📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Dina
- 🌍 Origin: A commercial variety.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Determinate. Generally stays compact at around 24-28 inches (60-70 cm) in full sun, but demonstrates extreme shade tolerance. If planted in the shade, it will stretch significantly to reach the light.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Bright yellow-orange fruits. The packet claims they have a “beak” (pointed blossom end), but most growers report perfectly round or slightly oval fruits. They average 3.5-5.3 oz (100-150 g).
- 👅 Flavor & Texture: Very meaty with few seeds. It has a high dry matter content (7%), making it dense rather than watery. Praised for a balanced, sweet, and classic tomato flavor.
- ⚠️ Grower Notes: Seeds from the “Poisk” brand can be genetically unstable. Some growers report getting a watery, pale yellow off-type mixed in with the true dense orange plants.
Description from the seed packet: Mid-early, 105-108 days from emergence to the first harvest. The plant is determinate, 24-28 inches (60-70 cm) tall. Fruits are round and round-oval with a “beak” at the blossom end. They have few seeds, are meaty, sweet, yellow-orange in color, weighing 3.5-5.3 oz (100-150 g), with some reaching up to 10.5 oz (300 g). The taste qualities are very high, with a dry matter content of 7%. All-purpose use.
Photos by Nadine.
I once bought seedlings of this variety at a market. I asked for “Gina” (Dzhina), but they gave me “Dina”. I ended up liking it, very tasty tomatoes for an early variety.
I didn’t see any “beak” on it at all, neither in the photos nor on my own fruits. 🤷♀️
And regarding the height, if you grow it in a greenhouse, you have to adjust your expectations. I planted it “at the feet” of my tall indeterminates (as an understory crop). The bush that grew in direct sunlight topped out at 3.3 feet (100 cm), but the one that ended up completely in the shade shot right up to 5.5 feet (170 cm)!
It turned out to be an incredibly resilient variety, a true survivor. It grew in the most unfavorable conditions, severely crowded, and yet it still produced fruit and didn’t get sick.
I liked the flavor; it was meaty and juicy.
My Dina from the “Poisk” seed company isn’t early at all; it hasn’t even started blushing/turning color yet 😞
But what is the actual taste like? “Meaty and juicy” can still mean it’s totally tasteless.
Quote from Olvia:
But what is the actual taste like?
Olya, the taste is good. It has what people on the forum always call a “perfectly balanced tomato flavor”. It has both a nice sweetness and a pleasant acidity/tartness, and even a little bitterness. Just kidding about the bitterness, I got carried away! 😂
Planted Dina for the first time this year. I liked it. It’s already ripening on the bushes in open ground outdoors. I originally sowed it in the greenhouse in mid-April. To me, this tomato is very sweet. 😋
Planted Dina for the first time, seeds from Poisk, grew 3 bushes. On one of the bushes, the fruits grew out pale yellow and very watery/runny – totally useless for canning or processing. The rest were vibrant orange and nice and firm. I’ll make sure to save seeds only from the firm orange ones.
👨🌾 Editor’s Grow Tips & Botany Glossary:
Etiolation (Stretching): Svetlana makes a fascinating observation. She planted a determinate (short) tomato in the shade “at the feet” of her tall indeterminates. The bush in the sun stayed compact at 3.3 ft, but the one in the shade stretched to 5.5 ft! This is called etiolation. The plant detects the lack of light and rapidly elongates its stem cells to stretch up and desperately search for the sun. It proves this variety is incredibly resilient and shade-tolerant!
