🍅 Quick take: Kentucky Cabin is a mid-season, heavy-yielding indeterminate regular-leaf variety. Normally a pale yellow beefsteak with a pink blush, extreme summer heat can cause it to ripen to a deep pink-red. It produces meaty 12–18 oz (350–500 g) slicers with a remarkably sweet, juicy, and fruity flavor profile. Full summary ↓
Growers’ Notes and Photos
Kentucky CabinTall, highly productive, mid-season indet with regular leaves. According to the description, it’s supposed to be a large pale yellow tomato that develops a beautiful bright pink blush on the shoulders and a pink starburst inside during hot weather. Well, during our extreme heat this summer, my Kentucky Cabin fruits ended up coloring completely into a gorgeous pink-red!
The vine grew to about 6.5 ft (2 m), and I pruned it to two stems. Fruits are oblate, slightly ribbed around the stem, and weigh between 12–18 oz (350–500 g). They are incredibly meaty, sweet, and juicy with a distinctly fruity aroma and taste. Super delicious!
It’s an absolutely magnificent variety. Great yields and top-tier fruit quality. I will definitely be growing it again, though I really want to see it express its normal coloring next time. At first, I was worried that the weird coloring meant I ended up with an off-type or crossed seed. But my seed source reassured me that in incredibly hot summers, it’s totally normal for certain varieties to completely change their color expression.
Full Summary: Plant, Yield, Taste and Appearance
- 🌿 Plant: A vigorous, tall, regular-leaf indeterminate vine that routinely reaches 6.5 ft (2 m). Responds very well to being pruned to two stems.
- 📈 Yield: Rated as highly productive, reliably pumping out heavy flushes of large beefsteaks even in extreme heat.
- 👅 Taste: Very sweet, incredibly juicy, and meaty with a pronounced fruity aroma and flavor profile. Highly rated by growers.
- 🎨 Appearance/Color Quirks: Oblate and slightly ribbed at the stem. Naturally, this is a pale yellow/bicolor tomato with a pink internal starburst and a pink blush on the shoulders. However, it is highly sensitive to extreme heat waves, which can trigger it to flush entirely pink-red on the outside (often leading growers to think they have an off-type).
- 🌎 Who Reviewed It: Successfully grown in Las Palmas, Spain (Zone 11) and Volgograd, Russia (Zone 6).
🍅 Grown Kentucky Cabin? Did yours stay yellow or flush red in the heat? Share your zone and how it did for you in the comments below!
👨🌾 Editor’s Note: Heat-Induced Color Changes
The phenomenon Tiffany mentions is quite common in certain heirloom bicolors! While cold weather usually triggers anthocyanin (purple/black) expression, extreme heat and intense UV can sometimes cause the lycopene and red pigments in yellow/red bicolors to completely take over, masking the yellow base entirely. If your bicolors turn completely red during a massive heatwave, it’s not always crossed seeds (пересорт)—sometimes it’s just the weather!
The phenomenon Tiffany mentions is quite common in certain heirloom bicolors! While cold weather usually triggers anthocyanin (purple/black) expression, extreme heat and intense UV can sometimes cause the lycopene and red pigments in yellow/red bicolors to completely take over, masking the yellow base entirely. If your bicolors turn completely red during a massive heatwave, it’s not always crossed seeds (пересорт)—sometimes it’s just the weather!
