📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Volovye Serdtse (Ox’s Heart)
- 🌍 Origin & Naming: A classic commercial heirloom from Russia, officially registered in 2000 by “NK-LTD” (Semena NK).
Language Note: In Russian, “Volovye” means Ox, and “Bychie” means Bull. While Americans use the term “Oxheart” as a generic shape category, in Russia, Volovye Serdtse (Ox’s Heart) and Bychie Serdtse (Bull’s Heart) are two completely different, famous commercial varieties! Note: Similar variations of this seed line exist across Eastern Europe (e.g., Serbian Volovsko Srce). - 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), reaching about 6 ft (1.8 m). It exhibits the classic oxheart trait of wispy, drooping foliage. The true variety is Regular Leaf (RL), though cross-pollinated Potato Leaf (PL) variants occasionally circulate among growers.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Pinkish-crimson oxhearts. They are incredibly meaty with very small seed cavities. Weights generally range from 7 to 14 oz (200-400 g), but well-fed plants can produce fruits over 1 lb (450 g+).
- 👅 Flavor: Highly rated. Sweet, aromatic, with a nice balanced tang. Very meaty texture perfect for slicing and thick sauces.
- ⚠️ Grower’s Note: Like many large oxhearts, it can be sensitive to extreme heat, leading to blossom drop on the middle and upper trusses. Avoid feeding it too much nitrogen, or the plant will become overly vegetative and stop setting fruit.
This is the tomato that grew from a store-bought seed packet…
Edited Jan 29, 2015 by Drosera
And here is what it looked like a bit earlier.. the tomatoes aren’t huge – roughly 4.2 to 6.3 oz (120 to 180 g). The first truss set fruit perfectly, the second one did a bit worse… and then the intense heat hit. Either because of the heatwave or because of my lousy gardening skills, all the rest of the trusses dropped their blossoms… 😞
And my Volovye Serdtse looked like this. Grew it in the greenhouse (all my tomatoes are in greenhouses). It reached over 5 ft (1.5 m) in height, mid-early season. Didn’t weigh the fruits, but I’d estimate around 7-8 oz (200-230 g). Didn’t notice any diseases. It was seeded in early March. The color is crimson-red and it’s very “meaty”.
Valentina, that’s a gorgeous plant! Whose seeds were they?
Meri wrote:
Valentina, that’s a gorgeous plant! Whose seeds were they?
Ah shoot, I can’t tell you right off the top of my head… Let me go look for the packet… Nope, couldn’t find it, but if I remember correctly it was from “SeDek”.
We planted this variety in 2012 from a very old packet, it grew in the garden without a specific label. We identified it by its looks, absolutely loved the taste. Repeated it in 2014 from our own saved seeds.
Feechka wrote:
We planted this variety in 2012 from a very old packet…
Well, yours are straight-up hearts, while mine were much more oblate (flat-round)… Maybe I don’t have true Volovye Serdtse at all… I just call it that because that’s what the packet said. But they are delicious anyway!
VALENTINA/Abakan wrote:
Maybe I don’t have true Volovye Serdtse at all…
If I remember correctly, my packet was from “Semena NK”.
A delicious tomato, even if it is an off-type, is still a massive win. Especially one as productive as yours!
I grew Volovsko Srce from Serbian seeds. The plant was incredibly vigorous, and I got tomatoes up to 1.1 lbs (500 g), but I planted them late. All the fruits were oblate (flat-round) in shape. I didn’t prune the trusses, but only 1-2 fruits set per cluster—possibly due to the heatwave, and also because the plant got way too vegetative (I overfed it with nitrogen), which is entirely my fault.
My neighbor gave me a Volovye Serdtse tomato. Hers has Potato Leaf (PL) foliage. They are heart-shaped, pink, roughly 8.8-10.5 oz (250-300 g) each.
What kind of leaf is this variety actually supposed to have?
Planted Croatian seeds this season that I got from Ninulia. Huge thanks to her. The tomatoes ranged from 5.3 to 14 oz (150 to 400 g). The main bulk were around 8.8-10.5 oz (250-300 g). A very good little tomato. Like all oxhearts, it has wispy/sparse foliage and isn’t an aggressive grower. Meaty and juicy at the same time. Sweet with just a slight touch of acidity.
“The tomato ‘Volovye Serdtse’ was included in the State Register of Breeding Achievements in 2000 (originator: ‘Scientific-Production Corporation NK-LTD’, Moscow) for home gardens, backyard plots, and small farms for cultivation in open ground and under plastic shelters. Most suitable for growing in the southern regions of the country. Recommended for fresh consumption. Late-season, indeterminate. The fruit is heart-shaped, pinkish-crimson color.”
The variety really does handle our heatwave well. The bush has average foliage, but it’s not a wimpy plant, height is 6 ft (1.8 m). 4 fruits ripened on the first truss, then there was a skipped truss, and on the third truss there are 3 fruits, while the 4th is currently blooming. Beautiful hearts, very tender flesh, thin skin.
The fruit is meaty, the seed locules are small, and there aren’t many seeds. Not bland, has a nice tang, very aromatic. Liked it, will be repeating.
A very beautiful tomato, but taste-wise, in my opinion, it is slightly inferior to Bychie Serdtse (Bull’s Heart), which I grew last year.
