📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Gigant Novikova (Novikov’s Giant)
- 🌍 Origin: Bred by Russian hobby gardener A.I. Novikov. It was introduced to North American heirloom collectors in 2007 by Andrey Baranovski of Minsk, Belarus. According to the original lore, Novikov grew towering vines in his greenhouse and harvested up to 66 lbs (30 kg) from a single plant!
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, extremely vigorous, and tall. Growers frequently warn that it can turn into an “unmanageable foliage monster” if not pruned strictly. Note on Leaf Type: There is known genetic variance in circulation. You may get Regular Leaf (RL) or Potato Leaf (PL) plants from the same seed batch.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Deep pink/raspberry colored beefsteaks. They can get massive, easily reaching 1.4 to 2.2 lbs (650 g to 1 kg).
- 👅 Flavor: Highly praised for a rich, harmonious, and balanced old-school flavor. Very meaty and great for slicing.
- ⚠️ Growing Quirks: It can be finicky. It is sensitive to cold summers, prone to blossom drop in high heat, and requires heavy feeding to avoid hard/yellow shoulders on the massive fruits.
Gigant Novikova is a wonderful, tasty variety, but on my sandy soil near Moscow the yield is very inconsistent. In 2008 I got 3.3 lbs (1.5 kg) per bush, in 2009 about 7.9 lbs (3.6 kg), and in 2010 it was less than a kilo, even though all three summers were sunny and great for tomatoes.
Aleksander wrote:
Gigant Novikova is a wonderful, tasty variety, but on my sandy soil near Moscow the yield is very inconsistent…
What exactly happens to it? Does it drop blossoms, or do the fruits just stay small because of the sandy soil? 😲
Elfiya, in a bad year there are just fewer fruits and they aren’t all as massive as the ones in Angelina’s photos. Even in a good year, the fruits on the truss are uneven in size. Plus, my plot is small and pretty shaded anyway.
I’ve been paying attention to your and Angelina’s posts, you both get really good harvests, it’s a pleasure to look at. I think this variety will do great for you.
Thank you, your praise is very nice to hear. All of us around here get good and excellent harvests.
In terms of flavor, this variety has no equal 😘
wwwgrey wrote:
In terms of flavor, this variety has no equal 😘
Woooow! Hard to believe it’s that good 😋 What, does it have alcohol proof in it or something?! Hats off then 🤠
Allow me to disagree… Seeds were from Angelina, big thanks to her. It didn’t show its full potential this season, but the potential is clearly there. The flavor is harmonious, good. I will definitely regrow it next season, hopefully the weather will cooperate better 😉
So, it’s finally time to pot up my Gigant Novikova seedlings… but I am confused 😕 Out of 10 seeds, 6 have potato leaves (PL) and 4 have regular leaves (RL). Could someone please tell me what the real leaf type is supposed to be?
I ordered the seeds back in 2014 and just now got around to them. I wouldn’t want to waste garden space on something I didn’t plan for… Thanks in advance 🌺
VALENTINA/Abakan wrote:
…Out of 10 seeds, 6 have potato leaves and 4 have regular leaves. Could someone please tell me what the real leaf type is supposed to be?
I sowed 2 plants. Both had regular leaves. My seeds were from Angelina.
Thanks for the reply 🌺 So I guess I will keep the ones with regular leaves. But I am still curious… what did that seed seller slip into my packet…? Maybe I’ll keep a couple of the potato leaf ones just to see what grows 😂
Alright, regarding G. Novikova 🙂 The plant is powerful, well over 6.5 ft (2 m) tall. It grew in a greenhouse, but a very well-ventilated one. The leaf is regular, large, dark green. Early in the season it performed wonderfully, I pruned it to two main stems.
But after setting fruit on the first two trusses, it just skyrocketed and turned into an unmanageable leafy monster 😕 Very few fruits up top. Weight-wise, I wouldn’t really call it a giant, just average weight, I’ve seen bigger. The taste is good, rich. The color of the fruits was deep raspberry pink.
Most likely the variety just didn’t show its full potential for me. Because of its tendency to produce massive amounts of foliage, I didn’t bother saving seeds. I need harvests, not just landscaping for the greenhouse. Maybe in different conditions it performs better, but not for me… alas 😕
This year it was a “dud” for me too, didn’t show what it can do. Grew in the greenhouse on the sunny side. Started ripening a bit late. In the heat, it dropped blossoms. The fruits got up to 1.4 lbs (650 g).
I really loved this variety! Productive, tasty, large.
Here is what Tatiana Kushnareva writes about Novikov’s Giant:
Developed by Russian hobby gardener A.I. Novikov.
Russian variety introduced to North America by Andrey Baranovski of Minsk, Belarus (BELR BA A) as ‘Novikov’s Giant’. In his 2007 SSE Yearbook listing, Andrey says:
“…heirloom variety dev. by Russian gardener A.I. Novikov, who picked up to 30 kg of delicious tomatoes from 1 plant 4-6 m tall with 1 kg fruits in his greenhouse”.
Some tomato growers (i.e., Bill Jeffers of Indiana) reported that the seed they obtained from Andrey produced both potato and regular leaf plants.
Even without a translator, it’s clear that the gardener Novikov harvested 66 lbs (30 kg) from 1 plant, which was 13 to 20 ft (4-6 m) tall in his greenhouse. And the fruits were 2.2 lbs (1 kg) each.
And that the leaves were both potato leaf and regular leaf.
I wonder what ended up growing from VALENTINA/Abakan’s potato leaf plants? 😉
Last summer I was thrilled with this variety. Tasty, abundant. This year, grown from my own saved seeds, it didn’t impress me at all. Low yield, lost out big time to Batyana, Bulgarian Wine Giant, Dacosta, and a couple of other varieties. It turns out the variety is very sensitive to a lack of heat. The summer was exceptionally cold.
My friend, who I shared the seedlings with, wasn’t thrilled either.
Posts not directly related to Gigant Novikova have been moved to the thread “Seeds from which harvest year are best to plant”.
For me, Gigant Novikova was the heaviest yielder and largest tomato of the 2018 season. BUT it had terrible, hard shoulders! Is this a genetic quirk of the variety, or bad growing technique on my part? I don’t know! I’m torn on whether to plant it again or not?
In the final post, Irina asks if the terrible “hard shoulders” (often called yellow shoulders or green shoulders in the US) are a genetic flaw or a grower error. The answer is usually a mix of both!
While some heirloom genetics are more prone to it, yellow/hard shoulders are primarily caused by excessive direct heat/sunlight hitting the fruit or a potassium deficiency during the sizing-up phase. Ironically, earlier in the thread, another grower complained that the plant became an “unmanageable foliage monster.” If a grower aggressively prunes off all that wild foliage to tame the beast, they expose the massive fruits to harsh, direct greenhouse sun, which bakes the top of the tomato and stops the ripening enzymes, leading directly to those hard, inedible shoulders!
