Big zac

[lubadub]

No Carolyn, I did not say or imply that. Send your address to Lubadub@aol.com and I will send you some Big Zac seeds. Forget the tulips as deer and rabbits eat them where we are in Pennsylvania. And the reason I don't post much here is, as you have pointed out, only a few growers at this site seem to be interested in growing big tomatoes. Life is about choices and how you lead your life or what tomatoes you grow or like to eat or where you post are a few of the many choices each of us has. Marv

[Anthony_Toronto]

big zac was big in my garden, but was still a waste of space because of the taste. would not grow it again except as a more or less pointless attempt to try to grow something big. If I want something big in my tomato garden that is not worth the effort, there are plenty of weeds I could allow to mature.

[lubadub]

Tony, may I call you Tony?
Okay, so you don't like the taste of Big Zac. I was wondering what you might consider to be the tastiest of all tomatoes. Do you have a favorite, a very special one? And do you have a favorite potato, cabbage, wine, meat (and if so how prepared), fish etc. The point is that what tastes good to one person might not to another. Taste is fairly subjective. People get into great disagreements about what is the best wine for example. And some people eat and enjoy weeds, ie dandelions. LOL. Marv

[barkeater]

Also, growing it once is not a fair trial - unless maybe if it was a perfect season. I grow in zone 3 and when cold and/or wet it can zap the taste out of any tomato.

[Anthony_Toronto]

Taste is not fairly subjective, it is barely subjective. Thats why the same tomatoes are always on the best tasting list year after year, and the same goes for most other foods. Using outliers to argue against the mean defies logic. As for big zac I have not read many reviews that would put it anywere near the top on taste. It is big however, so if size is more important that taste then i suggest growing it.

[WVTomatoMan]

I'll attempt to address your post as well as I can although a little out of order:

Any one know the source of big zac?
As others have reported Minnie Zaccaria bred Big Zac and later sold the rights to Totally Tomatoes. As I recall Minnie has said that she crossed two heirloom beefsteak varieties one red and one pink. I seem to remember that she said that one of the varieties was a family heirloom and one was a well know large fruited beefsteak heirloom. However, that could be my faulty memory and should be taken with a grain of salt. The bottom line is only Minnie and Totally Tomatoes know the exact parents.

...I have two big zacs started in small pots. One has 3 stems. I dont know if from one seed or seeds were stuck together. The other has 3 stems...
I'm confused. It seems both plants have 3 stems, but perhaps they look differently? If so, maybe this will help. Multiple stems coming out of the dirt are just multiple seeds that were stuck together and germinated. If you have one stem coming out of the dirt that splits into 3 stems, most likely just after the cotyledons, or a fused stem that subsequently splits etc. then it is a genetic thing. I've grown Big Zac several times. I haven’t had issues like you're describing. I have seen the multiple stems and fused stems in other varieties.

"...one is defiantly PL. Others are defiantly RL. I wonder if throw back?"
Probably not. I've grown out F2s and didn't get any PLs. BTW, did you mean defiantly or definately? If defiantly, nice pun.

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The rest is directed to the other posters...

So, Big Zac continues to somehow create a little stir and reaction when mentioned eh? Some things don't change.

Like I say Big Zac is part of my big fruited variety rotation as is Akers, Neves, and others. I try to break the 2+ pound barrier every year, and weather permitting I succeed. I enjoy it, it's fun for me. Maybe we should all look for the upside and fun instead of the negative. Just sayin' it might be something to think about.

BTW, Minnie seems like a sweet lady to me. She has shared her tomato and how she grows big ones with the tomato growers community. IMHO she has handled certain situations, like at GW, well. I have a lot of respect for her.

Randy

[carolyn137]

Randy, Minnie is a very gracious lady.

There used to be a tomato newsletter put out by Bob Ambrose in NJ and he interviewed her time and time again and followed all of her wins at the NJ large tomato contest.

And the reason she was asked to come to GW, I don't remember who invited her, was b'c TT was saying rogue out this or that and her Big Zac was supposed to be an F1 hybrid.

She explained that they weren't using the right parents or something like that, I can't remember the details, and I thought she said something about sending them the correct parents, again.

Yes, Big Zac will always be one of those varieties about which opinions will forever be discussed and debated.

[BigdaddyJ]

"Like I say Big Zac is part of my big fruited variety rotation as is Akers, Neves, and others. I try to break the 2+ pound barrier every year, and weather permitting I succeed. I enjoy it, it's fun for me. Maybe we should all look for the upside and fun instead of the negative. Just sayin' it might be something to think about."


Randy, I totally agree.


"BTW, Minnie seems like a sweet lady to me. She has shared her tomato and how she grows big ones with the tomato growers community. IMHO she has handled certain situations, like at GW, well. I have a lot of respect for her".

Minnie is a VERY sweet lady...

[BigdaddyJ]

To Anthony: You aren't going to find Big Zac on best tasting lists on this board or others where heirlooms are glorified and hybrids are outcasts to so many. Not all, but most folks here from what I have gathered from many years posting shun most hybrids except Sun Gold. The Big Zac seeds I got from Minnie many years ago DO breed true and taste great. Juicy, old time tomato goodness that fills the bread in BLT's completely. It's not my favorite (My two current favorites are Dana's Dusky Rose and Gary O Sena) but it's high on my taste list...

