Marizol Purple Tomato Review & Photos: German Heirloom Beefsteak

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🍅 Quick take: Marizol Purple is an indeterminate 19th-century German heirloom beefsteak brought to the US by Joe Bratka’s family. Vines produce 14-17.5 oz (400-500 g) oblate, dusky purple-pink fruits with rich, sweet-tart flesh. Northern growers highlight its exceptional resilience: setting fruit through intense heatwaves without dropping blossoms and demonstrating standout resistance to greenhouse leaf mold (Cladosporium) when surrounding varieties fail. Full summary ↓

Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA Zones 2-6 Experience)

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Marishka (Marina) ⭐ Pro Grower (2,330 posts)

Got my seeds from Popenko. Tall vine, sets a ton of fruit, nice sweet-tart balance. This was just the first one picked off the vine, later ones sized up even bigger. Really liked it, did equally well outdoors in-ground and in the greenhouse.

Edited November 4, 2016 by Drosera

Marizol Purple ripe beefsteak top view, photo by Marishka
Marizol Purple sliced open showing pink-purple flesh

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evgenii97531 (Evgeniy) 🌱 Member (315 posts)

Hey y’all!

Just wanted to add my two cents on this one. Seeds came from a member here on the forum. Churned out a massive crop for me with fantastic flavor! Absolute must-grow in my book, highly recommend it to anyone.

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Lana_s_Kavkaza (Svetlana) ⭐ Pro Grower (19,273 posts)
📍 Pyatigorsk, Russia (USDA Zone 6)

Indeterminate, moderate grower. Oblate purple fruits with rich pink meat, dense, very sweet, hitting 14-17.5 oz (400-500 g). Does great both in the dirt outdoors and under plastic. Really liked this variety, earned a permanent keeper spot in my collection.

Marizol Purple harvest on plate, photo by Lana_s_Kavkaza

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Zlato Leto (Elena Bessonova) 🌱 Member (285 posts)

On Lana_s_Kavkaza said:
Indeterminate, moderate grower. Oblate purple fruits with rich pink meat, dense, very sweet, hitting 14-17.5 oz (400-500 g)…

I’ve got Marizol Magic seeds, is that the exact same variety or something else?

Quoted harvest photo of Marizol Purple

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Ninulik0980 (Nina) ⭐ Pro Grower (2,056 posts)
📍 Saratov, Russia (USDA Zone 4/5)

On Zlato Leto said:
I’ve got Marizol Magic seeds, is that the exact same variety or something else?

Hate to butt in, but that’s a completely different tomato. Marizol Magic is a bicolor cocktail/saladette. Growing it this season myself! 😊

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Zlato Leto (Elena Bessonova) 🌱 Member (285 posts)

On Ninulik0980 said:
Hate to butt in, but that’s a completely different tomato. Marizol Magic is a bicolor cocktail/saladette…

Me too! 🙏

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Tatyana Kemerovo (Tatyana) ⭐ Pro Grower (2,694 posts)
📍 Kemerovo, Siberia (USDA Zone 2/3)

Definitely still holds its own today. Ran it this season right alongside Carbon and Divo Divnoe. Every bit as good as the other two. Came in a little later than DD, but it set every single truss through brutal heat waves right to the top of the stakes without dropping blossoms. Meanwhile, the other two stalled out on their upper clusters. Flavor was solid on all three, but sprinkle a little salt on Marizol Purple and it’s downright killer! 👍

Marizol Purple clusters set along the vine, photo by Tatyana Kemerovo (1)
Marizol Purple upper clusters setting fruit, photo by Tatyana Kemerovo (2)
Marizol Purple heavy yield on vine, photo by Tatyana Kemerovo (3)
Marizol Purple dark fruit maturing, photo by Tatyana Kemerovo (4)

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Elena 62 (Elena) ⭐ Pro Grower (2,063 posts)

Grew it inside the greenhouse, stayed medium height. Vines are sturdy without turning into an unruly jungle. Fruits are outstanding: large, sweet beefsteaks. Staggering production. Ripened cleanly right on the vine. Definitely planting this outdoors next year under a rain shelter.

Marizol Purple ripe slicers on plate, photo by Elena 62 (1)
Marizol Purple sliced cross-section, photo by Elena 62 (2)

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Vladimir Baranov (Vladimir) 🌱 Member (312 posts)
📍 Kaluga, Russia (USDA Zone 4)

First time growing this in the greenhouse. Waiting for them to color up. Here’s a quick video walk-through showing my Marizol plants.

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Vladimir Baranov (Vladimir) 🌱 Member (312 posts)
📍 Kaluga, Russia (USDA Zone 4)

Here is the cut and taste test. Flavor turned out to be just run-of-the-mill tomato for me, didn’t really impress.

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Tatyana Senchukova (Tatyana) 🌱 Member (543 posts)
📍 Velsky District, Arkhangelsk Region, Russia (USDA Zone 3)

Marizol was the shocker of the year for me. Out of 80 varieties, it was the only one that didn’t catch leaf mold at all, literally zero signs on the foliage! The plant was a monster, and the higher the clusters went, the bigger the fruit got. Gorgeous lilac-brown color. Flavor was pretty average, but with that kind of disease resistance, it’s an absolute lock for next season.

Full Summary: Heat Tolerance, Leaf Mold Resistance, and Flavor Dynamics

  • 🌿 Plant & Vigor: Indeterminate vine with manageable, moderate canopy vigor that can grow very tall in long runs. Produces oblate, lilac-purple to dusty reddish-brown beefsteaks scaling from 10.5 to 17.5 oz (300-500 g).
  • 🛡️ Disease & Heat Resilience: Remarkable hardiness. In severe greenhouse trials with 80 heirloom lines, it was the sole variety completely immune to leaf mold (Cladosporium). In Siberian heatwaves (Zone 2/3), it set fruit continuously to the top rafters while celebrated lines like Carbon dropped upper blossoms.
  • 👅 Taste Profile: Classic sweet-tart heirloom profile with meaty, succulent pink flesh. While some growers report a mild or standard tomato profile in heavy soils, most note a rich, old-fashioned sweetness that becomes exceptional with a touch of sea salt.
  • 🧬 Variety Clarification: Distinct from Marizol Magic, which is a small bicolor cocktail cherry; Marizol Purple is a full-sized German beefsteak.
  • 🌎 Who Reviewed It: Extensively trialed from the extreme subarctic north of Arkhangelsk (Zone 3) and Siberia (Zone 2/3) down to Kaluga, Saratov (Zone 4/5), and the Caucasus (Zone 6).
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