Batyanya (Dad) Tomato Reviews

Sweet, meaty, aromatic, and a heavy yielder!

Edited March 11, 2019 by Pomidoroved

Batyanya pleased me with an excellent yield. It ripens completely, with no yellow shoulders. I planted one bush outdoors in open ground on April 10th (since I had extra seedlings); it survived a whole month of cold nights at 41-43°F (5-6°C) and the roots didn’t rot, unlike some other varieties in the same bed.

I also really loved the “Batyanya” variety; very tasty and prolific. 🙂
Seeds were from Valya (Vavladi).

My Batyanya looked very similar to Alsou, and was planted in the same hole with it. But it was larger and tastier (just as a proper man should be 🙂).

My Batyanya (SibSad) – I will definitely plant it again.

I’ve planted Batyanya (SibSad seeds) for 3 seasons now, both in the greenhouse and outdoors. I like it — it’s not prone to disease, it’s prolific, tasty, and genuinely early.

Pani Tomat wrote:
I’ve planted Batyanya (SibSad seeds) for 3 seasons now, both in the greenhouse and outdoors. I like it — it’s not prone to disease, it’s prolific, tasty, and genuinely early.

I’m going to plant them closer together and leave fewer leaves, just like I do with others…

Serg wrote:
I’m going to plant them closer together and leave fewer leaves, just like I do with others…

How much closer? Last year in the greenhouse I planted them “closer” (16 inches / 40 cm apart) and lost a significant amount of yield. And I only trim leaves as absolutely necessary; they feed the plant, after all, so pruning should be done without fanaticism. Batyanya has a “weeping/wispy” bush habit, and outdoors in hot summers, the fruits get sunscalded.

I grew Batyanya for several seasons in a row. It really is early and very prolific, but compared to other oxhearts, it was a bit bland, and my family rejected it. But maybe in a different climate and soil, its sweetness is more pronounced. It’s a low-maintenance variety that transplants very easily.

2014

I understand correctly that it’s an indet?

Indet – about 5 ft (1.5 m) outdoors, 6.5 ft (2 m) in the greenhouse.

Thanks to the forum! I planted “Batyanya” in the greenhouse for the first time this year and didn’t regret it! These bushes gave the very first tomatoes around late July!! It’s just a pity that the seeds inside them were incredibly tiny, barely larger than poppy seeds… Did they just not mature? 🤔

CUBEPKO wrote:
It’s just a pity that the seeds inside them were incredibly tiny, barely larger than poppy seeds… Did they just not mature? 🤔

They didn’t mature.

Anatoly, sometimes the oxhearts on the very first truss are completely seedless, but the 2nd and 3rd trusses have fully developed seeds. Or did you constantly use blossom set hormone sprays? Did you grow them in a greenhouse?

Edited December 7, 2015 by Drosera

Batyanya is my absolute favorite! This is my third year planting it. Original seeds were from SibSad. Very tasty, beautiful, and prolific. The flavor didn’t change whether the summer was hot or cool.

😳 Very delicious tomatoes. Seeds from SibSad:

I sowed them on March 29, and we ate the first ripe tomato on July 9, 2016.

Yes, this variety is a lovely salad tomato for me too, very tender fruits. The first few years I planted almost my entire greenhouse with them, but I realized it doesn’t store well and gets overripe very quickly… what are you supposed to do with so many fruits all at once? 🤷‍♀️ Now I plant no more than 10 bushes. The spindly bushes literally break under the heavy weight of the trusses.

Valya, do you grow Batyanya to 2 stems? If yes, does the stem fork on its own, or which sucker do you leave? Doesn’t it take energy away from the upper trusses?

I’m growing Batyanya for the second year. Once again, it was one of the very first to start ripening. Last year I made notes: large, beautiful fruits, soft pink-raspberry color, a bit bland, very few seeds, do not store long. 6.5 ft (2 m) tall, yielded 25 fruits on 2 stems. Good for early fresh eating, and later, when the tastier varieties ripen, it goes straight to processing. Based on taste, it’s more of a canning/processing variety.

Zulfiya wrote:
Valya, do you grow Batyanya to 2 stems? If yes, does the stem fork on its own, or which sucker do you leave? Doesn’t it take energy away from the upper trusses?

Good afternoon, Zulfiya! Yes, I grow Batyanya to two stems. I just leave a strong sucker (you can spot it right away). The fruits handle the double-stem setup perfectly fine. The fruits on the upper trusses aren’t giants… but they don’t need to be, they are medium-sized.

Belena wrote:
…Based on taste, it’s more of a canning/processing variety.

