Japanese Girl (Yaponka) Oxheart Tomato Review

A sensational variety on the internet. There were rumors that this is ‘Cardinal’. I compared them, and my conclusion is: Cardinal is the ancestor of Yaponka, because there are a lot of similarities — the structure, plant growth, the beginning of fruiting. Only the fruit shape is different: Yaponka is pointed at the end, while Cardinal is blunt-tipped.

Tanya, what about the taste and yield? 📝

And how about its shelf life (since it’s thin-skinned…), or does it require quick processing?

It stores for up to 2 weeks if you pick it slightly underripe. Very tasty, sugary flesh, very long fruiting season here in the south, sets fruit well. I did shade it from the extreme heat.

Girls… what is Yaponka’s ripening time?

VALENTINA/Abakan: Girls… what is Yaponka’s ripening time?

Mid-season. Sowed in early March, and it started to ripen in mid-July.

My Yaponka, seeds from Sveta (Lana_s_Kavkaza) 🌺. The variety is very productive, the taste is very good, with sweetness. The hearts are very unusual — flat, gracefully ribbed, very beautiful. I will definitely be repeating it.

Girls? Is it indeterminate or determinate? I want to plant oxheart varieties this year, got very interested in this one.

Elena 62: Girls? Is it indeterminate or determinate? I want to plant oxheart varieties this year, got very interested in this one.

Elena, according to info from the internet, it’s a mid-season indeterminate. I also have it written down on my “grow someday” wish list.

Elena 62: Girls? Is it indeterminate or determinate? I want to plant oxheart varieties this year, got very interested in this one.

In the greenhouse, with shading from neighboring rows, it grew in 3-4 stems to a height of 1.6–1.7m (5.2–5.5 ft). If you want larger fruits, you can prune it to 2 stems. Due to the extreme heat here, I lead it in multiple stems so the fruits don’t bake in the sun. The plant itself is quite tidy and doesn’t demand much space, much like standard oxheart varieties.

I absolutely loved this variety! The fruits are all different and unusually shaped.
Picked the first fruit today. The whole family loved it!

😋

Yaponka turned out tasty and beautiful! 👍

I grew a lot of oxheart varieties, but Yaponka was remembered for the most beautiful hearts, with very subtle ribbing. But completely flat ones?

My Yaponka is from N. Berezhnova. Indeterminate, both plants in the greenhouse were very high-yielding, I grew both in 2 stems. The fruits are pink with a pearlescent shine, just beautiful 😍, weighing up to 500g (1.1 lbs), and the taste is extremely good 😋.

Could you please tell me, are Yaponka and Yaponiya (Japan) different varieties?

angel3692: Could you please tell me, are Yaponka and Yaponiya (Japan) different varieties?

They are different varieties.

For a long time, I didn’t manage to test this variety, but finally, this past season, I planted it. I regret not doing it sooner. I consider this variety a real find for tomato lovers in the Northwest, and not just there.
I sincerely love oxheart tomato varieties 😊, so I am doubly happy with this one. So far, this is the most productive “oxheart” among all those I’ve tested.
Moreover, it didn’t matter what spot it got in the greenhouse. Both the ones planted in full sun and the bushes in the shade pleased me greatly. The only thing is, when trained to two stems, the yield is naturally better. The taste is simply super! Not a hint of the blandness found in some old oxheart varieties (like Cardinal, Alsu, etc.). Juicy, sweet, flesh melting in the mouth, very few seeds in the fruits.
The plant habit isn’t overly aggressive, but it’s not a “weakling” either (like Vater Rhein). During the heat, with adequate feeding, it doesn’t drop blossoms; it produces and sets fruit right until the cold weather sets in. Importantly for my climate, it doesn’t suffer when planted in cold soil in the spring, which is a struggle for many more heat-loving varieties.
I hope I haven’t overpraised it 😄. Let’s see how this variety performs in years with less favorable weather conditions.

An excellent variety, always gives a harvest year after year. In our climate, it grows in both the greenhouse and outdoors, but it requires shading because its foliage is not built for our intense heat. Tasty, quite dense, and stores well.

I will repeat this wonderful variety next season. I grew 2 plants — one pruned to 1 stem and the other to 2 stems. Indeed, the 2-stem one was more productive. I didn’t know better and planted it right in the scorching sun. Yes, the bush has sparse foliage and got slightly sunburnt, but all the shoulders ripen fully. It was delicious all season long. 👍 The fruits are quite large.

Yaponka in the 2019 season.

