📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Klubnichnoe Derevo (Strawberry Tree)
- 🌍 Origin: A commercial Russian variety released in 2015 by the Siberian Garden (Sibsad) seed company. Not to be confused with the old European heirloom “German Red Strawberry”.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), but stays somewhat manageable. Outdoors it reaches about 3.3-4 feet (1-1.2 m), though it grows taller in a greenhouse. Praised by growers for its outstanding resistance to Tomato Leaf Mold.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Deep red, blunt hearts or strawberry shapes. The young fruits often have little bumps that smooth out as they ripen. Average weight is 3.5-5.3 oz (100-150 g). The skin is tough and the flesh is very dense.
- 👅 Flavor & Use: Flavor reviews are highly mixed. Some love the sweet-tart balance, while others find it bland and comparable to supermarket tomatoes. However, it excels as a late-season canning tomato due to its firm texture and incredibly long shelf life.
Strawberry Tree. Seeds from Sibsad. Grew it for the first time. It grew outdoors in the dirt. The bush was about 3.3-4 feet (1-1.2 m) tall, looks very pretty. Heavy yielder, the taste is sweetish, I liked it. The tomatoes themselves are very beautiful, and on a single truss some are solid red, while others are kind of speckled (like the Firework variety). As for ripening time, it’s more of a mid-early, I sowed it at the very end of March.
Sofia, what size are the tomatoes? Are they strictly for salads or can they go into pickling jars too?
The average size is 3.5-5.3 oz (100-150 g), though a few were larger. I pruned them to two stems. You can use them for canning or just eat them fresh. Sweetish, but there is a nice tang to them, not bland at all.
Thanks, that’s a good size. I’ve been looking for something pretty for my canning jars.
I just knew I had to divide the packet specs by two. Bought it recently, and the packet claims they reach 7-8.8 oz (200-250 g) and yield 2.4 lbs per square foot (12 kg per square meter).
Strawberry Tree. It leans more towards a late, slow-ripening variety. Stores very well. Highly recommend it for a late harvest. It’s a 2015 new release from Sibsad. Dates on the photos are 07/13/2015 and 09/20/2015.
Is this variety different from German Red Strawberry? If anyone has grown both, please let me know.
Strawberry Tree. It leans more towards a late, slow-ripening variety. Stores very well. Highly recommend it for a late harvest. It’s a 2015 new release from Sibsad.
Alen, how is the taste?
Surprisingly, Strawberry Tree was the only plant in the greenhouse that didn’t catch Leaf Mold. Everything around it got completely sick, but this one stayed strong and clean. It’s still growing and ripening tomatoes even now. But the yield was low, and I didn’t really like the taste. Tasted just like store-bought winter tomatoes.
Two bushes grew outdoors. It turned out to be a very late tomato in my conditions, even though this summer was extremely hot. It didn’t have time to fully ripen on the vine, I picked the tomatoes at the breaker stage and they counter-ripened indoors. Nothing special about the taste at all 🤷♀️, and the yield was low. The tomatoes were a bit too big to fit in canning jars. Won’t be planting it again.
Hello, decided to add my two cents about this variety. The tomato is definitely mid-late, beautiful. Yield was a 3 out of 5 for me (grew it in the greenhouse). Classic tomato flavor, it holds its shape perfectly when pickled.
According to Sibsad’s recommendations, this variety is meant for greenhouse growing. Mine grew outdoors, maybe that’s why the yield wasn’t great. But the fruits are very beautiful and tasty, similar to oxheart varieties.
I grew it in 2017 and I want to plant it again. It lived right by the vent in the greenhouse. I liked it. Didn’t get sick, good yield. Little hearts. The taste is standard with a little tartness. Well, maybe that’s just how I perceived it, as we know taste is totally subjective. Mid-season for me. At first, the fruits looked exactly like strawberries, but over time the little bumps smoothed out. They ended up being slightly oval.
Edited January 9, 2019 by Valentina
Strawberry Tree. It grew on the north side of the greenhouse. High-yielding variety, with good flavor.
Is it the same as German Red Strawberry? Nina asks an excellent question in this thread. No, they are not the same! Klubnichnoe Derevo is a modern commercial release from Sibsad (Siberian Garden), a massive Russian seed company known for breeding highly disease-resistant, cold-hardy varieties. While it shares the blunt heart shape of the famous German Red Strawberry heirloom, this Sibsad variety is bred specifically for extreme shelf life, thick skin, and canning, which is why some growers complain the flavor is too firm and “supermarket-like” for fresh eating.
