Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA Zones 3-5 Experience)
Description from the packet: Early-season, fruit ripening begins 87-90 days after full emergence. Large-fruited, weighing up to 10.5 oz (300 g). Beautiful pink fruits. Very delicious and sugary. The plant is determinate, semi-spreading, compact, with sparse branching, growing up to 32 inches (80 cm) tall. Simple trusses, with the first truss forming above the 7th leaf, and subsequent ones every 1-2 leaves. Possesses excellent flavor qualities, considered a dessert variety.
Photo credit: PanIrina
Just adding a little to this. Grew it outdoors in the dirt in 2013 from a Biotekhnika packet. Had 2 bushes, completely identical in every way except for the fruit shape 😄 On the first bush they matched the description perfectly, but the second one threw these heart-shaped, blocky fruits.
Flavor was good, had some sweetness to it, but I definitely wouldn’t call it a dessert tomato 😳 Photo isn’t great, couldn’t find a picture of the blocky ones 🙄
Grew one bush of Leningrad Giant (Biotekhnika) outdoors. Really liked how low-maintenance it was, plus the earliness, good flavor, and solid yield.
Planted it in the open garden back in 2011. Was one of my absolute favorites. Early, incredibly heavy yielder, raspberry-pink color, with a rich, meaty tomato flavor. Bush got to about 32 inches (80 cm). Kicking myself… wasn’t saving my own seeds back in those days 🙂
Quote from borchanochka:
Flavor was good, had some sweetness to it, but I definitely wouldn’t call it a dessert tomato 😳
Well it’s a dessert tomato for Leningrad standards 😄
Up in the frozen north they call things “dessert” that folks down south wouldn’t even touch…
Quote from Andrey_K:
Well it’s a dessert tomato for Leningrad standards 😄
Up in the frozen north they call things “dessert” that folks down south wouldn’t even touch…
Gotta disagree with you there 🌸 There are definitely true dessert varieties out there that maintain their extreme sweetness even in our harsh northern conditions. Yeah, comparing us to southern climates is silly, BUT! I’m talking specifically about genetic dessert sweetness 😳 And this variety just has a good, pleasant, balanced flavor, but definitely not a dessert one 🌸 🌸 🌸
I actually loved Leningrad Giant. Grew it outdoors this year, and honestly it’s still pumping out fruit 😄 Incredibly heavy yielder 🌾, totally shrugged off all the crazy weather, and the fruits are massive. The neighbors couldn’t take their eyes off it. Just starting to ripen on the bush now. Awesome tomato, definitely growing it again 👍 Looks exactly like that very first photo, identical 😘
Quote from galia:
Tanya, did you end up growing Leningrad? If YES, how was it?
Also super interested in Leningrad Giant, people say it’s incredibly early, is that actually true?
I think we might have a dedicated thread for it somewhere?
Hey ladies, my tomatoes got hit hard with leaf mold this year. Lost a good chunk of my harvest, so I honestly didn’t pay close attention to individual varieties. 😞
The seeds came from Fotinia, maybe she has some input on it?
I grew Leningrad Giant. Good variety. Large red, flat-round fruits. Was definitely earlier than most of my others. Looks a lot like Red Giant. 😳
Grew it this year. Moscow Region, Volokolamsk district. Planted one bush of Leningrad Giant from Biotekhnika inside my polycarbonate greenhouse. Pulled one tomato that hit 1.5 lbs (685 g).
Delicious, but I almost felt guilty eating it.
Full Summary: Plant, Yield, Taste and Usages
- 🌿 Plant: Determinate. Compact and low-maintenance, staying under 32 inches (80 cm). Exceptionally cold and weather-tolerant, bred specifically to perform in harsh, cool climates outdoors.
- 🍅 Fruit: Massive slicers. While the packet says up to 10.5 oz (300 g), growers have harvested fruits up to 1.5 lbs (685 g). Usually pink and flat-round, though some seed packets (or perhaps cross-pollination) resulted in red or blocky/heart-shaped off-types.
- 📈 Yield: Universally praised as an incredibly heavy yielder, especially for such an early-season bush variety.
- 👅 Taste & Use: Very good, rich, meaty tomato flavor with a nice balance of sweetness. While the commercial packet markets it as a sugary “dessert” variety, most veteran growers agree it’s just a solid, classic-tasting slicer rather than a candy-sweet tomato.
The banter between Andrey and Polina in this thread highlights an important regional truth. “Leningrad” (the Soviet-era name for St. Petersburg) is notorious for having terrible tomato-growing weather: short, cloudy, damp, and cool summers. When Russian seed companies breed a tomato and put “Leningrad” or “Siberian” in the name, it’s essentially a promise that the variety is meant to be bulletproof in bad weather.