Meanwhile, I save Batyanya for my very best guests — right now, they are the tastiest tomatoes I have! Sweet, with a slight tang — it’s a miracle how delicious they are! Tastier than Bull’s Heart, with no empty cavities and no yellow shoulders.

My mom adores it too; she has gastritis but still craves tomatoes. It’s the perfect variety for her, with just a very mild tang. My husband and I prefer tomatoes with a punchier, brighter flavor profile.

VALENTINA/Abakan wrote:
Yes, this variety is a lovely salad tomato for me too, very tender fruits… Now I plant no more than 10 bushes. The spindly bushes literally break under the heavy weight of the trusses.

I will absolutely plant it next year. 😘 I regret that I didn’t get a chance to grow it this year…

Nata N. wrote:
Meanwhile, I save Batyanya for my very best guests — right now, they are the tastiest tomatoes I have!

Well, the day before yesterday we picked a fruit that tasted awful. So I guess commercial seeds really are a lottery ((((

Next year I’ll save seeds specifically from the plant that gave the tasty fruits.

Batyanya is currently the only variety I plant every single year. Very prolific, tasty, large, early, compact bush, and another thing I love is that it almost never drops blossoms in the heat. I save seeds every year just in case.

Nata N. wrote:
Well, the day before yesterday we picked a fruit that tasted awful. So I guess commercial seeds really are a lottery ((((

Didn’t you save your own seeds from your tasty Batyanya last year? Which seed company did the bad ones come from this year?

Alisa wrote:
Didn’t you save your own seeds from your tasty Batyanya last year?

Alisa, this is the very first year in my life that I’ve ever grown tomatoes. The Batyanya seeds were from Siberian Garden (SibSad).

Edited July 18, 2016 by Nata N.

Nata N. wrote:
Alisa, this is the very first year in my life that I’ve ever grown tomatoes. The Batyanya seeds were from Siberian Garden (SibSad).

Thank you! Could you provide the batch number? I just bought a Batyanya packet from them with that exact same picture, and now I’m wondering if I should even bother sowing it next year.

This is the Batyanya I grew last year. I absolutely love this variety, I plant it almost every single year.

Alisa wrote:
Thank you! Could you provide the batch number?

Alisa, unfortunately, I threw the packet away.

In my opinion, there’s no point playing the lottery with commercial seeds when everyone here knows you and can send you seeds from a proven, reliable plant.

I planted Batyanya for the first time this year because I liked the reviews on the forum. Seeds from Siberian Garden. It truly is prolific, very early, and not overly acidic. I saved my own seeds and will definitely plant it again next year. The only thing that let me down was the yellow shoulders. Actually, almost all my “heart” tomatoes had yellow shoulders this year. But I think that’s not the variety’s fault, it’s my bad agronomy (feeding issue). I’m currently researching the causes of this disorder and how to fix it.

OlgaP wrote:
Batyanya is currently the only variety I plant every single year…

Now I’m going to plant it too! 😘 👍 🌺

I just looked it up in the State Register, it says:

Fruit is heart-shaped, slightly ribbed, medium density, meaty….. Fruit weight 200 g (7 oz). Taste is good. Marketable yield is 2 kg per sq.m.

But on the SibSad seed packet it says:

Heart-shaped fruits with a little beak, very smooth, glossy, raspberry color, weighing 200-350 g (7-12 oz), sugary, sweet. The fruiting period is long, total yield up to 17 kg per sq.m.

😲

Well, they exaggerated the weight; marketing drives sales! 😄 Everything else matches though! 😄

OlgaP wrote:
…and another thing I love is that it almost never drops blossoms in the heat.

Meanwhile, in my greenhouse I had a complete blossom drop this year, and the fruits were small. (

Most likely, the Batyanya listed in the State Register has nothing in common with the one we grow. With a yield of 2 kg per sq.m, I definitely wouldn’t plant it, and I would have tossed the seeds. Plus, our fruits are much bigger.

galka68 wrote:
Meanwhile, in my greenhouse I had a complete blossom drop this year, and the fruits were small. (

When I had a greenhouse, I was able to compare—it actually performed much better for me outdoors in open ground.

TatyanaSh wrote:
Well, they exaggerated the weight; marketing drives sales! 😄 Everything else matches though! 😄

The weight claimed by SibSad was actually real based on my past experience. The flavor didn’t work out for me, it came out bland, but the weight was perfectly fine in open ground.

I really loved it for processing — for ketchup, sauces, etc. It ripened right in time for my massive main harvest.