[Anthony_Toronto]

Well, I would certainly hope that people would identify their favourites based on what tastes best to them, and not whether they are OP vs. Hybrid...pretty sad state. Not sure if mine were the real mccoy, but they certainly produced lots of huge tomatoes...just did not perform in terms of taste compared to the rest of the garden that year, or other years.

[BigdaddyJ]

no longer available

[BigdaddyJ]

Anthony, folks won't list any hybrids if they haven't tried them. The hybrids I see on a few lists routinely are Sun Gold, Big Beef and Big Zac. Carolyn considers her Harris 3 the best of Hybrid Land. Brandy Boy and Momotaro are starting to be mentioned more and more. I think every hybrid I just mentioned is worth growing and far better than the early big beefy better bush boys you find at garden centers everywhere...

[WVTomatoMan]

Anthony,

You must be a Maple Leafs fan. Just kidding.

I want to preface the first part of my discussion with if Big Zac doesn't work for you then don't grow it. There are plenty of other large fruited varieties and I'm reasonably certain that you'll be able to find one you like that does well for you. If you don't like it you don't like it (more on that later).

I always find it fascinating when people have different results than I do. I try to imagine what environmental factors are the causes. Of course in this case I'm just south of the Mason Dixon line and you're up north so there is a vast difference right from the get go. In reviewing my records since 2005, which is all I have here at work, Big Zac finished 10th in 2006 and 2nd in 2009 in the tomato tastings conducted at work. There are 20 tomato tasters, but only 5-15 make it for any given tasting event of the multiple events conducted in any given year. I grow Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, and Paw Paw every year and there were other notable varieties in the competition. The point is yes it finished 2nd with some stiff competition, but it also finished 10th, so taste can vary from year to year depending on the growing conditions. BTW, these tasters are experienced and they care and judge based on nothing but taste. Another BTW, is that Paw Paw has the more 1st and 2nd place finishes than any other tomato.

Moving along to the next topic, I'll go one step further than lubadub. IMHO taste is VERY subjective. I even know how to prove it. Grow Green Zebra. Get 5-15 people together for a tomato tasting. My prediction is there will be some who love it, some who hate it, and very few in the middle. I have a friend that I grow out Green Zebra plants for every year because he loves it. It's his favorite tomato. I just talked to the one of the aforementioned tasters sitting in the cubicle next to me. The conversation went like this:
Me: Guess what tomato I'm growing this year? It's green and yellow.
Him: Oh no, Green Zebra.
Me: Yep, Green Zebra. Are you excited and can't wait to taste it?
Him: I can wait.
Me: Are you going to even try it?
Him: No. I've tried that thing on multiple occassions and I don't like it and I'm not gonna like it.
Me: May I quote you on that?
Him: Yes.

Yes, I picked him because I basically knew what he was going to say.

BTW, it seems about 2/3 of the tasters at work like 'em sweet about 1/3 likes 'em tart. I've been conducting these tasting since sometime before 2005. It is very interesting to see some of the ratings on a given day for a given tomato. I've litterally seen some people rate the same tomato on the same day a 5 and other people rate the same tomato on the same day an 8.

Good luck.

Randy

[coloken]

Talk about highjacking a post. I guess that the next time I have a question on big zac, I will refer to it as variety X. One expert has a lot of opinions on it but admits to not even eating one, much less actually growing one.
The original post by me was to inquire why I had a defiant PL branch growing on a RL plant. Does this happen some times? Both RL and PL branches are no question about type. By branch I mean one that has no growing tip. The stem??, and plant, that has the growing tip is no question RL

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by coloken

Talk about highjacking a post. I guess that the next time I have a question on big zac, I will refer to it as variety X. One expert has a lot of opinions on it but admits to not even eating one, much less actually growing one.
The original post by me was to inquire why I had a defiant PL branch growing on a RL plant. Does this happen some times? Both RL and PL branches are no question about type. By branch I mean one that has no growing tip. The stem??, and plant, that has the growing tip is no question RL

If referring to me as the person who gave a lot of opinions about it but had never tasted one, as I did point out they were opinions that I had seen online at several message sites in the past. And Marv offered to send me some seeds but I haven't yet taken him up on that offer.

I thought I was being helpful, if not, so be it.

If you had one PL branch growing on an RL plant it could be due to what's called a somatic mutation where a spontaneous mutation occurs in the DNA of a plant cell and not the DNA of the seed.

I haven't heard of that happening before but why not. If any fruits develop on that PL branch, save the seeds and see what you get as to leaf type. I'm just not sure what you meant by the branch, wheter it be PL or RL, having no growing tip.

I could go back to the first post but we're under a tornado watch in my area of upstate NY, which is quite unusual and I'm just a bit antsy about this trying to figure out where I could go with this walker for protection, so that's why I didn't go back and reread the whole thread. Sorry.