Five years ago, I purchased some oxheart tomatoes from an old farmer at a local flea market. They were, unquestionably, the best tasting tomatoes I have ever "experienced". They were VERY dark red, almost burgundy, in color...very meaty with little juice and only a few seeds. I went back the next week for more, but it was the end of the season and there were none left.
The next spring, I decided to grow my own. However, it took contacting over
20 nurseries before I could find one that had oxhearts for sale. I purchased and planted 3 dozen plants, nurtured and cared for them on my hands and knees every morning, pinched suckers and watered and fertilized properly.By mid July, about 75 days later, I had magnificent plants about 6-7 feet tall with 5 or 6 tomatoes on each plant. I figured the low yeild might be the price I had to pay for these jewels. They ripened from the bottom up, but by the time the tops were almost ripe, the bottoms began to get soft and mushy, so I began to harvest a little sooner, however, the tops of these weren't edible. Of the 36 plants, I probably had a dozen or more tomatoes that weighed in at 2 pounds or more, the rest being a half pound or larger! But the taste was nothing near what I had experienced the previous year and the color never got any darker than medium pink.
All summer long I tried to locate the old guy who had sold me the originals. I wanted to know what I was doing wrong. He was no where to be found, but some other old timers told me that there were both Pink and Red oxhearts. I had planted the wrong thing.
For the last 3 years, I have planted only what has been lableled Red oxhearts, but each year I get the same results, large, pink, half ripened, not so tasty tomatoes.
Can anyone with some "oxheart" experience point me in another direction? Is there a Burgundy oxheart? I've found white and purple.