Would you love to grow large tomatoes, but wonder which good-tasting varieties do well in Tasmania? This blog post shows the varieties that Food Garden Group members put forward for the 2024 Golden Tomato Award, a description of the variety, and where to get seeds and seedlings if commercially available.
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| Ross T. picked this 560 gram amazing fruit in his garden on 18Feb24 |
Here is the impressive list of tomatoes put forward for the Golden Tomato Award 2024 per the end of February in order of weight:
There might be FGG members out there with other large tomatoes still on their way to ripeness. If the variety of your large tomato is not yet in this list, it will be great to receive a picture of your tomato on scales, even if your tomato is not the biggest of all. Please put the picture on our group's Food Gardeners Tasmania page or email it to foodgardengroup@gmail.com. Please add the name of the variety, where you live, whether it was grown in a hothouse or outside, and where you got the seed or seedling.
Thank you, everyone, for providing your pictures. Here are the large tomato varieties people grew so successfully ..............
Ananas Noire - quite large, vine
About this tomato
On 31 January Ruth S. put on our Facebook page a photo of an Ananas Noire weighing 609 grams that she had picked in her garden at Molesworth. A week later Roslyn M. showed us an even more amazing Ananas Noire weighing 890 grams (see photos above). Roslyn grew it in her hothouse at Lymington. Roslyn described its taste as 'smooth and sweet'. Both Ruth and Roslyn bought their Ananas Noire seeds at The Diggers Club.
More information
Ananas Noire is French for black pineapple. It is an unusual variety that was developed by Pascal Moreau, a horticulturist from Belgium. The flesh is bright green with deep red streaks. Its flavour is both sweet and smoky with a hint of citrus. More info can be found at Smart Gardener and seed can be bought in the Diggers Club catalogue listed here.
Black from Tula - very large, vine
About this tomato
On 25 February Roslyn M. picked in her garden an absolute whopper called Black from Tula weighing 1017 grams. Per the end of February this tomato is number one on our Golden Tomato Award list! It takes quite some time for a tomato to grow this big (80 days descriptions say). It would have started forming early in the season when temperatures were not very high and that is why this specimen is somewhat misshapen ('cat-faced' - see blog post Tomato Care & Repair on our blog). In warm conditions this tomato would be very large, somewhat flattish and round.
More information
Black from Tula is a heirloom tomato from the area around the city of Tula, south of Moscow. Plants can become 1.8 metres high with dense foliage. Tomatoes can weigh up to 1.2 kilograms. The fruits have a rich, sweet, salty, smoky flavour. Black from Tula prefers warm weather, but as Roslyn proved, it can do well in Tasmania. Good photos of this tomato can be found on the Rare Seeds website here. Roslyn bought Black from Tula seeds from Seed Freaks here.
Black Russian - medium size, vine
About this tomato
Black Russian is a medium-size well-known and much-loved heirloom variety that most people don't manage to grow to the size that Wade B. did in his hothouse at St Helens. Wade put this photo on our Facebook page on 14 January.
More information
It is not surprising to learn that this Russian variety makes the most of short seasons with its heat-absorbing black skin. In areas which are not subject to a lot of cool weather they will produce a reasonable crop outside, but the more protected and warmer the position the better. Black Russian tomatoes are medium sized with a dark skin and red flesh inside. They have the most delicious flavour. Seed is widely available, for instance at The Diggers Club here. Most years seedlings are available at the Hobart Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens tomato sale.
Brandywine - large, vine
About this tomato
This tomato was picked by Sue M. in her garden at Lenah Valley on 12 February. She grew it from a seedling bought at the Hobart Botanical Gardens tomato sale. Brandywine is an old style heirloom variety that you don't see very often, but that deserves to be grown widely.
More information
Brandywine is an American heirloom beefsteak variety dating back to 1885. It is named after the Brandywine River in Pennsylvania. Seed can be purchased from The Diggers Club here. Most years seedlings are available at the Hobart Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens tomato sale.
Cherokee Purple - medium size, vine
About this tomato
Compared to some varieties that were put forward by members later, this hothouse grown Cherokee Purple was not particularly large, but I decided to enter it in the contest because it was relatively early (12 January), its colour was terrific, and its taste really good. I had a few more big ones on the same bush a week or so later.
More information
According to some sources Cherokee Purple originates from the Andes and was cultivated in Central America. Other sources claim that Cherokee Purple is a heirloom variety from the Cherokee Indians that was taken up by settlers in the 1890s. Could both be true? Cherokee Purple is a big ‘beefsteak’ tomato, ripening to a dusky purple-pink, with superb sweetness, dense juicy texture, large fruit and beautiful colour. Seed can be obtained at Southern Harvest here.
Costoluto Genovese - large, vine
About this tomato
The really big tomato in the photo (597 grams) was picked by Grant B. in his hothouse at Gardners Bay on 25 January.
More information
The famous large-fruited Costoluto Genovese (translates as “ribbed one from Genoa”) comes from Piedmont, just northwest of Genoa, Italy. Costoluto Genovese was most likely cultivated in the 18th century and has survived, and thrived, in gardens to this day. It is very tasty, hearty, and with high acid content. This beauty is a real allrounder in the kitchen for canning, cooking, and juicing, and it tastes delicious in salads and on sandwiches, too. Seeds can be purchased from Seed Freaks here or The Diggers Club here.
