📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Drova (Firewood)
- 🌍 Origin: A commercial Russian variety famously distributed by the “Aelita” seed company. The name translates to “Firewood” or “Logs”, perfectly describing the elongated shape of the fruit.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Determinate, tree-type (rugose foliage). Extremely compact, stocky, and sturdy, usually maxing out around 16–24 inches (40–60 cm) tall. It requires absolutely zero pruning or staking.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Elongated, cylindrical red paste tomatoes that often feature a distinct dimple or fork at the blossom end. They typically weigh around 2–3.5 oz (60–100g) and measure 4–5 inches (10–12 cm) in length.
- 👅 Flavor & Texture: A processing workhorse! The flesh has an incredibly high percentage of dry matter with almost no excess water or gel. Classic concentrated tomato flavor with a hint of sweetness.
- 🥫 Best Uses: The absolute ultimate choice for sun-drying/dehydrating, making thick paste, and whole-fruit canning. Picked green at the end of the season, they will easily store indoors until December.
This variety is sold exclusively by Aelita, but we got our seeds from Tomatinka. The manufacturer’s description says: early, 12–16 inches (30–40 cm) tall, trusses have 5-6 cylindrical fruits measuring 4–5 inches (10–12 cm) long, weighing up to 3.5 oz (100g), with very few seeds.
We planted ours underneath the De Barao vines. It grew to 18 inches (45 cm), and the weight, length, and fruit count per truss perfectly matched the breeder’s description. The flavor is a classic tomato taste, yield is above average so far, and it ripens right on the heels of our earliest varieties. We didn’t prune it at all, gave the bush zero attention (literally no work required). Production window was about 2 months.
The photo of the bush is from Sept 16, it’s still green but has already finished fruiting. This variety is very similar to Zhigolo from Biotekhnika, it has the exact same fruit shape and the same tree-type (rugose) bush. But Biotekhnika claims Zhigolo is mid-season with larger fruits.
I grew just one plant this year. It grew about 16 inches (40 cm) tall and was completely loaded. The absolute yield champion for me in this difficult season. They are still green in the photo, I didn’t let them ripen fully on the vine.
A very reliable and high-yielding variety. Grew it outdoors in open ground, completely uncovered. It held its ground fiercely, even though Late Blight was raging hard during this cold, terrible tomato season. The green fruits I picked in September easily lasted indoors at room temperature until mid-December!
I agree, the variety is both reliable and productive. It was probably the most trouble-free plant I had during this crappy summer. It resisted all the diseases of this year the longest 👍 and set full trusses without skipping a single blossom 😉 Harvested in August.
Huge thanks to Vera for the seeds! This variety has become my absolute #1 for sun-drying. Extremely productive, you can’t even see the leaves, it’s just solid tomatoes. It develops a massive root system, even my large indeterminate vines have smaller roots. The fruits have an incredibly high dry matter content, zero excess water, with a nice sweetness. A super discovery!!!!!
My second year growing it and I can’t get enough of this variety! Such a smart plant! Productive, sturdy, trouble-free, reliable, and beautiful. Grew it from my own saved seeds this year. I know for a fact these will happily sit indoors at room temp until December.
I grew Drova and Veselyi Gnom (Jolly Gnome) in the exact same garden bed. I noticed absolutely no difference. The bushes, the fruits, and the flavor were completely identical. I liked the variety, but I think the different names are just pure marketing. I couldn’t find seeds for Zhigolo, but I bet it’s the exact same thing.
mopsdad1 said:
I grew Drova and Veselyi Gnom (Jolly Gnome) in the exact same garden bed.
My Veselyi Gnom ended up being a late-season variety.
Mine ripened at the exact same time. Sown on the exact same day.
mopsdad1 said:
I grew Drova and Veselyi Gnom (Jolly Gnome) in the exact same garden bed. I noticed absolutely no difference. The bushes, the fruits, and the flavor were completely identical. I liked the variety…
Totally agree with the previous speaker 🤠
Drova and Veselyi Gnom grew side by side in my greenhouse this year, unpruned, height about 20–24 inches (50–60 cm). Heavy yielders 👋, both the fruits and bushes are identical. Mid-season, firm little red fruits up to 2.5 oz (70g).
My Drova. The plant is a tree-type (rugose foliage), up to 3 feet (1m) tall. The leaves are tough and wide, like spruce branches. Because of this rugged constitution, the plant tolerates drought incredibly well. I didn’t prune suckers. I just periodically removed leaves so they wouldn’t block the fruit trusses and to improve airflow.
Very productive variety. The little tomatoes are super meaty, fantastic for whole-fruit canning and any dishes where you need actual tomato “meat” rather than juice.
Growing Drova for the second year. Absolutely love them for their yield, I use them all for canning.
Here is my Zhigolo. Not much difference. Except maybe the cost of the seeds. Biotekhnika brand is a bit pricey.
Gera said:
Here is my Zhigolo. Not much difference. Except maybe the cost of the seeds. Biotekhnika brand is a bit pricey.
Gera, Drova is a tree-type determinate. It is sturdy, stocky, with thick, stiff dark green leaves. The plant in your photo looks nothing like Drova based on the plant structure and foliage.
👨🌾 Editor’s Seed Market Note: The Renaming Game
In this thread, you can see experienced growers discussing the similarities between Drova, Zhigolo, and Veselyi Gnom (Jolly Gnome). This highlights a very common (and sometimes frustrating) practice in the commercial seed world! Seed companies frequently take a fantastic, open-pollinated workhorse variety, slap a new, catchy trademarked name on it, and sell it at a premium.
While environmental factors can cause slight variations, the general consensus among Russian heirloom growers is that these three varieties are genetically identical or extremely closely related strains of the same tree-type paste tomato. If you are looking to grow this fantastic drying tomato, any of those three names will get you the exact same results!
