🍅 Quick take: Prue is a storied 19th-century indeterminate heirloom hailing from South Portland, Maine (popularized by Dr. Carolyn Male). Famous for its slender, wispy foliage, the vine produces an intriguing array of fruit shapes, ranging from elongated plums and beaked hearts to smooth globes weighing 3.5-9 oz (100-250 g). Gardeners prize it for its dense, meaty texture, low seed count, and intensely rich, sweet old-fashioned flavor. Full summary ↓
Grower’s Field Notes and Photos (USDA Zone 4 Experience)
Indeterminate, mid-season salad variety carrying delicate, wispy foliage.The fruits are elongated, vivid red plums, though the shape varies wildly on the same vine: you get stretched-out fruits with a distinct pointed tip looking like true hearts, right alongside completely round ones. In my greenhouse, weights ranged anywhere from 3.5-9 oz (100-250 g).
Flavor is very good and deeply pleasant: meaty, juicy, and packed with solid flesh with hardly any seeds. Yield came in well above average. Grown inside the greenhouse with seeds sourced from Valentina Redko.
Full Summary: Vine Habit, Shape Variability, Flavor, and Origin
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate vine characterized by classic “wispy” or drooping regular foliage. Despite its fragile, droopy canopy appearance, the vine is vigorous, deeply rooted, and durable.
- 🍅 Fruit Polymorphism: Renowned for its extreme morphological diversity on a single plant. The same vine simultaneously produces blunt oxhearts, elongated plums with pointy beaks, and flattened globes weighing 3.5-9 oz (100-250 g).
- 🥩 Meat & Seed Ratio: Exceptionally dense, deep crimson interior with tiny seed locules, minimal jelly, and very few seeds per fruit.
- 👅 Flavor Profile: Outstanding rich heirloom taste: an intense, concentrated blend of deep sugars and brisk old-fashioned acidity that places it among legendary American slicers.
- 📈 Yield: Above average. Performs reliably in northern short-season greenhouses, setting heavy clusters along the main stem.
- 🌎 Trial Conditions: Grown under unheated greenhouse protection in Kostroma, Russia (USDA Zone 4).
🍅 Grown Prue? Did you get more hearts or plums on your vine? Share your photos and flavor notes below!
👨🌾 Editor’s Note: The Maine Heritage of Prue & Its “Shape-Shifting” Trait
Prue is an authentic American heirloom originating in the early 1900s with the Prue family of South Portland, Maine. It was introduced to the wider tomato community by Tom Fox of New Hampshire and Dr. Carolyn Male, quickly achieving near-mythic status on tomato forums for its phenomenal, rich flavor. Growers often panic seeing both round beefsteaks and pointed hearts on the same vine, assuming a stray cross or seed mix-up; in reality, this extreme fruit shape polymorphism paired with droopy “wispy foliage” is the hallmark genetic fingerprint of pure Prue.
Prue is an authentic American heirloom originating in the early 1900s with the Prue family of South Portland, Maine. It was introduced to the wider tomato community by Tom Fox of New Hampshire and Dr. Carolyn Male, quickly achieving near-mythic status on tomato forums for its phenomenal, rich flavor. Growers often panic seeing both round beefsteaks and pointed hearts on the same vine, assuming a stray cross or seed mix-up; in reality, this extreme fruit shape polymorphism paired with droopy “wispy foliage” is the hallmark genetic fingerprint of pure Prue.
