Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA Zones 3-6 Experience)
Description from the seed packet:
Large-fruited variety for greenhouses and open dirt. Fruits are flat-round, uniform, very tasty. The variety provides a stable yield even in unfavorable years. Suitable for fresh eating, home cooking, and market sales.
Photos by Lidiya, Katerinka, Ira.
Edited April 1, 2019 by Pomidoroved
Once again the seed source isn’t mentioned. My Lopatinsky was from SibSad, grew it outdoors. It was a det topping out at 2.3 ft (70 cm), red, highly productive. First fruits reached 1.1 lbs (500 g), averaging around 7 oz (200 g). I really liked the taste. 🎩
Pani Tomat said:
My Lopatinsky was from SibSad, grew it outdoors. It was a det topping out at 2.3 ft (70 cm), red, highly productive…
Irina, thanks for the info! 🌺 I have the SibSad seeds too. Guess it’s pointless for me to expect an indet to grow out of it.
My Lopatinsky is from SibSad, grew outdoors, got to about 3.3 ft (1 m). Really liked it.
TanyaK said:
Irina, thanks for the info! 🌺 I have the SibSad seeds too. Guess it’s pointless for me to expect an indet to grow out of it.
Tatyana, my Lopatinskie shot right up to 6.5 ft (2 m) in the greenhouse, but my seeds came from the girls on the forum, not from a commercial SibSad packet. No idea where they originally got their strain from.
Lyubov. said:
My Lopatinsky is from SibSad, grew outdoors, got to about 3.3 ft (1 m). Really liked it.
Looks so appetizing! 👍
elena1984 said:
Tatyana, my Lopatinskie shot right up to 6.5 ft (2 m) in the greenhouse, but my seeds came from the girls on the forum…
Lenok, how did it develop when it was just a seedling? Did it act like a det or an indet?
I’d hate to waste prime greenhouse space on it if it turns out to be a bush. The best bet for an experiment is probably to just plant it outdoors under low hoops.
My Lopatinskie from SibSad never grew taller than 2 ft (60 cm), both in the greenhouse and outdoors. This year in the greenhouse it actually topped itself at just 14 inches (35 cm), but it’s pushing out suckers right now. I get beauties up to 14 oz (400 g) with barely any care. Maybe if I fed them heavier they’d get bigger, but I’m afraid to overfeed them since they are such shorties.
I really liked Lopatinskie from SibSad this year. I planted expired seeds, but they sprouted first out of everything and set fruit before anything else. They reached about 6 ft (1.8 m) tall. The tomatoes are delicious. I left an overripe one on the counter for seed-saving and it sat there for a very long time without rotting. Absolutely planting it again.
TanyaK said:
Lenok, how did it develop when it was just a seedling? Did it act like a det or an indet?
Tanyusha, mine was definitely an indet.
Planted 1 vine this year. It bloomed first, beating even the super-early hybrids. Set fruit exceptionally well. I had up to 30 fruits ripening on the plant almost all at once. Heavy yielding variety.
My Lopatinskie strain in the greenhouse turned out very productive, a tall vine at 5 ft (1.5 m), mid-season. The fruits were large, pink in color, oblate, slightly ribbed, meaty, and had excellent flavor.
This year my greenhouse Lopatinskie topped itself early, and letting the suckers run didn’t help at all, so I just yanked it. But the one outdoors showed its full potential. It grew a bit taller than usual, but the summer was… well anyway, the taste is decent, actually better than usual, but I think the wood ash did the trick. Everything tasted better this year since I had a lot of ash and fed them heavily.
My Lopatinskie turned out soooo productive, grew 5 ft (1.5 m) tall outdoors, loaded top to bottom. But for me the flavor was very mediocre, kind of bland and empty, so I just sent them all to the sauce pot.
Handles the heat well, productive, and tasty.
I am still so confused about this variety. One plant is clearly a det, the truss looks exactly like Lana’s photo. The second one I bought from Korolev’s site: it’s a tall indet producing massive single “slab” tomatoes.
Growing Lopatinskie for the first time this year. Never grew it before. It performed incredibly well during a very tough year, surviving three weeks of June frosts followed by record-breaking July heat.
Turned out to be an early, large-fruited variety. Indet, grew to nearly 6.5 ft (2 m). The fruits are tasty. Very few seeds inside them, though.
Great choice for the middle latitudes, the North, and the South. One of the very few varieties this year that made my keeper list for a permanent spot in the rotation.
I plant this variety frequently—both for yield and to sell seedlings. It’s one of my regulars.
Good variety. The slicers weigh 7-9 oz (200-250 g), pink, not mealy. Meaty and juicy.
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Full Summary: Plant, Yield, and Taste
- 🌿 Plant: Highly dependent on seed source! Commercial packets (especially from SibSad) usually produce a determinate bush staying under 2-3 ft (60-100 cm). Seeds sourced from private collectors usually yield a vigorous indeterminate vine reaching 5-6.5 ft (1.5-2 m). Both variants do very well outdoors.
- 📈 Yield & Earliness: Excellent. Growers repeatedly note its early ripening speed (often beating early hybrids) and its ability to pump out massive yields even during terrible weather years featuring late frosts and extreme heat.
- 👅 Taste & Appearance: Produces large, flat-round (oblate) beefsteaks. Like the plant habit, color varies by seed strain—the determinate commercial strain is often Red, while the indeterminate collector strain is usually Pink. Fruits average 7-14 oz (200-400 g) but easily reach 1.1 lbs (500 g). The flesh is dense, meaty, and nearly seedless. While most love the flavor, a few found it slightly bland and better suited for sauce.
- 🌎 Who Reviewed It: Grown widely across Russia (USDA Zones 3-6). Its heat tolerance and cold resistance make it a highly adaptable workhorse for both northern and southern gardens.
This thread highlights a common issue in Russian heirloom growing: commercial seed companies (like Siberian Garden) and private seed collectors often circulate completely different phenotypes under the same name. If you buy Lopatinskie seeds, be sure to ask the vendor if it’s the determinate Red strain or the indeterminate Pink strain!
