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Old November 8, 2011   #6
SEAMSFASTER
Tomatovillian™
 
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Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: American Fork, Utah
Posts: 160
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lakelady View Post
That's great to see how some tomatoes ranked! You've done a big job of growing all those different tomatoes . Far better than I would have for sure!

I am curious. You have listed Tim's Black Ruffles and Purple Calabash. I've heard it said that possibly they are one and the same. Did you grow both of them? Were they the same tomato to you?

Also I see that Big Zac is listed up there too. Nice to see that really big tomatoes can also have flavor!
I could not tell any difference between Tim's Black Ruffles and Purple Calabash. The plants looked and grew the same, and the fruit had the same color, shapes, flavor and tendency to split. I suppose that a more patient and astute observer could distinguish them, however.

Some people are prejudiced against all big tomatoes because some varieties truly are not very good for fresh eating. Several strains of Big Zac which I have grown, however, have a wonderfully rich and sweet flavor along with a juicy texture. Several who try it for the first time become instant fans. It's great for sandwiches, juice, sauces or whatever. And of course it's a lot more fun to pick one huge tomato than 1,164 teeny weeny currant-sized tomatoes!

Big Zac is rather prone to splitting, however - and the often multi-lobed, fused fruits can be downright ugly. And not all strains taste so good.

The attached pics are of a 2.266 lb. Big Zac, a 2.500 pounder, and a dense clustering of about 15 lbs. worth. When I harvested all the unripe tomatoes just ahead of the season-ending frost, I got about 200 lbs. off of 8 Big Zac plants - this was after harvesting several hundred pounds during the previous few weeks!
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