Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA Zones 2-6 Experience)
Tall vine in the greenhouse, compact habit with sparse foliage. The tomatoes are oblate, red-and-yellow bicolors – large, meaty, and super tasty. Mid-late maturity. Only one catch: low yield.
Well yeah, Elena, in vendor promos every single variety is a heavy yielder and just plain amazing…
Agreed, yield is pretty poor. I grew 4 plants outdoors last year and only got 3-4 fruits per vine, didn’t really impress me. Bought my seeds from Gusev* and just saved a few seeds to keep in my collection.
I ordered mine from Gusev last year too. Honestly, my yield actually turned out just as heavy as in the seller’s video.
But they were among the very first plants to get hit with disease, and it was so heartbreaking watching all those huge, once-gorgeous tomatoes rot away… 😢
Strain Confusion: Yellow vs. Bicolor vs. Radiator Charlie’s Pink
I’ve been digging into these Lifters and there are actually two different ones here: a bicolor and a yellow. The thread title says “Yellow”, but the very first photo is actually Mortgage Lifter Bicolor. True Mortgage Lifter Yellow is solid yellow.
Man, that’s a really low yield.. how’s the taste though?
Help me out please, folks! I’m trying to track down info on this specific Mortgage Lifter strain
So this one isn’t a bicolor, it’s a large pink beefsteak. I bought the seeds, but I can’t find any real grow reports on it. I know there’s a whole family of different strains under this name. I really like this seed seller and never had issues with them, just coming up short on practical info…
Alyona Latviya said:
Help me out please, folks! I’m trying to track down info on this specific Mortgage Lifter strain: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/390858293276So this one isn’t a bicolor, it’s a large pink beefsteak. I bought the seeds, but I can’t find any real grow reports on it. I know there’s a whole family of different strains under this name. I really like this seed seller and never had issues with them, just coming up short on practical info…
Mortgage Lifter is an indeterminate variety. It was bred by Marshall Byles, the owner of a small radiator repair shop, who spent 6 years crossing the four largest tomato varieties he knew of – German Johnson, Beefsteak, and two unknown Italian and English varieties. The tomato was originally named after Byles’ working nickname, Radiator Charlie’s, and folks drove hundreds of miles just to buy his seedlings. Selling plants for $1 each – serious money back then – he paid off his $6,000 mortgage in 6 years and renamed the variety Mortgage Lifter. In 1985, he shared seeds with a heritage seed cooperative, and the variety quickly gained a following among tomato lovers worldwide.
Yeah, I’ve read that same folklore everywhere, it’s copy-pasted on every site… Aside from saying it’s an indet, it tells you nothing about how the plant actually grows. So now I’m asking folks who have actually grown it 🙂 The thing is, there are several versions of this variety out there. I didn’t want the bicolor, so I picked the regular pink beefsteak, and now I’m left with a bunch of questions.
I grew seeds that were brought over from Australia, and they gave me fantastic tomatoes this year. Both yield and flavor were spot on 👍👍 Mine were the bicolors though, not the red/pink ones.
Elfiya said:
I grew seeds that were brought over from Australia, and they gave me fantastic tomatoes this year. Both yield and flavor were spot on 👍👍 Mine were the bicolors though, not the red/pink ones.
How tall did yours get? Basically I’m trying to figure out the vine and truss habit so I can put it in the right spot in the garden 🙂
Reached about 6 ft (180 cm) tall. I trained it to two leaders, and maturity was mid-season.
🙂 Well, I did not get along with this “wonder” at all. Seeds were from Gusev. It grew into some weird thing about 4 ft (1.2 m) tall in the greenhouse with a thick, stocky stem and super bushy foliage. All it ever put out were fused megablooms, and then it immediately dropped every single one of them. So I ended up with zero tomatoes off two plants. 🙁 Had the exact same story with Arbuzny from the same vendor. Weird. 😛
Really liked this variety 👍. Super juicy and delicious 😋, gave me an above-average yield, mid-season, and managed to ripen before late blight hit. Sturdy, moderately tall plant. Seeds were from Kulik*. Very few seeds inside the fruit.
Full Summary: Plant, Yield, Taste and Strain Differences
- 🌿 Plant: Indeterminate vine reaching 4-6 ft (1.2-1.8 m), typically trained to two leaders. Most growers report sturdy, moderately tall plants with compact or sparse foliage, though one grower experienced overly vegetative plants that only formed fused megablooms.
- 🍅 Fruit & Strain Note: Although titled Mortgage Lifter Yellow, the photos and descriptions in this thread depict the red-and-yellow Mortgage Lifter Bicolor (large, oblate, meaty beefsteaks with very few seeds). Maturity ranges from mid-season to mid-late.
- 📈 Yield: Highly variable depending on seed stock and growing conditions. Growers using Australian and Ukrainian (Kulik) seed lines reported above-average to heavy yields even in Zone 2-3, while several growers using another commercial source reported 0 to 4 fruits per vine or early blight loss.
- 👅 Taste: Consistently praised by those who harvested ripe fruit as very juicy, meaty, sweet, and delicious.
- 🌎 Who Reviewed It: Eleven forum members discussing and reviewing the variety across USDA Zones 2-6, including Northwestern Siberia, Perm, Krasnoyarsk, Moscow Region, Stavropol Krai, and Latvia.
*Why “Yellow” is Bicolor Here: In North America, the name Mortgage Lifter encompasses several distinct heirlooms: M.C. “Radiator Charlie” Byles’ famous 1930s West Virginia pink beefsteak (introduced via Southern Exposure Seed Exchange in 1985), William Estler’s 1922 red/pink strain, Pesta’s Mortgage Lifter Bicolor (yellow with a red/pink starburst blush), and solid yellow/gold selections. In Russian and Ukrainian collector catalogs (such as Dmitry Gusev’s Pomidom and Alexey Kulik’s catalog), Pesta’s bicolor strain was widely distributed under the name Mortgage Lifter Yellow, which explains why all the photos in this thread show classic red-and-yellow bicolors.
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