📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Vesennyaya Kapel (Spring Drop)
- 🌍 Origin: A highly productive commercial/heirloom variety. The name translates to “Spring Drop” (referencing a drop of melting snow in spring).
Grower’s Note: There are two known strains circulating among collectors. One produces small pear-shaped fruits with a little beak (spout), originating from the Russian breeder Brizhan. The other strain originates from Belarus and produces round fruits with a beak. Both are excellent! - 🌿 Plant Habit: Determinate (bush-type). Compact, usually growing around 1.5 to 2 feet (45-60 cm) outdoors, but can stretch over 3 feet (1 m) in a greenhouse. Excellent cold tolerance.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Small red teardrops/pears or rounded fruits weighing around 1.7-2.8 oz (50-80 g). They have a charming little nipple at the blossom end.
- 👅 Flavor & Use: Classic sweet tomato flavor. Firm but not dry. It is an absolute superstar for canning, jarring, and whole-fruit processing.
- ⏳ Maturity: Early season. Very rugged and reliable even in poor summer weather.
Surprised I couldn’t find this variety in our catalog. A ton of people are already growing it.
I got my seeds from Svetlana (@Svetikk). Last year I grew it outside in the ground. The plant stayed compact, about 20-24 inches (50-60 cm) tall, and was crazy productive. It got hit by a spring frost, bounced right back, loaded up with a huge amount of tomatoes, and ripened by August.
This year I decided to plant it in the greenhouse for canning, using my own saved seeds. It pushed past 3 feet (1 m) tall, and the yield was absolutely insane 😁 I constantly had to tie up the branches to support the weight as the tomatoes grew. We canned five 2-liter jars (half-gallons) ourselves, and I gave plants to two friends for their gardens – they canned a bunch of jars too. And that’s not even the end of it, it’s still ripening on the bush right now. Flavor-wise, it’s a really solid, classic tomato taste.
Yulia, thanks for starting a thread about these awesome tomatoes. I’m totally thrilled with this variety! Beautiful little teardrop tomatoes with a cute beak. I’m growing them outside, didn’t cover them with anything at all since planting them out in late May. The bushes are about 24 inches (60 cm) tall. Extremely generous harvest. Mine turned out sweet despite having practically no summer weather this year. Thanks to Elya from Bashkiria for the seeds @elja1968 🙏
My Vesennyaya Kapel is also from Elya @elja1968 🙏 I was away for over two weeks, and when I got back, my father-in-law showed me the bushes he’d been constantly snacking off of. It was Vesennyaya Kapel. He told me, “make sure you grow these for me every year 🙂 .” A super productive, pretty, and tasty tomato!!!
But the ‘Cheerful Gnome‘ growing right next to it, he wasn’t a fan of. Said it looked pretty but tasted dry :))
Understanding the Different Strains of Vesennyaya Kapel
Ludmila D. wrote:
But the ‘Cheerful Gnome’ growing right next to it, he wasn’t a fan of. Said it looked pretty but tasted dry :))
Gnome is strictly a processing tomato for canning and sun-drying! 🙂
My Vesennyaya Kapel came from Masha-Murka, who got it from Polina, who originally got it from Brizhan. Now that’s a pedigree 😁 I’m spelling out the exact seed source because there’s another Vesennyaya Kapel circulating out there with round fruits.
Here’s mine: a very heavy yielder, good flavor, and pretty early. The fruits are red pears with a little nipple, up to 2 oz (60 g), with medium firmness.
Svetikk (Svetlana) wrote:
Now that’s a pedigree 😁
Well, that means mine and Ludmila’s seeds from Elya came from the exact same source.
Svetikk (Svetlana) wrote:
Gnome is strictly a processing tomato for canning and sun-drying! 🙂I’m spelling out the exact seed source because there’s another Vesennyaya Kapel circulating out there with round fruits.
That’s exactly why I planted Gnome, I’ll be canning it. But last year I grew the round-fruited Vesennyaya Kapel from Oksana Pepper. Also a huge yielder, but the fruits seemed a bit softer–or maybe it was just my imagination. I really need to grow them side-by-side next year if everything works out.
Mine is the one with round fruits. And I absolutely love it. Though it’s not perfectly round either, it still has a little beak. The branches were literally dragging on the ground from the weight of all the fruit. Determinate. The unripe fruits are dark green.
Yep, my Kapel is also rounded with a cute little beak. It’s an early variety (started seeds in late March, grew outside with zero cover, started picking on July 1st). Super productive, sweet, weight is around 1.7-2.8 oz (50-80 g), height is about 1.3-1.6 feet (40-50 cm). Really enjoyed it, definitely going on my grow list again.
My Vesennyaya Kapel comes from Belarus. I checked the catalogs, and it’s listed as red everywhere. I didn’t make a note of it, but I’ve definitely seen a yellow-fruited Vesennyaya Kapel mentioned somewhere. It’s common for good varieties to throw different color mutations over time.
What an awesome Kapel! And it’s a bush type too. Bummer my seeds didn’t germinate…
My “Vesennyaya Kapel” is from @Svetikk. It’s absolutely perfect for small canning jars.
