Garden Leader Monster tomato
Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2020 3:32 am
I just wanted to report experiences with the Garden Leader Monster tomato and show pictures. Feel free to do the same.
First of all, just so there's no confusion, it is open-pollinater; it's not an F1 hybrid (I asked the company). The watermelon of the same name is an F1 hybrid, though.
Anyway, I grew this in 2018 or so. It had a pretty standard tomato taste (not exotic fruity flavors or anything), but it was excellent within that scope and had good texture. It would have been a great all-purpose tomato. Unfortunately, I was overwhelmed and didn't save seeds that year.
So, I grew it this year with seeds from the original packet. I grew it mostly for the purpose of daving seeds, this time. Anyway, it got covered up by other plants, but I managed to move them and harvest three fruits of various levels of ripeness for seed-saving, and taste evaluation. Unfortunately, they were mealy and lacking in flavor. That could be because of the other tomatoes blocking its light, and/or it could be due to the wood ash (I didn't give it wood ash last time). It possibly just doesn't need the extra calcium/potassium as much as some tomatoes seem to do.
Whatever the case, I grew it for the seeds, and I saved plenty. The mealy fruits can be canned.
The fruits are large (not giant), and red. They range from beefsteak to smoother/roundish.
Despite being mealy, they look oretty decent sliced.
Both times I grew it, it had drought conditions, with black plastic. No fertilization, unless you count the wood ash this year.
This year, there have been at least 6 to 8 ripe fruits on the plant, so far, with more to come. That's pretty similar to the last time I grew it. I'm excited to see how acclimatization via seed-saving impacts production (some varieties receive a big boost). I probably won't grow it again until 2022, though.
First of all, just so there's no confusion, it is open-pollinater; it's not an F1 hybrid (I asked the company). The watermelon of the same name is an F1 hybrid, though.
Anyway, I grew this in 2018 or so. It had a pretty standard tomato taste (not exotic fruity flavors or anything), but it was excellent within that scope and had good texture. It would have been a great all-purpose tomato. Unfortunately, I was overwhelmed and didn't save seeds that year.
So, I grew it this year with seeds from the original packet. I grew it mostly for the purpose of daving seeds, this time. Anyway, it got covered up by other plants, but I managed to move them and harvest three fruits of various levels of ripeness for seed-saving, and taste evaluation. Unfortunately, they were mealy and lacking in flavor. That could be because of the other tomatoes blocking its light, and/or it could be due to the wood ash (I didn't give it wood ash last time). It possibly just doesn't need the extra calcium/potassium as much as some tomatoes seem to do.
Whatever the case, I grew it for the seeds, and I saved plenty. The mealy fruits can be canned.
The fruits are large (not giant), and red. They range from beefsteak to smoother/roundish.
Despite being mealy, they look oretty decent sliced.
Both times I grew it, it had drought conditions, with black plastic. No fertilization, unless you count the wood ash this year.
This year, there have been at least 6 to 8 ripe fruits on the plant, so far, with more to come. That's pretty similar to the last time I grew it. I'm excited to see how acclimatization via seed-saving impacts production (some varieties receive a big boost). I probably won't grow it again until 2022, though.