Quick Summary of Janet’s Jacinthe Jewel
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Janet’s Jacinthe Jewel
- 🌍 Origin: A stunning bicolor variety bred by Brad Gates at Wild Boar Farms (California, USA). It was released around 2010 and named in honor of his wife, Janet.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate. Height varies greatly depending on growing conditions, usually ranging from 4.2 ft to 6.5 ft (1.3 m – 2 m). Important Note: This variety is known to throw both Potato Leaf (PL) and Regular Leaf (RL) plants. Both are considered perfectly normal for this line.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Large beefsteaks, weighing up to 12.3 oz (350 g). The skin is a beautiful yellow-orange with distinct striping, though the stripes tend to fade as the fruit reaches full ripeness.
- 👅 Flavor: Generally very sweet, tender, and juicy. However, like many bicolors, its flavor and blossom retention can be quite sensitive to extreme weather fluctuations.
I really liked this variety. It got to about 6 ft (1.8 m) tall in the greenhouse. The yield ended up being just okay, but that was the story for a lot of varieties this year. It dropped several blossom clusters because of crazy temp swings. We had intense heat first, followed by constant cold. But the clusters that actually managed to set were solid.
Fruits weighed up to 12.3 oz (350 g). The flavor was really good, which I honestly can’t say for a lot of other stuff I grew this season.
Like a lot of folks this season, I had two “Jewels” come up from seed. One had regular leaves and the other had potato leaves. Here is what grew out of them.
Green fruits from both the regular and potato leaf plants (you can see the sharpie writing on the fruits to tell which is which). Two ripe fruits for comparison (top and bottom). And a cross-section of the potato leaf Jewel (I don’t have a pic for the regular leaf one for some reason. Did anyone else take a photo?).
Plants got to about 5.2 – 5.5 ft (160-170 cm), indeterminate. The fruits are large, tasty, and beautiful. The potato leaf version has stripes, but they kind of fade and smooth out as the tomato ripens, so they aren’t as obvious.
SvetaR wrote:
And a cross-section of the potato leaf Jewel (I don’t have a pic for the regular leaf one for some reason. Did anyone else take a photo?).
I can’t even remember which leaf type I grew. I think we talked about it in the spring, but for the life of me, I’ve completely forgotten. I really need to start writing everything down. I totally missed the whole leaf type discussion.
I don’t know why, but mine turned out sour. I only had a couple of varieties do that to me this year. Maybe it was lacking some nutrients, but they tasted exactly the same whether I grew them in the greenhouse or out in the garden. Yield was pretty mediocre too, just a C grade. It dropped a bunch of blossoms during the heat wave. I’ll definitely give it another shot though, the plant showed decent potential. It was sitting right by the greenhouse door, so maybe it just hated the draft.
Mine was sour too. It grew both in the open ground and in the greenhouse, but the outdoor ones actually ripened earlier than the greenhouse ones. I had both potato and regular leaf plants. The first clusters set fine, but the second clusters and everything higher up turned out super ugly and catfaced for some reason. Sorry, no photos right now, I’ll post them later.
I honestly don’t know if I’ll ever grow this one again. 🙂
A beautiful variety from Brad Gates, who named it after his wife. Mine reached about 4.2 ft (1.3 m). Gorgeous tomatoes, and they hang on the vine pretty well without going soft.
I had 7 massive tomatoes on the plant. A very beautiful, radiant color. My phone camera doesn’t really do the colors justice. I will definitely grow it again! 🙂
A little addition 🙂
Ekaterina, how was the flavor on this one for you?
Galina P. wrote:
Ekaterina, how was the flavor on this one for you?
Galina, I honestly don’t remember at all 🤷♀️ 😂. But it was planted in the far north corner of the greenhouse, which is definitely not the right spot for it.
I grew Janet’s Jacinthe Jewel back in 2015 in the greenhouse on the sunny side. It grew up to 5 ft (1.5 m) tall. I don’t remember the exact taste, but it definitely wasn’t sour. Overall, I really liked the variety.
My Janet’s Jacinthe Jewel turned out very productive in the greenhouse, getting almost 6.5 ft (2 m) tall. The fruits were beautiful, large, and yellow-orange with striping. Very tasty, sweet, tender, and juicy. My plant had potato-type leaves.
You’ll notice several growers in this thread mentioning they received both Potato Leaf and Regular Leaf plants from the same seed packet. Don’t worry, your seeds aren’t necessarily crossed! Many heirloom varieties and modern artisanal lines (especially those bred by Brad Gates at Wild Boar Farms) can throw both leaf types. This is known as a genetic “segregation” or an unstable leaf trait. If you grow out a PL plant, the fruit size, color, and flavor usually remain entirely true to the original Janet’s Jacinthe Jewel profile.
