Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA Zones 3-6 Experience)
According to some sources, Legenda Tarasenko is the exact same variety as Nadiya or Nadezhda. The information on this mysterious variety is really scattered. Every source seems to have its own description.
Here is what I’ve managed to piece together in a nutshell: it’s a tall vine, mid-season (maybe mid-late?), producing elongated paste/plum tomatoes with a little beak on the end, weighing around 3.5 oz (100 g).
There are actually tons of photos of it in the forum galleries, which means a lot of people here have grown it. Please share your reviews and thoughts on this variety!
I grew Legenda Tarasenko back in 2014. Liked the variety, it’s productive, but I won’t be planting it again anytime soon – it got hit incredibly hard by BER.
It’s on my grow list for 2015.
For those who have grown it, let me know about the taste – is it good enough to eat fresh right off the vine, or is it strictly just a canning tomato…
Also curious about how tall it gets in a greenhouse…
I really liked this variety. Grew it outdoors. Acted like a mid-season for me, the trusses are branched, holding 16-22 fruits each. The flavor was great, and it holds up perfectly for canning too. I honestly think it needs to be grown in a greenhouse (at least in our region) to really reach its full potential 🤠
Legenda Tarasenko, also known as Nadiya (this was the final variety created by Feodosiy Makarovich Tarasenko). This variety needs to be pruned to 2 stems. Each stem will set 5-7 trusses of elongated, meaty fruits with top-notch flavor. Some individual clusters can hold up to 30 tomatoes.
The variety pleasantly surprised me with its massive trusses and neat, uniform fruits. Excellent for canning. Didn’t get sick with anything. The roots on this thing are massive, and the plant itself is definitely not wimpy. To see its full potential, you really need to plant it in rich, fertile soil (like well-rotted compost).
I liked the taste, totally fine, not sour. In the greenhouse, it reached about 6.5 ft (2 m) tall, but I leave my greenhouse windows open almost all summer so it got plenty of good sunshine.
Gusev sells this one under the name Legenda Multiflora…
I grew Legenda Tarasenko outdoors this season. Started it under low tunnels, and then let it climb a tall trellis… right next to my walnut tree… I grew a few vines, pruned them to 2-3 stems. The trusses were absolutely massive, and they actually managed to ripen on the vine… I’ve had this variety for a long time, since the eighties… very productive, mid-season (I start my seeds in the second half of February).
Rok5 said:
For those who have grown it, let me know about the taste – is it good enough to eat fresh right off the vine…
Yes, you can absolutely eat it right off the vine, or after picking 🙂 👍 The tomatoes are firm, meaty, and have a very pleasant flavor – mostly on the sweet side… My vines grew in extremely fertile soil on a thick layer of mulch, and I didn’t have a single fruit get hit with BER…
🙂 I actually have both varieties. Seeds are from GL SEEDS in Ukraine.
Here is the packet description for Legenda Tarasenko: Mid-season. Plant height 5-6 ft (1.5-1.8 m), complex trusses, each holding up to 30-40 fruits with a total cluster weight of 4.4-6.6 lbs (2-3 kg). Fruits are rounded-oval with a “beak”, bright red, firm, weighing 2.8-3.5 oz (80-100 g), crack-resistant, excellent flavor.
And for Nadiya Tarasenko: Mid-season. Sturdy plant 5-6.5 ft (150-200 cm), sets trusses of 6-7 elongated-oval fruits with a beak, bright red, weighing 3.5-4.2 oz (100-120 g), excellent flavor.
In short, the fruit shape is different, the number of fruits per truss is totally different, and Nadiya is slightly heavier. Guess I’ll just have to plant both and compare 🤷♀️….
Nadin said:
🙂 I actually have both varieties…
The Legenda Tarasenko that you and I bought together last year has much more elongated fruits.
Murmurka said:
The Legenda Tarasenko that you and I bought together last year has much more elongated fruits.
🙂 Galochka, I haven’t even planted the Legenda we bought last year yet. And ours was from Petrov.
We’ve got a whole bunch of impostors running around these days. Kosmonavt Volkov has a “son”, Legenda Tarasenko has a “daughter” Nadiya… who even knows which one is the real deal anymore?
Wait, so you didn’t even plant the old ones and you went out and bought more? Couldn’t resist, huh? Tsk-tsk-tsk 🤦♀️
My LT fruits ended up looking exactly like the ones in Yaroslavna’s photos.
Nadyusha, Galina – the true, correct Legenda Tarasenko has massive, fan-shaped multiflora trusses… there can easily be up to 30 fruits in a single cluster. The fruits themselves are elongated with a pointy beak.
