Dikaya Roza (Wild Rose) Tomato Review

We grew Dikaya Roza this year from Popenko’s seeds. Did great in the greenhouse, but was a total dud outdoors. Not a heavy fruit set at all. They tasted good, the first ones were a bit tart, but the later ones sweetened up nicely (which is why we almost crossed it off our grow list at first). The vine is tall. We saved some seeds for the collection, definitely need to give them another try. Most likely the weather just wasn’t right for them this season.

In the 2011 season I grew Dikaya Roza (Aelita seeds) out in the open garden. The tomatoes were absolutely stellar. Perfectly uniform, huge, deep pink color, meaty and super tasty. The late-season ones were just a hair smaller. I saved seeds from them and will definitely be planting it again this year. I didn’t snap any pics of my crop, but here is what the packet looked like.

Dikaya Roza… The bush is short, highly productive. Large fruits up to 21 oz (600g). Trusses hold 3 to 6 fruits. Color is red-raspberry. Very prone to cross-pollination. I worked with this variety for 8 years. I stabilized a new strain from it that’s more pest-resistant, handles day/night temperature swings better, grows shorter, and yields heavier. Named it Yakut. Outstanding flavor, very meaty. Great for canning and salads. Back in 2008, the fruits survived a 23°F (-5°C) freeze. The vines were toast, obviously, but the fruits bounced back and ripened perfectly. Highly recommended for northern regions and Siberia.

tried it a while back, wasn’t a fan. grew super tall in the greenhouse but barely set any fruit. i’ll stick to Lyubimye and Korneevskie.

Nikolay Alexandrov said:
I got a different variety from it, more resistant to pests and day/night temperature swings…

Nikolay, what kind of tomato pests do you guys even deal with over there? Around here, the only pests I see are those nasty caterpillars that just completely devour (pardon my French) the green fruit.

I didn’t really notice any pest pressure on my Dikaya Roza either. And slugs aren’t really an issue for us.

My Wild Rose from APD got super tall (pretty sure it’s an indet). I grew two plants. One plant in poor, shaded soil did terribly, but the other one was spectacular, fresh soil (where I had cabbage before) and a super sunny spot in my second hoop house. Delicious, massive fruits pushing 14-21 oz (400-600g), yielding about 11 lbs (5 kg) per plant. And that’s despite planting it late at my outdoor schedule. Definitely growing it again this year, multiple plants. Plus, the fruits have a really beautiful, distinct shape.

Lena, what does APD stand for?

Marisha, it’s a seed company in Minsk.

Seeds from Sibsad. In 2012 it grew into God knows what, or rather, it was a total bust. My 2013 attempt went way better. This year I’m testing out what I get from my own saved seeds.

A huge yielder, though it ended up being a late-season variety for me. It started blushing almost a month later than everything else in that bed. Even now, it’s still pumping out ripe ones alongside new green fruit. Great classic tomato flavor. Mine grew incredibly tall, pushing 6.5 feet (2m), maybe even taller outdoors (only the Tarasenko varieties and Sto Pudov outgrew it). And this one right here is from a megabloom.

I grew WR from Ukrainian seeds. It perfectly matches the breeder’s description, a more heat- and crack-resistant offspring of Pink Giant. Great yielder, set 5 heavy trusses without skipping a beat by August 1st. Maturity is mid-late, some of my other varieties ripened even later. The shape is a smooth oblate, with no catfacing or dry scars on the blossom end. Ripens well off the vine and holds up nicely in storage. Growing it for juice next season.

Hands down my best-tasting tomato this year. Perfect shape, pinkish-raspberry, just a flawless, mouth-watering flat-round beefsteak. Simply gorgeous. Very distinct look, every single fruit has this circular dry corking (a little mesh ring) around the stem. Picking the last few right now and they haven’t downsized at all. I’ll snap some pics tonight if I don’t forget.

Overall, based on the foliage and fruit structure, Dikaya Roza strongly reminded me of Malakhitovaya Shkatulka, just a bit later to ripen and obviously a different color. It ended up being a fantastic yielder. The fruits are heavy, and with a flavor profile that good, it’s rare to see a plant pump out so much weight.

Definitely growing it again, it’s a perfect fit for my garden.

Pulled an unripe one off the vine a couple days ago, these are the stragglers. The camera isn’t picking up the true color. But here is that stem “mesh” I was talking about:

PS: I didn’t get any massive multi-fruit trusses, just 1-2 fruits per cluster right against the main stem. I didn’t even bother supporting them. I pulled about 6-7 big fruits for the main harvest, and it’s been steadily giving me 1-2 fruits ever since. Pruned to a single leader. Every fruit looked perfectly calibrated, practically identical in size. Even crammed into a tight spacing it did fine; we didn’t just get a taste, we got a real harvest.

I loved Dikaya Roza. The fruits are picture-perfect, and it’s a great yielder. Classic tomato flavor with a nice sweetness. Grown outdoors. Huge thanks to Olya (Olya26rus) for the seeds!

