Quick Summary of Brad’s Black Heart (Chernoe Serdtse Breda)
- 🌍 Origin: A famous American variety bred by Brad Gates (Wild Boar Farms, California), which found its way into the hands of Russian and Eastern European collectors. It is fascinating to see how this Californian heirloom performs in harsh climates like Siberia and the Urals!
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate. Like many oxheart varieties, it exhibits the classic “wispy” or weeping foliage that often looks wilted or frail (even as seedlings), but don’t be fooled—it can easily reach 2-2.5 meters (6.5-8 feet) in a greenhouse.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Large, dark reddish-brown/purple hearts, sometimes taking on a more blunt or barrel shape. Weights typically range from 200-350 g (7-12 oz), with megablooms producing monsters over 500 g (1.1 lbs).
- 👅 Flavor & Texture: Deep, rich, and earthy with a balance of sweetness and acidity. The texture is heavily debated: some find it incredibly juicy, while others describe it as having a dense, “potato-like” or meaty flesh. Pro Tip: If it tastes tart right off the vine, let it sit on the counter for a few days to develop its sugars.
- 🥊 Comparisons: Constantly compared side-by-side with Black Oxheart (Bychye Serdtse Chernoe). Growers generally agree that Brad’s has a sturdier bush and better disease resistance in poor weather.
Brad’s Black Heart, indeterminate, height 2.5 meters (8.2 ft), the bush is simply huge! 😲 It doesn’t form normal trusses, but the taste is good.
Edited January 17, 2015 by Drosera
Angelina said:
It doesn’t form normal trusses…
What do you mean it doesn’t form trusses—does it just grow leaves? 🤣🤣🤣
My Brad’s is a little different, more distinctly heart-shaped. Maybe it’s just the angle of the photo.
Yes, Valya, mine too. But looking at the weight in that photo, it probably grew from a fasciated blossom (megabloom). 👍
Elfiya said:
What do you mean it doesn’t form trusses—does it just grow leaves?
Pretty much! 😆 It just sets individual fruits here and there.
Does this variety grow better in a greenhouse or in open ground? Looks gorgeous! 🌺
Mine grew like this outdoors in open ground. I think I photographed it alongside Black Oxheart:
Galočka, tell me please, approximately how tall did it get for you in open ground?
We often notice a difference in dark-fruited varieties: some have a pinkish skin tone (in this case, Black Oxheart), while others have a reddish tone (Brad’s Black Heart). As I mentioned before, I personally preferred the taste of Black Oxheart slightly more, but that is purely subjective.
Olenka, my Brad’s Heart was just a bit over a meter (3.3 ft) tall, but they were not in equal conditions. My Black Oxheart was grown from my own acclimated saved seeds, so the plants turned out stronger and more vigorous, whereas Brad’s was from freshly mailed seeds, and the plants were shorter.
Edited November 18, 2013 by Esme
Galenka, thank you! So that means I can safely plan to plant them out in the garden? Will it have time to ripen in our region?
Yes, Olya. It actually seemed to me that it started to ripen at least a couple of days earlier than Black Oxheart. Everything grew normally in open ground.
They grow beautifully for me in open ground here in Siberia. 👍 All of them.
In terms of taste, this was my absolute favorite this season! 😋
Esme said:
…my Brad’s Heart was just a bit over a meter tall…
And mine was exactly 1 meter (3.3 ft). 🤫
The photo isn’t very good, Brad kept rolling around on the scale, I could barely get it to lay flat….. the fruit is more elongated, heart-shaped.
This is just one of the Brad’s… in total, on a 2m (6.5 ft) bush, 9 fruits ripened, and they all looked identical 👏, and even weighed practically the same… The bush gets very tall if you don’t top it. The taste is normal, sweetish, but I’ve had better…
For me, all the black heart varieties have frail, weeping bushes. But in terms of yield, Black Oxheart is still better. I haven’t compared the tastes side-by-side yet. Then again, Black Oxheart is already acclimatized here, while the others are still adapting….
