📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): McClintock’s Big Pink
- 🌍 Origin: A North American heirloom variety heavily circulated among Eastern European and Russian seed collectors (like V. Redko).
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, vigorous vines. It features classic Potato Leaf (PL) foliage. Known for being highly disease resistant (“bulletproof”) and performing well even in damp, cool conditions.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Large, dark raspberry-pink oblate beefsteaks. They typically weigh between 300–500g (10.5–18 oz).
- 👅 Flavor & Texture: Outstanding. Very meaty and dense flesh with a rich, classic heirloom tomato flavor.
- ⏳ Maturity & Yield: Mid-season. A very reliable and heavy yielder, though it tends to produce significantly more fruit in a greenhouse than outdoors in open ground.
🍅 Grown this variety? Click here to add your own photos and review below!
Seeds are from collector V. Redko. Here is her catalog description:
“McClintock’s Big Pink: Tall indeterminate, mid-season, potato leaf (PL). Fruits are a dark raspberry-pink color, weighing 300-500g (10.5-18 oz), very meaty, with excellent taste.”
I grew it both in the greenhouse and outdoors in open ground. The yield in the greenhouse was much, much higher than outdoors. It definitely has potato leaf (PL) foliage. The yield is excellent, with fruit weights averaging around 350-400g (12-14 oz).
I really liked this variety. It was highly productive, despite us having a very rainy and cool summer.
A very good, productive variety that doesn’t get sick (highly disease resistant). Potato leaf (PL).
