📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Banan Krasnyi (Red Banana)
- 🌍 Origin: A popular commercial Russian variety. The name translates directly to “Red Banana”.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Generally a compact determinate (bush) plant growing about 2-2.5 feet (60-80 cm) tall, though some seed lines seem to produce indeterminate vines. Extremely sturdy and known for being highly forgiving for beginner growers.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Red, elongated plum/paste tomatoes. The fruits are very firm, dense, and weigh around 3.5-4.2 oz (100-120 g).
- 👅 Flavor: As a fresh eater, it’s considered average (3 out of 5), leaning towards acidic depending on the soil. However, its true value is in processing.
- 🥫 Best Use: An absolute workhorse for the kitchen. Excellent for canning and pickling (the skins don’t crack in jars) and makes fantastic sun-dried tomatoes.
- ⏳ Maturity & Yield: Heavy yielder that tends to ripen its crop all at once, allowing you to harvest before late blight or other late-season diseases hit.
I think the seeds were from ASK. Plant height was around 2-2.5 ft (60-80 cm). Fruits aren’t huge, about 3.5-4.2 oz (100-120 g).
They grew really well outdoors in open ground. The flavor is a bit on the tart side, I’d give it a mediocre 3 out of 5. The tomatoes in the photo are from the same plant; the first one has a more typical shape.
But they should be absolutely great for canning.
Edited November 22, 2015 by Drosera
I just picked up some seeds, planning to grow it this year.
My Red Banana looked more like a typical plum tomato. Nice, firm little fruit, good flavor, very productive, and it’s excellent for canning—it doesn’t split in the jar.
I really loved it pickled as well, and no cracking! I didn’t even try eating it raw. Definitely planting it again.
My Banana was an indet, just as stated on the seed packet. Heavy yielder. It performed really well both in the hoophouse and outdoors. The fruits are very dense. Excellent for processing, and it also did pretty well for making sun-dried tomatoes. This photo just shows the leftovers on the vine. The first trusses have already been picked.
Mine was a det, about 2-2.5 ft (60-70 cm) tall. Extremely prolific, producing red, elongated plum tomatoes. They are fantastic for canning and preserving—not too dry, but not overly juicy either. I’ve been planting a few bushes of it for 4 years now and will definitely keep it in my rotation.
I plant it every year, using seeds from different companies (usually just whatever is cheap), and it always turns out great: det, about 2 ft (50-60 cm) tall, very sturdy bush, and doesn’t throw fits when it’s a seedling. The fruits have a perfect oval shape.
Mine turn out sweet, even though my soil isn’t the best. But at my mom’s place, where she has rich black soil, they usually have a little tang to them. Great for canning and making sun-dried tomatoes.
It’s absolutely perfect for beginners because it’s super forgiving of newbie mistakes, and it pumps out the harvest all at once before late blight and other diseases hit. Very uniform ripening.
