Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA Zone 4 Experience)
Indeterminate, mid-season slicing variety. The vine is powerful and sprawling, but doesn’t get overly lanky, featuring large potato leaves. Yield is high, fruits are large to very large aromatic beefsteaks of a dark-pink color, with very good flavor.
Continued:
Hi Lenochka.. Is this variety for the greenhouse or out in the dirt?
Lenochka! Mine grew out in the dirt – had excellent yield, so I think it will grow perfectly fine whether it’s in the greenhouse or outdoors.
Wow, so cool 😲
I’m actually planning to plant this one this year 😊
German Giant. It was the most vigorous grower in the greenhouse, such a handsome vine! Flowered extremely well. Didn’t get sick at all. My yield ended up being average, because I didn’t use any blossom-setting stimulants 😳 The tomatoes were all large. The fruit color is raspberry, very tasty. I will absolutely be growing it again. Lenochka, thank you for the seeds 🙏
Mine turned out to be an off-type, with regular leaves, but the yield was absolutely fantastic 😋😋😋😋😋 It had the ribbing, just like in Lena’s first photo 👍
Seeds were from A. Kulik, growing it for the first time. This tomato threw both potato leaf and regular leaf seedlings, so I planted both. Not sure what happened—whether it’s genetic segregation or just a seed mix-up. I’d appreciate any info on this variety.
I really liked both plants. The one with the regular leaf grew close to the seller’s description: Indet, heavy yielder. Fruits were raspberry, tall flat-round shape. Very juicy, tasty, 7-18 oz (200-500 g).
The one with the potato leaf turned out to be a fantastically beautiful tomato. Indet, powerful vine. Fruits were all huge, from 10-25 oz (300-700 g), red-raspberry with a purple dusting on the shoulders. I didn’t have any blue exotics growing nearby. It doesn’t look like Siberian Tiger or anything similar, I looked through a lot of seller catalogs and couldn’t find a match. The flesh is dense, sweet (not bland). The vine is incredibly productive, just mesmerizing, completely weighed down with huge, gorgeous fruits. Couldn’t get a good photo of the whole vine, it’s tied to the same stake as another tomato, so it just looks like a mess.
Potato leaf 👍
It’s true that they are large and very large, and it’s true that it’s a highly productive variety, but the taste just didn’t impress me. However, it’s very good for making juice and paste.
German Giant is in my top 5 favorites for taste this season 😋 The vine had regular leaves, powerful and tall. Fruits were pink, extremely large.
Grew it in the greenhouse. During the heatwave, it dropped blossoms like crazy. The taste was ordinary, tomatoes were large, over 14 oz (400 g).
Planted it for the first time. It instantly became a favorite. Out of 70 varieties I planted, it was the second one to start ripening. Very powerful vine with giant fruits. Clusters of 3 tomatoes, each weighing 1.3-2 lbs (600-900 g). Very delicious.
Edited August 14, 2021 by IrinaVinn
Full Summary: Plant, Yield, Taste and Storage
- 🌿 Plant: Indeterminate, mid-season. Produces very thick, robust vines that handle massive fruit weights well. The foliage type is highly debated; while traditionally a potato-leaf (PL) heirloom, regular-leaf (RL) strains are incredibly common in circulation. Both types are exceptionally vigorous.
- 📈 Yield: Generally very high, with plants loading up with giant fruits early in the season. However, like many large beefsteaks, it is susceptible to blossom drop during intense summer heatwaves if grown in unventilated greenhouses.
- 👅 Taste: Opinions range from “ordinary” to “top 5 best of the season.” At its peak, it boasts a deeply aromatic, sweet, old-fashioned tomato flavor with dense, satisfying meat.
- 📦 Texture/Usage: Enormous, flat-round, raspberry-pink beefsteaks with slight ribbing on the shoulders. While typical fruits average 10-18 oz (300-500 g), it is not uncommon for clusters to produce 2 lb (900 g) giants. The flesh is very juicy and meaty, making it an excellent slicer for sandwiches, as well as a prime candidate for cooking down into rich pastes and juices.
