Best hearts out there?

[b54red]

Here are my favorites in order of taste.

Donskoi
Fish Lake Oxheart
Kosovo
Oleyers German
Linnies Oxheart
Wes

All the other hearts I have tried have been too bland for my tastes but if want some for filling the sauce pot the following were the ones with the best production and they all made great sauce.

Hungarian Heart
Gildo Pietroboni
Kosovo
Linnies Oxheart
Wes
Oleyers German

[FILMNET]

Thanks someone sent me some new seeds from Brads, which he make BTD years ago. I now grew 1/2 of my plants from him.I loved Black and Brown Bore, BTD, Porkchop and his Black Heart, next year more of this for me.

[TomNJ]

I was very impressed with Kosovo for size, earliness, and productivity, and taste was good as well (a bit sweet). Theyt are very meaty (great for sauce) and are now a regular in my garden. Wes are large and sweet but were not very productive for me. Prue and Brad's Black Heart had a nice taste but both succumbed early to foliage diseases that year (2010), and the Brad's were puffy. I'll try the Prue and Brad's again next year. I have seeds for all of these if anyone needs them.

TomNJ

[carolyn137]

Good Grief I forgot Fish Lake Oxheart.

I know that many of you who got the seeds from me in my last seed offerr had problems with germination and I posted why that was so, kinda after the fact b'c I didn't know that myself.

But I have fresh 2011 seeds of it that I'll be offering in my upcoming seed offer here.

I really like Fish Lake Oxheart.

And twice now there hasn't been enough seeds to offer of Gildo Pietroboni, although two years ago when I tasted that one at home here I liked it also.

But, it sure wasn't heart looking for me, and many of the pictures I've seen of it were not heart looking either, and my seeds were directly from Neil G in Canada who was the source for this variety.

Take a look at the pictures for Gildo at Tania's page, from different folks, and make up your own mind about it, shape-wise:

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/w...ldo_Pietroboni

And note that Tania has it listed for 2012 herself at her website.

[PaulF]

Now this is a thread that gets me going. I never met a heart I didn't like and most hearts I love. Any reference to flavor is redundant because they are all very flavorful in my opinion. My list not especially in order of preference:

Reif Red Heart
Julie's Red Oxheart- gets very large and remains very tasty
Couer De Valours
Sylvan Guame
Old Fashioned Red Oxheart
Oleyars German Oxheart
Brad's Black Oxheart -average size early but smaller as the year progresses-one of few black hearts
Eagles Beak
Butter and Bulls Heart-excellent production
Nicky Crain- absolutely huge and delicious-produces early and keeps on until frost
Orange Russian #117- when it is on it is great; some years not so good
Strawberry Red Heart- the first time grown it looked exactly like a strawberry, some years not
Kelleher's Red Heart
Russian # 117- some years very large and sweet, some years smaller and sweet.
Kosovo-large fruit and very productive-excellent flavor
Hungarian Heart-large fruit very good flavor-late starter but worth the wait.
Wes-one of the best-thanks for the seeds Carolyn

BTD, while interesting, did not fare well in the several trys in my garden. I got the seeds from Brad, but I got none of the cool colors. Pink BTD did no better for me. Nice tomatoes but not special.

Carolyn also sent me Fish Lake Oxheart, but I killed all the plants somehow.

I must thank Neil Lockhart and Al Anderson who have saved seeds of many, many hearts and graciously shared.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by PaulF

Now this is a thread that gets me going. I never met a heart I didn't like and most hearts I love. Any reference to flavor is redundant because they are all very flavorful in my opinion. My list not especially in order of preference:

Reif Red Heart
Julie's Red Oxheart- gets very large and remains very tasty
Couer De Valours
Sylvan Guame
Old Fashioned Red Oxheart
Oleyars German Oxheart
Brad's Black Oxheart -average size early but smaller as the year progresses-one of few black hearts
Eagles Beak
Butter and Bulls Heart-excellent production
Nicky Crain- absolutely huge and delicious-produces early and keeps on until frost
Orange Russian #117- when it is on it is great; some years not so good
Strawberry Red Heart- the first time grown it looked exactly like a strawberry, some years not
Kelleher's Red Heart
Russian # 117- some years very large and sweet, some years smaller and sweet.
Kosovo-large fruit and very productive-excellent flavor
Hungarian Heart-large fruit very good flavor-late starter but worth the wait.
Wes-one of the best-thanks for the seeds Carolyn

BTD, while interesting, did not fare well in the several trys in my garden. I got the seeds from Brad, but I got none of the cool colors. Pink BTD did no better for me. Nice tomatoes but not special.

Carolyn also sent me Fish Lake Oxheart, but I killed all the plants somehow.

