Vareniki (Dumplings) Tomato: Reviews, Photos & Growing Tips

These are my observations from July 4th. It’s a quirky hard worker 😂 It acts like it’s at a crossroads. Like, “Either I’ll produce heavily, or to hell with all of you.” It pumps out a bunch of little tomatoes, then completely stalls. Then it shoots out super-long trusses in one direction, thinks about it, and shoots more out in the exact opposite direction. So it just stands there, this sprawling mess covered in big and small fruits, sighing, unable to decide where to grow next. And one fruit is just growing massively huge. I think it came from a megabloom (fasciated blossom). Or maybe two fused together 🤷‍♀️

And this is at the end of the season. Well, I’ve already written about it. A very productive tomato, sweet. But compared to some others, it seemed a bit plain. Then again, I managed to grow some super-delicious tomatoes this specific season, so as my husband said, I’ve just started nitpicking.

I also really loved this variety! Had two plants, they didn’t catch any diseases, stayed green until the very end, and didn’t branch out wildly—they grew neatly exactly as I pruned them (to two main stems). The fruits are uniform, with a cute little pointed tip. I even took them to an agricultural exhibition. Pleasant taste, not sour.

There’s definitely some hype around this variety now. I already have about 15 people on a waiting list for seeds from me)))

Lyuda, are you sure you have Vareniki? Yours look a lot like “black/dark” varieties… Mine were more light-red… and had absolutely no pointed tip. Just huge ellipses. They looked like giant plums 😂

Ninulia, just passing on what I was sold… Yulia and I have the exact same seed source—a seller from Kazakhstan. Maybe other forum members who grew and photographed it earlier will chime in?

Here are my Vareniki. And yes – massive, healthy bushes. They set fruit very well, but did drop blossoms during the heatwave. The first fruits were quite large, the later ones were smaller but there were a lot of them. Will grow again.

My Vareniki, seeds are also from Gladilova in Kazakhstan. Liked the variety, heavy yielder, large red tomatoes. It is supposed to have a pointed tip, but on the exceptionally large fruits, the tip smooths out and disappears. I had one plant growing outdoors – the fruits on that one were much more pointed. Not a late-season variety. Planned to plant 4 bushes of it next year. Regarding the taste: there are no fancy fruity or melon notes, just a solid, highly aromatic, old-fashioned tomato flavor.

My Vareniki, seeds from Yulia (the first post). Loved the variety for its huge size and productivity. It didn’t drop blossoms in the heat, set fruit like crazy. I pruned the plant to two main stems and those stems were just loaded from top to bottom with massive fruits. Will definitely repeat.

Edited Oct 26, 2018 by Irina_Zg

My Vareniki also arrived from Northern Kazakhstan from L. Gladilova. I don’t even know how to feel about this variety yet. The bushes grew in a polycarbonate greenhouse. Reached about 6.5 ft (2 m) tall. The color is bright red.

At the bottom of the plants, I got not-so-large round balls with a cute little point. But the middle of the plant looked rather pathetic—almost all the blossoms dropped, leaving just a couple of fruits shaped like large pointy plums (similar to Lyuba’s photo). The upper trusses didn’t drop, but the shape and size changed completely. The tomatoes got significantly larger, but totally blunt without any point.

In the end, my Vareniki’s yield was below average. But the taste was absolutely wonderful. A bright, dense, real tomato flavor. Still deciding if I’ll repeat it. Maybe I should try growing Vareniki outdoors in open ground.

Inn@ wrote:
…the shape and size changed completely.

EXACTLY!!! The shape is genetically unstable. At first, my 3 different bushes had differently shaped fruits, but higher up the vine they all became identical. I’m happy with the yield, though the middle of the plant was empty, as I mentioned above – it drops blossoms in the heat. Maybe I should plant it closer to the door or vents so it doesn’t suffer from the heat as much.

Well, yeah, my plants were in the middle bed right in the center of the greenhouse, which doesn’t have side vents.

I had two bushes in open ground, and the shape was perfectly identical with the little point. We’ll continue the experiment in 2019, I’ve sent seeds to a lot of people.

