What Are Your Giant Varieties For This Season? ?

[b54red]

Originally Posted by jwr6404

Red
You might want to consider Rostova aka Sunset Red Horizon. It has produced well for me. Besides being productive I've gottn several 3lb+ and a few 4lb+ with no special effort on my part.

I grew it twice and never got anything even up to a pound. It could be the heat causing them to ripen too soon or it could have been the fusarium which stunts most plants early in their development.

I don't really grow for size but I do love having a few to show off each season. I like to weigh them and take a photo of them and then they usually get cut up and tossed in the sauce pot. I find anything over a pound to be kinda impractical for most uses; but they are fun to look at as they grow and mature.

[PA_Julia]

For me it's all about the size of the tomato when I grow for such.

It's the competitor in me. My goal for this year is to have some viable heavyweights for competition like this one I'm aiming for in Maryland.

http://www.bigtomatocontest.com/

[Annie]

How about some big tomatoes that grow well in Texas. I will start planting at the end of this month before it gets too hot. Did well with Cherokee Purple last year. Annie

[Deborah]

So the giants are mostly for sauce? Do giants have less flavor due to their size or is it just their variety?
Another thing, I don't think I've ever seen anyone use GWR tomatoes for BLT's. Sounds like it would be attractive, different and good if (for me anyway) the GWR is strong and tangy.

[Deborah]

Oops, hoping I didn't hijack by asking a question off topic !

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Annie

How about some big tomatoes that grow well in Texas. I will start planting at the end of this month before it gets too hot. Did well with Cherokee Purple last year. Annie

I have the same problem here. The intense heat just seems to start the tomatoes ripening too early to get the really massive tomatoes. When I see listings of 90 days on a tomato it means it will probably be a 75 to 80 day tomato if not sooner. Of course that nice long growing season is a real benefit and the heat makes the black tomatoes taste so much better. It is kinda nice to have a fall season too. I finished eating the last of my fresh garden tomatoes in late January and already have plants nearly 6 inches tall just waiting for a warm spell to harden them off. Now if we can have a few days without torrential rains so I can get a bed ready for the first ones.

[tomatoguy]

My garden is too small to grow for size only. For that reason I will not grow Ashleigh again (too bland) or Granny Cantrell's German Red (too sweet). I will, however, grow Mong, Delicious, Mortgage Lifter or Mortgage Lifter Red, which all produce huge and very tasty tomatoes.

mater

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by jwr6404

Red
You might want to consider Rostova aka Sunset Red Horizon. It has produced well for me. Besides being productive I've gottn several 3lb+ and a few 4lb+ with no special effort on my part.

The problem with the current Rostova is that it isn't the heart that's been sold for quite a few years now, When Gary Ibsen first got it from Nicky and I can't remember her name it was a wonderful big red beefsteak. But then it morphed into a heart and the folks that Gary got it from were going to try and get it back, but they went out of business before doing that.

Someone had sent me a commercial pack of seeds from the first two years when it was offered, I grew it out and got the large beefsteak it should have been,

And I sent the rest of the seeds in the pack to Linda at TGS and I never heard back if she was able to get them going or not.

Carolyn

[Fusion_power]

I've got Sunset Red Horizon that is a large beefsteak. I've grown it several years now.

As for large tomatoes, Carol Chyko paste threw some real lunkers last year. They were not paste tomatoes at all, just huge beefsteaks.

DarJones

[ddsack]

I wonder what's going on with Carol Chyko's Big Paste. Fusion says he got huge beefsteaks, and MAN ST T on Tania's Tomtobase also says he got 2 to 3 lb tomatoes. My tomatoes were irregular in shapes, but generally blocky and I would never have called them beefsteaks. I had a couple close to 16oz, but most were in the 10 to 9 oz range. Tania thought some of hers were heart shaped, but I didn't see that. Though mine were juicier than the typical paste, they still had the thick walls I associated with pastes. Here are what mine looked like.







To those who got beefsteaks, were your tomatoes at all similar to those in the above pictures? Tania did say that shapes were irregular, but I'm a bit concerned that there is so much variation.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Fusion_power

I've got Sunset Red Horizon that is a large beefsteak. I've grown it several years now.

As for large tomatoes, Carol Chyko paste threw some real lunkers last year. They were not paste tomatoes at all, just huge beefsteaks.

DarJones

Darrel,do you remember when you used to ask me for seeds of certain varieties? I do, and one of them was the Carol Chyko one,says Carolyn patting herself on her back reassuring herself that her tomato brain cells are still functioning.

And yes, for the first two years that Tomatofest sold the renamed Rostova they were the beefsteaks that they should be, so anyone who had seeds from those first two years or was sent them as I was from a former TV member in CA whose name I can't remember, did get the correct beefsteaks.

Carolyn

[Fusion_power]

Dee, the seed I grew produced fruit somewhat similar to yours, but about 50% bigger. I would guess 2.5 to 3 pounds for the largest fruit. I also had one plant with huge orange fruits. I suspect the result of a bee made cross somewhere over the years.

DarJones

[efisakov]

Originally Posted by Annie

How about some big tomatoes that grow well in Texas. I will start planting at the end of this month before it gets too hot. Did well with Cherokee Purple last year. Annie

Hello, Annie,
did you try Carbon? It is similar in taste to Cherokee but bigger plant, more productive. You may like it. For me last year it produced: 1 lb 2 oz, two 1 lb 3 oz, two 1 lb, 1 lb 6 oz, 1 lb 8 oz, + mote just below a pound. Was the last one standing in my tomato patch.

Golden Cherokee: 1 lb 12 oz, 1 lb 6 oz, 1 lb 2 oz, + many more around 1 pound/10 oz. Beautiful golden with pink stripes on the skin and flash. Not bland flavor but balance of sweet and tart.
Good luck

[SteveS]

I have grown Carol Chyko's Big Paste since 1996, seed from Amy LeBlanc in Maine.
What you should get from it is what I call red bomb-shaped fruits, actually similar to Mr. Tartar's German, which is another huge variety for competitive growing.

Other giant varieties I plan to try this year, some of them pedigreed, are:
Believe It Or Not
Claude Brown's Yellow Giant
Peter Glazebrook's Special
Big Zac 3.486 Thurber '12
Big Zac 5.58 Timm '08
Big Zac 5.32 Lyons '11
Delicious 5.41 Landry '11
Hoy
Church
Portuguese Monster
MegaMarv
Oxheart Giantissimo
Smith's Southern Giant
Brutus Magnum
Leadbeatter's Lunker
Gildo Pietroboni
Slankard's
Belmonte
Chapman Special
Rebecca Sebastian's Bull Bag
Goliath
Chilo Della Garfagna
Maria Amazilitei's Giant Red

along with my other non-giant varieties, probably around 65 plants or so.

[Annie]

I tried Mortgage Lifter last year and they were very good. My grandson is the one who tries all the different ones and gives me some of his. I have no idea what he is growing this year. Last year he had wonderful luck with his tomatoes. I will find out and let everyone know and see if we are growing some of the same ones. Never knew there were so many different kinds. Annie