Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA Zones 3-5 Experience)
Description from the seed packet: A powerful plant, up to 31 inches (80 cm) tall. Fruits are kidney-shaped (oxheart), deep pink color, massive size 31-45 oz (900-1300 g). Excellent for fresh eating and winter canning. Photo credit: ZhavoronoK.
Grew it in 2012. Seeds were from SibSad (Siberian Garden). Grew it in the greenhouse. The vine has droopy wispy foliage, grows like an indet, fruits are huge around 24-31 oz (700-900 g), pretty decent yielder, tastes great.
Grew it outdoors in the dirt, productive and meaty, but the flavor was just blah. Ended up processing them all, it makes absolutely fantastic jars of tomatoes canned whole in their own juice 😋 🙂
I grew it last year too. Really liked it. Didn’t get any super giants, but it set some absolutely beautiful clusters! Pretty sure mine were from SibSad as well. Grew it in the greenhouse for the simple reason that we moved all our tomato dirt under the roof this year. Definitely planting it again this season. Mine reached about 5 ft (150 cm) tall, and the leaves hung down as if they were pressed against the stem.
Grew it in 2014 from seeds sent by Nadine from Volgograd. The taste seemed really specific to me, it was almost “crunchy”.
On 12/28/2014, Feechka said:
Grew it in 2014 from seeds sent by Nadine from Volgograd. The taste seemed really specific to me, it was almost “crunchy”.
Wow! That is super interesting, did it have hollow cavities inside? What seed company was it originally from?
On 12/28/2014, Feechka said:
Grew it in 2014 from seeds sent by Nadine from Volgograd. The taste seemed really specific to me, it was almost “crunchy”.
Marina, is the camera just washing the color out making them look pale? Or did you pick them underripe? Maybe that’s why they ended up crunchy? Also, the fact that the shoulders didn’t fully ripen means the plant lacked potassium.
On 12/28/2014, VALENTINA/Abakan said:
Wow! That is super interesting, did it have hollow cavities inside? What seed company was it originally from?
Nadine sent them to me through the forum, so I figured she saved the seeds herself. But man, it definitely lives up to the name!
On 12/28/2014, Galina P. said:
Marina, is the camera just washing the color out making them look pale? Or did you pick them underripe? Maybe that’s why they ended up crunchy? Also, the fact that the shoulders didn’t fully ripen means the plant lacked potassium.
The camera was throwing a fit, it made all my tomatoes look the exact same color 😳 The shoulders were probably caused by the intense sun, temperature swings, and dry soil. Otherwise it had a nice starchy tomato texture, the shoulders weren’t woody at all.
That can definitely happen to the fruit when the growing conditions are stressful.
Grew it for a few seasons. Ripens in the cold frame by the first half of July. The plant hits about 5 ft (1.5 m). Red fruits, slightly elongated shape, mine got up to 7 oz (200 g).
There are much better tasting slicers out there for salads. Won’t be planting it again.
My Favorite Holiday. Tasty and productive, I absolutely loved it! It’s a keeper, putting it on my grow list for next year.
Yesterday my sister-in-law sent me a photo of her Favorite Holiday tomato. Grown in the city of Kurgan.
Full Summary: Plant, Yield, Taste and Storage
- 🌿 Plant: While the commercial seed packet claims a determinate height of 31 inches (80 cm), almost all growers report it behaving as a tall, wispy-leafed indeterminate or semi-determinate vine, easily reaching 5 ft (1.5 m) in a greenhouse. Like many classic oxhearts, the foliage looks droopy and “weeping” even when perfectly healthy. Fruits are deep pink, kidney or heart-shaped, and massive, frequently weighing 24-31 oz (700-900 g) and occasionally up to 45 oz (1300 g).
- 📈 Yield: Very productive for such a large-fruited variety, setting beautiful heavy clusters.
- 👅 Taste: Generally highly rated as a classic, meaty, starchy heirloom. However, flavor can suffer heavily under environmental stress, leading to “crunchy” or bland fruits if it gets too much intense sun or lacks potassium.
- 📦 Hardiness: Grows well both outdoors in the dirt and in greenhouses. Some growers noted it is sensitive to heat swings and dry soil, which can cause hard shoulders.