Yeah, Lyudmila, your Vareniki have the exact same shape as the ones in Lyudmila G’s video. That video was exactly what I fell for 🙂

In my photos, you can see the fruit shape varies wildly—some have ribbing, some are almost flat-round, some are barrel-shaped, and some look like giant plums. And not all of them had the pointed tip.

My Vareniki produced differently shaped fruits even on the exact same truss. I read a recommendation that you should strictly save seeds from the fruits that have the pointed tip.

My Vareniki were massive and heavy yielders. I loved that despite the heavy load, it didn’t kink the fruit trusses. It didn’t drop blossoms, but the shape was completely blunt on every single fruit. Seeds were from Sveta (Veta). Her photos showed the pointy ones. Turns out the variety is just genetically unstable 🤷‍♀️ Though I’m perfectly fine with this blunt shape, I’d still like to get the pointy ones too. So I’ll repeat from my own saved seeds, and plant Sveta’s seeds again too. I don’t have a photo of the plant itself, the trusses were facing the greenhouse wall and I couldn’t get a good angle. Here it is on the scale.

Nadia wrote:
I loved that despite the heavy load, it didn’t kink the fruit trusses. It didn’t drop blossoms…

I am literally SEARCHING for varieties like this, with no truss kinking! This is a real find! And it doesn’t drop blossoms either! Will definitely be planting and testing this one! 🫡

The shape is impressive. Just a feast for the eyes!

The mother plant didn’t impress me much with the size, so I saved seeds from the less pretty ones. But the second plant grown from a rooted sucker (broken top) pumped out beautiful “round bombs without points” and elongated ones with points… super!

The fruits are impressive, it’s a pity I can’t save seeds from all of them.

What is the maturity timing on this variety – early, mid, or late?

I’m sitting here making my planting list for the greenhouse right now, and I can’t decide whether to plant it this year or not.

Also – what is the average fruit weight?

Sergey-EKB wrote:
What is the maturity timing on this variety… Also – what is the average fruit weight?

Sergey, I can’t say much about timing—mine were grown outdoors. The largest was 1.26 lbs (573 g), the rest were around 8.8 oz (250 g).

Mine had no pointy tips, and outdoors it turned out to be late-season compared to my other varieties. Didn’t impress me 🤷‍♀️

And all of mine were pointy!!! It looks so interesting—a massive tomato, but with this tiny little pointy nipple on the end.

Lyuda, I waited for the points too… but got absolutely nothing…

Shevyachok wrote:
Sergey, I can’t say much about timing—mine were grown outdoors.

It’s significantly warmer in Omsk than it is here. That’s why indeterminate varieties don’t do well outdoors for us. If I plant Vareniki in open ground, it’s highly unlikely they’d ripen in a summer like we had last year; they’d just catch Late Blight (Phytophthora).

My Vareniki grew in the greenhouse. Mid-season, tall, heavy yielder but not an aggressive “jungle” grower. The taste is exactly as described—harmonious, with a slight tang. The biggest one was 1.3 lbs (600 g). Grew in the middle bed. Didn’t catch any diseases, the leaves stayed green until the end. The shape varied from pointy little things to large plums. An overall solid, good slicer variety. Great for sauces too. Nice texture. Passes the test on many points. Will repeat from saved seeds. Thanks Lyuda @Shevyachok.

Sergey-EKB wrote:
What is the maturity timing on this variety – early, mid, or late?

For me in Novosibirsk, Vareniki was among the earlies, ripened completely on the vine. Without a greenhouse. Only used spunbond row covers in May (while they were getting established).

Very beautiful Vareniki. Dense, round. The taste for me turned out just ordinary, not bad. Grew two plants in the greenhouse. Seeds were from two different forum sources. One turned out with the point. The second one was also cute, even though it lacked the point. 🙂 Thanks everyone! 🌺

Only have this photo.

I just fell in love with this variety. Had one plant growing outdoors in open ground. Pruned it to a single stem. It was productive and fairly early. Started ripening on the vine and about half the crop managed to ripen fully outside. Tastes very good too. Meaty, dark-red color. The three largest fruits were boat-shaped, the rest were round with the little point, just as they should be.

