Quick Summary of Sibirskiy Khottabych (Siberian Khottabych)
- 🌍 Origin: A beloved Russian heirloom originating from the Altai Mountains region. Named “Khottabych” (a famous genie from a Russian fairy tale), likely owing to the magical, bottle-like shape of the fruits.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate and very tall (reaching up to 3m / 10ft in a greenhouse). The vines are extremely slender, skinny, and “ballerina-like” with wispy foliage. Because the plant is so thin, many growers plant two roots in one hole or space them very closely to maximize yield. It shows excellent resistance to Blossom End Rot (BER) but is susceptible to Leaf Mold.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Highly unique, elongated, pear-shaped or bottle-shaped pink/raspberry fruits weighing 60-150g (2.1-5.3 oz). ⚠️ Growing Tip: The fruits detach from the stem extremely easily when ripe. Do not plant this variety right next to a narrow walkway, or you will accidentally knock all the ripe tomatoes off the plant when brushing past them!
- 👅 Flavor & Usage: The thick “bulb” part is juicy and sweet, while the narrow “neck” is much drier and meatier. This structure makes them the ultimate tomato for whole-fruit canning and sun-drying (dehydrating). They also store incredibly well indoors into late autumn.
Indeterminate, productive variety with beautiful elongated pear-shaped fruits… It has been in my collection for a long time… the seeds were sent from the Altai region.
It is preferable to grow the variety in a greenhouse (in our climate zone), pruned to 2-3 stems… From the very beginning of growing it, it always amazed me with its yield—it forms fruit trusses constantly throughout the entire growing season… The fruits are dense, raspberry-colored, weighing 100-150g (3.5-5.3 oz) – they are great for whole-fruit canning and sun-drying…
It’s just gorgeous, what else can you say 😋😋😋
I liked the variety 👍! THANK YOU, Natasha Yaroslavna!!! 😘🌺
Pink-fruited, slightly sweet. I generally just love pear shapes 🤫. Tasty when pickled/canned. 👍
Is the 2-3x difference in weight (50g vs 100-150g) due to different growing conditions? And is it also juicy in the narrow neck part?
Zulfiya said:
Is the difference in weight due to conditions? Is it juicy in the narrow part?
The weight of my Khottabych fruits was 60-90 grams (2-3.1 oz). For canning in jars, I don’t need them any bigger! 👍 They are quite dense, store well. In the narrow part it is a bit dry/meaty, but the main “bulb” part can easily be sliced into a salad or eaten fresh 😋 Seeds were from Yaroslavna 😘🌺
This year I was also lucky enough to grow this tomato. Thank you Natasha for it. I am adding it to my annual collection of exotics. They look like little toys when canned in a jar.
I just want to warn everyone: they detach from the stem extremely easily, you literally just brush against them and they fall off. 😳 My lower trusses were completely knocked off like that (I guess I am a bit too wide for my greenhouse walkway 😆). So be careful if you want to see them fully ripe on the bush! 😃
I didn’t like it. 😞 Yes, the tomatoes are like little toys, but I had very few of them on the bush. Maybe because it shouldn’t be grown under low plastic hoops, but in a proper tall greenhouse.
Girls, tell me—what is the bush itself like? Mine is soooo slender, “ballerina-like” if you will 😆, it’s not stocky/stout at all (growing in the greenhouse).
MarinochkaM said:
what is the bush itself like? Mine is soooo slender, “ballerina-like”…
Mine was also very slender.
MarinochkaM said:
what is the bush itself like? Mine is soooo slender, “ballerina-like”…
Yes, yes, exactly “ballerina-like” 😆 I mean, it’s a liana-type, skinny vine, just like many icicle-shaped varieties.
Thank you, girls 😘 you calmed me down 😆.
Season 2015, grown outdoors (Open Ground):
I liked Khottabych—thank you Svetikk for the seeds 🌺
The bush has a very delicate, skinny structure. At first I pruned it to 2 stems, and later it set fruit on the upper suckers as well.
Deliciiiious 😋, using these for canning/pickling would be a sacrilege!
All trusses were completely full—up to 8 fruits. The largest ones were in the middle.
At the end of the summer, they started cracking. You’d pick them whole, bring them into the house, and they’d crack open 🤷♀️
A worthy variety for lovers of diversity.
trofi said:
I didn’t like it. Yes, the tomatoes are like little toys, but I had very few of them on the bush…
Lenochek, mine grew outdoors, and the yield was excellent. Just a little bit late to ripen.
Outdoors it was shorter in height, but in the greenhouse it grew very tall, up to 3m (10 ft). There were fruits right until the very end, the bush in the greenhouse was powerful, pruned to 2-3 stems. The fruits are dense, store well. A few fruits even lasted indoors until New Year’s.
