Yellow Oxheart

Anybody know anything about these?

I was just sent seed from my Pennsylvania Dutch friend, which, he says, were contaminated by Pineapple seed. So, what I'm looking for is any historical/growing info on the Yellow Oxheart, and what the visual differences are between it and the Pineapple, so I can rogue them out if I do, indeed, grow this seed.

There's a good history about Yellow Oxheart in/at the SESE catalog/website.

The high points are that it dates from about 1915 as a family heirloom and was introduced by the Livingston Seed Co in 1929.

It along with the pink and red generically named oxhearts have been staples over the years with the likes of Gurney's, Fields, etc., and quite a few folks, including myself, feel that these generic oxheart ones have lost a few genes re taste, etc. The family named heirlooms seem to be much better in that regard.

Pineapple is one of perhaps 40-50 large gold/red bicolors, which would include varieties such as Georgia Streak, Mammoth German Gold, Marizol Gold, Big Rainbow and all the others. All are characterized by yellow fruits that as they mature form a reddish/pinkish coloration starting from the blossom end going upwards. The interior is also marbled with that same coloration. At maturity the fruits are golden with that reddish/pikish color usually 3/4 of the way up on the fruits. Depends on the specific variety how deep the coloration is and how much of the fruit is turned to that pinky/red color.

So there shouldn't be any problem telling one from the other.

Pineapple will be the large gold/red bicolor and Yellow Oxheart will be the yellow heart shaped one. In addition Yellow Oxheart will have the thin, wispy droopy foliage that is characteristic of most heart shaped varieties.

Growing-wise, as you asked, grow both of them the same as you would any other tomato variety.

Carolyn

Thanks, Carolyn.

Brook , Victory Seed list it as one of their Livingston Tomatoes...a new Yellow Oxheart, introduced in 1929.
"A new variety of our Oxheart-type tomato. It is the same shape as the original Livingston, but the skin and flesh are a rich shade of yellow. 85 days." Picture is shown--source 1933 catalogue

Gary/Louisville

Brook, this information is from the Seeds of Diversity. Hope you find this helpful. Gary/Louisville

Tomato : Yellow oxheart
What our members wrote:
1999 :[Yellow/Orange] Indeterminate. Large, yellow-orange, oxheart shaped fruit with green shoulders has beautiful, rich, meaty yet juicy flesh. Spindly plant has ferny foliage. Outstanding flavour - a great variety! Days to maturity: 75 - 80
2000 :[Yellow/Orange] Indeterminate. Large, yellow-orange, oxheart shaped fruit with green shoulders has beautiful, rich, meaty yet juicy flesh. Spindly plant has ferny foliage. Outstanding flavour - a great variety! Days to maturity: 75 - 80

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Seed Availability:
STATUS DISTRIBUTION
Rare Moderate

Currently propagated by Seeds of Diversity's seed-savers.
Available from only a few mail-order seed companies. Very difficult to find.
Not maintained by the Canadian gene bank.
Not maintained by the U.S. gene bank

Seed Availability:
STATUS DISTRIBUTION
Rare Moderate

Currently propagated by Seeds of Diversity's seed-savers.
Available from only a few mail-order seed companies. Very difficult to find.
Not maintained by the Canadian gene bank.
Not maintained by the U.S. gene bank

That kind of information appears all the time from the Canadian Seeds of Diversity website and all it means is that they don't have it in Canada. But they are very small compared to Seed Savers Exchange where Yellow Oxheart is in storage along with thousands of others.

The US gene bank they refer to is the USDA and the PC GRIN USDA tomato varieties are not at all geared to family heirloom varieties. And most of the good stuff re commercial heirlooms has alrerady been gotten out and is avialable elsewhere.

I don't consider an heirloom variety rare if it's offered commercially so everyone can get their hands on it. And I don't consider it rare if it's in the SSE Yearbooks since anyone who really wants that variety can become a memb er of SSE.

I do consider a variety to be rare if it isn't available commercially or thru SSE, for instance, meaning, it's in someones private collection, or it was once offered at SSE but is no longer listed.

As I said above, Yellow Oxheart is available thru Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, which is a fine commercial company with great OP veggies. And it's also avialable at many other US seed companies.

I'm a stubborn ole lady and still say there are other yellow heart shaped varieties I like better, such as Herman's Yellow. LOL Really, though, as far as yellow hearts go, there aren't many. And I still maintain that the generic oxhearts aren't as good as the family named heirlooms. That's as far as taste is concerned.

That's based on my experience growing a very large number of varieties, close to 1500, over a long period of time.

Gee Brook, you're getting ,more here than you really asked for, which was how to tell Yellow Oxheart from Pineapple. LOL

As always though, the more info the better.

Carolyn

"As always though, the more info the better."

Absolutely, Carolyn. I don't believe you can have too much information.

Gary: I appreciate the searching you did on this.