Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA Zones 4-5 Experience)
A highly popular, early-season, tree-type dwarf variety meant to be grown right in the dirt. It became incredibly popular with gardeners back in the Soviet days as the absolute go-to variety for getting early harvests up in the northern regions.
The plants themselves are not large (tree-type), very compact. The foliage is potato leaf, large, and dark. In our climate zone, the fruits ripen completely on the bush. The tomatoes are firm, red, and have a really high-quality taste. Indispensable for all types of canning/processing and fresh eating.
Natasha, what’s the actual size of the fruits on these?
Average fruit size is 4-5 oz (120-140 g), all very uniform.
What really shocked me this season was the variety’s resistance to all the major tomato diseases. The plants pictured here grew all summer entirely unprotected. They were basically just laying right on the ground mixed in among my zucchini patch. I didn’t cover them with anything from spring onwards—I just had some leftover seedlings, so I stuck them in the zucchini bed without expecting much of a harvest at all. I only ended up sliding some plastic trays under the ripening trusses to keep them off the mud.
This variety turned out to be bulletproof against insane temperature swings, pouring rain, cold nights, and blazing sun!!! A wildly reliable, heavy-yielding variety!
Natasha, did you end up trimming all the leaves off those, and did you intentionally lay them down, or did they just fall over under the weight of the tomatoes?
Well, in the beginning, they were these proud, compact little bushes standing tall with their heads held high 😂 But when the trusses started swelling up, they just literally collapsed under the weight of the fruit. I just slid “pillows” under them (the only thing I didn’t do was tuck them in with a blanket, as Svetikk joked in my grow thread) 😂
As for the leaves, I just snapped off the lower, spent foliage as it died back…
Full Summary: Plant, Yield, Taste and Storage
- 🌿 Plant: A classic tree-type determinate (known as “shtamb” in Russian) with thick, sturdy stalks and large, dark potato-leaf (PL) foliage. It is notoriously rugged, handling cold nights, driving rain, and intense sun completely unprotected outdoors. While the central stalk is thick, the extreme fruit load will eventually cause the plant to fall over unless heavily staked.
- 📈 Yield: Exceptionally high for a compact plant. It reliably churns out early harvests even in poor weather or when neglected in a patch of squash.
- 👅 Taste: Rated highly for having excellent, high-quality flavor, especially compared to many other early-season varieties which tend to be bland.
- 📦 Texture/Usage: The fruits are firm, uniform reds weighing 4-5 oz (120-140 g). They ripen fully on the plant even in short-season northern climates. The firm texture and uniform size make them ideal for all types of canning, processing, and fresh eating.