Galya-64 said:
I just want to warn everyone: they detach from the stem extremely easily… My lower trusses were completely knocked off like that (I guess I am a bit too wide for my greenhouse walkway😆).
That is absolutely true. I already have several pieces sitting indoors ripening off the vine because of this. You definitely shouldn’t plant this tomato right next to the walkway 😲
My favorite Siberian Khottabych once again pleased me with its “model-like,” refined shapes 🙂 It’s growing in the greenhouse right by the entrance, the fruits are starting to color up…
The bush is now blooming right up under the roof 🙌
It took almost first place in my collection of “the absolute best” — an absolute overachiever and a beauty 😃
It grew outdoors, the bush was neat, and it kept setting fruit right until the cold weather… The tomatoes are very tasty – sweet, with a sugary/sparkling texture on the break. The weight was up to 100g (3.5 oz) – I pruned the bush to a single stem.
In 2017, I plan to try growing it in the greenhouse with multiple stems.
Sibirskiy Khottabych turned out to be over 2 meters (6.5 ft) tall in the greenhouse. In the spring, when I was preparing the beds, I didn’t have time to de-acidify the soil, so many varieties (including Khottabych) caught some Blossom End Rot (BER). I saved them by watering with calcium nitrate and doing foliar feeds.
The fruits were tasty, sweet, and meaty.
cat2008 said:
It took almost first place in my collection of “the absolute best”…
I completely agree with Oksana’s conclusions 👍 I would even remove the word “almost” in my case… 🙂 🙂
This season I grew it in the greenhouse, right by the doors, in a corner… Not a single fruit was affected by Blossom End Rot – a healthy, strong bush right up until autumn… It loves posing in the branches of the cedar tree 🙂
What if I plant 2 roots in one hole? Since it’s so “ballerina-like” (super description)!! Advise me, please. And ultimately, how should it be pruned—to 1, 2, or 3 stems???
On 02/10/2019 at 8:39 AM, Lena Vanyushka said:
What if I plant 2 roots in one hole?
Lena, good afternoon!
Only you can determine in what conditions it will do best… if you plant 2 roots in a single planting hole, it will be more practical to prune each one to just 1 stem. Alternatively, you can plant 2 plants each in their own hole, but spaced much closer together than usual, and prune them to 2 stems—that is the planting method I use most often.
Once again repeated my favorite – Sibirskiy Khottabych. I just love it dearly for its elegant shape and good taste, with a distinct sweetness—it’s like Slavyanka or Topklipsa but on a stick.
Grew in the greenhouse in 3 stems. I got a pretty decent yield. It’s tall—I bend it over and tie it just beneath the roof. Long fruiting period, stores well, an excellent variety for canning in jars or just for fresh eating. There was no Blossom End Rot.
The color is pink, weight up to 90g (3.1 oz). I wanted to grow Mila (orange) and Morskoy Konyok / Seahorse (red) next to it, as they have a similar shape, but they didn’t work out. Mila died from the rain and cold, and Konyok turned out to be either the wrong seeds or a genetic segregation (it grew as red pouches instead of bottles).
2021 season. 2 bushes were planted under a cover right at the open edge, they escaped Late Blight. We removed the suckers at the bottom and left everything at the top. The fruit set was excellent, yield was good, no Blossom End Rot. A beauty. My sister-in-law picked some for seeds simply because of the special shape, without even tasting them. I felt it was a pity to use them for canning, they are so firm and the skin doesn’t crack (unlike Rozovyi Klyk / Pink Fang, which is softer and its skin bursts from excess moisture outdoors). They sit ripening indoors until November along with Japanese Truffles, De Baraos, and Orange Strawberry. Even when the “neck” dried out slightly, we still ate them. Man, these autumn tomatoes are so tasty.
A beautiful light pink tomato, tall. For me, it was mid-late, a slender bush. A downside: you have to be very careful with the fruits. I accidentally bumped a couple of slightly ripe ones and they fell; they don’t hold onto the bush very tightly. The color didn’t turn out deep pink, I had to ripen some indoors. Taste is average. Personally, I didn’t sense any sweetness, nor any acidity either. It grew slightly in the shade of the others. Might repeat it, we’ll see next year. Yield is good, shape and size are great.
Grew in the greenhouse, up to 2 meters (6.5 ft), fruits gathered in trusses, ripen at the end of August. They hold on weakly, at the slightest touch they fall right off. Didn’t suffer from Blossom End Rot, but they did catch Leaf Mold (Cladosporium). Taste is average, this tomato is better suited for processing, dehydrating/sun-drying, and pickling.
