🍅 Quick take: Red Wolf is an exceedingly rare indeterminate, mid-season pink oxheart originally introduced to the heirloom community by Abundant Acres around 2005. The slender vines feature characteristic wispy, weeping foliage and produce glowing dark-pink heart-shaped slicers running between 6 to 8 oz (170-230 g) and reaching up to 1 lb (454 g). Renowned for pure, melt-in-your-mouth sweetness with zero acidity, it is famously nearly seedless, making it a dream for the dinner plate but a real challenge for seed savers. Seed trade drama ↓ | Outdoor trials ↓ | Full summary ↓
Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA Zones 4-6b Experience)
Mid-season indeterminate slicer. The vine has relatively airy, slender foliage with standard regular leaves. The fruits are deep dark pink with shimmering skin, slightly darker in tone than Wolford Wonder. Fruit shapes range from classic pointed hearts and wedge-hearts to chubby, blunt oxhearts.
These beauties are pure meat: delicious, sweet, with virtually no acid, and almost completely seedless. Across the entire vine, I only managed to harvest 7 seeds total! Solid yield grown in my greenhouse.
This variety is exceptionally rare, almost certainly because it produces virtually no seed. There is very little documentation on it out there, but here is what I tracked down from its original introduction:
These beauties are pure meat: delicious, sweet, with virtually no acid, and almost completely seedless. Across the entire vine, I only managed to harvest 7 seeds total! Solid yield grown in my greenhouse.
This variety is exceptionally rare, almost certainly because it produces virtually no seed. There is very little documentation on it out there, but here is what I tracked down from its original introduction:
“Red Wolf 85 days – Indeterminate. An Abundant Acres introduction. Fruit were given to us by an amateur grower in 2005. After growing this tomato for two years, we decided to offer it. To our knowledge it’s not available anywhere else. Nearly seedless fruits can reach a pound, but more commonly run about 6 – 8 ounces. Juicy and delicious. An oxheart type.”
I also spotted photos on a commercial seed storefront, but those weren’t actually Red Wolf at all, they had swiped Tatiana’s photo of Wolford Wonder and slapped the Red Wolf name on it.
Lena, that Wolf of yours is gorgeous! Just a crying shame he leaves no offspring behind.
Lena, that Wolf of yours is gorgeous! Just a crying shame he leaves no offspring behind.
Yeah, heartbreaking that it’s practically childless, folks would be lining up down the block for seeds. You can see right through that slice how insanely delicious it is!
The Seed Counterfeits and Stolen Online Photos
I was digging around online researching a few varieties, and look what stumbled into my lap. A vendor listed Red Wolf (calling it a beefsteak 😮) in their “new arrivals” catalog, accompanied by a photo that was literally just Giant Belgium Pink!
Not that I am even surprised, that seems to be how plenty of these “novelties” get manufactured nowadays.
Edited April 8, 2017 by ElenaN
Not that I am even surprised, that seems to be how plenty of these “novelties” get manufactured nowadays.
Edited April 8, 2017 by ElenaN
Outdoor Performance and Heat Tolerance
Delicious heart with a textbook oxheart shape. Unfortunately, it didn’t yield very well for me outdoors in the open ground, our brutal summer heatwave probably took its toll.
Grew it outdoors in the open ground. The vine reached about 5.25 ft (1.6 m). Slender vine with weeping, drooping leaves. Fruits are gorgeous reddish-pink hearts averaging around 10.5 oz (300 g). Meaty, sweet, and delicious. Really loved this one.
סור מרע ועשה טוב בקש שלום ורדפהו
Full Summary: Plant, Yield, Taste and Storage
- 🌿 Plant & Habit: Mid-season indeterminate growing 5.25 to 6 ft (1.6-1.8 m). Features delicate, wispy, weeping regular foliage characteristic of classic oxhearts. Performs best with greenhouse protection in cold or stormy regions.
- 📈 Yield & Weights: Good to moderate producer. Fruits average 6 to 8 oz (170-230 g) under standard conditions and 10.5 oz (300 g) with good nutrition, with top-end specimens hitting 1 lb (454 g). Open-ground yields can drop significantly when subjected to severe midsummer heatwaves.
- 🧬 Seed Scarcity (Seedless Trait): Noted by growers for its near-total absence of viable seeds. Seed locules are collapsed and replaced with dense, solid tomato meat, making seed saving difficult (often yielding fewer than 10 seeds per plant).
- 👅 Taste & Texture: Outstanding gourmet dessert quality: smooth, melting, sugary, and free from harsh acidity. Dark-pink shimmering exterior with dense, marbled interior flesh.
- 🌎 Who Reviewed It: Triaged across USDA Zone 4 (Kostroma), Zone 5 (Belgorod Region, Belarus), and Zone 6b (Volgograd).