I must thank Neil Lockhart and Al Anderson who have saved seeds of many, many hearts and graciously shared.

Paul, I've grown lots on your list that I simply forgot to list and would also add Cuore di Bui as well. And as far as that goes, while I'm still in Italy, so to speak, Teton de Venus. And lets not forget all the so called bulls ehart varieties from Italy and Spain and the US, and then Serdeste Buivola which amuses me b'c it's heart of the Buffalo.

I had hoped that Cuore del Drago one from Italy would have been a heart, but no luck there and who knows what shape hearts dragons have anyway.

The Strawberry one you list is not German Red Strawberry, it's one that Craig L listed many years ago and it's a good one as well.

I've known Neil for over 20 years now and many that he lists, hearts that is, were from me, and many that I listed in the YEarbook as well as in my seed offers here, such as Kelleher's, were from him.

For many many years Neil and Bill Minkey and I would share, privately, and between us, the best of what we grew in any particular year and I should add Craig L in there as well. Al is somewhat of a latecomer to tomatoes, at least with his SSE listings.

And I just wanted to point out that yes, both Neil L and Al do share them, but via SSE listings for SSE members only as in not free but with a request price attached.

[roper2008]

Originally Posted by tjg911

you beat me to it carolyn! prue is not a heart but in my opinion prue is every bit as sweet as the best hearts.

my favorite tomato is prue but wes is close, prue is a 99 and wes is a 98.5 also kosovo is very good. i grew brad's black heart and was unimpressed. and this year bull's heart, and it was dreadful but i'm sure it is good as it was highly recommended. this summer was not a good year for tomatoes and i think bull's heart was in the wrong place at the wrong time! even wes was disappointing but prue was great as ever. prue never seems to have a bad year ever, it even survived that summer (2009 ?) when everyone in the east had late blight and it was infected.

tom

Looking forward to trying your prue next year. I will also grow the bull's heart
seed you gave me. Hopefully it will be the same as the one I got from D'mitry.
I remember last year slicing into the bull's heart, so sweet and delicious. I
have not tasted one better.
This year, I don't know why, but the few tomatoes I did get were not very good.
Anna Russian, Danko, Ludmilla's, Tony's Italian, Pink Brandywine (store bought),
none of them were good. The only one that had good flavor was a little taste I
got from the dwarf Rosella Purple....The blight was especially bad this year.
I'm hoping for a better 2012

[tgplp]

I'm reading all these posts and there sure is a lot of different opinions!!! I guess I'll just grow a couple and see what I like!

It must be really hard to classify some tomatoes, because sometimes they look like hearts, sometimes they look like beefsteaks, and sometimes the are super-mutated-fused-bloomed-monsters! (I love those, by the way) Quick Question: are pionty little cherries considered hearts? Kind of like Micro Tom, only Micro Tom is only pointed some of the time.

Taryn

[sprtsguy76]

Opinions will vary widely but for my money Kosovo and Orange Strawberry are at the top of the list. Other worthy mentions are Anna Russian, Anna Marie and Ukrainian Heart. I grew Wes once and wasn't that impressed (but wanted to be) but I plan on giving it a second go next season.

Damon

[b54red]

Gildo Pietroboni was definitely a heart to me but some were rather blunt. They were also huge and very meaty.

If I could only grow one heart it would probably be Kosovo even though I have found two others that taste better. It is good tasting, fairly juicy, and very productive.

[Tormato]

There are many, many, great tasting hearts. For me, the best for taste is Russian#117 and Mazarini. These are just a bit better than Wes, and several others.

For production it's Kosovo, hands down.

Tormato

[feldon30]

Tony's Italian
.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'

[GunnarSK]

Originally Posted by Tormato

There are many, many, great tasting hearts. For me, the best for taste is Russian#117 and Mazarini. These are just a bit better than Wes, and several others.

For production it's Kosovo, hands down.

Tormato

What about "Kardia Karpos"? Did people get PL hearts? and were they tasty? I assumed mine didn't sprout or died early, because I saw no PLs in the tray with seeds from you, and I didn't get fruit.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by feldon30

Tony's Italian
.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'

Hmmmm, I never saw it as a heart variety and neither did Suze to whom I sent seeds and then I guess you got seeds for it from her.

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/w...ny%27s_Italian

I pulled out my 1995 YEarbook and there were a lot of folks listing and no one called it a heart. I listed it that year, seeds from Calvin Waite, and from those 1995 listings one can see that it goes back at least 1988.

I happen to think it's a great variety, very productive with super taste, but I don't see it as a heart, most say a small plum, or teardrop shape, or similar.

[tgplp]

What is a heart that gets big fast? Because I would like to grow a sizeable heart, but it would have to ripen fast here in Seattle!!!

Taryn