Quick Summary of Ukrainskaya Elena (Ukrainian Elena / Olena)
- 🌍 Origin: A highly regarded heirloom from Ukraine, popularized by the well-known breeder and collector Ruslan Dukhov. The name is often translated and circulated as Ukrainskaya Elena, Ukrainska Olena, or simply Ukrainian Alena.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), powerful but slender plants with Potato Leaf (PL) foliage. Grows to about 1.8 – 2+ meters (6 – 6.5+ ft) depending on whether it is grown in open ground or a greenhouse.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Very large, oblate (flat-round) pink beefsteaks. Some early fruits from megablooms take on a wide, boat-like shape (referred to in Russia as “lapot”). The flesh is meaty, dense, yet very juicy. It does not crack easily.
- 👅 Flavor: A well-balanced, classic old-fashioned tomato flavor with a good mix of sweetness and acidity. While some find it slightly lacking in pure sugar sweetness, it makes up for it with rich, aromatic notes.
- ⏳ Maturity & Yield: Mid-to-late season. It is a heavy yielder that sets fruit reliably without skipping trusses, even in intense heat or partial shade. Excellent for processing into thick, high-quality tomato juice.
Seeds are from Dukhov (Ukraine).
– External description of the bush: mid-late variety, spreading, with potato leaf, powerful but slender.
– Fruit set – without skipping trusses, the last trusses are ripening.
– Bush height in open ground by August 14th – 1.8 m (6 ft), by September 6th – 1.9 m (6.2 ft).
– Trusses – 2 to 4 fruits each.
– Overall yield – high.
– Fruit: oblate (flat-round), deep pink.
– Density of the ripe fruit – medium.
– Taste – harmonious, well-balanced, with a nice tang, juicy, sweetness is a 4 out of 5!
First impression: a tomato meant for processing.. Doesn’t crack.
Disadvantages – lacked just a little bit of sweetness.
Seedling rating – 5, bush – 4+, fruit – 4, overall variety rating – 4+.
Girls, are Ukrainskaya Alena and Ukrainskaya Elena different varieties? I have Alena, it looks very much like Elena. Unfortunately, I don’t have a photo, but in the greenhouse it’s over 2 meters (6.5 ft) tall, and the fruits have no tartness/acidity at all…
Galina Mikhaylovna said:
Girls, are Ukrainskaya Alena and Ukrainskaya Elena different varieties? I have Alena, it looks very much like Elena…
Galina, as far as I know, it’s the exact same variety. It’s just an inaccurate translation.
In Dukhov’s catalog, it is listed as Ukrainskaya Elena. So I saved it under that name.
Everything is correct – very powerful, tall, almost without acidity, the fruit is oblate, looking a bit like a “lapot” (a wide, boat-shaped traditional woven shoe).
Alena said:
In Dukhov’s catalog, it is listed as Ukrainskaya Elena.
But he sent it to me as “Ukrainska Olena”. This year I decided to “translate” it into Russian 🤫 .
Potato leaf, powerful bush, beautiful fruits (moderately sweet – you can feel that it is a tomato) – everything suits me.
Alena, I see that the weight of “ours” is the same 😄 But mine is not shaped like a “lapot” (woven shoe).
Nataliya said:
…Alena, I see that the weight of “ours” is the same 😄 But mine is not shaped like a “lapot”.
Nataliya, only the first ones were “lapot” shaped for me (possibly from a fused megabloom).
But the rest are like this:
By the shape of the cut, you can see that the fruit is flat-round and, as it were, slightly bent at the sides – like a boat/lapot.
Tomorrow I will pick a couple of fruits and take a picture of them “in profile” for clarity.
Mine are the same. I call them oblate (flat-round) (read it somewhere – liked the expression 😉 ).
Also, it seems, this shape is sometimes called a “broad heart” 🤫
No, Nataliya, they are not hearts at all.
Oblate – yes.
My Elena, a.k.a. Alena, a.k.a. Olena turned out like this
Nadezhda said:
My Elena, a.k.a. Alena, a.k.a. Olena turned out like this
How delicious it looks… I will definitely plant it next season 😘
Nina, it doesn’t just look it, it actually is delicious. Not all of mine are this elongated, maybe just a little bit, there are simply oblate ones. The taste is sweet with a slight tang.
Nadezhda said:
Nina, it doesn’t just look it, it actually is delicious. Not all of mine are this elongated, maybe just a little bit, there are simply oblate ones. The taste is sweet with a slight tang.
Nadya, is it tall?
Yes, tall.
Out of 10 seedlings, only 2 had potato leaves for me.
We grew it this year. An amazing, aromatic, and tasty variety. We will continue to grow it.
Ukrainska Olena. The sound ” Ї ” sounds like YI. It can be translated as Ukrainskaya Elena. A pink large-fruited beefsteak type tomato. One of the few that didn’t have its 2nd and 3rd trusses burn in the heat. It set fruit even under a tree, in the shade. Trusses weigh 1.5 – 2 kg (3.3 – 4.4 lbs) each. The plant is powerful. In the open ground, it’s over 180 cm (6 ft). I led it in 2-3 stems. The tomato when cut is meaty, tasty, sweet and sour, juicy, but not watery. Not very suitable for transportation. We made excellent juice from it. Very little waste and a lot of thick juice.
