Quick Summary of Cherri Uralskoe (Ural Cherry)
- 🌍 Origin: A private, exclusive Russian variety developed over 6 years by breeder Nikolay Alexandrov. It is not sold in commercial stores.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: An incredibly vigorous, massive indeterminate plant. If left unpruned, its aggressive suckers will grow sideways for meters and even try to root into the ground. Greenhouse growers report vines easily reaching 2.5 to 4 meters (8.2 to 13 feet).
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Technically classified by weight as a “cocktail” tomato rather than a true cherry. The red fruits weigh 30-60 grams (1–2.1 oz). The breeder intended for them to be plum-shaped, but growers report the shape can be unstable, sometimes producing round or oval fruits depending on the weather and saved seeds.
- 👅 Flavor & Culinary Use: Starts off with a classic, dense tomato flavor, but develops noticeable sweetness later in the season or if given enough heat. Because the skin is firm and they don’t crack, they are fantastic for canning and pickling.
- ⏳ Maturity: Late season. It starts slow but yields heavily—up to 6 kg (13 lbs) per plant—and produces right up until the first frosts.
A variety from Alexandrov. It turned out to be very productive and tasty, and it can grow infinitely. At first, it seemed unimpressive to me; it quickly grew to the roof of the greenhouse—that’s more than 2.5 meters (8.2 ft)—the distance between the trusses was very large, and there weren’t that many fruits. I had the urge to pull it out, but then I left it alone.
It then threw out vines not only vertically but also horizontally, spreading over 2 meters (6.5 ft) wide, and started fruiting abundantly right up until last weekend when I cleared out the greenhouse. The fruits are about 30-40 grams (1-1.4 oz).
Sasha, could you please tell us approximately how many tomatoes you harvested, and how much area the bush took up in the greenhouse?
I didn’t prune the suckers, so some un-tied suckers that were left to grow wild reached up to 3 meters (10 ft). They wove between other bushes, and some even dropped to the ground and stretched out further. They recommend not pruning this variety, but you still MUST tie up the suckers, otherwise it takes up too much space. It also grows extremely tall. I didn’t keep an exact record of the harvest, but I think it was more than 4 kg (8.8 lbs).
Quote from Sandr:
…I didn’t keep an exact record of the harvest, but I think it was more than 4 kg.
Thank you for the review… The yield is up to approximately 6 kg (13 lbs) per bush… This is a very high metric for the Cherry family… My recommendation was that you can prune it, or you can choose NOT to prune it… Thanks again…
Quote from Nikolay Alexandrov:
The yield is up to approximately 6 kg (13 lbs) per bush… This is a very high metric for the Cherry family…
Dear Nikolay! I grow cherry varieties too, but I never even dreamed of cherry yields up to 6 kg. What kind of variety is this? I’m new to the forum, maybe I missed something. I would love to get just one such seed.
Quote from evgeni:
What kind of variety is this? … How to get a seed?
…I spent over 6 years breeding it… it has been available for four years now… This variety is not sold in stores… It is not in the State Register either… The rules and conditions for sending seeds are on my personal blog.
It clearly didn’t like it at my place. It grew slowly, though it did reach 180cm (6 ft). Very late season, it set fruit late. I picked the first ones (at the breaker/blush stage) on August 15, and the second batch on August 25. And that was it: 25 pieces = 800g (1.7 lbs). Even though it grew in a greenhouse. Not my variety!
They were the largest cherries I had – 50-60 grams (1.7-2.1 oz). The fruits are dense, with a good tomato taste, excellent for canning in jars. They store well and do not crack 👍 They grew outdoors in open ground, apparently, they didn’t get enough heat to develop their sweetness.
Quote from ElenaN:
They were the largest cherries I had – 50-60 grams. The fruits are dense, with a good tomato taste, excellent for canning in jars.
I somehow don’t recognize my variety in your photos… The fruits should be plum-shaped, with two seed chambers… Sandr’s photos are closer to the truth…
Quote from Nikolay Alexandrov:
I somehow don’t recognize my variety in your photos… The fruits should be plum-shaped…
Here is another variation 😄 The seeds were from Sandr, but the fruits turned out more elongated than his 🤔 I think Elena’s seeds were also from Sandr 🤔 Maybe the varietal traits haven’t stabilized well yet?
But overall, the variety is very interesting. If you almost entirely skip pruning suckers, it will be incredibly productive, but it will take up a lot of space. Mine grew in the greenhouse. It truly produced until the cold hit, I let the vines run along the roof. At first, the taste was just “good tomato” and the fruits were different sizes, but later they developed noticeable sweetness and all the fruits became uniform and perfectly shaped 👍 Perfectly suitable for canning too, as they are moderately dense.
According to some classifications, cherries are up to 30 g. If it’s 30-50 g, that is already a cocktail tomato.
Really, just imagine a “cherry” weighing 40-50 grams!
Yes, their weight is closer to cocktail size, which I really liked.
Nikolay! Sveta (Svetikk) and I had seeds from the exact same packet. On the bush, the upper trusses had both oval and round tomatoes, so apparently, the variety’s shape depends on weather conditions. The bush is super powerful, and the suckers are aggressive — they instantly conquer territory, grow wide to the sides, and immediately try to root into the soil 😲👍
The variety is excellent! I sent seeds to America, and the tomatoes grew sweet there.
Sasha! I agree! They look much more like cocktail tomatoes!
Nikolay, this year from my own saved seeds, the fruits were also mostly round-shaped, I don’t know why. The growth of the bush was the same, probably close to 4 meters (13 ft). Last year from your original seeds, they were mostly plum-shaped, though there were some almost round ones. I was surprised back then that the fruits had different shapes on the same bush, but there were very few of those. But this year, almost all of them were round. However, the weather was terribly bad this year, maybe that’s why.
Quote from Sandr:
…Last year from your original seeds, they were mostly plum-shaped… But this year, almost all of them were round…
…Changes in fruit shape happen in other varieties too… Therefore, I advise saving seeds ONLY from those fruits that match the declared characteristics. This applies not only to the shape of the fruit, but also to other metrics… such as bush height, ripening times, etc.
