Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA Zones 4-6 Experience)
Excellent variety! Huge, meaty, and juicy slicer. The flavor is balanced, rich, and has that classic tomato taste. Indeterminate, very powerful and sturdy vine. Mid-season. Grew it in the greenhouse. Didn’t catch any diseases at all. But to be fair, nothing got sick for me this past season. The weather probably helped.
Seeds were from Olesya. Gotta thank her from the bottom of my heart!
The sliced photo came out a bit too light. The first picture shows the true color.
Edited December 7, 2018 by Drosera
I agree with Sveta, this tomato is pretty early, very delicious, and all the fruits are massive.
On 12/2/2018 at 1:17 PM, SvetaR said:
Excellent variety! Huge, meaty, and juicy slicer. The flavor is balanced, rich, and has that classic tomato taste. Indeterminate, very powerful and sturdy vine. Mid-season.
Totally agree with the previous poster! Really loved this variety. Heavy yielder, meaty, excellent flavor. The fruits are red and got up to 1.3 lbs (600 g) for me.
Grew this tomato this year. Anna (Lvovna) shared the seeds with me. Very heavy yielding variety. One of the fruits reached a whopping 3.3 lbs (1.5 kg).
Taste-wise, it’s a standard tomato, great for slicing and juicing.
What kind of leaf type does it have?
On 3/3/2023 at 6:46 PM, Elizara said:
What kind of leaf type does it have?
Regular, not PL.
On 3/3/2023 at 9:32 PM, Svetikk said:
Regular, not PL.
Thanks. We’ll see what actually grows for me, though. Out of 4 seedlings, one turned out to have potato leaves.
Full Summary: Plant Habit, Giant Yields, and Leaf Type
- 🌿 Plant & Foliage: Indeterminate, mid-season (with some finding it relatively early for a giant strain). The vine is highly vigorous and sturdy, necessary to support the sheer weight of its fruit. True to type, it should have regular leaf (RL) foliage, though one grower noted receiving a stray potato leaf (PL) seed, indicating a minor cross or seed mix-up circulating.
- 🍅 Fruit & Shape: Massive red beefsteaks. Expect fruits to easily hit the 1.3 lbs (600 g) mark, but with proper pruning, they can grow astronomically large. One grower successfully grew a single fruit weighing 3.3 lbs (1.5 kg).
- 📈 Yield & Health: Noted as a very heavy yielder for its size class. Highly disease-resistant in greenhouse conditions.
- 👅 Taste: Exhibits a classic, rich, old-fashioned tomato flavor. Meaty, juicy, and well-balanced—ideal for fresh slicing or processing into rich tomato juice.
The name Mega Marv is highly respected in the giant vegetable community. It is named in honor of Dr. Marv Meisner, an elite American giant tomato grower and the author of the renowned book “Giant Tomatoes”. Varieties bearing his name have specific genetics selected and bred strictly for their capacity to produce competition-winning, multi-pound megabloom fruits. If you are chasing a 3+ pounder, this is a lineage you definitely want in your dirt.
