Quick Summary of Borisovna’s Black Heart with a Spout
🌍 Origin: A legendary forum-born heirloom! Discovered by grower Natalya (Borisovna) from Karaganda, Kazakhstan, from a market tomato. It has since spread worldwide. Also known as Black with a Spout, Black Oxheart from Borisovna, or Chernoe Serdtse s Nosikom.- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), reaching 1.5–2.5 m (5–8 ft) depending on growing conditions. Like many true oxhearts, the seedlings look “skinny” and “wispy” with drooping foliage—don’t worry, this is normal!
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Stunning mahogany-brown/burgundy oxhearts with distinct stripes and an elongated pointed tip (spout). Weight ranges from 300 g to massive 1 kg+ (10.5 oz to over 2.2 lbs) fruits.
- 👅 Flavor: Universally praised as one of the best-tasting dark tomatoes in existence. Rich, complex, and incredibly sweet with a dense, meaty texture.
- ⚠️ Pro Tip from the Originator: To unlock its legendary sweetness, it must be grown in maximum sunlight. If grown in the shade, it will taste bland (“like grass”). Pick when fully dark burgundy-brown, and let it rest indoors for 1-2 days before eating.
This wonderful variety simply must be in our catalog. It has already become widely distributed on the forum and received the highest ratings for the combination of beauty – taste (5+++!!!) – and yield.
Seeds are from Natalya Borisovna from Kazakhstan, originally from a store-bought market tomato, the exact name is unknown. It’s an indeterminate with good yield. I am growing it for the second year in a greenhouse, pruned to 2 stems. The dense brown hearts grow up to 500 g (17.6 oz) with a very good taste, obvious sweetness. Even the last fruits that ripened in storage are delicious 😉.
Such a beautiful variety undoubtedly deserves a place of honor in our catalog! 🙋♀️
I grew it last season under cover (polycarbonate greenhouse). It’s a strong indeterminate with a huge fruiting potential )). When formed into 2 stems with balanced nutrition throughout the season, it showed the best results. The plant is strong, sturdy, and well-leafed.
The fruits are all large, heart-shaped with an expressive “spout” (nose), weighing 300-400 g (10.5-14 oz). The flesh inside is dense, juicy, with a magnificent balanced taste featuring spicy notes! A handsome guy! 🍅
Svetik and Natalya Pavlovna wrote everything correctly about this variety. I will only add that for me, the yield and size increased in the second year when growing from my own saved seeds.
I advise, as with all “blacks”, not to rush picking it from the bush, and of course, try to plant it in maximum sun.
Nataliya Borisovna! Huge thanks for such a wonderful tomato! 🌺
It’s a definite repeat for the upcoming season, despite the modest yield for me, because the tomatoes are very tasty and very beautiful. 😍
Borisovna wrote:
I will only add that for me, the yield and size increased in the second year when growing from my own saved seeds.
I am hoping for that too.
Ninulia wrote:
And here are mine, their “spouts” are not like regular pointy varieties, they are large hearts with an elongated top. I only found photos from June and July, still unripe. And later on, there probably wasn’t any time to take pictures 😉
Tiffany wrote:
Yes, Nina, that’s them. There is only one variety from Natasha, it’s just called by different names. It is already being distributed abroad with an English name. I grew Black Heart with a Spout in 2017. I loved the tomato for its taste, yield, and beauty. The higher the truss, the larger and more “pointy” the fruits get. The first ones were like this.
I grew “Black Oxheart from Borisovna” in 2018. This year I plan to plant it again, along with “Black Heart with a Spout from Borisovna”.
Luda, the exact same thing will grow. When I first got this little tomato, I wrote “Black Heart with a spout” on the packet for myself. And now it circulates under the names: Black with a Spout, Black Heart with a Spout, Black Oxheart from Borisovna… but it’s all the exact same variety.
Mine from Oksana didn’t have a spout. She is also from Kazakhstan. The photo is up there.
Ovechka wrote:
Mine from Oksana didn’t have a spout. She is also from Kazakhstan.
Luda, hi! I never had Black Oxheart from Borisovna. I sent you my own seeds, and mine is just a regular Black Oxheart, without a spout.
Oksana-pepper wrote:
Luda, hi! I never had Black Oxheart from Borisovna…
Oksana, hi! Then I need to dig through all my records. I have 5 notebooks with 48 pages each. And boxes with addresses too. P.S. I can never get my house in order 😊.
P.P.S. Oksana, you are right. It just says “Black Oxheart”. I probably added “from Borisovna” myself just because the letter came from Kazakhstan. I corrected my notes.
Ovechka wrote:
P.P.S. Oksana, you are right. It just says “Black Oxheart”…
Luda, hi, yes I just have regular Black Oxheart, that’s how I labeled it.
P.S. It’s a good thing you have many notebooks 😉.
