I wasn’t impressed by this variety, neither by the taste nor the yield. Maybe it was because of the cool summer, or maybe I did something wrong. 🤷♀️
Black Oxheart grew outdoors for me, the bush height was 190 cm (6.2 ft). Tasty, sweet, and productive tomato.
I grew 2 bushes of Black Oxheart outdoors. On one plant, the fruits were heart-shaped, on the other they were flat-round (oblate). I saved seeds from both separately. Both bushes were vigorous, reaching up to 5 feet (1.6m), and the fruits were delicious, sweet, and meaty.
One of them terminated with a king flower (megabloom). I plucked it off, let it push 5 suckers, and those branches gave me a very decent yield of tasty fruits.
I usually only save seeds from fruits that actually match the description and the name. A heart should be a heart. 😳
My Black Oxheart this year was completely not a heart, even though it was black.
Ladies, go ahead and throw tomatoes at me if you want, but I would NEVER save seeds from the flat/boat-shaped fruits. It’s better to just ask the forum for seeds from someone whose oxhearts actually have the correct shape. It’s a shame to ruin the strain’s genetics. 😟
tomatinka said:
I usually only save seeds from fruits that actually match the description and the name. A heart should be a heart.
I share the exact same opinion. I saved seeds from the flat ones for myself, completely separate from the correct ones, just because they were so tasty.
Tasty and beautiful variety! 😋👍
Danko said:
…I would NEVER save seeds from the flat/boat-shaped fruits.
Lenochka, I didn’t save them! I still have Black Oxheart and Brad’s Black Heart seeds, both are good, I’ll just plant those!
Danko said:
…It’s a shame to ruin the strain’s genetics.
You can still save the seeds, but you should just give them a different provisional name, like “NOT Black Oxheart”, or just name it after your beloved self)))
Irin, that’s exactly where all the confusion comes from. Because in the next generation it might be heart-shaped again, but it will be circulating under a different name.
tomatinka said:
Because in the next generation it might be heart-shaped again, but it will be circulating under a different name.
I have never once had a heart-shaped tomato grow into a flat-round one, and then have that flat-round one revert back to a heart. I admit that there’s a probability of that happening in the case of cross-pollination, mutation, or segregation, but that would still be at least the F3 stage, and it would differ in taste from its original parent anyway, right? Since the main segregation of shape, color, and taste happens at the F2 and F3 stages. Or am I misunderstanding something?
My variety failed. It yielded poorly, and the flavor was just classic tomato. I was expecting more, like some kind of sweetness. Maybe it didn’t like the summer, or maybe something else? 🤷♀️
This is what my Black Oxheart grew into. The shape looks more like an egg than a heart.
Here is my Black Oxheart. Yeah, not very productive, but I think I’ll plant it again this time around anyway—let the guests be amazed 😉
Indeterminate, bush height outdoors was 5.5 feet (1.7 meters), mid-season, heart-shaped, dark maroon color. The fruits are sweet and delicious. Weight is 9-18 oz (250-500 grams), with a few even larger ones.
On the scale, the weight of 2 fruits is 1.8 lbs (818 grams).
Beautiful tomato, it was tall, slender, but not wimpy. The tomatoes are a feast for the eyes. But the taste seemed a bit bland to me, not rich enough.
Irina, was your summer warm, and did it grow in a greenhouse or outdoors?
Mine grown outdoors were delicious, I constantly tried to cover them so they wouldn’t get sunscald, just so I’d get more of them for myself.
Nadine said:
Irina, was your summer warm, and did it grow in a greenhouse or outdoors?
I grew one bush in the greenhouse and one outdoors. The outdoor ones were smaller but more productive. But I honestly don’t remember the taste of the outdoor ones, it all blurred together. The one from the greenhouse wasn’t great. The weather this year was terrible, it was a cold summer. Seeds were from the forum. I also grew Black Crimea (Chernyi Krym) out of the dark varieties, and it was vastly superior in taste. I’m just a beginner gardener, but I’m coming to the conclusion that oxheart varieties need more heat and care to reach their full sweetness.
A good, tasty variety..
Black Oxheart. Seeds were from Tomatanya, thank you very much 🌺. Planted it on the south side of the greenhouse. It was surprising to me 🙈 that it set fruit so well and was quite productive. Too bad I don’t have photos of the tomatoes on the vine. They were large, with watermelon-like flesh, but they lacked sweetness for me. The color is a cherry-maroon.
Before this, I grew Brad’s Black Heart, and I don’t even want to remember it. Two tomatoes per bush 😟
Delicious and beautiful. Average yield. One of my favorites.
I had this tomato too. Really liked it. The skin is very thin, and it’s delicious.
Svetikk said:
Tasty and beautiful variety! 😋👍
I repeated this variety—Black Oxheart from Galya-Esme. A vigorous indeterminate, grew in the greenhouse pruned to 2 stems. Good yield, prolonged fruiting period, and the fruits are incredibly tasty, up to 21 oz (600 grams).
Svetikk said:
I repeated this variety—Black Oxheart from Galya-Esme…
Svetlana, doesn’t it look exactly like Black Heart with a Spout from Borisovna? I grew Borisovna’s this year, and looking at your photos, it seems like they are the exact same variety.
I grew both this year. They looked absolutely identical to me. And they tasted identical too, I think. Though I might not have the best palate to tell the difference.
I also think it’s just one variety; we just confuse and lose the names, and then we end up with all these different names for the same thing.
Olviya said:
I also think it’s just one variety; we just confuse and lose the names…
Although, I did read a discussion somewhere arguing that they are indeed different varieties.
Olviya said:
Svetlana, doesn’t it look exactly like Black Heart with a Spout from Borisovna?
No, they are different! This Black Oxheart has blunter, smoother tips, especially on the large fruits.
Borisovna’s Black Heart has a slightly different shape, the tip is sharper, and the unripe fruits show barely noticeable stripes. Look, compare them:
Borisovna’s Black Heart is sweeter, though both are delicious.
This year I’m growing Black Oxheart (from Aelita seeds), Black Heart with a Spout from Borisovna, and Black Heart of America from Sibsad. For me, all three varieties are completely different!
I’ll post a video here about my Black Oxheart. I’ll make similar videos for the other varieties too.
Very interesting, for sure. I’ll note that according to enthusiast reviews, Black Heart of America is just an improved version (slightly larger and sweeter) of Brad’s Black Heart.
And here is the tasting and cross-section of my tomatoes. Unfortunately, we had already eaten the biggest ones by the time of filming, so only these smaller fruits were left. I liked them a lot, the taste is just super, even now in October the last little tomatoes are ripening indoors.
Black Oxheart (from Valdis). I’m a big fan of black tomatoes (darks). And this one from Valdis is one of the best: sweet, with a little tang, the flesh is dense and meaty.
I’ve grown many dark hearts. The only one with larger fruits is Reinhard’s Purple Heart. Out of all the rest, this one is the largest and most productive. It practically doesn’t throw any megablooms, unlike Reinhard’s.
It’s been bringing me joy for many years.
Out of all the dark hearts, this was my very first one. I received the seeds from Galya (Esme). Indeterminate. Neat, tidy black hearts. Brad’s came along later. Mine were identical. But Black Oxheart was more productive. Indeterminate. Regular leaf.
It was among the very first 10 varieties I acquired on the forum, Black Oxheart being one of them.
I really love it and periodically repeat it. Tasty, sweet, with a nice tang.
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