Quick Summary of Serdtse Telenka (Calf’s Heart)
- 🌍 Origin: A Russian heirloom circulated by well-known seed collectors (the seeds in this thread originate from V. Redko). The name translates directly to “Calf’s Heart”.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall). Like many classic oxhearts, it possesses “wispy foliage” (a frail-looking, drooping, sparsely leafed structure). It can be successfully grown both in greenhouses and outdoors.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Highly distinct, perfectly elongated raspberry-pink hearts. Unlike some oxheart varieties that throw off round or clunky shapes, this one is remarkably uniform. Fruits typically weigh 150-300g (5.3-10.5 oz).
- 👅 Flavor & Texture: Very meaty, dense, and tasty. A major highlight is that the early fruits are almost entirely seedless, making it fantastic for slicing and processing.
- ⏳ Maturity & Yield: Mid-early season. Growers note it can be a bit slow to start swelling its fruits in the greenhouse, but they eventually catch up. The overall yield is rated as average.
Seeds from V. Redko. Grew it for the first time. Tall (indeterminate), the bush is frail with sparse foliage (wispy). Grew in the greenhouse and outdoors in open ground. Yield was average in both places.
In terms of ripening time, it turned out to be mid-early. In the greenhouse, it took a long time to get going, initially putting out tiny fruitlets/little nubs (I didn’t remove them, and they all swelled up eventually).
The fruits are elongated heart-shaped, raspberry-pink, 150-300g (5.3-10.5 oz). Very beautiful, they stand out from other heart-shaped varieties. There were no round or clunky hearts on the bush, all of them were elongated and perfectly even. Meaty, dense, I liked the taste. There were almost no seeds in the fruits, especially in the first trusses.
I grew Calf’s Heart in 2017. Very beautiful fruits. I don’t remember the taste.