Black with a spout during the seedling stage — instead of the first PAIR of true leaves, it forms one big leaf and one tiiiiny one.
Pomidoroved wrote:
…instead of the first PAIR of true leaves, it forms one big leaf and one tiiiiny one.
I have this problem too. A weird variety.
To say I am upset is an understatement. 😞
Here are seedlings from the exact same packet of seeds that I mailed out. Overgrown, spindly/skinny, but they grew without any quirks. All 4 bushes are like this.
I don’t understand what could have gone wrong. I don’t use blossom-set stimulants (like Zavyaz, Buton, Tomaton), only good old boric acid. I don’t save seeds from sick plants or bushes I don’t like. I save seeds from the most typical fruits on the 2nd truss, ripened fully on the bush. I ferment them for 2 days, wash, and dry on paper.
Folks, who else got this flaw from my seeds, please respond, help me figure it out. I won’t rest until I understand what happened.
I grew this variety last year directly from Natalya Borisovna’s seeds. Forum member Nadya shared them with me. I had only 2 seeds, they developed normally, resulting in 2 full-fledged bushes. Out of all the dark-fruited oxhearts I have grown, for me, this variety is the best.
I grew Brad’s Black Heart (for me it was mushy and the taste wasn’t great), Longhorn (dense shoulders, loses on taste, gets soft quickly), Purple Strawberry (loses on all fronts). Every year I bought all the new varieties, but now I am reducing the number of varieties and keeping only the best. Out of the oxhearts, I am keeping Black with a Spout from Borisovna.
Good morning everyone! Natasha, I grew it from your seeds myself in 2017. Everything was excellent. I sent the saved seeds to many people, and everyone liked the result. I also sent seeds last fall, and so far no one has complained, it’s growing normally for everyone. For me, it’s the best of the dark varieties.
This spring, people are facing various problems growing seedlings. It’s unclear what it’s related to… But your seeds are always of excellent quality. Proven. Maybe someone else will respond with a similar problem…
For me, Black with a Spout is also the best of the dark ones. I planted it last year from Natalya Pavlovna’s seeds (@Yaroslavna). This year I sowed 2 seeds from her again and 2 from my own saved seeds. There is no difference. Beautiful seedlings, waiting to be moved to the greenhouse.
Thanks to Natalya Borisovna for distributing such a successful variety!
Here are three tomato seedlings. They were all sown at the exact same time. The growing conditions were identical for all of them. The one in the middle is Black Heart. It has already “topped itself” (lost its growing point/went blind). Why did this happen? Who knows. It’s nature, and anything can happen with any variety or hybrid. It’s nothing to get upset about.
This year I am growing Black Heart with a Spout from Borisovna. It’s my third year sowing it. Originally received seeds from Natasha, and then from my own seeds. I shared seeds with all the girls from our region. Everyone is happy, it’s the favorite tomato in terms of taste and all characteristics, it sets fruit reliably until the frost.
As a seedling, of course, it’s not robust/vigorous. Like many oxheart varieties [they look wispy]. But later in the greenhouse, it shows only its best side. Usually, I sow 1 seed of new varieties, 2 bushes of my favorites, but this year I have 4 bushes of Black Heart with a Spout. An amazing variety!
I don’t understand what I did wrong, 3 bushes can’t just be without a growing point 😫 Almost every year I get 1 seed from a batch without a growing point, and that’s from the most reliable sources, but for all of them to be deformed at once… I’ve never seen that before.
Borisovna wrote:
I don’t understand what I did wrong, 3 bushes can’t just be without a growing point 😫
Natasha, it’s totally fine, it happens. Last year I had this problem with Auria Yellow, it was nothing, it grew out of it and fruited.
Growing this variety for the first year. In the seedling stage, it behaves like all oxhearts [spindly]. I hope it will like it here. Thanks, Natasha!
I saved 2 seedlings of Flaschen. Fresh seeds from a friend. Both turned out to have no growing point! And another one from seeds bought from a collector. Maybe the seeds don’t have time to fully mature in half a year. Maybe they need to rest for a year?…
Borisovna wrote:
I don’t understand what I did wrong, 3 bushes can’t just be without a growing point
I didn’t even think “something was wrong”, I thought that’s just how it grows. I figured, well, it’ll grow eventually. There is still time.
===
I just looked at it now — yes, it’s weird… There is no growing point, but a sucker has already started growing from the axil of the first leaf. We will observe.
Borisovna, just don’t be upset!
Pomidoroved wrote:
…There is no growing point, but a sucker has already started growing from the axil of the first leaf… Borisovna, just don’t be upset!
Well, how can I not be upset, I spent so much time convincing you to try it, and look at the tricks it pulled, it’s embarrassing 😳 Well, if a sucker has started, maybe something will grow out of it.
