📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Mt. Vesuvius (Piennolo del Vesuvio)
- 🌍 Origin & History: This is a legendary Italian heirloom storage tomato (Pomodorino del Piennolo del Vesuvio). Traditionally grown on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius in Italy, they are famous for being harvested on the vine, tied into large bunches (piennolo), and hung from ceilings to store through the winter.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall) and extremely vigorous. Can easily exceed 6.5-10 ft (2-3 m) in a greenhouse. Grower’s Note: The true Italian variety is Regular Leaf (RL), but a cross-pollinated Potato Leaf (PL) variant circulates in Eastern Europe.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Small, thick-walled, bright red cherry/plum tomatoes with a distinct pointed tip (beak). Weight is usually around 1-1.5 oz (30-40 g). The skin is very glossy and tough, specifically designed to prevent moisture loss during months of storage.
- 👅 Flavor: Sweet, intense, and rich. Unlike many other “long-keeper” varieties that taste like cardboard, Vesuvius concentrates its sugars and flavors as it slowly dehydrates in storage.
- ⏳ Storage Capabilities: Incredible. Growers report picking them in late summer and eating them perfectly fresh (and sweet!) in January, March, or even May!
A very interesting variety, seeds from V. Popenko. Indeterminate. The fruits are red with a very unusual shape. They are trapezoidal, slightly flattened, with a cute little pointed tip (beak). They are incredibly dense, keep for a very long time in storage, and weigh up to 1.4 oz (40 g).
The taste is very good, with noticeable sweetness, even when ripened off the vine during storage. Regular Leaf. 8-10 fruits per truss. There is also a variation of this variety with Potato Leaf (PL) foliage going around.
The last green trusses I picked ripened and lasted all the way until November 25—longer than any other variety I grew. We happily ate them fresh 😋
Edited Nov 28, 2015 by Drosera
Mt. Vesuvius. Seeds from R. Dukhov. Mid-early variety, grew outdoors in open ground, pruned to multiple stems. The plant reached 4.2 ft (1.3 m) tall. The fruits are elongated with a rounded bottom, finished off with a pointed tip. Not large.
The average weight is supposed to be 2.5 oz (70 g). I think if you prune it to 1-2 stems in a greenhouse, you could easily hit that weight. The tomatoes are extremely dense with very little juice/gel, but the fruits are sweet. An unusual flavor. The tomatoes store for a very long time, but honestly, after such a long storage period, I didn’t care for the taste anymore.
I liked the variety, mine had Potato Leaf (PL) foliage. Sweet, dense, great for canning or just eating fresh. Very tall plants, they can easily exceed 10 ft (3 m) in a greenhouse. I left a lot of suckers on, but the bush didn’t look overly dense or jungle-like.
Thanks to Svetikk 🌸, I got to try this variety, even though I hadn’t planned on it. I just wanted it “at the very last minute” on seeding day. And I don’t regret it at all! Delicious even after storing it for over a month (I wrote the date “August 28” directly on the fruit, and tried it today). I picked it when it was already red. I still have some left, trying to see how much longer they will keep. Grew it outdoors, the seedlings weren’t in great shape initially, so I wasn’t expecting a maximum yield.
Will definitely repeat.
Absolutely loved this variety! Outdoors in open ground, it shot up past 6.5 ft (2 m). Quite productive, didn’t catch any diseases at all, tasty and sweet. It has very tough, glossy skin.
I’m also trying to store it for a long time—I cut the trusses off whole, tied them into bunches, and hung them in the shed for now. When it gets freezing out there, I’ll bring them inside the house.
Edited Sep 21, 2016 by Drosera
Repeating it this year, I want to find the difference between the Regular Leaf (Mt. Vesuvius) and the Potato Leaf versions. The leaves are obviously different. Now I’ve found another difference—the PL version pushes out its first fruit truss earlier while still in the seedling stage… I planted two of each (sowed on March 9). Both of the PL plants already have trusses. I’ll keep observing 😎
The biggest disappointment of this season, and actually of all 5 seasons I’ve been growing tomatoes. The mountain labored and brought forth a mouse. A massive plant reaching the greenhouse ceiling produced about a dozen tiny, 1-inch (3 cm), tough, dry fruits. Trusses had exactly 1 fruit each. It was growing in a prime spot in the center of the greenhouse. Total yield was probably no more than 7 oz (200 g). The flavor is intense, though. Regular leaf. Seeds were from the original poster of this thread.
I saved seeds and will try again. I’ve wanted this variety for years.
