(Lycopersicon esculentum) We’ve looked at many new-to-us varieties of tomatoes over the years, and few have left us as excited as this Cuor di Bue (“ox heart”) type tomato from Ligurian coast town of Albenga, just west of Genoa, in Northern Italy. When most people think of saucing or roasting tomatoes they think of the long slender Romas or San Marzanos from the bright sun and scorching heat of southern Italy. In the north, however, they tend to take a different shape: big, 10-16 oz pleated teardrops with meaty centers and narrow seed cavities around the margins. This type of tomato are known as "canestrino" and in our experience, these northern tomatoes are often better adapted to the PNW and develop superior flavor in our cool maritime growing season. Albenga was the tomato that we kept coming back to all season at the farm when it was time for a stew of white beans, kale, and roasted tomatoes, pasta e fagioli, or a just simple rustic pasta sauce. It featured heavily in many of our most memorable meals of the harvest. They are excellent sliced and eaten raw, but the variety really shines with roasting, as it brings out the savory richness of flavor. In the field, the vines are stout and vigorous with a great uniform growing habit for two leader pruning. It showed better crack and blossom end rot resistance than the other canestrino types we've grown, with a good fruit set and a fairly concentrated mid-late season harvest period. Indeterminate.
(The term ox-heart- "Cuor di Bue" is a little misleading here as it is used differently in different places. Italians sometimes use it interchangeably with canestrino, while in North America it usually refers to a strawberry shaped type with an elongated, pointy blossom end.)
85 days. UO

Packet: 30-35 seeds

[split]

Growing Info

SOWING:

Sow 5-8 weeks before your last frost date.

Transplant out after danger of frost (45+F nighttime temps).

Note: Don't start too early or plants will be leggy and root-bound! Tomatoes do well in clay to loam soils.

PLANTING DEPTH:

1/8-1/4"

SPACING:

18-30" spacing in rows 5' apart.

EMERGENCE:

5-10 days @ soil temp 70-85F

LIGHT:

Full sun

FERTILITY:

Medium-Heavy. Prefers well-drained, well-balanced fertile soil with a pH between 6.0-7.0. Note that excess Nitrogen will encourage foliage, not fruit! Low calcium and irregular watering will result in blossom end rot.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

Row cover may be used for extra warmth and possible earlier fruit set.

Irregular watering can result in blossom end rot. Even watering and supplemental calcium can help prevent this.

Plant deeply to encourage healthy root structure.

Indeterminate varieties may benefit from pruning suckers to encourage air flow, plant health, and energy towards plant top and fruit.

Determinate varieties do not need pruning.

Trellis Indeterminate varieties! We really like the Florida weave.

Tomato, 'Cuor di Bue Albenga'