📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Big Rainbow (Bolshaya Raduga)
- 🌍 Origin: A famous American heirloom originally from Minnesota. In Russia, it is widely grown and traded among collectors under the translated name “Bolshaya Raduga” (Большая радуга).
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall). Usually grows between 1.8 – 2 meters (6-6.5 ft) in a greenhouse, but can be topped earlier if it gets too heavy with fruit.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Gorgeous, massive yellow-orange beefsteaks with red marbling (the classic “red tie” or starburst pattern in the center). Fruits typically weigh 300g (10.5 oz), but can easily reach up to 550g (1.2 lbs).
- 👅 Flavor: Known for being exceptionally sweet, juicy, and fruity. However, like many bicolors, the flavor and texture can get washed out or watery if grown in poor soil or with too much rain (as noted by a grower in Moldova).
- ⚖️ Yield: Yields can be highly variable depending on the climate. Some growers report average or even low yields, while others find it to be a heavy producer.
Another variety that really pleased me with its flavor, appearance, and yield. The fruits got up to 550g (1.2 lbs).
I loved this Bicolor for its high yield and great flavor. The fruits are very, very large and heavy. The photo shows them still plumping up on the vine (I was trying to photograph the truss structure, not the final size). Grew it in the greenhouse, pruned to 3 stems. Definitely a candidate to grow again.
My 2015 season:
A beautiful, tasty tomato, but it turned out completely unproductive for me. I only got 5 of these large fruits off the entire plant.
Grew it in the greenhouse, pruned to 2 stems. Yield was good! The fruits weren’t massively huge, but there were a lot of them! I really liked the flavor 🙂
This variety really stuck in my memory. I grew it for the first time; there weren’t a ton of tomatoes on the plant, but every single one of them was huge. Very tasty. I personally love sweet varieties.
It was very productive and quite early for me. I really liked it. For some reason, I can’t find a photo of them on the scale, I’ll keep looking. But there were absolutely no small fruits at all—they all weighed around 250-400g (9-14 oz).
The variety grew well in the greenhouse. The bush was tall, quite vigorous, mid-season, and very tasty.
It was the lowest yielding bicolor I grew this year, but definitely the best tasting one! I want to grow it again.
Could you please tell me how tall the bush gets?
TANYUshenka wrote:
Could you please tell me how tall the bush gets?
It’s indeterminate, meaning it has unlimited growth. Mine didn’t get extremely tall in the greenhouse; I topped it (pinched the growing tip) at about 1.3 meters (4.2 ft) because it was already heavily loaded with fruit.
Mine grew up to 1.8m (6 ft), and could have kept going.
In my greenhouse, Big Rainbow grew to 2 meters (6.5 ft) and gave an average yield. The fruits were delicious, sweet, with a beautiful “red tie” pattern in the center when sliced.
I absolutely loved this variety, this is my third year in a row growing it. Sweet, very juicy, and productive. It’s our favorite! Every year I increase the number of plants I grow.
I gave some seeds to a friend from Moldova, and for some reason, his turned out watery and bland… he said he’ll never grow it again. But as for me, God willing, I plan to plant even more bushes next year than I did this year.
I adore bicolors for their flavor and beauty. My Big Rainbow fruits averaged 300g (10.5 oz) and were very sweet. The yield was average for me.
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