Quick Summary of Snegir (Bullfinch)
- 🌍 Origin: A Russian commercial variety (often sold by the “Biotechnica” seed company). The name translates to “Bullfinch,” a winter bird with a bright red breast, which perfectly hints at this variety’s cold tolerance.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Determinate (bush). The seed packet claims it stays very compact at 45–50 cm (18–20 inches). However, growers report it can be surprisingly vigorous for a bush variety, sometimes requiring taller stakes and light pruning. It is incredibly cold-tolerant and unpretentious.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Bright red, oblate (flat-round), and smooth. For such an early bush tomato, the fruits are impressively large, consistently reaching 150–200g (5–7 oz).
- 📈 Yield & Flavor: It has a “concentrated yield,” meaning it ripens almost its entire crop over a short two-week window. This makes it an absolute dream for growers who want to do batch canning. The flavor is a standard, classic tomato taste—very good for an early variety.
- 💪 Disease Resistance: Highly resistant to black bacterial spot and wet/soft rots.
Description from the seed packet:
An early-season variety; fruit ripening begins 94-109 days after full germination. It forms large fruits (up to 200g / 7 oz), which is exceptional for an outdoor determinate variety. Very cold-tolerant and unpretentious.
The plant is non-rugose (not a tree-type dwarf), determinate, with a height of 45-50 cm (18-20 inches). The inflorescence is of the intermediate type: the first truss forms above the 6th-7th leaf, and subsequent ones every 1-2 leaves. The fruit is oblate, red, smooth, with 5 seed locules, weighing up to 200g (7 oz). The variety is relatively resistant to black bacterial spot and soft rots.
Photo by: Lana_s_Kavkaza.
I grew Snegir, seeds were from Biotechnica. I really liked the variety. It was genuinely early, fruit weight was 150-200g (5-7 oz), and it was very productive. It dumped its entire harvest in about two weeks (a highly concentrated yield), which I absolutely loved for processing. The taste is totally fine/standard for an early tomato.
Seeds from Biotechnica.
This is a determinate that clearly wants to be an indeterminate! I had to constantly top and prune it, because the support structure I built for it wasn’t designed to handle it growing that tall.
It is a good one, though. Next season I will try growing it inside the greenhouse.
