Quick Summary of Howes (Khoves)
- 🌍 Origin: An extremely rare variety distributed by Ukrainian seed collector Alexei Kulik. It is praised primarily as a long-keeper.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Moderate height. Warning for seed savers: The currently circulating seeds show significant genetic instability. Growers report seedlings splitting into both Regular Leaf (RL) and Potato Leaf (PL) types, and even the RL plants show varying degrees of leaf serration.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Officially described as a large red heart reaching up to 500 g (1.1 lbs). However, growers note that the fruits often turn out to be round or flat-round beefsteaks rather than true hearts.
- 👅 Storage & Flavor: The main selling point of this variety is its extreme shelf life. Catalog descriptions claim it can be stored for up to 3 months. Real-world growers confirm it easily holds up for over a month in storage without spoiling.
- ⏳ Maturity: Mid-season.
Seeds from Kulik, 2015.
Description from Alexei: “(mid-season / 500g / heart / red). An extremely rare variety. Stores for up to 3 months.” That’s it.
Last year I sowed Howes, but I don’t remember the leaf type, because both seedlings were eaten by “black leg” (damping off) right around transplanting time — I wasn’t paying attention and overwatered them.
This year I sowed 5 seeds, all of them germinated. But! Two with a regular leaf (RL) and three with a potato leaf (PL). And the PL is noticeably lagging behind the RL in its growth rate.
The question is — whoever grew it, please write what kind of leaf it had.
For now, I kept a couple of each leaf type, I will grow both the PL and RL ones.
Alyona, the leaf was regular (RL). The fruits are more round than heart-shaped. Growth was moderate. They really did store for a long time, about a month; I couldn’t wait any longer and got scared they would eventually spoil.
Tanya, thank you! 🌺🌺🌺
The weirdness with Howes didn’t stop there for me. The ones with RL — have different serrations on the foliage 😄 Maybe one will set tomatoes like your round ones, and the other will have hearts. I wrote to Kulik, he’s quiet so far.
