Quick Summary of Ryabinovye Busy (Rowan Beads)
- 🌍 Origin: A Russian variety popularized by the famous tomato collector V. Popenko. The name translates to “Rowan Beads”, a poetic reference to how the heavy cascades of bright red cherry tomatoes resemble clusters of rowan berries.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Determinate (dwarf) and trailing/cascading (often referred to as an “ampel” type in Russia). It stays very short (around 30-40 cm / 12-16 inches tall) but spreads wide, sending out long, thin trailing shoots up to 70 cm (28 inches) in diameter.
- 🪴 Growing Uses: Absolutely perfect for hanging baskets, large patio pots, or as an under-canopy planting (“at the feet”) of tall indeterminate tomatoes in a greenhouse.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Bright scarlet-red, round cherry tomatoes weighing 15-25 grams. They are very dense with thick skins.
- 👅 Flavor & Culinary Use: A classic, solid tomato flavor—sweet and juicy but not bland. Because of their thick skins, they do not crack easily and are highly prized for whole-fruit canning and pickling, as they keep their shape perfectly in jars. They also have a very long shelf life.
A trailing cherry, determinate dwarf variety (up to 40 cm / 16″). As a seedling, the bush was upright, but after planting in the garden bed, the stems became truly trailing, and the trusses also bent downwards. I had to tie up some of the stems and trusses so I wouldn’t step on them. The variety is very productive; it set almost all of its blossoms, of which there were many—it looked like a blooming yellow cloud.
The fruits are round, red, weighing 15-20 g (0.5-0.7 oz). If you prune the bush a little, they should be larger (the description says up to 25 g). The taste is a regular tomato flavor, but not bland. The tomatoes are quite dense with a thick skin. Fruiting lasted from mid-June to the end of August. Seeds were from V. Popenko.
Mine was 30 cm (12″) in height. In diameter, one bush was 50 cm (20″)—it was more shaded—and the other was 70 cm (28″). They stay perfectly whole when pickled. I think it would look very beautiful in a planter out in the sun. An absolutely huge amount of tomatoes.
A beautiful, very beautiful dwarf variety with long, thin trailing shoots that absolutely require tying up when shaping the plant.
I grew a few bushes in the greenhouse, right at the feet of the tall ‘Ultraviolet’ variety. They get along perfectly and don’t bother each other…
During the blooming period, the sight was simply mesmerizing—the bushes stood there as if surrounded by yellow butterflies!
The cherry fruits are scarlet red, weighing up to 20-25 g (0.7-0.9 oz). During mass ripening on the bushes, it really does look like a scattering of rowan beads. There are a lot of fruits; every single truss on the plants ripened.
The tomatoes are sturdy, dense, and store well for a long time. It’s early October now, and they are still sitting on my balcony… I think they will be great marinated in a sweet brine…
Next year I plan to grow them in some kind of container outdoors.
Seeds were from V. Popenko.
My Ryabinovye Busy variety turned out to be productive, mid-season. The fruits were very tasty, sweet, and juicy.
My little fruits have a small beak (nipple) on them 🤷… Is it an off-type? The taste is good.
