Quick Summary of Serbian Oxheart (Serbskoe Byche Serdtse)
- 🌍 Origin: A traditional heirloom from Serbia. This variety is very well known in international seed-saving circles, having been circulated heavily by the famous North American collector Tatiana Kushnareva (Tatiana’s TOMATObase).
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, but on the compact side, typically reaching 1 – 1.2 meters (3-4 ft) in height. It features classic oxheart genetics with narrow, “wispy” or weeping foliage. Because of its compact footprint, growers note it takes up very little space in a greenhouse.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Medium-sized, raspberry-pink heart-shaped fruits, averaging around 200g (7 oz).
- 🧬 Genetic Variability: Growers report growing two slightly different strains from the same batches. One is smooth, dense, and juicy. The other is distinctly ribbed, drier, and has hollow seed cavities (making it an excellent choice for stuffing or sun-drying).
- 👅 The Yield vs. Flavor Debate: Forum members experienced polarizing results. Some growers got low yields but reported an incredibly sweet, candy-like flavor (“one of the best of the year”). Others (particularly those growing Kushnareva’s line) experienced massive, heavy yields but found the taste to be somewhat bland and watery.
🍅 Have you grown this variety? Scroll down to add your review and photos in the comments below!
Real Grower Reviews & Photos
Seeds are from Redko. I grew it for the first time. The bush was 1-1.20m (3-4 ft) tall. The leaves are narrow (wispy foliage). It was an early variety for me. Grew outdoors in open ground.
The seeds germinated poorly; out of five seeds, only one sprouted. The yield was quite low. Small raspberry-colored hearts, about 200 grams (7 oz) each. But the taste is very sweet. It was one of the tastiest tomatoes of this year.
I had this one too – seeds were from Tatiana Kushnareva (Tatiana’s TOMATObase). It was productive, very productive in fact, but the taste was a bit bland. It pulls a 4 out of 5 at maximum.
The seeds for this variety were also from Tatiana Kushnareva. The variety is very productive — this photo is from the end of July, I can’t find a picture of them fully ripe yet. Taste rating is a 4 minus.
Left — Shal variety, Right — Serbian Oxheart:
A good salad variety, it turned out mid-early for me. It takes up very little space in the greenhouse (compact footprint).
I ended up growing 2 different types of hearts from this batch. One had smoother ribs, barely noticeable, and it was much juicier. The second one had very pronounced ribbing, the flesh was dry (high dry matter), which is great for sun-drying. The seed locules were hollow, and there were very few seeds. Both variations are tasty, but the smoother one is sweeter.
