📌 Quick Summary: White Cherry (Belaya Vishnya)
- 🌱 Plant Habit: A tall indeterminate vine. It exhibits the classic “wispy” or frail-looking foliage that is typical of most oxheart varieties.
- 🍅 Fruit & Yield: Despite the “cherry” in its name, this is NOT a cherry tomato. It produces large, pale cream/white heart-shaped tomatoes weighing 9 to 14 oz (250-400g). Yields are generally considered average.
- 🎨 Color Segregation: Growers report two distinct phenotypes circulating under this name. Some plants produce solid pale-yellow/cream hearts, while the more highly prized version produces white/cream hearts with a distinct pink blush on the blossom end.
- 👅 Flavor Profile: Very meaty and juicy. Like many white tomatoes, it is exceptionally low in acidity. Some growers find it refreshingly sweet and delicate, while others complain it tastes too “bland.”
Tomatinka gifted me seeds of the White Cherry variety, and she originally ordered them from somewhere else.
Despite the name, these “cherries” turned out to be almost 14 oz (400 grams)! They are very pale-cream colored, meaty, and the taste is a bit bland/low-acid.
The plants are indeterminate, but quite frail and wispy, just like many other “heart” varieties. The yield was also below average for me. But I think under better conditions (like inside a greenhouse), these flaws could be fixed. The maturity time is mid-season; I picked my first ripe tomato outdoors on July 23rd.
Wow, I honestly thought “White Cherry” was going to be an actual cherry tomato. But this looks exactly like the unidentified plant I got from a mislabeled packet of Golden Heart! My bushes were also very frail and skinny.
Mine grew in the greenhouse up to 4 ft (120 cm). The leaves were long but very sparse. It was productive and tasty, but during the extreme heat, it did taste a bit bland. When the weather cooled down, the flavor became much fruitier.
Here is what it looks like from the outside and in cross-section:
My White Cherry actually looked like this (photo from the old forum).
I got my seeds from Galina (Esme). It’s an indeterminate, sets fruit well, and tastes great. The fruits actually taste much better when the top (blossom end) starts getting a pink blush.
This year I am growing White Oxheart (Bychie Serdtse Beloye). They look extremely similar, but I think there is a slight difference. I’d have to grow them side-by-side in the same year to figure it out for sure.
Elena_ said:
The fruits actually taste much better when the top starts getting a pink blush.
I’m surprised! Mine was much more yellow last year. But yours in the photo is an absolute beauty!
Esme said:
This year I am growing White Oxheart. They look extremely similar…
No, girls. Those are two completely different varieties in color, shape, and taste.
I was really surprised to hear that White Cherry turns pink on top. Mine was always purely yellowish-cream.
tomatinka said:
Mine was always purely yellowish-cream.
Vera, the funny thing is, these seeds originally came from you! And mine don’t turn yellow at all.
The bush is very elegant and slender.
Here is my White Cherry with the pink “cap.”
NatNik said:
Here is my White Cherry with the pink “cap.”
Natasha, is yours actually that yellow in real life, or is it just the lighting in the photo? My fruits were huge, weighing between 12 and 20 oz (350 to 560 grams).
Sweet said:
is yours actually that yellow in real life, or is it just the lighting in the photo?
No Sveta, it’s just the photo making it look that yellow. However, this year they definitely do have more of a yellow tint than last year. Last year it was almost pure white, but it wasn’t growing in direct blazing sun like the one in this photo.
This season I grew White Cherry indoors in the greenhouse. For a long time, the fruits remained whitish, and only when fully ripe did a very faint yellow tint appear on them… The taste is pleasant, delicate, with a light sweetness. The average fruit weight was 9 to 12.5 oz (250-350g).
I have 2 bushes of White Cherry. One is outdoors, the other in the greenhouse.
The outdoor one produced larger fruits, but they had absolutely no pink blush and were completely tasteless…
However, the one in the greenhouse produced slightly smaller fruits, but they were incredibly sweet, very productive, AND had that beautiful pink tip! My family told me to definitely grow it again.
As of today, there are still 9 left hanging on the vine. It’s still warm out.. I wonder if they’ll have time to fully ripen.
My White Cherry came from Popenko (a famous Russian collector). I ordered from him directly. But mine never had a pink/red tip. Quite the opposite—one year it was almost purely yellow, another year it was creamy.
I just didn’t “get” this variety.. You look at it and for some reason, you just don’t want to eat it. It just doesn’t look appetizing to me. The taste didn’t impress me either, it was bland. I won’t be growing it again. Honestly, it kind of turned me off from growing white tomatoes altogether.
I actually liked White Cherry, specifically *because* of that beautiful pink blush on the top. The taste is pleasant, delicate, and has a little bit of sweetness, though it is definitely low in acid.
