Grower’s Notes and Photos (USDA Zone 4 Experience)
Mid-to-late indeterminate slicing heirloom. Grew it back-to-back in the 2017 and 2018 seasons. Sourced from the province of Navarre in northern Spain. Regular leaf foliage.
The fruits are deep red and every single one was a heavyweight, absolutely zero small runts, even on the topmost clusters. Fruit weight ranged from 14 to 23.5 oz (400 to 670 g).
They throw remarkably unusual shapes, each one completely different from the next: heavily ribbed, fluted, covered in crazy protrusions and folds like stalagmites. You get beefsteaks, blunt hearts, and everything in between, and all this wild variety hangs on a single vine. Very few seeds inside.
Superb balanced flavor with distinct sweetness and excellent fruit quality overall. Counter-ripens indoors like a champ. Grew in the greenhouse with very solid yields.
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Full Summary: Plant, Yield and Unique Morphology
- 🌿 Plant & Lineage: Traditional northern Spanish heirloom from Navarre (Navarra). Grows as an indeterminate vine with regular foliage, showing excellent vigor and performance under greenhouse cover in cool northern climates.
- 📈 Yield & Morphology: Heavy yielder producing uniform jumbo-sized fruit running 14 to 23.5 oz (400 to 670 g) without diminishing in size on upper clusters. Remarkable for its shapeshifting morphology: deeply ribbed beefsteaks, blunt oxhearts, and lobed multi-faceted fruits all develop side-by-side on one vine.
- 👅 Flavor & Texture: Dense, meaty flesh with few seeds and high flesh-to-seed ratio. Sweet, well-balanced traditional flavor that retains sweetness even when fruits are pulled early to counter-ripen indoors.
- 🌎 Who Reviewed It: ElenaN (Elena) across multi-year trials in Kostroma, Russia (USDA Zone 4).