Here is a photo of me holding just one single truss on the vine. This was 10 years ago in my plastic hoop house…
Here is my Legenda Tarasenko. Fits the description perfectly. Had an excellent yield outdoors in the dirt (even despite the cold summer), but it actually performed worse in the greenhouse 🤷♀️. It looks incredibly beautiful when it’s flowering because of the massive amount of blossoms. I really liked the taste too, just a very pleasant, classic tomato flavor.
Edited January 30, 2015 by Lana
My Legenda Tarasenko. Loved the variety, grew it outdoors. It got very tall, around 6.5 ft (2 m). The trusses are huge and bifurcated. The photo just shows one single truss.
Really loved this variety! Mine came from Ukraine from Syray’s collection! It’s delicious not just for canning, but for fresh eating and salads too! Started the seeds in February, grew it outdoors.
Pani Tomat said:
My Legenda.
Whoa, look at those pointy beaks 😲. Mine didn’t look like that.
And here is Gusev’s Legenda Multiflora. Spot the differences… I specifically planted Legenda Tarasenko and LM side-by-side. They are identical.
Svetik, it’s hard to read the weight on the scale. If it says 74g, then your Legenda Multiflora is twice as small as a true Legenda.
Here is my Legenda.
This variety has a permanent spot in my garden now. Very worthy tomato.
I fell in love with this variety too. Great fruit set. The trusses are just beautiful. Thanks to Yaroslavna for the seeds.
Semechka said:
And here is Gusev’s Legenda Multiflora. Spot the differences…
I haven’t grown Legenda Multiflora yet, but I just ordered it (from the Nash Sad company). Based on the picture on the packet, it looks identical to Legenda Tarasenko.
Really loved the variety. Yields are exceptionally high. 🙌 Didn’t get sick with anything.
True, classic tomato flavor. The flesh is very firm. Great for fresh eating and for canning. 👍
Funny variety (seeds from Yaroslavna). The vines look so pathetic you just want to cry; always drooping and wimpy. But then they push out these gorgeous, massive trusses full of pointy tomatoes. Productive and disease-resistant. Great for canning, but pretty good fresh too.
Grew it again this year, this time from my own saved seeds. Not sure what the flavor will be like considering the cold, wet summer we had, but the yield and earliness are solid.
Here is the Legenda Multiflora I grew in 2016 from the Nash Sad seed company.
It’s a really hard-working variety. Ripened at the bottom, then 2 trusses up top, then back at the bottom again; very long-season producer. We grow it under cover here so it has enough time to show its full potential. Seeds were from Nadyusha in Volgograd.
Gorgeous variety 👍, massive trusses 🙌, beautiful pointy fruits up to 2.5 oz (70 g). Grew it in the greenhouse to 2 stems. I’ve grown it a second time now, again planted side-by-side with its yellow analog, Golden Canary.
The only downside – some of the fruits got blossom end rot (the beaks turned black), but with such a huge overall yield, it didn’t really matter.
Svetikk said:
grown it a second time now, again planted side-by-side with its yellow analog, Golden Canary.
I also grew this variety again, specifically pairing it with Golden Canary. A perfect pair!
Very productive variety, and I didn’t get any BER at all.
Gorgeous variety! @Svetikk Svetik 🤠
Full Summary: Plant, Yield, Taste and Vigor
- 🌿 Plant: Indeterminate vine. Known for having “wimpy” or weeping foliage common to many paste varieties, but it pushes out massive, fan-shaped multiflora trusses. Produces elongated red paste tomatoes with a sharp beak, usually weighing 2.8-4.2 oz (80-120 g).
- 📈 Yield: Extremely high. Individual trusses can hold 16 to 40 tomatoes depending on conditions. It requires rich, heavily amended soil to support the weight of these massive clusters.
- 👅 Taste & Usage: Outstanding dual-purpose tomato. It is firm and meaty enough for perfect whole-fruit canning, but sweet and flavorful enough to be eaten fresh in salads.
- 🛡️ Vigor & Resilience: While highly productive, it can be slightly susceptible to Blossom End Rot (BER) on the pointy tips during watering fluctuations. Many growers note that it performs best when pruned strictly to 2 or 3 stems in a greenhouse, though it can still deliver great harvests outdoors in warmer zones.
The name Tarasenko appears frequently in Russian and Ukrainian heirloom circles. Feodosiy Makarovich Tarasenko was a legendary amateur tomato breeder from Ukraine who specialized in creating massive multiflora (multi-flowering) varieties that produced giant, cascading trusses of fruit. “Legenda” (The Legend) is widely considered his final masterpiece. However, because his varieties became so famous in the 80s and 90s, many seed companies released copycats (like “Legenda Multiflora” or “Nadiya”), leading to the confusion and “impostors” discussed by the growers in this thread!