I also planted Yaponka for the first time this year. Really liked the variety. Grew two bushes outdoors, pruned suckers… um, mildly speaking, moderately, to keep the bush from growing too tall and for extra foliage. It is very hot and sunny here, and some varieties’ fruits got sunscald. I tied it to a stake about 80 cm (31 inches) tall, but Yaponka doesn’t need just a stake, it needs proper support or a trellis — it’s a very vigorous and rather tall plant, so some of the branches ended up lying on the ground. That’s not critical for us since it’s very dry, plus we have sandy loam soil — the top layer dries instantly even after downpours. By the way, we don’t trim leaves on outdoor tomatoes at all, or only very selectively. This is due to the intense solar radiation and heat; the plants tolerate our 40+ C (104+ F) in July much easier with maximum foliage. And when it gets cold at the end of August, the bushes are taken off the supports and, without pulling them from the ground, laid in piles in the rows with the fruits inside. They finish ripening naturally this way — it’s warmer inside the pile, which is another reason it’s good when the tomato still has leaves, not just a bare stem.

A highly productive variety, the fruits are large, no small ones at all, and only a few medium ones. Pink, very tasty, sweet-and-balanced. It’s a mid-season variety in our region, maybe even mid-early. I sowed the seeds on April 7, 2019, the photo is from August 4, 2019, but I don’t think these were the very first fruits on Yaponka. Still, if counting by the photo, that’s 116 days from sprouting (sprouts around April 9-10). Mid-season.

Decided that Yaponka fully deserves an increase to 4 bushes next year.

Here is my Yaponka, photo of the tomato saved for seeds. Actually, I saved 2 tomatoes for seeds — this one, and another one slightly smaller in weight, but with a very “correct” shape for Yaponka.

I also grew Yaponka this year (Valentina ‘Valzax’ sent me the seeds, huge thanks to her), but it didn’t look like an oxheart, maybe it was ‘Yaponiya’ (Japan). The fruits were large, meaty, tasty… This year I ordered Yaponka from Zolushka, I will compare them in 2020. Here is the tomato I got…

I am probably the only one whose Yaponka didn’t really succeed in taste. I expected something entirely different after reading the reviews. Mine didn’t have that explosive taste, that bright sweetness like ‘Vater Rhein’ or ‘Orange Russian’. The yield, yes, was good. Good size all the way up the vine.

Yulya: I am probably the only one whose Yaponka didn’t really succeed in taste.

Nah, Yulia, you’re definitely just a picky eater 😄

My Yaponka bush didn’t look like a Christmas tree draped in garlands. I blame the unfavorable summer and my own possible mistakes. But the quantity of fruits was quite alright. True, the tomatoes didn’t grow massive. But the taste, honestly, was a massive success.

Thanks for the seeds, Svetikk 🌺

Inn@: Nah, Yulia, you’re definitely just a picky eater 😄

Don’t scare me! Or else I’ll be afraid to grow tomatoes altogether 😂 But I’m serious. My Yaponka turned out blandly sweet. Just “meh”, nothing special.

Your photos are simply super, girls! I really love the fruit shape and it looks so beautiful when sliced! And also, how do you manage to achieve such yields? Magicians…

Yulya: My Yaponka turned out blandly sweet. Just “meh”, nothing special.

And for me, Yaponka ranks right up there in taste with ‘Black Heart with a Beak from Borisovna’. These tomatoes were delicious to eat plain just with salt, and in a general salad with other varieties, Yaponka immediately stood out for the better.

Inn@: And for me, Yaponka ranks right up there in taste with ‘Black Heart with a Beak from Borisovna’.

For me, both of those varieties turned out tasteless.

Yulya: For me, both of those varieties turned out tasteless.

Maybe because they grew in a greenhouse? My Yaponka was planted outdoors (just like the Black Heart with a Beak) and there was no blandness close to it. Excellent, rich, sweet-and-balanced pink tomato taste. And this was from the first fruit to the last, the taste was stable throughout the season. I think it is an outdoor variety, even its plant structure is suited for it.

I will clarify, we are spoiled when it comes to tomato flavor in our region; the local tomatoes are incredibly tasty and super sweet due to the crazy sun exposure and dry climate with artificial irrigation. But Yaponka was genuinely delicious.

Oksana, that’s possible. However, in our region, you can’t really grow indeterminate varieties without a greenhouse. Maybe they lacked sun. The summer was very cold and rainy. Maybe I didn’t feed them enough. I had 4 completely tasteless varieties this year — Yaponka, Black Heart with a Beak, Purple Strawberry (Not-Purple), and Black Pyramid. Their yields were excellent, but they had no taste. Although right next to them grew other, also very productive varieties, which were extremely tasty.

Yulya: For me, both of those varieties turned out tasteless.

I support Yulia. My dacha is in the same area, near Alexandrov.

Yaponka disappointed me with zero taste — no sweetness, no aroma, even the acidity was lacking. I rate the taste 3 out of 5. Of course, I will try it again with my own saved seeds next year, considering so many glowing reviews, but it will be the last time if it fails to meet expectations again. The seeds were from a collector. It grew in the greenhouse.

Borisovna’s Heart was at least tolerable, it came out okay in taste, a 4, but not excellent.

Oksana Evgenievna: Maybe because they grew in a greenhouse? My Yaponka was planted outdoors (just like the Black Heart with a Beak) and there was no blandness close to it.

The color of my Yaponka was red.