📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Alisa (Alice)
- 🌍 Origin: A highly regarded heirloom variety with somewhat mysterious origins. While often credited to Russian breeders (like N. Alexandrov or Egorov), some growers trace their seed lines back to Portuguese heirlooms. The name translates to “Alice”.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), reaching 1.7–2.0 m (5.5–6.5 ft) in height. Like many classic oxhearts, it has wispy, slightly frail-looking foliage, but don’t be fooled—it sets massive, heavy trusses of fruit.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: The true strain produces beautiful, elongated red oxhearts (though a rogue round/pink variation exists in circulation). They weigh between 200–400 g (7–14 oz) on average. The fruits are very dense, meaty, and contain very few seeds.
- 👅 Flavor: Universally praised for its rich, sweet flavor with very low acidity. Not bland at all.
- 🥫 Best Uses: Great for fresh eating, but its firm, meaty texture also makes it fantastic for slicing and canning without falling apart.
- ⏳ Maturity: Early to mid-season.
Alisa – /variety from N. Alexandrov/. Indeterminate bush, vigorous, highly productive. The fruits are pink, round, large, and tasty.
So that’s where Alisa belongs… I barely got 1 fruit to swell by the end of the season.
Marina said:
So that’s where Alisa belongs… I barely got 1 fruit to swell by the end of the season.
I also had only a couple of fruits 😞 but they were delicious 😋
Seeds from V. Redko.
Her description: “Fruits are red elongated hearts, dense, meaty, weighing 300-400 g (10.5-14 oz), very sweet and tasty, with few seeds in the fruit.”
It grew in my greenhouse, trained to 2 stems. The variety is very productive. There are many heart-shaped fruits on a single truss. Weight is 300-350 g (10.5-12 oz).
Ovechka said:
The variety is very productive. There are many heart-shaped fruits on a single truss. Weight is 300-350 g (10.5-12 oz).
What about the taste? Is it tomatoey, sweet, with a bit of tartness? I would appreciate your answers.
Alisa really pleased me this season! Heart-shaped fruits, meaty, sweet. Productive.
Seeds from Popenko. Grew both indoors (greenhouse) and outdoors (open ground). Good yield everywhere. In the greenhouse, the bush was taller, around 1.80 m (6 ft). It was one of the first to start ripening. Beautiful, tasty, sweet little tomato. Fruits are 200-300 grams (7-10.5 oz).
Alisa can be so different… 🤷 my Alisa grew in the greenhouse. Elongated, red heart. Sweet taste 😋 I didn’t weigh it, but roughly +- 200 grams (7 oz)… indeterminate, not fussy as a seedling. Photo is from July 25th. I will probably grow it again… 😘
I planted the red heart-shaped Alisa in 2015. In the greenhouse, the plant height was 1.7-2 m (5.5-6.5 ft), and the foliage is quite wispy/frail. For me, it performed as a mid-season variety. The fruits are heart-shaped, red, and dense. I canned them sliced in jars, and they didn’t fall apart. Tasty and beautiful. Normal yield. I really liked the variety and will plant it again.
I was very satisfied with this variety. Height 1.70 m (5.5 ft) with large, complex trusses. It bloomed in massive clusters; unfortunately, many blossoms burned up and dropped (due to heat), but some trusses still really pleased me. The fruits were not extremely large, red-colored, and meaty. For a heart variety, the taste is sweet, not bland at all 👍
I liked this variety very much. Seeds were from Valentina Vladimirovna Redko. Early, productive, and very tasty, sweet. Very beautiful, red hearts that are not prone to cracking.
Colleagues, I read in the “Egorov’s Varieties” thread that Alisa is his variety. Is this true? Has anyone read his book—is there a description there?
A worthy variety.
Seeds from Svetikk.
Grown indoors (greenhouse), medium height, large fruits, tasty.
I grew Alisa in open ground with film cover in April-May, and I liked it. The tomatoes on the first truss were more heart-shaped; higher up, they looked more like large plums with a beak/tip. The taste is sweet, with very little acidity. Photo from July 11.
One of my favorites last season. It was one of the very first to ripen. The yield was average (but this year, due to herbicide drift from “Lontrel” on the grass, many tomatoes had curled leaves and showed a lower yield than their potential). The flavor is rich with sweetness. In terms of taste, it competed in our family with the Dwarf Pit Viper. A definite repeat. I will plant several roots this year. Unfortunately, I don’t have good photos or a cross-section shot.
As already noted here, the Alisa tomato variety looks different for many people, and apparently, no one has the original one with a verified pedigree. So to speak, not everyone can show its passport. Well, I don’t have it either. I bought the seeds from Lidia Ganzen, and they are designated by her as Portuguese.
I want to say right away that the potential of this variety is simply colossal. It created so many flowers that if they had all set and swelled, the bush would have sunk halfway into the ground.
My yield was spotty, but the taste of the fruits didn’t disappoint—beautiful, tasty pink hearts. I will plant it again to save my own seeds.
Except for the first comment and you, everyone has red hearts. Mine were like that too – red heart-shaped.
My Alisa is also red, productive, some of the hearts have ribbed shoulders, and it’s tasty!
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