Quick Summary of Chile Verde (Green Chile)
- 🌍 Origin: A very popular green-when-ripe variety in Eastern Europe, often sold by commercial seed companies like Biotekhnika and Siberian Garden, as well as private collectors.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), reaching about 1.5 – 2 meters (5 to 6.5 ft). Most growers report a Regular Leaf (RL), though some strains have shown Potato Leaf (PL) or thick, rugose foliage.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Beautiful green elongated plum/pear-shaped tomatoes, often with a little beak/nipple at the blossom end. They weigh between 80-120 g (2.8 – 4.2 oz) and grow in clusters of 6-10.
- 👀 When is it ripe? Like many GWR (Green-When-Ripe) varieties, it can be tricky. Look for a subtle color shift to an olive/yellowish tint and a gentle softness when squeezed.
- 👅 Flavor: The absolute highlight. Described as sweet, fruity, with a hint of spice and a tender “marmalade” texture. One grower even rated it higher than legendary varieties like Summer Sun and Cherokee Green.
The bush is tall (grown in a polycarbonate greenhouse), with medium foliage coverage, regular leaf (RL). The tomatoes are green-fruited plums, weighing 80-120g (2.8-4.2 oz), with 6-10 fruits per truss. It’s a mid-season variety, but the tomatoes themselves take quite a long time to ripen, and it is difficult to determine when a tomato is fully ripe because the color of a ripe fruit practically does not change.
The skin is firm, they did not crack. The flesh is juicy and very tender. The taste is very pleasant, sweet with fruity notes. Yield is above average.
Edited March 29, 2015 by Drosera
I also really liked the taste of these little tomatoes.
Maria, did yours have potato leaves (PL)? Because somehow they look more like the Emerald Pear variety to me. 😳
To me, Chile Verde seemed closer to a late-season variety. Although… it was direct-sown into the garden bed, and it still managed to set quite a lot of fruit. 👍
tomatinka said:
Maria, did yours have potato leaves (PL)? Because somehow they look more like the Emerald Pear variety to me. 😳
Mine had regular leaves (RL), I bought the seeds from Gusev. I grew two bushes, one in open ground, the other in the greenhouse. In open ground, the yield was low and the tomatoes were small; in the greenhouse, they were larger and more productive. Gusev’s description said “spicy taste”, but mine were fruity with a little sweetness. Even if it turns out to be Emerald Pear, I still loved it! 😋
Yes, I really like Emerald Pear too. I’ve been planting it for three years now. But Chile Verde definitely has a potato leaf (PL)! 👍 I think Olya (OlgaZ) has Emerald Pear too. It’s a plum shape with a little beak. The true PL Chile Verde turns an olive color when ripening. But Emerald Pear has regular leaves and doesn’t change color at all, there is no olive tint whatsoever. It is very tasty and beautiful. And one more nuance, Chile Verde is noticeably a later-season tomato.
Edited October 26, 2013 by tomatinka
tomatinka said:
…The true PL Chile Verde turns an olive color when ripening…
Well, mine definitely turned “olive” colored; that’s how I determined by color when it was time to pick them.
I won’t argue, but you can check the description of Chile Verde on other sites.
Verochka, I’m not arguing! 🌺 I’m just stating a fact 😃
And honestly, I like the name “Emerald Pear” even more anyway, the main thing is that it is incredibly delicious! 😋😋
My Chile Verde, seeds were from Redko. I liked it. Productive, tasty, dense, good for pickling/canning.
A very good, tasty, juicy, and productive variety. They were eaten as soon as we found a ripe one! 😃😃 It grew in the greenhouse trained to 3 stems. Mine looked exactly like Smarisa’s.
Definitely a candidate for next year, I’ll plant 2 bushes.
tomatinka said:
But Chile Verde definitely has a potato leaf! 👍
I just ran through almost all the seed catalog sites. The leaf is regular (RL) 📝.
I can’t figure out if “Green Chile” and “Chile Verde” are the same variety or two different ones? This year I grew Green Chile from Gusev, regular leaf, productive variety in the greenhouse, very tall, trained to two stems. My family demanded I grow it again next year—they really liked the taste.
“To be honest, in this case, I was attracted by their name. Green Chile. I thought at the time that the name goes well with my favorite region—the southern part of the country of Chile. Well yes… it’s a green country. There’s even a movie called ‘Green Paradise of Chile’.
But here’s the thing… the name is written with a gross mistake that many make when they don’t see the difference between the name of the country and a chili pepper. In Russian, it’s spelled the same, but in English and Spanish, it’s not. Chile is a country in South America, and chili is a hot pepper. In fact, the illiteracy of seed producers just kills me.
Surely, the variety is named not after the country, but after the hot pepper (Green Chili).”
Anyuta said:
I can’t figure out if “Green Chile” and “Chile Verde” are the same variety or two different ones?
They are the same. Yummy! 😋
Lyudmila, interesting quote. But why is it named “after the hot pepper”? The tomato is aromatic and sweet. A bit late for our climate, though.
Here is my Chile Verde. Last year in the greenhouse it grew without a potato leaf anymore. But the foliage is very thick, rugose, like a dwarf plant. Yet in my first year, it definitely had a potato leaf. Maybe I have some rogue off-type strain, since it doesn’t look like anyone else’s. 🍅
My Chile grew in open ground, regular leaf. A productive and tasty tomato..
Very tasty, the flesh is tender, like marmalade. And the yield is not bad either.
Regular leaf, and it retains its green color even when fully ripe. The taste really does have a hint of spice. (Seeds were from the forum exchange).
I planted it in the greenhouse, it grew to about a meter and a half (5 ft), quite productive, not late-season. Regular leaf, not potato. The shape was both pear-like and plum-like, but the later fruits were all plum-shaped. The olive tint appeared when they were overripe. The skin is thin, the taste is wonderful. They look beautiful in a salad. They ripened well off the vine indoors—the taste didn’t deteriorate. I had four bushes trained to 1-2 stems. Seeds were from Biotekhnika.
My absolute favorite little tomato. I plant it from my own saved seeds almost every year. The ancestor was grown from Biotekhnika seeds. By the way, this year I gave them all away and didn’t leave a single one for myself—but then it popped up as a volunteer seedling in the greenhouse on its own! It only had time to give three trusses. But after tasting the first ripe tomato at the end of September, I was convinced for the hundredth time—it is still the most delicious variety of all the ones I’ve had in my eight years of conscious heirloom growing.
By appearance and description, it’s exactly like Lisenok’s in the post above.
Just for context, this year I grew absolute flavor monsters like Renegade, Cherokee Green Gold, Green Doctors Frosted, and Summer Sun. Chile Verde beat them all anyway.
Edited December 4, 2020 by Ellis_Cu
I planted Chile Verde from Siberian Garden. Yield is good. Mid-season. I kept waiting for the taste to reveal itself, but I wasn’t impressed. Nothing special.