Edited Feb 19, 2020 by red_flover

I want to tell everyone who doesn’t have it—get it! This is exactly the case where you trial all sorts of new releases and pretty hybrids, but you always want to keep some solid, reliable, delicious home-style varieties as a backup. The plant is sturdy and beautiful, despite the heat. You look at these tomatoes and your eyes just rejoice (instantly makes you think of a fresh salad with salt and unrefined sunflower oil, right?).

And when you pick them up… it feels like a solid piece of work in your hands! The seeds from the ugly fruits pumped out beautiful “bombs”. The plant is large, the fruits higher up have the pointy tips.

Edited Aug 20, 2020 by Marusha

Inn@ wrote:
The bushes grew in a polycarbonate greenhouse… the middle of the plant looked rather pathetic—almost all the blossoms dropped… In the end, my Vareniki’s yield was below average…

I got the exact same result as Inna this year. Grew it in my polycarbonate greenhouse in one of the best spots, but it didn’t live up to expectations at all.

The bush was strong, sturdy, and vigorous. But it turned out to be a late-season variety for me and set very few fruits due to the heat.

I think it would have produced a massive crop outdoors in open ground this year. In the greenhouse, it was one of the last to catch Leaf Mold (Cladosporium).

Haven’t tasted it yet—still don’t have ripe fruits.

I haven’t made a final decision on Vareniki yet, though it severely disappointed me with its extremely low yield compared to other greenhouse varieties. I’ll most likely drop it from my list, to my deep regret.

I’d love to hear from Inna if she continued growing Vareniki in the greenhouse or outdoors.

I grew Vareniki this year (huge thanks to Lyudmila for the seeds!). The yield was small… just a few tomatoes, but of an impressive size. I will definitely repeat it, since this abnormal weather year isn’t a fair indicator.

Sergey-EKB wrote:
I’d love to hear from Inna if she continued growing Vareniki in the greenhouse or outdoors.

Sergey, as the one who spread this variety around, let me tell you about my year. One plant in the greenhouse, one early plant under row covers in early May, and 4 bushes outdoors as usual. And what happened? It did worst in the greenhouse 🤦‍♀️ (this is my first experience with one—we just built it). Disappointed in both size and yield, plus an 80% hit rate with Blossom End Rot (BER). Under the row covers was slightly better, but outdoors in open ground it was absolutely superb! So, give at least one bush a chance outside and the situation might change completely.

Of course, it was a very tough year. We had a terrible drought… cracks in the soil two fingers wide.

P.S. In 2019, the variety made the forum’s Top 10 list, and that means something!

Edited Aug 22, 2020 by Shevyachok

Vareniki didn’t let me down this year either, planting it for the 3rd year in a row. Yield is above average. I got my absolute record breaker of the year off it—a tomato weighing 1.67 lbs (760 g). The tomatoes are dense, they have a good shelf life and don’t go mushy quickly.

Shevyachok wrote:
…It did worst in the greenhouse… outdoors in open ground it was absolutely superb!

Lyuda! I completely agree with you. Undeniably, this variety has huge potential, but like all normal varieties, it cannot handle an abnormal heat wave over 104°F (40°C) in the shade.

I should have planted it in open ground, I certainly had enough space. But Gladilova-Filippova grew Vareniki not only outdoors, but in a greenhouse too. And since our summers are unpredictable, we planted it in the greenhouse. That was my mistake. In the end, it only set one truss with fairly small fruits, and that was it.

I didn’t water the greenhouse for over a month because of Leaf Mold, but it still showed up anyway.

Right now, after heavy pruning, Vareniki has shot out massive suckers. If September and October stay warm, I might actually harvest some tomatoes from it.

The name is just so appetizing and delicious! I want to keep it just for the name.

We’ll wait for the tomatoes to ripen and the whole family will do a taste test.

If we like it, we’ll plant it in open ground. Basically, you can adapt any variety to your microclimate over a few years anyway.

Edited Aug 24, 2020 by Sergey-EKB

My Vareniki

I liked the variety, it’s perfect both for fresh salads and for canning/sauce making.