?Russian Ox Hearts?

[HeidiCarroll]

Greetings all!
I am new to this site, and new to trying to garden. My grandma and husband were the green thumbs. I was always slave labor. But now, I'm trying to garden for myself.
Anyway, my grandma used to grow the BEST tomatoes ... my aunts and uncles and I all think they were called Russian Ox Hearts. Is that a type of tomato? They were really big, heart shaped, pinkish color, meaty, and low acid. They made the best tomato sandwiches. Am I getting the right tomato? Is there such a tomato that exists that meet these criteria?
Please advise!
Or is is there a better tomato sandwich ?brand? that is low acid and meaty?

Thanks for the help,

Heidi

[Frosti]

Hi Heidi!

There definitely is a category of tomatoes called oxhearts and it just so happens that many of them originate from Russia / the Soviet Union. Those tomatoes are usually very meaty with few seeds. They do resemble a heart, hence the name. Many of them are pink, but there are also other colors. Next to cherries, this is my favorite type of tomato.


As to the variety your grandma grew ... that's a hard one, since Russian Oxheart is a pretty general term. I'm growing a tomato this year called "Volovye Serdtse", which literally means Oxheart in Russian, so that would be one candidate. There are many many oxheart varieties, but some commonly recommended ones are "Anna Russian" and "Russian 117"

[Yak54]

https://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Cat ... d_Tomatoes

There is a variety called Russian Oxheart but people have used the term “Oxheart” to describe or even name many tomatoes that are in the general category of what is known as “Heart” shape tomatoes of which there are probably 500 or more. You are about to begin a long and exciting journey, like I did in 1978 when I started gardening and wanted to find and grow the tomato my mother used to grow that she called Oxheart. So since then I have tried 30-40 different heart varieties and found 5-6 that are fantastic and probably better than the tomato that my mom grew. And most of the 30-40 were pretty good also. Click on the attached link from Tatianastomatobase and you can see many “Heart” shaped tomatoes that you can try. Have fun !

[Whwoz]

Welcome to the Junction from Down Under @HeidiCarroll

[BlackKrim]

And all this time I thought there were prolly no more than a dozen oxheart-type toms...

[MissS]

I'm thinking that your tomato is a Russian variety that is an oxheart. While there was a tomato named Russian Oxheart from looking at Tatiana's site, it did not get very good reviews for flavor. I can not even find a seed source for it. So me thinks that you should try to remember if it was red or pink and then get some seeds for a few varieties that fit your description and hope for the best.

[pondgardener]

@HeidiCarroll I grow a few of these every year in memory of my aunt who originally gave me the seeds. This was the only tomato she would grow as it was a low acid tomato. I have had a few go over two pounds and yes they make a great sandwich. If interested I could share a few seeds for you to try.

https://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Ann ... %27s_Heart

[Tormato]

I do not know what "low acid" means, as some people claim there in no such thing as a "low acid" tomato. Perhaps it's just the flavor of a more mellow sweet tomato, rather than the sharper flavor of a "tart" tomato?

Generally, pink tomatoes (clear skin) will be milder and sweeter than red (yellow skin) tomatoes. But then, in my experience, the vast number of heart-shaped tomatoes are sweet and are also very meaty.

Two extremely large (in potential) Russian heart tomatoes are the already mentioned Russian #117 (not Orange Russian 117) and Donskoi, both being reds.

[PlainJane]

Welcome from N. Florida @HeidiCarroll !