📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Bychiy Lob (Bull’s Forehead)
- 🌍 Origin: A commercial Siberian variety released by the Russian seed company “Siberian Garden” (SibSad). The name translates to “Bull’s Forehead” in English.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, though some growers report that it occasionally self-tops (terminates with a flower truss) around 6.5 ft (2m) in the greenhouse. Extremely vigorous and highly productive.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Large, dense, red oblate beefsteaks. Average weight is around 10-12 oz (300g), but under good conditions, they can easily reach 1.3 lbs (600g). The first blossoms are prone to fasciation (megablooms/catfacing).
- 👅 Flavor & Use: Highly debated! There seem to be different strains circulating. Some growers found it to be a sour, bland “spitter,” while others praise it for having a fantastic, classic, well-balanced tomato flavor. Excellent for processing into sauces, especially “Khrenovina” (a traditional Russian spicy horseradish-tomato relish).
Bushes are heavily loaded, the fruits are amazingly beautiful, smooth, oblate, and red. But there is one big BUT—the flavor is completely nonexistent 😝. Just kinda bland and sour. Very disappointed. Grew it out in the dirt (open ground), and not a single one reached the advertised 600g (1.3 lbs). The biggest was 320g (11 oz). I ended up using it all for Khrenovina (spicy horseradish sauce) because nobody in the family wanted to eat it fresh. Definitely an absolute spitter for me, never planting it again.
Edited February 2, 2015 by Drosera
And here I thought mine tasted bad just because it sat in the fridge, but it turns out others have the exact same problem. The bush didn’t produce much, the weight was less than advertised, and I grew it in a greenhouse. Won’t be planting it again.
I actually really loved the taste—a real, classic mater flavor!
It’s very possible the seeds came from different sources, which is why the flavor is so different.
Here is my story with Bull’s Forehead—I sowed seeds I got from Lena in Kostroma, she absolutely loved the taste last year. Grew one bush in the greenhouse, very productive, it was the earliest one to ripen for me (July 8th), and it ended up being one of the best-tasting varieties of the season, even though the summer was rainy and cold (the dirt in the greenhouse wouldn’t even dry out). Meanwhile, Lena grew from the exact same seed batch this year and said the taste totally sucked for her 🤷♀️
Red, bush is heavily loaded whether it’s outside in the dirt or in the greenhouse. Just a really tasty tomato.
Esme:
It’s very possible the seeds came from different sources, which is why the flavor is so different.
My seeds were from SibSad. It looked exactly like the picture on the packet. But the taste was absolute rare garbage.
Also used SibSad seeds and also hated it.
I loved it, heavy yielder, juicy, tasty. Seeds were from Ukraine.
Bychiy Lob was one of my heaviest yielding and largest varieties.
Thought it would lose points on flavor… nope! It was very tasty and early.
Seeds were from Svetikk. 🙂
Seeds from SibSad. Growing it and I’m very happy with it, grew in the greenhouse. Tall, lots of fruits. Red oblate maters. The whole family loved the taste. Juicy, sweet with a slight tang. Didn’t weigh them, but the size fills the palm of your hand perfectly. Sowed March 6th, transplanted into the dirt mid-May. Turned out mid-season for me, leaning closer to late.
Seeds from SibSad. Not bad at all – juicy, got both tang and sweetness. Only problem is it’s impossible to save seeds from it 😝
Planted it in 2017 and 2018. One of the most productive and tasty ones.
I grew the Bychiy Lob variety in the greenhouse. For me, it turned out very tall (2 meters / 6.5 ft), productive, mid-season. The fruits were large, red, and oblate-shaped. Meaty and sweet.
Repeated this variety in a new setup and have zero regrets—insanely productive, an absolute workhorse (just like Babushkino!). Grew it in the greenhouse to 2 stems. It’s a medium-height indet, fruits are red, oblate, up to 1.3 lbs (600g), with a really good, classic tomato flavor.
Edited September 18, 2019 by Svetikk
Good afternoon everyone, I planted Orange Bull’s Forehead this year. Don’t remember where I got the seeds, but the label said Orange Bull’s Forehead. The variety is a heavy yielder, tasty, large. Looks suspiciously like German Orange Strawberry. Is that possible? Or did I mess something up somewhere?
How do people manage to take pretty photos? (Rhetorical question) 😄
My Bychiy Lob pumped out a total of 24.7 lbs (11 kg 228g) this year, beating my Pink Fig record from 2019. Honestly, I didn’t think it would beat Fig, since the bush topped itself (terminated with flower trusses) at around 6.2 – 6.5 ft (1.9 – 2m). Meaning, absolutely no canopy growing along the greenhouse roof, sadly.
But the tomatoes themselves are pretty dense and heavy. Red color, standard tomato taste. Some of the blossoms were megablooms (catfaced); at first I was pinching them off, but then I just let them be. Picked the last tomatoes during the final harvest in mid-October. Grew to 5 stems! Since the fruits ripened very gradually, the plant didn’t have any nutrient lockout issues, all the tomatoes colored up evenly and correctly. The biggest mater weighed 1.15 lbs (526g). Photos:
The ugly photos show the bottom two trusses*, early August.
*already picked, meaning they aren’t there anymore.
Edited November 14, 2020 by Loshadka
Good, heavy yielding variety. Tomatoes are large, 10 oz (300g) and up. Good classic tomato taste. Meaty, juicy.
