Quick Summary of Snow Leopard (Snezhnyi Bars)
- 🌍 Origin: A highly reliable Russian commercial variety produced by the “Aelita” seed company. The name translates to “Snow Leopard”.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Highly adaptable but behaves differently depending on the environment. In open ground, it stays as a compact determinate bush around 50-60 cm (20-24 inches) tall. However, when grown and pruned in a greenhouse, it can stretch up to 1.5 m (5 ft).
- ⚠️ Growing Warning: Do not over-fertilize this variety! It is highly sensitive to excess nitrogen. If fed like a regular tomato, it will turn into a luxuriant, leafy bush with zero fruit. It thrives on “tough love”—plant it in pre-amended soil and just water it.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Bright red, dense, and shiny round/oblate fruits. Average weight is 150-200g (5.3-7 oz), though greenhouse-grown fruits can reach up to 300-400g (10.5-14 oz).
- 🛡️ Disease Resistance: Highly praised by growers for being practically immune to Late Blight (Phytophthora), a common devastating fungal disease.
- 👅 Flavor & Storage: While some find the taste ordinary, others praise its moderately sweet flavor with a slight tartness. A major bonus is its exceptional shelf life—ripe fruits can store for 2-3 weeks without losing quality.
🍅 Have you grown this variety? Scroll down to add your review and photos in the comments below!
Real Grower Reviews & Photos
This “citizen” is one of those who doesn’t like to be pampered and babied. Seeds from Aelita. An absolutely trouble-free variety. Early, very productive. The fruits hang like large baubles on a Christmas tree. Gorgeous dark foliage, slightly dense on a short 50-60 cm (20-24 inch) bush.
It really dislikes extra feeding. If you fertilize it like all the others, you will get an overfed, luxuriant bush with lush foliage and a minimum of fruit 🙈. Knowledgeable people warned me about this right away, and I avoided this mistake. We just planted it in a pre-amended planting hole and that was it… just watered it (well, you can occasionally spray it with organic soil microbes/inoculants). The result is stunning! 🧺
Lots of red, shiny, dense fruits with a good tomato taste. This variety is perfect for those who cannot visit their garden often. A solid 4.8 rating out of 5. I fell deeply in love with this variety and it will remain in my garden forever 🍅.
I agree on all counts. Another huge plus – it absolutely does not get sick with Late Blight (Phytophthora), and the yield is off the charts. But I won’t be planting it myself anymore, the taste let me down. Practically non-existent. 😕
El said:
I won’t be planting it myself anymore, the taste let me down. Practically non-existent. 😕
Wow, really? Mine was very flavorful 😋. I even have a few sitting around right now that I picked green, and even now their taste is much better than store-bought ones 😋. Oh well, apparently this “comrade” is just not your type 😃.
You intrigued me, girls, with this Snow Leopard – I need to look for it, since it’s so trouble-free, productive, and tasty! 😋 😋 😋
Snow Leopard is one of my favorites, it’s been a permanent resident for three years now. The original seed source was also Aelita.
I usually grow it to 2-3 stems, the height is typically around 1.5 m (5 ft). It grows perfectly in open ground too, but it loses about half of its yield there.
In the greenhouse, it is standard to harvest 4-5 kg (8.8-11 lbs) from it. The fruits can reach 300-400g (10.5-14 oz), but the average weight is 150-200g (5.3-7 oz).
The fruits are firm, relatively good keepers, but at the same time juicy.
In a ripe state, they can be stored for 2-3 weeks without much loss of eating quality.
The taste is moderately sweet with a micro-tartness.
I would call it a mid-late variety. Last year in open ground it started ripening around August 6th, and in the greenhouse about a week and a half later.
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