade B fruit are medium sized fruits that are also free of shape imperfections.

Yield per acre of Rambo F1

One acre of well-maintained tomato should give you over 30 tons of fruit.

That is equivalent to 428—70 kilo boxes of tomato fruit.

Doing some simple math and assuming that you sell one box for KES 3,000 per box, you should earn gross sales of approximately KES 1,284,000 per acre.

Conclusion:

Rambo tomato is a great option for farmers.

The variety is highly productive, resistant to pests and diseases and produces a large percentage of marketable fruits.

What are your thoughts on this?

Related content: What is the right spacing for Rambo F1 Tomato?