🍅 Quick take: US Northeast gardener Pomidorolubitel (Katya) wraps up her season testing Russian heirlooms, focusing strictly on high-sugar varieties. Top honors go to sugary pinks like Babushkino Neshchechko and Yusupovskiy, ultra-early workhorse Iyunskiy, and sweet Green-When-Ripe discoveries like Malakhitovaya Shkatulka. On the flip side, ochre varieties and tough-skinned cherries were a total miss.
Jump to:
The Top Sweet Pinks ↓ |
Greens, Darks & Sofia’s Lines ↓ |
What Didn’t Work (Ochre & Crunchy Cherries) ↓
Season Wrap-Up & Variety Trials: Growing Russian Heirlooms in the US Northeast (USDA Zone 5/6)
That mix-up with OPO was totally on me, must have swapped tags along the way. But PPI turned out super tasty, so I was not bummed for long. Besides, this past season ended up being an absolute goldmine for delicious pink varieties!
I probably will not start a standalone garden journal thread this year, so if you do not mind, I will just drop my quick highlights right here 🌹
I am really not that picky with my tomatoes, my only non-negotiable requirement is high sweetness. Because of that, pretty much every single pink variety was a winner in my book!
The Standout Sweet Pinks
Babushkino Neshchechko (Grandma’s Treasure): Honestly close to perfection for my palate. Compact, sweet as sugar, pure delight.
Tyrnovskiy Rozovy (Tyrnovo Pink): Another off-the-charts sweet slicer, just incredible!
Yusupovskiy (Yusupov): Incredibly sweet, deeply flavorful, and dripping with juice.
Rozovyy Krupnyy ot Ninuli (Ninulya’s Large Pink): Fantastic flavor and a heavy cropper. My husband is already demanding this one stays on the planting list for next year!
Yasmina: We were not impressed at first, tasted too sharp and acidic early on. But she redeemed herself later in the summer and got properly sweet.
Kalyan (Hookah): Great flavor, though for some reason it dragged its feet and ripened quite late.
Zemlyanika Lesnaya ot Baby Toni (Baba Tonya’s Wild Strawberry): Literally buried me in fruit! Taste-wise it was just a tiny notch behind the top tier, but the production was wild.
Brusilovskiy (Brusilovsky): Almost forgot Brusilovskiy! Solid, dense tomato meat and phenomenal taste.
Darks, Greens & Sofia Saakova Lines
Among the dark varieties (only ran a handful this season), PPI was pure decadence and pumped out massive yields!
Shokoladnyy Genri (Chocolate Henry) was a slow starter, but once it found its rhythm, the flavor was solid.
The varieties bred by Sofia Saakova were fantastic overall! Saw quite a few genetic segregations, though:
Triumf Sofii (Sofia’s Triumph): Mind-blowing sweetness. Tasted just like real candy. Not a ton of classic acidic tomato tang, but our family loved every bite. The one major flaw: it has zero shelf life and turns to mush fast once ripe.
Also loved Shokoladnyy Vostorg (Chocolate Delight), Izumrudnaya Karamel Eleny (Elena’s Emerald Caramel), Aliskino Serdtse (Alice’s Heart), and Plenitelnoe Serdtse (Captivating Heart). Total stunners and delicious across the board.
Also discovered green-when-ripe tomatoes this past season. Where have these been all my life?! Malakhitovaya Shkatulka (Malachite Box), Elya 3, and Elena’s Caramel were so sweet they tasted like exotic tropical fruit!
What Completely Missed the Mark
Ochre & Tawny Varieties: Put in four varieties, including Tough Melon (Dyna Surova), Ochre Symphony, and two cherry lines. That flavor profile is just not for me. Hard to explain, but there was this weird lingering aftertaste I could not shake. Never growing them again.
Crunchy-Skinned Cherries: Tried Mavka cherry from Kulik. Great sweetness, and the vine was an absolute tree of a monster with insane fruit sets, but the crunchy skin killed it for me. My kid loved popping them, so at least that was a win.
Tanya, thank you so much for the seeds once again! If it is not asking too much and you still have a couple seeds left, I would love to beg you for Valentina Pavlovna for the upcoming season 😊
By the way, Iyunskiy (June Early) blew me away. First to ripen in the garden, solid flavor for an ultra-early, and surprisingly decent fruit size! We had non-stop rain and cold spells this summer, and that tough dwarf stood there loaded with tomatoes from top to bottom. Definitely starting it even earlier this spring, side-by-side with Rozovyy Gay (Pink Guy).
Full Summary: Top Performing Russian Heirlooms in US Zone 5/6
- 🍬 Top Sweetness Champions: Babushkino Neshchechko, Tyrnovskiy Rozovyy, and Yusupovskiy dominated in pure sugar content. Triumf Sofii delivered intense candy flavor, though with very delicate skin and short shelf life.
- 🍈 Green-When-Ripe Standouts: Malakhitovaya Shkatulka and Izumrudnaya Karamel Eleny surprised with high-Brix, fruit-like flavor profiles that rival tropical fruit.
- ❄️ Cold & Wet Weather Performance: Ultra-early dwarf Iyunskiy withstood prolonged cold rain without blossom drop, delivering the earliest harvest of the season.
- 👎 Culinary Flops: Ochre/tawny tomatoes (Tough Melon, Ochre Symphony) left an unappealing aftertaste for this grower, while thick-skinned cherries (Mavka) were discarded despite heavy production.