Galina, was yours in a greenhouse?

elena0508 said:
Galina, was yours in a greenhouse?

Nope. I grow everything out in the open garden.

Oops, my bad. Missed that detail. How tall did your plants get?

About my height. I’m 5’4″ (1.64m). Couldn’t tell you exactly, I didn’t measure them with a tape.

Pretty tasty, solid yielder. Actually performed better outdoors than in the greenhouse. Even during this unusually cold year.

One of my top picks this year. Tasty, sweet, juicy tomatoes. Absolutely gorgeous, every single one looks like a clone. Staying in my rotation.

Grew it for the first time in 2015 indoors, seeds from Sedek. Loved it, vigorous plant, pruned it to 2 leaders, beautiful large trusses, very tasty. Hit about 6-6.5 feet (1.8-2m), complex trusses (one actually had 21 blossoms). You really need to prune the trusses and support them. I didn’t thin mine out, so out of 9 ripening fruits on a single truss, the biggest was 15 oz (428g) and the smallest was 10 oz (280g). Definitely growing it again.

Yesterday, July 5th, I pulled my first tomato off Dikaya Roza, seeds from Sedek. Turned out to be an early variety for me, one of the very first to ripen outside, right behind my early determinates. Started seeds on March 13, transplanted out on April 29, no row covers. The vine is sitting in partial shade, crammed in tight, pruned to a single stem, sitting at 5.2 feet (1.6m) tall. Fruit set was pretty low, mostly because I put it in a bad spot. I’m certain it would yield way more in full sun. Really loved the flavor, rich tomato taste with obvious sweetness, very juicy. Didn’t expect it to be this sweet!

I’ve got 2 Wild Roses going this year: my trusted one from Sedek that did so well last season, and a second one I got in a seed swap from the forum (the same strain Alexandrov was talking about). They are completely different plants, but both are awesome. They are growing right next to each other in the greenhouse, totally different heights and fruit colors. I’ll post some comparison pics later.

Alaviya said:
They are completely different plants, but both are awesome. They are growing right next to each other in the greenhouse, totally different heights and fruit colors.

Lyuba, is there a difference in yield? Which one sets fruit better?

Lilya, you and I are growing the same Sedek strain—a beefy indet with sweet, oblate pink fruits. Mine is already at 6.5 feet (2m) right now. But last year’s growing conditions were better; I had half the amount of plants in the greenhouse and way more fruit. The second one is shorter with a different fruit color, but also throws large tomatoes. They just started turning red. Once they fully blush, I’ll grab a pic and let you know how they taste.

Finally figured out what’s up with these roses. My second strain is from Egorov—a spectacular variety. Someone mentioned it has that signature dry mesh around the stem; the plant is a beast, fruits are raspberry-pink and sweet. But everyone is dealing with blossom drop this year, so that’s on me. The potential is definitely there. The Egorov strain just came from a totally different climate zone, plus I crammed them in too tight. But once it took off and the fruit blushed, I recognized it instantly. I’m definitely going to keep acclimating it to my garden, while still growing the other one.

I’m reading all this about Wild Rose and it doesn’t sound like mine at all. Mine was from Phoenix Seeds in Chelyabinsk (year 2000 stock). It never grew taller than 2.5 feet (70cm), always out in the open garden. The fruits are flat and ribbed (almost sectioned into 4 parts). I grew it from my own saved seeds, then dropped it for a few years to try newer stuff, which was a mistake. The flavor is rich with pronounced sweetness, fruits around 7-16 oz (200-450g). The bush is well-behaved, not overly aggressive with suckers, grew it to 3-4 leaders. Didn’t weigh the final yield, but I’d easily pull a 7-liter bucket off one plant in a single picking. I pick in stages because, given our climate, I don’t let them vine-ripen completely. Plus, my family hates mushy overripe tomatoes; by the time the late ones ripen, the early ones would be rotting.

Olya Pskovishna said:
Dikaya Roza
Reliable as a Swiss watch… I didn’t set out to grow giants. They just grew that way. And not one or two, but several of them. Another huge plus for this gorgeous rose is that it had zero green shoulders. Seriously, almost none. And that’s saying something, because with the heat wave we had, a lot of my tomatoes suffered from hard yellow shoulders. I supplemented with potassium, but maybe not enough. Just tilled in some Borofoska fertilizer for the fall.

Dikaya Roza. In my first few years I planted it outdoors and it was a poor yielder. But in my rather chilly high tunnel, it was a heavy producer (and these are just the bottom trusses):

The flesh is deep raspberry, meaty, and juicy. A bright, classic flavor with a nice sweetness.

Dikaya Roza. Indet. Good slicer variety, tomatoes are large pushing 10.5 oz+ (300g+), red-raspberry color, flesh is dense and juicy. Absolutely perfect for salads—it has both sweetness and tartness, a true classic tomato flavor. Very productive.