Planted outdoors in open ground; it is one of our earliest varieties. It easily handles multiple suckers, and we prune the bush to about 3 ft (1m) tall. Even at that height, it yields an astonishing harvest over the course of 2 months, and the fruits stay large the entire time. Seeds were from SibSad. The photo shows the first tomato from a megabloom.

Our flavor rating was drawn by my granddaughter.

I haven’t figured out how to insert photos yet, but I have Batyanya in my album. I plant it every year — early, tasty, but it doesn’t store well; you have to process it immediately. But that’s a very minor flaw.

This is my second year growing these tomatoes. I really love them as slicers/salad tomatoes. But one thing bothers me: low yield. For some reason, over the past two seasons, it’s the exact same picture: only 1 large fruit per bush, and the rest are tiny runts.

I grow them to 2 stems in open ground. Region – Crimea. I harvest tomatoes until late October, so there are no issues with the season length for ripening. My other varieties fruit evenly, exactly as described. But this one — like I mentioned above — gives 1 large fruit (around 14 oz / 400g) and then just walnut-sized runts. By the way, there’s a maximum of 2 trusses per stem, sometimes only 1.

I feel like I’m making a mistake somewhere, but I don’t understand what it is. Maybe someone can share their experience growing this specific variety? I don’t seem to have problems with other varieties.

Petr, maybe you should just change your seeds? I didn’t follow any special agronomy techniques with mine, and the tomatoes were relatively uniform in size.

parasuhin wrote:
I grow them to 2 stems in open ground. Region – Crimea…

Good afternoon! How many stems do you prune your bushes to? And what do you feed the soil with?

Dear Petr! Based on long-term observation, I’ve noticed that SibSad varieties really struggle to grow in the deep South. For me, in the Pskov Region, everything is fine, but I sent my own seeds (Batyanya, actually) to a friend in Turkmenistan — and she had the exact same problem as you: yield was basically zero. Maybe it’s just not the right variety for you. There are plenty of meaty, tasty southern oxhearts to choose from. Try those instead.

parasuhin wrote:
…Region – Crimea… I feel like I’m making a mistake somewhere…

Do any other thin-stemmed, wispy-leaved oxheart varieties fruit well for you?

Did this low-yielding Batyanya grow from different seed packets? Can we rule out bad seeds?

I think this variety simply cannot tolerate the heat and dry air of open ground in your region. In the South, wispy varieties are usually grown under shade cloth or Agrotex canopies.

I just remembered that the first winner of the grow-journal contest on the old forum was from your city. He managed to grow Sprint Timer in a spring hoop house before the intense summer heat hit.

I apologize for taking so long to reply — I got caught up with seedling and garden chores and didn’t have time for the computer.

Thank you all; I’ll answer everyone at once.

1) Regarding wispy-leaved varieties — no, Batyanya is my only one. At first, it was honestly weird looking at those leaves; it constantly seemed like the plant was deficient in something or sick. Especially when the leaves curled up in hot weather. I immediately wanted to water the plants, even though my other varieties got the exact same amount of water and didn’t act like that. However, the color of the leaves never changed, and there were no pathological issues with the fruits, so I eventually concluded it wasn’t a disease but just a trait of the variety. But I gave it extra water anyway.

2) Regarding Agrotex canopies — I will try that this year (I have 11 seedlings growing right now, hoping for the best). What if I just try planting it in partial shade — will that work? Do tomatoes even respect partial shade?

3) I prune the bush to 2 stems. When transplanting to their permanent spot, I add superphosphate to the hole. Later during the season, I use a complete foliar fertilizer.

4) I doubt it’s bad seeds, as the result has been exactly the same for several years in a row.

5) You’re probably right about the yield of Siberian varieties in southern climates, but I haven’t yet found another large, pink oxheart that “hooked” me like this one did.

By the way, speaking of seedlings — I also sowed Tolstoy and Black Prince. Well, out of all of them, Batyanya gave me 11 sprouts out of 12 seeds, and they were the very first to pop. The others had germination rates around 70%. Tolstoy was especially disappointing this year. So I have no intention of abandoning this variety. I’ll keep planting it and experimenting every year.

Zulfiya wrote:
I think this variety simply cannot tolerate the heat and dry air of open ground in your region. In the South, wispy varieties are usually grown under shade cloth or Agrotex canopies.

Very accurately noted.

This variety is definitely not for southern latitudes with dry climates. It’s ours, for the middle lane. It is very prolific here and resilient to bad weather, but it cannot tolerate dryness and heat. It grows and fruits much better out in the open, outdoors, rather than in a greenhouse. And yes, the foliage is very delicate.

