Nice! What variety is that?

Weigh cool!

I want seeds.

me likee.
me hungry.

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by mikec4w
THATS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!!

"What variety is that?" [jjpmCT]

They were grown from seeds saved from a Potato Top tomato. But they are the wrong color. Potato Top is pink (clear epidermis). These toamtoes are red (yellow epidermis).

I never said I liked big tomatoes. ;)

Bill,

Nice looking tomatoes.

Did you intend for this to be a thread for people to post pictures of their big ones? If you want just your big ones in this thread I'll start another thread no problem.

Randy

Randy,

Heck yeah! Post away. Big ones, huge ones, humongous ones, gnarly, lumpy, beautiful monsters, whatever. The more the better. How's growin' in WestbyGodVirginia this summer? let's have a look.

Bill

Great looking tomatoes, Bill.

I picked four large tomatoes off one of my Big Zac vines yesterday....three just over a pound each and one 1.75 pounder (pictured here). To my eyes, they all appear pink colored instead of red. They are delicious though, and that's what counts. I have not pruned to one stem or one tomato on any of my plants this year and am still getting decent size maters.

{{gwi:1386450}}

Bill,

Unfortunately growin' hasn't been going all that well here in WestByGodVirginia. It has been wet and cool with just enough hot days to really get the fungal diseases going. I've been battling Early Blight and Septoria Leaf Spot all summer. I think it may be winning in a couple of cases. Despite the weather I have been able to get several decent sized ones and a few big ones.

I did have a group of 4 two pounders, but I noticed you had 5 in your picture so I added one. The one I added was only 1.75 lbs. so you can't really call it a big one.

Here is the group of 5:

Here is one of the Big Zac's on the scales:

Here is one of the Neves Azorean Reds on the scales:

Ugly? Did you say ugly? I'll show you ugly:

And here is a Yellow Brandywine with even more ugliness:

Obviously with the cool wet weather I've got some serious catfacing going on.

When you get a chance could you please email me. I have some dehybridization projects and other things I'd like to discuss with you. Thanks.

Randy

Wow Randy ... I'm lookin at the last 2 pics wondering how I would even carve such a thing up :-)

Never having grown anything as mis-shapen ... do you use those as slicers or make juice, sauce or what?

NARs are on my list for next yr. I guess making truss slings are the norm?

Randy,

Great growin'! Keep up the good gardening, man. Yeah we've been battlin' fungus, spots and specks all summer too. I think it's abating now though.

We haven't broken the 2-pound barrier yet this year. The largest is shown above at 30.7 ounces (1.3 ounces short of 2 pounds).

I think I still have your email addy at work. Just in case I don't, you can shoot me a note at tomatohead48@hotmail.com ... we need to compare notes.

A few of the crosses I've made in the past two years are interesting and worth pursuing ... and a couple are just not showing anything extra-special yet.

I got a bunch of seeds from one cross this summer that I can't wait to try out ... Green Giant x Yellow Submarine. I had three individual crosses of that take, but lost one fruit yesterday ... it just rotted from the inside without my noticing it soon enough. I cleaned every seed out of the other two immediately! I'm hoping to find a potato-leaf "Green Grape" type somewhere down the road with that one.

Talk to you soon,

Bill

I'm impressed gang!

The one huge one I had, rotted on the bottom due to being on the ground. When am I going to learn to do something other than sprawl?

Sue

hoosiercherokee

Are you the person who was frustrated about finding no or few PL versions of your Potato Top seedlings last year? I recall a discussion with someone about that, and you're the only person I've seen mention this variety, so I was wondering.

I grew out both leaf-types last year and saved seeds from each, though I didn't grow them again this year -- planted too many first-timers instead and didn't have room. Both were large and really delicious, and if I recall correctly, one was pink and the other was red. They're on my list for spring.

Opalka is NOT a favorite of mine by any stretch of the imagination, but here is a picture of my largest one.

I have found it to be bland, and vine is very prone to early blight in my garden.
This is my first and last year for growing Opalka.

I hope everyone else has had good luck with it.

"Never having grown anything as mis-shapen ... do you use those as slicers or make juice, sauce or what?"
The Yellow Brandywine was cut up for a tomato tasting and the Black From Tula was used in salsa. Being used in salsa is the fate of most of my catfaced tomatoes. The Yellow Brandywine had a globe on one side that was fairly easy to slice.

"NARs are on my list for next yr. I guess making truss slings are the norm?"
I don't know if it is the norm or not, but IMHO being prepared to provide some kind of support is in your best interest. The NARs started pulling the truss away from the stem, the Big Zacs didn't. The Big Zacs weighed more. The Big Zacs and NARs pictured were from the same cluster of their respecive plants.

Good luck,
Randy