German Gold - large, vine
About this tomato
What an amazing tomato! Never seen this variety before! This 638 gram German Gold was picked on 11 February by Tracey C. in her garden in the West Tamar area. This variety has been in her family for over a decade. I can see why you would want to grow this variety year after year.
More information
Not surprisingly, this variety came from Germany, and it comes with a long history. It was taken by a group of Christians called the Mennonites from southern Germany to the USA, saved from extinction, and cultivated in Virginia in the 1880s. Large, golden coloured, sweet-flavoured fruit with red blossom end and red streaks radiating up sides to stem end. Seed can be purchased from The Lost Seed here.
Granny's Throwing - large, vine
About this tomato
Three Granny's Throwing tomatoes were put forward, two by Rachel Elizabeth (picked in her hothouse 2 February) and one by Erika A. (picked outside 10 February). All very impressive. The heaviest one was 543 grams. Seeds came from The Diggers Club here.
More information
What a strange name for a great tomato! Granny's Throwing is actually a favourite Italian heirloom tomato with a voluptuous shape, heavily ribbed fruit and excellent flavour. I will leave it to The Diggers Club here to explain how this Italian variety got its Australian name.
KY1 - early, medium size, bush
About this tomato
This 101 gram tomato was picked by Shannon G. in her hothouse. It is not a large tomato compared to those that came later, but it is remarkable just the same, because it was the first tomato put forward for the Golden Tomato Award 2024. This was on 12 December! That was after Shannon couldn't stop herself eating her first KY1 of the season on 5 December before thinking of putting it on the scales and taking a photo. At that point in the season everyone else was not anywhere near producing any ripe tomato, let alone one that was 101 grams heavy. It did help that Shannon grew this tomato in her hothouse.
More information
KY1 is a very popular bush-variety Australian heirloom that originated in Victoria. It is also known as Scoresby Dwarf. Loved for its flavour and being a good all-rounder, it produces medium, smooth round red fruit that does not need lots of attention.
KY1 seeds are available at Southern Harvest here, Seed Freaks here, and under the Mr.Fothergill's Seeds label at hardware stores. Seedlings can be purchased most years at the Hobart Botanical Gardens tomato sale.
Olomovic - early, medium size, bush
About this tomato
On 18 December (5 days after the KY1 above) Robyn P. picked a ripe Olomovic tomato weighing 93 grams, not in a hothouse, but in her garden. That is so early! She bought an Olomovic seedling from Eve's Garden at West Hobart - look for Eve's Garden on Facebook. Robyn sent me a photo of the tomato on scales, but I can't find it now.
More information
Olomovic is a bush variety tomato that is remarkable, not because of its size, but because it produces good-size ripe tomatoes very early. It is an old heirloom variety that was developed in Czechia (part of the former Checoslowakia) to produce early tomatoes in their local mountainous cool environment. It is brilliant at doing this, as Robyn proved. Seeds are available from Southern Harvest here. Most years seedlings can be purchased at the Hobart Botanical Gardens tomato sale.
Taiga - vine, large, very hardy
About this tomato
This nicely shaped and colourful 579 gram tomato was picked on 2 February by Roslyn M. in her hothouse at Lymington. Roslyn bought the seeds from Urban City Gardener on Instagram.
More information
Mid-season tomato variety Taiga was created by a Canadian Tomato breeder. The plants are tall vines with potato leaves.The fruits are beautifully multi-coloured and heart shaped. They have dense flesh, few seeds and a complex flavour. Taiga is a word used for the Northern forests that cover much of Canada. Not surprisingly, Taiga is a very hardy tomato.
Tomato Giant Tree - very large, vine
About this tomato
On 20 January Olesja L. picked a whopper of a tomato (768 grams) called Tomato Giant Tree in her hothouse at Grindelwald. That tomato is currently (end of February) number 2 on the Golden Tomato Award 2024 list. Olesja grew the tomato from seed purchased from Seed Freaks (see photo).
More information
I could not find a description of this tomato anywhere, and the Seed Freaks company does not have it for sale anymore.
Postscript
Tomatoes are incredibly popular world-wide. Originally from Southern America, new tomato varieties have been created over many centuries from Greece to Germany, from Belgium to Canada, often with specific local climates in mind.
You only need to look at the list of tomato varieties sold at the yearly Hobart Botanical Gardens tomato sale to see that tomato breeders have been active all over the world for a very long time.
Looking at the web sites of the various seed companies, I sometimes saw a photo of a variety, and the tomato looked nothing like the same variety offered by a different company. It made me realise that tomatoes of what is claimed to be the same variety do not necessarily produce the same fruit!
I did not cover all the varieties in the 2024 Golden Tomato Award list above because sometimes I could not find any information of the variety elsewhere on the internet.
I hope that more FGG members will come forward with large tomato varieties that are not yet present in the list. If so, I will update this blog post at the end of March and April 2024.
May your tomato crop be plentiful!
Max Bee
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