What was the source of the seed you used last year?

Wispy leaves are RL, just more narrow than regular RL and also have deeper serrations along the leaf margin.

There's a FAQ.link at the top of the page, that discusses various leaf forms,with pictures.

Also, there's more than one variety called Bull's Heart but I guess what you're saying is that you bought the seeds, in Elnglish, as Bull's Heart.

Below is a link to Tania's page about Bull's Heart and both fruits and foliage are shown.

Looking in my 2013 SSE YEarbook no one who lists this variety refers to it as having wispy foliage, just RL,nor does Tania, but indeed many heart varieties do have wispy, narrow leaved droopy foliage.

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: Bull's Heart

Original seed came from Tomatofest. The first year I grew it was last year. I only had one plant and I harvested seed towards the end of the year from a tomato that developed on one of the suckers down underneath all the foliage. With it I grew brandywine, Julia Child, Marianna's peace, Cherokee purple, Brandywine OTV, and Italian Heirloom. Italian would have been the only wispy leaved variety.

Kevinitis, I asked about the seed source because there are many varieties with variations on the "Bull's Heart" name and for all I know, "Bull's Heart" might be different when grown from seed obtained from different vendors. That happens, for one reason or another.

So you might take another look at TFest's description of the variety, or even email them to see what they say (maybe they have a photo they can email you?). You don't have to say you saved your own seed: just ask what sort of leaves their Bull's Heart is supposed to have; you can say you don't have much experience with this variety or with hearts and have heard about wispy leaves but aren't really familiar with them; etc.

But I also have to add that I've seen a lot of reports here over the years about TFest seed which wasn't what it was supposed to be: much more often than other vendors, it seems to me. Most of that seems to be laid at the feet of Seeds by Design, the seed production company which (used to and I assume still does) provide TFest with their tomato seed.

But keep in mind that I'm not an expert: I just read GWeb a lot....

Tomatofest's description is as follows:

"Old Russian variety from Vavilov Institute that yields, 1 to 2-pound, oxheart-shaped, pink fruit with few seeds and great taste."

Days: 90
Size: Indeterminate
Color: Pink
Season: Late-Season
Type: Heirloom

Thats it, so not much detail about leaf type.

I did really enjoy the tomato. The description was about what I got, 1-2 lbs pink oxheart shaped fruits. They were earlier than the description (70-75 days instead of 90), taste similar to brandywine (compared side by side), few seeds and meaty flesh. Production was moderate (6-8 large tomatoes per plant).

Looking at the photos on tatiana's tomato base, the leaves look similar to what I have now. They just seem slimer and more spindly than other RL plants. I guess we will just have to wait and see when they are ripe.

Kevin

missing, I don't think SBD was doing seed production for Gary, but Gary could well have bought some seed off the shelf wholsale from them, and that's probably the source of the PL Red Brandywine he was selling at one time, on sale, and pulled it when folks told him that RB was not PL.

SBD sent PL RB to several sites, thus my assocation with them

For me it's a long stretch to believe that his Bull's Heart he got from the Vavilov Inst. Could be, but reread Tania's page for it above.

I went to the tomatofest website and I find Bull's Heart listed as a cold season variety. Intrigued, I went through the whole list.

Ilse's Yellow Latvian named by me for Ilse who was the tall center on the basketball team where I wast teaching at the time. The Baltic states of latvia, Estonia and now I've forgotten the 3rd one, are not known for being cold season areas needing cold season varieties..

Many Russian varieties listed but the former USSR, now known as the CIS, has many what we would call gardening zones, ranging from the far north, as in it won't grow there, to the Crimean region where Palm trees line the streets in Sevastopol.

But the histories that bothered me the most were ones sourced to Lisa by Gary, and Lisa owns Amishland.

Todd County Amish :seeds SHE got from an Amish family who didn't want their name known.

FACT; Doug Wallace in MN got two varieties from the same Amish Family, we named them Todd County Amish and Amish Potato Leaf, Doug sent me the seeds and I SSE listed them and offered both in my annual seed offer , as well as sending them for trial to the seed vendors I do that for,

You can confirm what I just said in the above paragraph if you wish to, by going to Tania's site, and many sites now list them for sale as also indicated at Tania's site,.

I won't bother with other misinformation I found,.

Carolyn, who has known Gary since about 1990, or so.

I wonder if what I have is the tomato called bull's heart pink (Bychye Serdtse Rozovoe) which Tania's website referred to as one of the many tomatoes called bull's heart in various places. Tania's website had a link to Bychye Serdtse Rozovoe which says it's a wispy vined pink oxheart shaped tomato. I added the link below.

Kevin

Here is a link that might be useful: Bull's heart pink

Which Kevin, is why I suggested that you go back to Tania's page and take a look. ( smile)

And notice where Tania got it from.

Carolyn

Yep that's what I did, Thanks!