Quick Summary of Serdtse Buyvola (Buffalo Heart)
- 🌍 Origin & Name Confusion: There are actually two distinct varieties circulating among Russian growers under the translated name “Buffalo Heart” (Serdtse Buyvola).
1) The Siberian version (SibSad): A pink, smooth oxheart that is usually determinate or semi-determinate.
2) The European version: An imported French/Spanish variety (Corazon de Buey / Cœur de Boeuf), which is an indeterminate, heavily ribbed, red, pouch-like tomato.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Both versions share the classic “oxheart” plant structure—skinny, wispy, and somewhat frail-looking vines that tend to droop. The Siberian version stays shorter (around 1m / 3.3 ft outdoors, up to 1.5m / 5 ft in a greenhouse).
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: The Siberian strain produces smooth pink hearts (250-300g / 8.8-10.5 oz) with multiple seed chambers. The European strain produces deeply ribbed, red, pear/pouch-shaped fruits.
- 👅 Flavor: The main reason this variety is universally loved. It is exceptionally sweet, meaty, and juicy. Some growers compare the sparkling, granular texture and pure sweetness of the red version to eating fresh watermelon.
Excellent variety. Seeds from SibSad (Siberian Garden). Very meaty and very sweet tomatoes. Grew in a greenhouse, pruned to two stems. The bush is 1.8m (6 ft) and taller, with sparse foliage and somewhat frail/wispy, like many heart-shaped varieties. It sets fruit well, especially at the end of July when it starts setting fruit like crazy. But since there are not many fruits per truss (2-5) and the internodes are quite long, the overall yield is average. But the taste… mmm 😋. I forgive it for everything and am definitely keeping it on my grow list 😘.
Buffalo Heart is also among my favorites.
And the yield will be higher when you sow it from your own saved seeds—it’s proven, from my own seeds I was getting 5-6 fruits per truss.
Knyaginya Olga said:
Buffalo Heart is also among my favorites…
Olenka, it is one of my absolute favorites too 😘😘 Whose seeds do you have? Mine are from Yashchenko 👍👍👍👍
I also planted Buffalo Heart for the first time this year. I was very, very pleased with the yield. The taste is excellent, like all pink-fruited varieties. We have been planting Pudovik and Sensei for a long time. But this one is just something else. 🙌 The tomatoes are medium-sized, about 250-300g (8.8-10.5 oz), but there are a lot of them… Next year, out of all the pink hearts, I will mostly plant this one. Plus, out of all my large-fruited varieties, it ripened first! 👏
I’ve wanted this variety for a long time, and this year I got it from Balashov. Large, very beautiful tomatoes, just a joy! But the taste didn’t delight me as much as other varieties I like. What I especially noticed was that the skin was thin but quite tough. Most likely, this variety was just being fussy in my poor soil. I collected plenty of seeds from it.
My Serdtse Buyvola is from SibSad. Determinate, closer to early than mid-season. It turned out to be earlier than Velmozha, Danko, and EM-Champion. Correct heart-shaped, tasty, meaty fruits!
gggalina said:
My Serdtse Buyvola from SibSad. Determinate, closer to early than mid-season.
Where did it grow, in a greenhouse or outdoors? If in a greenhouse, what was its height?
Meri said:
Where did it grow, in a greenhouse or outdoors? If in a greenhouse, what was its height?
It grew outdoors in open ground, it was about 70 cm (2.3 ft) tall. But like many determinates, if planted in a greenhouse, it will most likely stretch up to 1.5 meters (5 ft).
Friends, so is it a determinate? I have seeds from Milochka, I’m already rubbing my hands in anticipation..
Outdoors it will be a determinate, in the greenhouse it acts like an indeterminate. Mine just grew and grew until the end of the season. And there were a lot of fruits, juicy, meaty, tasty. I planted it from my own saved seeds, originally they were from SibSad.
It seems to me that Buffalo Heart is exactly the same as Rozovyi Myod (Pink Honey), based on taste, bush structure, and fruit structure. Does anyone else think so?
Looking at the cross-section of SibSad’s Buffalo Heart in Galina’s photo, I see multiple seed chambers. On my Rozovyi Myod (and Lida’s too), the seed chambers were almost invisible. But I don’t know what exact strain SibSad is packaging now.
I have Buffalo Heart from SibSad, a good productive variety, it turned out larger than Pink Honey for me.
I got my seeds from Valeriy 1968. For which I owe him a massive 🙌 thank you! 🌺 His description:
“Buffalo Heart is a skinny plant (wispy). The fruits are large, oval-pear-shaped, ribbed at the base, bright red, very meaty, sweet, weight 250-600g (8.8-21 oz). Very little liquid, few seeds, the flesh is granular (sparkling), very tasty, stores for a long time. Imported from France. A very expensive and rare variety on the market. Highly productive. For the greenhouse.”
This is another tomato that shook my world. When I tried it for the first time, my first thought was—watermelon! It is so sweet, it’s just something else! It doesn’t even feel like a tomato, it’s a watermelon! The bush has a frail structure, yield is average. But the taste! 👍
Yulya said:
This is another tomato that shook my world…
Your Buffalo Heart looks more like Sto Pudov. Mine looked like an exact copy of Pink Honey.
irunchik said:
Your Buffalo Heart looks more like Sto Pudov…
No, it is Buffalo Heart. Just the French one. I didn’t see that there was another forum thread specifically for the Spanish-French varieties (Corazon de Buey).
Variety Buffalo Heart.
I’m looking at it, and my seeds from the forum don’t look very similar to the others.
Corazon de Buey – Buffalo Heart. The photos show one bush from different angles.
There are so many different versions in the catalog.
I have this kind of Buffalo Heart. Weight 150-250g (5.3-8.8 oz). Pronounced folds/ribs. Some tomatoes are pronounced hearts with a pointy nose, and some are blunt-ended. The variety is mid-season, red, tasty. Productive.
.jpg.bc19eae0d04ebb661d951b1ca1e8799e.jpg)
(1).jpg.bdb8b3dc1c4f0bf30bca0c94224403b4.jpg)
