Scary Big Tomatoes

[kath]

Originally Posted by fortyonenorth

Those 10 - 12 oz. tomatoes are just about perfect - what do you think?

I agree completely- I've realized this year that I like pretty tomatoes, and gargantuan tomatoes are usually anything but! I'm looking for evenly ripe, intense color, small locules, thin skin, meaty but never mealy, few seeds and small ones at that. Eight to twelve oz. is ideal, not too juicy, not mushy, no hidden rot spots, no zippers, splitting or catfacing, no fused blossoms, no BER and no white spots in the walls. All I need is one pink, one dark, one red and maybe a bicolor and I'll be set- well, I guess I'm not quite ready to give up on my o.p. Sungold replacement search yet, either.

[kath]

These are the last 2 giants of the year for me- at least 3/4 of the plants have been taken down Saturday and today, so it's easy to see what's left.

The first pic shows a Church which weighs 2 lbs. 5.8 oz. The second is a George's Greek Beefsteak weighing 2 lbs. 2.9 oz.

[FILMNET]

Looks like surgical cuts on that one, i have a few as deep as your cuts, why did your plants die or disease Kath?

[kath]

Originally Posted by FILMNET

Looks like surgical cuts on that one, i have a few as deep as your cuts, why did your plants die or disease Kath?

Many tomatoes with those deep splits and all kinds of other ugliness at this point. The main reason I wanted them gone is a combination of disease, little or no second flush of fruit, and yucky taste. I'm really tired of tending 250 plants and giving away gross looking/tasting tomatoes. We kept most of the hearts/pastes, Sungold, anything else that still had fruits that we like, or anything we still haven't been able to taste yet.

[FILMNET]

I did pulll 2 plants out, they grew only 2 ft tall, they had yellow leaves. I cant complain because plants i gave out grown terrible for friends, bad dirt, no stick on them.

[kath]

There are still about 80 plants out there and lots of fruits. I'm not complaining- we just had way more than we needed and very few standouts this year. The neighbors didn't find many faves this year either.

[BLTLOVER]

wow.....that's like getting 3 tomatoes in one.

[habitat_gardener]

Originally Posted by kath

I agree completely- I've realized this year that I like pretty tomatoes, and gargantuan tomatoes are usually anything but! I'm looking for evenly ripe, intense color, small locules, thin skin, meaty but never mealy, few seeds and small ones at that. Eight to twelve oz. is ideal, not too juicy, not mushy, no hidden rot spots, no zippers, splitting or catfacing, no fused blossoms, no BER and no white spots in the walls. All I need is one pink, one dark, one red and maybe a bicolor and I'll be set- well, I guess I'm not quite ready to give up on my o.p. Sungold replacement search yet, either.

Have you tried Pruden's Purple? It's my favorite this year (so far) and meets many of your criteria.

[Sun City Linda]

I am with Kathy - no big, ugly monster toms for me either and Prudens Purple really suits me just fine! Love it. LInda

[Sun City Linda]

Oops - make that Kath!

[kath]

Originally Posted by BLTLOVER

wow.....that's like getting 3 tomatoes in one.

You know, you'd think so, but on both these tomatoes there were bad spots and deep clefts and by the time you cut all around that and the big cores, you're left with some chunks that maybe add up to one decent sized tomato.

[kath]

Originally Posted by habitat_gardener

Have you tried Pruden's Purple? It's my favorite this year (so far) and meets many of your criteria.

Thanks so much for the suggestion- as a matter of fact, I have seeds that I got in a trade but didn't grow it out this year. I will definitely include it in my list for 2012 though.

[Jeannine Anne]

My husband just muttered from the sofa " close your moouth you will catch a fly" and I realised he was right..good grief, they are scary..but they are big and right now big is what I am looking for LOL

You sent me over here from the other post where I said wow.. that just doesn't describe it now.. there is no word I can come up with ..is wooooooooooooooow a word.

Kath, they are awesome and I don't think I have used that word in years.

Gosh, must read all the info again very carefully.

XX Jeannine

[Firstcrush]

That is amazing, and crazy! Did the branches support them, or did you need to do some extra supporting?

[vegomatic]

I had such a dismal season this year I'm forced to hit the markets or depend on friends in lower elevations. Seems like the big tomato craze hit here, too. Some real monsters at the market, but like yours, many were misshapen, deeply cracked with lots of bad spots to lop off on the cutting board. Handling, storing and boxing these monsters to market did little to help. Many were becoming spoiled or leaking. It's nearing end of season here, so granted I'm looking at the tail end of the production cycle. A few weeks ago, they were looking much better than today's offerings. But they'll do just fine in our salsa, so I was more than happy to have 'em!

Typically fickle Black Hills weather dumped hail and 2" of rain on those poor folks right when the toms were hitting their prime growing stage. So much sudden water with the hail injuries added up to a lot of unsaleable fruit. I caught the grower's disappointed glimpse at me as I passed on one after another unappetising but huge fruit. I had to honestly proclaim my jealousy at the same time. They actually had tomatoes, while my pitiful harvest would barely fill one flat in total.

One nice feature of a gh is moisture control. A deluge outdoors still means I need to water in the gh, but at least I'm in charge of that one thing, if not much else, and had very little cracking or spoilage.

But seeing all those lumpy toms today, looking for a good slicer or two, I think I have to agree that size isn't everything!

-Ed