Batyanya doesn’t work for us. It won’t set fruit in the heat. A variety like Mazarin doesn’t care about the heat at all, but this one just isn’t our client.

We have intense dryness and heat, but Batyanya fruits excellently for us. However, our nights are cool; maybe it loves those wide day/night temperature swings.

mopsdad1 wrote:
Batyanya doesn’t work for us. It won’t set fruit in the heat.

Yes, Mikhail, in my greenhouse it gave me exactly THREE tomatoes the size of chicken eggs. I’ll try it outdoors in open ground, but this is its last chance.

During the intense heatwave of 2010, when other varieties barely even wanted to grow, Batyanya fruited normally for me. I think the variety had just been released back then. Maybe your seeds are off. It gets plenty hot in Samara too, but it fruits excellently there.

I loved this variety. Grew it in the greenhouse, where it was planted for an early harvest. I pruned it to two stems, but the second stem got shaded out by melons and practically withered away.

The variety is very prolific — but the flavor isn’t for me; the flesh has a mealy (spongy) texture. Pudovik beat it by a mile in both yield and fruit size 😄, although the flesh texture is the same for both. They don’t store well — the flavor spoils.

I’m Irina. I’m new here. I have a question. For two years in a row, I tried to grow Batyanya outdoors in open ground. It’s prolific, but soft and watery. I had to give it up. But I keep reading positive reviews. What did I do wrong? 🤔

I would question your seeds. Batyanya is absolutely not mealy, it’s meaty, tasty, and never watery. Send me your address, I’ll mail you good seeds this fall.

It’s a processing/canning variety. Heavy yielder. The flavor is… nonexistent. Tastes like grass. But it’s excellent for pastes, sauces, and juice.

I’ve been planting Batyanya since 2016. In the greenhouse, it grows tall and prolific. The fruits are raspberry-colored, heart-shaped, large, juicy-meaty, sweet, and tender. Under my conditions, it’s a fairly low-maintenance variety.

I planted two Batyanya bushes in a polycarbonate greenhouse and a couple outdoors this year, and the experiment was very interesting. Keep in mind that our climate is extremely continental, with severe day-night temperature swings until mid-June, and 104°F (+40°C) is common from late June onwards. I had to completely cover the greenhouse with heavy 30-weight Agrotex shade cloth, and the temperatures inside in July still went off the charts (but they were off the charts outdoors, too).

With Batyanya, a very interesting thing became clear: outdoors, it truly is the earliest variety; it handles low temperatures perfectly and sets fruit beautifully when all the others are cold and sulking. But in the greenhouse, Batyanya was far from the first to ripen, though it managed to set a ton of fruit of varying sizes (from huge to small) before the heat hit. On one bush, there were around 25-27 fruits, and on the second over 40, and this was before mid-June. Then, the greenhouse plants all skipped about three trusses due to the heat (the blossoms simply fell off, nothing helped). But as soon as the heat broke, Batyanya resumed setting fruit. Outdoors, it set fewer fruits, but they were mostly giants. The bush itself isn’t too tall, even in the greenhouse, I don’t think it reached 5 ft (1.5 m), but it was so heavily loaded with fruit I thought it would snap. It stood there all “bandaged” up with ties. I even had to put empty 1-gallon (5L) plastic jugs under the first and second trusses for support because the ties couldn’t hold the weight.

The taste… Well, the taste let me down. To me, it’s bland, and the texture isn’t the best. I wouldn’t say it’s completely tasteless or like “grass”; it’s a decent tomato, especially if your only alternative is store-bought, but it lacks richness and that special zing — I give the flavor a solid 3 out of 5. Otherwise, for a fairly early tomato, its characteristics are very good: large-fruited, hardy, heavy yielder, and disease-free.

This is a tomato meant for open ground; in the greenhouse, it’s better to plant something that might be fussier but tastier. For example, my Amethyst Jewel and Chocolate Stripes started ripening earlier than Batyanya in the greenhouse, and Batyanya loses heavily to Chocolate Stripes in flavor.

Edited December 6, 2018 by Oksana Evgenievna

Under my conditions:

Batyanya is great everywhere, both outdoors and in the greenhouse. It’s not a sprawling bush; it produces neat, beautiful hearts. It’s a worthy variety, gave a sufficient number of tomatoes, and was one of the earliest to ripen. Will repeat. Outdoors, it ripened on July 31st.
In the greenhouse, it was planted on the eastern side — medium-height bushes, doesn’t shade others, and doesn’t get sunburned. Set fruit very well. The first photo is outdoors (grown under an overhang); the rest are in the greenhouse.

