📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Bull’s Heart of Minusinsk
- 🌍 Origin: A famous local heirloom from Minusinsk, Siberia (the tomato capital of Russia, known for its giant tomato festivals). Also known as Bychye Serdtse Minusinskoe.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), but generally tidy, growing up to 1.7m (5.5 ft) in the greenhouse. Like most true oxheart varieties, the vines are not overly vigorous and exhibit the classic wispy, droopy foliage.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Large, raspberry-pink/red oxhearts weighing between 250-500g (9-17 oz). They set in heavy clusters of 5 to 7 fruits. The flesh is very dense, meaty, and contains extremely few seeds.
- 👅 Flavor: Sugary, sweet, and rich. However, it can be demanding when it comes to nutrients. If it lacks potassium, the flavor will become bland and the fruits will develop hard yellow shoulders.
- ☀️ Climate Note: Originating in Siberia, it prefers cooler weather. In very hot southern climates, growers note that it absolutely requires shade cloth, or it will struggle with the intense heat.
Indeterminate. The plant isn’t overly massive or vigorous—it has the classic wimpy, wispy look of most oxheart varieties. Yield was average. The fruits are raspberry-red, large, around 300-400g (10.5-14 oz).
The taste was just average for me—it didn’t impress me at all. However, every single ripe fruit had hard “yellow shoulders,” which means this variety is highly demanding of potassium (which probably ruined the flavor for me). Huge thanks to Svetlana-Semechka for the seeds! 🌺
I actually really liked the flavor! It wasn’t bland at all, like some pink varieties can be. The bush is tall, and the yield was average—not a tiny amount, but not an overwhelming mountain either. Fruit weights were between 250-500g (9-17 oz). I didn’t get any yellow shoulders at all.
Grew it in the greenhouse. Bull’s Heart of Minusinsk is pink, productive, but during our intense heatwaves, it absolutely requires shade cloth. The bush is very neat and tidy, growing up to 1.7m (5.5 ft). It produces clusters of up to 5-7 fruits, with an average weight of about 300g (10.5 oz). Very few seeds inside, sugary, and delicious.
Grew it again this year using my own saved seeds, and the results were even better. The fruits were larger, and the flavor was outstanding.
