Bull's heart tomatoes are one of the most popular tomato varieties. They have quite large fruits that have an original sweetish taste. When grown correctly, the weight of each of them can reach one kilogram.
Description
Characteristics and description of the tomato variety Bull's Heart will help you understand its features.
This variety belongs to mid-season tomatoes, so you can start harvesting 140-145 days after the first shoots appear.If you grow tomatoes in open ground, you can harvest more than 5 kg of tomatoes from one bush. In greenhouse conditions, the yield is much better and is about 10-15 kg per bush.
The bushes are sparsely leafy and tall. Their stems can grow up to two meters high. The main feature of the Ox Heart tomato is the presence of fruits on each plant, which can differ not only in size, but also in shape. Most often the most large tomatoes They ripen at the bottom of the bush, and the smaller fruits are on top.
It cannot be said that Oxheart has good resistance to diseases and pests. Quite often, bushes are infected with late blight, as evidenced by numerous reviews.
Varieties
There are several types of this tomato variety. These include:
- Orange. To propagate the orange Oxheart tomato, it is recommended to use the seedling method. During cultivation, the bushes should be formed into one stem. To do this, it is necessary to carry out stepsoning.
- Black. The fruits have soft flesh and an oval shape. Their weight is about 350-500 g. Black Ox's Heart tomatoes have one feature - they bear fruit on all clusters. In this case, 3-5 fruits are formed on each of them.
- Red. It is distinguished by vigorous spreading bushes with scarlet fruits. Each Red Bull's Heart tomato bush can produce tomatoes of different sizes. For example, at the first harvest you can harvest a crop weighing about 700 g, and at the second - 400-500 g.
- Gold. The fruits are golden-yellow in color and resemble heavy barrels in appearance. Tomato golden Bull's heart is one of the most productive varieties. From one bush you can harvest one and a half buckets of tomatoes.
- Pink. Bushes of this late-ripening variety can bear fruits of different sizes. Quite often, tomatoes weighing about 800 g are formed on the upper clusters. The average weight of the lower fruits is 200-300 g. The Pink Oxheart tomato has good disease resistance.
Growing seedlings
Before sowing tomatoes in a greenhouse or open ground, you need to grow seedlings. Planting should begin in early or mid-March.
Seed preparation
To sow seeds for seedlings, you need to soak them in melt water in advance. For this you will need a small plastic bag. It needs to be filled three-quarters full with plain water and placed in the freezer. It should sit there until most of the liquid is completely frozen. After this, the ice is placed in the pan for several hours. Then the water is warmed to room temperature and the seeds are placed in it. It will be possible to get them out of there only after 12-15 hours.
Soil preparation
To plant seedlings, you need to prepare the soil in advance. Sand and peat are added to one part of the turf soil. The composition must be thoroughly mixed and poured with a special nutrient solution: 10 liters of water mixed with 15 g of urea, 30 g of potassium sulfate and superphosphate.
Planting seeds
Tomato seeds are sown immediately after preparing the soil. They need to be carefully laid out on the soil using tweezers. The distance between them should be more than 4 cm. The seeds are sown to a depth of about 5-7 cm, after which the soil should be leveled, watered and covered with a lid.
Growing
Seedlings are grown in rooms with a temperature of about 20 degrees. At the same time, it must be periodically taken out onto the street or balcony so that it gradually gets used to the street temperature.
Planting seedlings
Seedlings should be planted in open ground at the beginning of summer, when the soil is well warmed up. By this time, the seedlings will already have flower clusters and a developed root system.
Choosing a place to grow
To plant a tomato, you need to choose a lighted area, protected from strong gusts of wind. It is recommended to plant tomatoes in places where beets, onions, legumes or cabbage previously grew.
Soil preparation
Tomatoes need nutrients, so the soil needs to be fertilized before planting. Several kilograms of humus and compost should be added per square meter of soil. This is done after digging up the area.
Landing
To plant seedlings, holes are dug 6-8 cm deep. The distance between them is about 40-45 cm. After planting the seedlings, the soil must be watered and compacted.
The plant density per square meter should not exceed 3-4 bushes.
Care
When growing tomatoes, you need to properly care for the bushes.
Watering
Tomatoes do not like severe droughts and excess water. Therefore, they need to be watered only when the soil dries out. It is enough to do this once every 10 days. During the formation of ovaries on the bushes, the plants are watered several times a week.
It is recommended to water tomatoes using the drip method, as this helps increase productivity. At the same time, you need to add a little ash to the water so that the bushes grow better and get sick less often.
Top dressing
Study feeding tomatoes need at least three times per season. To do this, it is recommended to use fertilizers that contain little nitrogen and a lot of phosphorus. You can also feed the bushes with macrofertilizers: boron and magnesium. They strengthen tomato flowers and prevent them from falling off.
Formation of bushes
This variety of tomato must be formed into one stem. Stepsoning is carried out when a large number of stepsons appear on the bush. They need to be removed before they grow to 4 cm in length. First, the stepsons are planted under the tassels. If this is not done in time, the tomato will shed its ovary and flowers.
You need to carry out pinching constantly, no matter how many stems you need to leave. The only limitation is that you cannot prune grown bushes in hot weather, since under such conditions they do not cope well with injuries. In summer, pinching is carried out only in cloudy and rainy weather.
Conclusion
Growing the Bull's Heart tomato is quite simple. To do this, you need to familiarize yourself with all the features of planting seeds and seedlings. You can also consult with those who have previously planted and grown this variety of tomatoes.