Batyanya is an absolutely freaking awesome variety; you could say it’s the leader of my greenhouse.
Incredibly large, meaty fruits, low maintenance. With the right agronomy, it fruits for a very long time despite being an early variety.

Batyanya always turned out bland and very dry for me… oxhearts often suffer from a “cottony/mealy” texture… and this variety is definitely one of those… so I stopped planting it.

Andrey_K wrote:
Batyanya always turned out bland and very dry for me… oxhearts often suffer from a “cottony/mealy” texture…

You need to feed Batyanya with K-Mag (Potassium Magnesium Sulfate) more often than other varieties to improve its flavor.

Zulfiya wrote:
You need to feed Batyanya with K-Mag more often than other varieties…

Zulfiya! Last year I constantly fed my greenhouse tomatoes with Monopotassium Phosphate and K-Mag, and Batyanya still turned out bland, mid-season, and with only average yield. It just couldn’t compete with my other varieties.

As a result, I scrapped it and won’t be growing it anymore. In my opinion, for our Ural climate, it’s much better to grow varieties like Kuuma, Udalo’s Bull’s Heart, Gonsiorovsky’s Home Heart, Putin, Pink Honey, and Babushkino.

Sergey-EKB wrote:
…Batyanya still turned out bland, mid-season, and with only average yield…

Mine was bland too, but insanely prolific in the greenhouse! One bush set 40 fruits by mid-July, and they weren’t small. Then there was a gap during the heatwave, and later it set even more, but I stopped counting. In the greenhouse, it acted like a mid-season and medium-height plant (it just kept setting and setting fruit until the heat hit, and only then started plumping up and ripening). But outdoors in open ground, it was the very first of the large tomatoes to ripen, less prolific and more consistent, but still bland — which is practically unheard of for outdoor tomatoes here. I didn’t like the flavor, so I don’t plant it anymore.

Edited May 29, 2020 by Oksana Evgenievna

Nata N. wrote:
…Tastier than Bull’s Heart, with no empty cavities and no yellow shoulders.

Without shoulders? Mine always have yellow shoulders, which is what I dislike the most. What brand were your seeds?

Edited June 6, 2020 by vallecano

vallecano wrote:
Without shoulders? Mine always have yellow shoulders… What brand were your seeds?

It was this packet. But anyway, the following year I sowed different “hearts”, like Vater Rhein, etc.

Andrey_K wrote:
Batyanya always turned out bland and very dry for me… oxhearts often suffer from a “cottony/mealy” texture…

Strange, maybe the breeders are different. I planted it for 2 seasons, and in 2021 I’ll be planting from my own saved seeds. Batyanya was the second to start ripening right after Japanese Black Truffle. It looks like a giant squashed strawberry. During the rainy summer of 2020, it didn’t crack (just like Torbay and Blue R 20). My mom loved the flavor; she thought the flesh tasted like persimmon. No yellow shoulders; I fed them 4 times with wood ash and compost tea.

The tomato in the photo isn’t one I grew. I bought it specifically to save the seeds. I just couldn’t walk past such a beauty.

It tasted a bit bland. I saved the seeds anyway. I want to see how it performs in my soil with my agronomy. I really hope it turns out to be a tasty treat.

For me, down here in the South, Batyanya was one of the tastiest varieties. Originally from a SibSad packet. Only one seed germinated from the whole pack. The bush gave only one fruit and grew in the shade. The flavor was pleasant, but it lacked a little something. I saved seeds from it anyway.

Last year, growing from my own saved seeds, the bushes had 10-11 fruits each (I had three bushes). No yellow shoulders, no cracking, grew in partial shade. You can’t plant it in full sun here, but even in the shade, the flavor was very sweet and the tomato was juicy. The most interesting feature for me was that the flavor didn’t change throughout the entire season. Neither rain, nor cold, nor heat ruined it. Even the very last fruit picked in October and ripened off the vine indoors was just as tasty.

I will continue to acclimate it to my climate. Even if the yield never increases, I will always plant it. I grow over 100 varieties. (Krasnodar)

I had a few unsuccessful attempts at making friends with Batyanya: for some reason, the SibSad seeds would get sick very quickly for me 🤷‍♀️. This year I changed my agronomic approach a bit, and it finally worked! 😊 I loved Batyanya; it was sweet. And to add to everything said above, for me, it was the only tomato that didn’t lose its sweetness when ripened off the vine indoors (counter ripening).