📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Korol King-2 (King King-2)
- 🌍 Origin: A fantastic Russian heirloom variety famously circulated by collectors like Valentina Redko and Vera Monakhova. The name literally translates to “King King”. There are two known variations in circulation: the original “Korol King” and the updated “Korol King-2”.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall). Depending on the strain and growing conditions, plants range from 5 to 6.5 feet (1.5 – 2 m). Unlike many wispy pink oxhearts, the “version 2” plant is very sturdy and robust with regular foliage.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Large, raspberry-pink fruits with a distinct elongated pyramidal or blunt-heart shape. Fruits average around 10.5 to 14 oz (300-400 g), but megablooms can produce massive fruits pushing 2 lbs (900 g) or more.
- 👅 Flavor: Highly rated! Meaty, juicy, and very sweet. Growers specifically note that it does not get mealy or cottony, which is a common issue with some large pink hearts.
Got this variety from Vera Monakhova. Mid-season leaning toward early, indeterminate. The plant height is supposed to reach up to 6.5 feet (2 m), but in my open ground, it topped out at about 4.2 feet (1.3 m). The plant is very sturdy with medium foliage cover.
Fruits weighed anywhere from 7 oz (200 g) up to nearly 2 lbs (900 g) from a megabloom. They are a gorgeous raspberry-pink with an elongated pyramidal shape. Flavor is very good, and it’s quite a heavy yielder. There are very few seeds in the flesh.
Here are the original descriptions for both Korol King and Korol King-2 so you can compare them:
Korol King: Early-ripening plant up to 5 feet (1.5 m) tall. The plant is weak with wispy foliage, but the fruits are unexpectedly massive, up to 1.5 lbs (700 g), with some reaching 2.2 lbs (1 kg). They are raspberry-pink, pyramidal, and have an amazing flavor. Later in the season, it throws smaller fruits but of the exact same quality. Very productive.
Korol King-2: Early-ripening, plant up to 6.5 feet (2 m) tall. Sturdy with medium foliage. Fruits are large, up to 1.7 lbs (800 g), raspberry-colored, elongated pyramidal shape, tasty, and productive.
Fruit from a megabloom:
Got my seeds for this one from Natasha (NatNik). Thank you! 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 I really loved this variety. It took a while to get going, but eventually set a decent amount of those massive beauties. An absolutely delicious tomato. Meaty, juicy, and sweet.
I grew Korol King back in 2013. The seeds were from V. Redko. My variety is just called Korol King (without the number). I really loved this stunner. Heavy yielder, all the fruits were huge, and the flavor was great. Highly recommend!
I grew Korol King from Redko this year. It was one of the very first to start coloring up in the greenhouse. Fruits are uniform, beautiful, and sweet. Average weight was around 10.5 to 14 oz (300-400 g).
.JPG.125acf561e64c2399d3ea5b4ae7fb04a.JPG)
.JPG.c549476e1e689d31dd91493d353f11e7.JPG)
.JPG.8977dc439d496a4fe06d94e6a3bdaccd.JPG)
This variety is my discovery of the year! Seeds were sitting in my stash for a couple of years, just never got around to planting them. I figured it would be just another wispy pink oxheart vine. Decided to finally give it a try this year. It ended up being my absolute favorite of the season! The plant isn’t huge, topping out at about 3.3 feet (1 m), but it is completely loaded with massive fruits. Delicious, JUICY! (not mealy or cottony like a lot of pink hearts out there), and mid-early. Nothing but pros!
As mentioned by the growers in this thread, there are two distinct variations of this variety floating around heirloom seed circles: Korol King and Korol King-2. The main difference lies in the plant habit. The original tends to have the classic “wispy, weeping” oxheart foliage, while the “2” version has been stabilized or selected to have much stronger, regular foliage that supports the massive fruits far better without looking sick or frail. Both produce exceptionally tasty, giant pyramidal tomatoes!
