📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Volovye Serdtse Polosatoe
- 🌍 Origin: A Russian variety. The name literally translates to “Striped Oxheart” or “Striped Cow’s Heart”.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Generally classed as an indeterminate, but multiple growers report it behaves almost like a determinate or semi-determinate, abruptly capping its own growth around 2.3 to 4 feet (70-120 cm). Does very well outdoors in open ground or under low tunnels.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Classic oxheart/heart shape with stunning red and yellow-orange stripes. The fruits are medium-to-large, very meaty, and juicy.
Pro Tip: The fruits are firm and hold up well in storage (good shelf life), making the smaller ones excellent for whole-fruit canning. - ⏳ Maturity & Disease Resistance: Mid-season. Growers note it seems relatively resistant to late blight (Phytophthora).
Volovye Serdtse Polosatoe is a beautiful, tall (up to 5 feet / 1.5 meters in the greenhouse) mid-season tomato variety. The fruits are large, red with stripes, and heart-shaped. Very juicy and meaty. Unfortunately, due to really bad soil in that specific garden bed this year, I wasn’t able to properly evaluate the flavor profile.
I’ve been growing Volovye Serdtse Polosatoe from Popenko’s seeds for three years now. Very pretty striped hearts, very productive.
Here is my story with this variety: I planted it in the greenhouse for two years, and it actually stays quite short, it hits about 4 feet (1.2 meters) max and just stops growing. Space in my greenhouse is premium real estate reserved for new varieties every year, so this one got relocated outside into open ground under a low tunnel (row cover). I liked it, the plant liked it, and we finished the season very happy with each other!
Here it is tied to a stake, not ripe yet. The summer was consistently rainy and cool, so I had to pull a portion of my outdoor crop while they were still green. But they ripened and turned a beautiful red and yellow indoors perfectly fine. Overall, they are the exact same tomatoes, just on short bushes (even though technically it’s supposed to be an indeterminate). Well, maybe it’s because our soil is heavy clay, or some other reason.
I’m very happy with the variety, it’s tasty. The size is medium—they easily fit into a 3-liter jar, but I haven’t canned in 3-liter jars for a long time. Will they fit whole into a 1-liter (quart) jar? No. Good shelf life. Found absolutely no signs of blight. From now on, I will only grow it outside in open ground. 😉
I grew Volovye Serdtse Polosatoe outside in open ground this year. The plant was determinate. Mine didn’t grow taller than 27 inches (70 cm). Beautiful little striped tomatoes, they were the perfect size for canning in jars. The yield wasn’t great. But then again, the summer wasn’t great either. 🙂
I’ve been growing the variety ‘Kitayskiy Fonarik’ (Chinese Lantern) from Natasha for a long time. It looks and sounds incredibly similar to this both in photos and in the description.
