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Vegetable Gardening

What kind of Tomato is this??

9 years ago

Hi all, I need to know what kind of tomato I planted! I lost the package, but I bought the pack of seeds from the dollar store. I expected them to ripen at the same rate as other tomatoes I'm used to, and look and taste like those too.

However, I ended up just watching them grow and grow, waiting and waiting to ripen! All summer long I didn't have ONE ripe tomato, and since I live in Zone 2, I thought for sure we'd see frost before my tomatoes ripened! Even now 60% of the tomatoes are still on the plant, some are still the size of a tennis ball while others.... well just look at the pics! Finally, we got a warm spell (our summer was VERY cool, unusually so) and some of them ripened over the next 48 hours. I took my first tomato, cut it open and Wow! Look at that pattern! I've never bought a tomato like this at the store, and WOW did they grow BIG!!

The picture of the tomatoes on the plant is one tiny ripened one, the only one ripe but still uneaten. The comparison is to other tomatoes of more average size off the same plant, still green however.

So sure, I waited a long time, and sure they were big... but the biggest thing was the Flavor!! They tasted like the deepest, richest flavoured tomato I've ever had! I even sliced a store-bought tomato and ate to compare... literally NO similarity. You may be able to say this for any store bought tomato vs. any organically home grown tomato, but I think these are very special.

Does anyone know what kind they are?? Thanks in advance!!

Comments (7)

theforgottenone1013 (SE MI zone 5b/6a)
9 years ago
If you do a search over on the Tomato Forum you'll find lots and lots of posts (including one of my own) asking for an ID of a tomato and the answers are all the same. It's impossible to ID a tomato that has lost it's name.

Rodney
digdirt2
9 years ago
Yep, impossible. It could be any one of over 200+ varieties that all appear identical. Even Dollar Store distributors market many varieties.

I know some disagree, but knowing the name of what is planted really is rather important.

Dave
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Just as with cucumbers (your other posts) and most any other garden vegetable the variety, or even something close to the name of the variety, is impossible even if you hold it in your hand much less try to do it from a photo. Out of some 6000+ tomato varieties there are probably at least 2000 red, round ones and any of those can have deformed, inconsistent locules and irregular ripening as in your photo. Your insistence on trying to ID all these unknown vegetables you are growing from your collection of unknown seeds and from unlabeled sources is a waste of your time. It simply isn't possible to do. Dave
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A lot of the experienced folks on here have explained that it's impossible to determine variety from looking at fruit. I would imagine that goes double for photos that look like they've been Photoshopped. Maybe you could contact Village Farms and ask? If they won't say, there are a bunch that look similar. To me, those look a little like brown berry. No way to tell if they actually are, though. Could be that they're just rebranding or that they are growing their own selection or something? At any rate, I'm betting you'd have to grow in a greenhouse to get tomatoes that look anything close to that. There's a good thread about black/brown cherries on tomatoville that you might find helpful. I love reading on that forum.
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Thanks for trying to help. The seeds came from a trade with no info except for "Heirloom tomatoes - 64 varieties" on the small ziplock baggie. The taste is mild, slightly acidic, and the texture is kinda mushy/mealy. It's not the greatest flavor to me but the fruits are beautiful. You're right though - not enough info. I may stick with some of my other named varieties that have better taste like Paul Robeson. What are some other black tomatoes that you all recommend for flavor?
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calliope
9 years ago
Yep, even dollar stores distribute various varieties, but on those two or four for a dollar racks, you can pretty much depend on them being open pollinated ones and typically heirloom. Those tomatoes are of the type called beefsteak, whether it's a generic line or a named one like Delicious. I also think it's wise to know the type you planted, because depending on whether it's successful or failed, you would use that to decide what to buy the next year. Caveat to that is that the weather, planting time, insect pressure, and care you give might be different every year and it has just as much impact on what you end up with as variety.
Persimmons
9 years ago
Check your email for my response to this post; I tried to include a link to another website and this one considered the post spam.

:) You might have better luck on a more dedicated forum.
planatus
9 years ago
The pretty pattern of flesh with little central core is typical of beefsteak types, which tend to be full season, 80 day varieties. That narrows it down to about 300 possibilities.
nancyjane_gardener
9 years ago
Looks beefsteak to me!
Being in zone 2-3, I would pick those puppies soon and let them ripen on the counter or wrapped in paper in a box in the garage! You don't want to loose them to frost! Nancy
grandad_2003
9 years ago
Agree with the above posters... Almost impossible to ID a tomato by look. Best option would be to go back to the dollar store and see if there are any seed packs that look like what you purchased. A second suggestion would be to save the seeds from your tomato harvest, under the assumption that it is not a hybrid.... Dollar stores seldom carry hybrids. (Surf the web on seed saving if you need more info.)

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