Seven or eight tomatoes set on the bush, mostly on the upper tiers. I really loved the taste, sweet and juicy 👍
It seemed to me that Brad’s Black Heart and Black Oxheart are the exact same variety. By taste, appearance, and plant structure—mine were both vigorous, with 4-5 stems. Except Black Oxheart was a bit more productive.
Ninochka, my bush was very frail, even “weeping” to be more precise! I had to tie it to a stake in multiple places. Now it has thickened up, but the top still droops and has been purple/blue the whole time. In height, it hit the roof of the greenhouse (2.5m / 8.2 ft).
Heart-shaped varieties almost all have the exact same plant habit. Their stems are never giant or thick. But Ninul, I also think it’s the same variety, just like Black Oxheart. There are practically no differences. I’ll just pick one of the three to keep planting. 😳
I liked the variety. I had 4 sooo large fruits, 4 small ones, and some tiny ones hanging that should start swelling as soon as we pick the big ones. I loved the taste; it was one of the tastiest for me this year.
Very tasty, productive, there are some very large fruits, with 1-3 fruits per cluster.
My Brad’s Black Heart was not very productive, there were only about six on the bush, but they were all huge. The bush is indeterminate. I don’t know what to write about the taste; if you make allowances for our snow-less, poor summer, it was tasty. This is the largest one.
My heart-shaped Brad.
Earlier, people were discussing Brad’s Black Heart vs. Black Oxheart. I planted them side by side, in pairs (I ended up with three pairs across the bed).
For me, they behave differently.
Black Oxheart is slightly behind in growth, but the first fruit truss set earlier. Judging by its habits, it’s a frail/weeping variety. And less productive—1-2 fruits per cluster. In cold weather, a couple of almost ripe fruits caught gray mold. The fruits are heart-shaped, some are irregular.
Brad’s Black Heart — the bushes are sturdier, almost without signs of frailty, the first truss forms higher up (by 2-3 leaves), the truss holds 4-5 fruits. The fruits are rounded, regular shape (my Red Oxheart has this shape), uniform in size. They didn’t catch any diseases.
So, they might be very similar in good conditions, but in bad conditions (my year was very difficult weather-wise), they behave differently and their disease resistance differs.
For me, Brad’s Black Heart is not a bush, but a monster. I’m running it in 4 stems, already bent it along the roof. It sets fruits strictly in pairs; at the moment there are 24 large fruits and about 10-12 small ones. We already ate 2—delicious! Very similar to Black Oxheart, but that one has 4-5 fruits per cluster and they are smaller, 200-300g (7-10.5 oz).
This year it fell off my top winners list.
We haven’t eaten a single fruit yet, they are all getting Blossom End Rot (BER), despite the fact that I watered properly and sprayed with calcium. All the neighboring plants recovered, but this one continues to suffer.
I won’t plant it anymore. 😢
I planted BBH for the first time. I really liked the variety! The hearts are beautiful, practically anatomical with a septum. While they were growing, I kept walking by just admiring them! Dense, large, very tasty. The flesh inside is burgundy, meaty, moderately juicy. Grew in the greenhouse in 2 stems. Yield is average. Will repeat.
I also really liked the variety. About 2 years ago I tried growing black tomatoes (I don’t even remember the names), and I didn’t like them. But this year, I was thrilled with the number of fruits on the bush, the size, and most importantly, the taste. Now I realize that “black” tomatoes are my love.
This year I grew Black Heart with a Beak (from Borisovna) next to Brad’s Black Heart. The latter is shaped more like a barrel. The bush of Brad’s BBH is sturdier than the one with a beak. The color of Brad’s is more brownish-red, and it seemed to me it had more green shoulders. Brad’s ripened earlier, but I liked the taste of the second one better.
Left is Brad’s BBH, right is Black Heart with a Beak.