This variety turned out late-season for me. Only a few fruits colored up on the vine, I picked the rest green. Very tall, well over 6.5 ft (2 m) in the greenhouse. Dryish flesh with thick walls. Sweetish taste, even the ones ripened off the vine. And the ones that are still sitting in storage today (Nov 13) have very pronounced sweetness. Two photos taken a month apart… the fruits haven’t even shriveled yet.
Edited Nov 13, 2019 by elja1968
Tatunya wrote:
Repeating it this year, I want to find the difference between the Regular Leaf (Mt. Vesuvius) and the Potato Leaf versions…
From now on, I will only plant the Regular Leaf (RL) version. It’s tastier than the PL version. I mean sweeter. They also look slightly different—the RL version has a sharper, more distinct point. The yield wasn’t great, it’s probably better to plant 2 plants in one hole. The plants aren’t overly massive anyway. I’ll also plant them in a spot with drip irrigation. We’ll see…
Strange that I didn’t take any pictures of either. Alright, I’ll go snap some, I think we still have some laying around. 😎
My Mt. Vesuvius came from Nadyusha. I got these lacquered/glossy, pointy little cherries with an interesting, slightly flattened shape. Grown outdoors. Picked the first tomatoes on July 29 (from a March 29 sowing). Ripened uniformly, practically all of them ripened on the vine. I was worried they would taste tough/hard, but no, they were firm but sweet. Loved them in every regard. Heavy yielder. I highly recommend it to everyone.
I just didn’t manage to store them for long—after about 3 weeks, spots started appearing on the fruits. I regret putting them all in the refrigerator to store; this year, the tomatoes stored much better in my cold unheated office (my husband partitioned off a room in the garage for me).
Seeds from Dukhov. Grew outdoors, bush was about 6.5 ft (2 m) tall, fruits are dense and sweet. Liked them.
Found a photo on the scale.
Yes, I consider it delicious, with a classic tomato flavor. And it is a phenomenal long-keeper, retaining its flavor even when picked fully red instead of green. Thanks again Svetikk 💋
This year I’ll plant three of them close together, in a spot with drip irrigation next to the peppers.
Hello. I received a tomato a few years ago under the name “Mt. Vesuvius” that looks like this… Doesn’t look like the ones in this thread… What could it be? Or does Vesuvius have a variation like this…
Tatiana77 wrote:
Or does Vesuvius have a variation like this…
There are no variations in fruit shape. Only in leaf type (RL vs PL). What you have is not it. Cross-pollinated off-type (mixed seeds)?
Then what could it be?
It feels like it resembles Pokoritel Neba (Conqueror of the Sky). I’ve never grown Pokoritel, but I’ve read about it. I found the original seeds of what I planted. I’ll try again. If it’s not Vesuvius, then someone must have “generously” scooped me some Pokoritel seeds instead 😂
Svetikk wrote:
There is also a variation of this variety with Potato Leaf (PL) foliage going around.
In the Italian videos about this variety, the leaf is regular (RL). Mine was regular leaf too.
I grew Red and Yellow Piennolo del Vesuvio with regular leaves in the 2022 season (seeds from Exotic Tomato), and they stored for an incredibly long time. The ones harvested in late August lasted (hung in bunches by the truss) all the way until New Year’s without losing any flavor or even shriveling.
I left the remaining ones hanging longer as an experiment. By early March, the taste became like store-bought winter tomatoes and they shriveled slightly. The yellow ones shriveled less, and the very last one fell off the truss in the first days of May! It looked completely fine, though the taste had become acidic—so it went on a pizza.
This was my experience growing Vesuvius. Planted it again for the ’23 season, definitely repeating.
tomatomania wrote:
I grew Red and Yellow Piennolo del Vesuvio…
Did you grow them in a greenhouse or in open ground? I also planted 2 bushes this year, wanting to eat my own tomatoes in winter.
Natalya79 wrote:
Did you grow them in a greenhouse or in open ground?
Outdoors in open ground.
The earliest tomato of the season! We ate the first tomato off this plant even earlier than my “42 Days” variety, which I specifically planted for an extra-early harvest (and seeded a week earlier than Vesuvius).
Planted 2 bushes: one outdoors, the other in the greenhouse. It does much better in the greenhouse.
Sowed on March 8, first ripe fruit on June 20. Glossy, dense little tomatoes weighing 1.4 oz (40 g), sweet. The skin is tough, but completely edible.
I wanted to prune it to 2 main stems, but the trusses were very simple, so I just let it grow wild (only removed the suckers below the very first truss).
Edited Jul 3, 2023 by Natalya79
