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Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA Zones 3-4 Experience)
The flavor is super well-balanced, dense, and juicy with a great sugar-to-acid ratio. Got my original seeds from Tatiana Kouchnareva. Sliced ripe fruit is deep, rich, and dripping with juice.
Edited June 9, 2017 by Drosera
Planting Out, Pruning to Two Leaders, and Fruit Size
Alisa wrote:
Hey folks, what kind of average weight are we talking on this stunner? Can you train it to two stems? And when are y’all sowing seeds and planting it outside?
Alisa 🙏
I got seeds from Tanya pretty late, around March 31, so when I transplanted into the unheated greenhouse in late April the starts were still on the smaller side. Trained them to two leaders anyway (honestly never grow anything to a single stem) 🙂.
Ran plants in a couple spots, both in the greenhouse and out in the garden beds. The tomatoes turned out slightly smaller than Chocolate and Green Heart, but they are totally worth the garden space. Bringing all three back next season, just gonna sow them way earlier.
Galina P. wrote:
😲 Holy smokes folks, look at that gorgeous thing! 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 Why do I even click on these threads? My want-list is doomed 😕
Galina, you did the right thing dropping in! 🙂 😘😘 You’ll be growing this beauty yourself next year, mark my words! 🙏 😉
Yaroslavna wrote:
Galina, you did the right thing dropping in! 🙂 😘😘 You’ll be growing this beauty yourself next year, mark my words! 🙏 😉
😲 Really??? 😮 Natalya! 😘😘😘😘😘😘😘 📬
Flavor Profile: Sweet and Balanced vs. Washed Out
On another note regarding the name: Reinhard is pronounced ‘Rine-hard’ in German, not ‘Rain-hard’. Maybe mods can fix the thread title 🙏
Only picture I took:
777 wrote:
On another note regarding the name: Reinhard is pronounced ‘Rine-hard’ in German, not ‘Rain-hard’. Maybe mods can fix the thread title 🙏
We can adjust the title, sure. I don’t speak German, so folks might wonder why we’re changing an established catalog name and swapping letters around. The river Rhine has always been spelled and pronounced with that classic ‘Rhein’ style over here too 🤷
Drosera wrote:
We can adjust the title, sure. I don’t speak German, so folks might wonder why we’re changing an established catalog name and swapping letters around. The river Rhine has always been spelled and pronounced with that classic ‘Rhein’ style over here too 🤷
Svetlana, in German that ‘ei’ makes an ‘eye’ sound. That’s why the river itself is pronounced ‘Rhine’ over there, not ‘Rain’.
777 wrote:
Svetlana, in German that ‘ei’ makes an ‘eye’ sound. That’s why the river itself is pronounced ‘Rhine’ over there, not ‘Rain’.
Right, but loanwords stick to established transliteration rules, kind of like how foreign cities get adapted locally.
Reinhard is his actual first name though, right? So the German phonetic spelling would be more accurate? 🤷
Drosera wrote:
Reinhard is his actual first name though, right? So the German phonetic spelling would be more accurate? 🤷
Yep, Reinhard is his first name, and Kraft is the surname. That’s how we say it over here, but how you want it filed in the catalog is up to you 🤠
Drosera wrote:
Reinhard is his actual first name though, right? So the German phonetic spelling would be more accurate? 🤷
Evening folks! Yep, Reinhard is definitely the first name, Kraft is the last name.
On my vines, the flavor was sweet-ish, but totally hollow, like watered-down sugar water. Gorgeous on the cutting board, but that’s about as far as it went. Not planting them again.
Full Summary: Plant Habits, Yield, and Flavor Consensus
- 🌿 Plant & Growth Habit: Indeterminate vine bred by German heirloom specialist Reinhard Kraft. Performs smoothly whether trained to two stems or grown in high tunnels and open garden beds. Produces medium-sized purple oxhearts (around 6-10 oz / 170-280 g), slightly smaller than sister varieties Chocolate Heart and Green Heart.
- 📈 Yield: Outstanding. Ranked as the top yielder across the entire Kraft heart family, setting clusters continuously even in short-season regions without dropping blossoms.
- 👅 Flavor Profile: Polarizing. Yaroslavna and Danko noted a thick, balanced, and juicy profile with solid sugar and acid. On the flip side, growers like ElenaN and Swetlana found it completely washed out and watery (“diluted sugar water”), indicating it needs plenty of sun and restrained watering at ripening to concentrate flavors.
- 📦 Storage: Standard heirloom thin-skinned oxheart. Best eaten fresh off the vine or sliced into salads right after harvest.
- 🌎 Grower Climate: Tested by northern gardeners in USDA Zones 3b and 4 (Northern Yaroslavl, Kostroma, and Moscow regions). Proved vigorous and cold-tolerant, but flavor can suffer in overcast, wet summers.
The variety discussed is part of a renowned family of oxhearts developed by German heirloom seed collector Reinhard Kraft (Neukirchen, Germany). The line originated as a natural cross found in a patch of Cherokee Purple, eventually yielding three sister heirlooms: Reinhard’s Green Heart, Reinhard’s Chocolate Heart, and Reinhard’s Purple Heart.
