Michael Pollan Tomato Review & Photos: Green Striped Pear

Indet, not aggressive, doesn’t overgrow with suckers. The clusters are complex; mine managed to set three full clusters and two small ones. The fruits are very beautiful, dense, and don’t crack in canning. The taste is ordinary.

Yes, the clusters and fruits are gorgeous. The first few years I grew it, the taste seemed subpar to me, kind of like Cuban Black. Now it seems to be getting tastier. It’s earned a permanent spot in my garden.

Hey folks, can someone give me a few more details on this one? 😳

So it’s a green-fruited cocktail type? What are the planting and ripening times like? And whose seeds are you growing? Sorry for all the questions, I just really like the look of this tomato 🙂

It’s late-season, like most of these heavy-cluster types. And yes, it’s definitely a cocktail tomato. The bushes didn’t get much taller than 3 ft (1m) for me outdoors in the dirt. The clusters are massive.

My vines in the greenhouse were 5 ft (1.5m). In terms of maturity, it’s acting like a mid-season for me. Seeds were from Redko.

It was mid-late for me. In the greenhouse, it hit the roof by August, meaning it grew over 6.5 ft (2m). Interestingly, in September, tiny little nubs started filling out and swelling on the lower clusters. I didn’t like the taste, but maybe that’s because I had plenty of large, sweet slicers ripe at the same time. The whole harvest went into marinades, where it looks very beautiful.

Mid-season variety, grew it in a poly tunnel, the bushes were 4-5 ft (1.3-1.5m)… The cluster is complex, loaded with beautiful emerald-colored “pears”… For its unusual beauty, I can forgive the merely “satisfactory” taste (well, not all green varieties are destined to be super sweet 🙂).

A perfectly high-quality tomato across all parameters.

Grew this for the first time this season, seeds from Popenko. It throws massive clusters, but pollination wasn’t great for me. Grew to about 4 ft (1.2m). Cute little pear-shaped tomatoes, but I didn’t like the taste and don’t plan to grow it again. The skins also split when I canned them; the skin isn’t very thick.

Opened a jar of canned tomatoes today. Michael Pollan tomatoes are absolutely unfit for whole canning. The fruits turned into total mush, looked like green frogs, tasted terrible, and nobody wanted to eat them—I just took a sample bite. There were other varieties in the same jar, and they all handled it differently. For example, Roman Candle was so firm I could cut that icicle into three slices with a knife. Just offering a comparison from the same jar.

I didn’t sterilize during canning, just used the triple-pour method.

Ladoga: Opened a jar of canned tomatoes today. Michael Pollan tomatoes are absolutely unfit for whole canning…

That’s most likely because they were overripe when you canned them.

I don’t know if they were overripe. They looked just like the photos above. Slightly yellowed. But the skin split on every single fruit of this variety when pouring the boiling marinade. They were much more edible raw, but in preserves—yuck.

Not a single seed of this Michael sprouted for me last year. 😞 Oh well, no big deal, means I’ll just plant more Chocolate Bunnies. 😆

I liked the variety, productive, huge branching clusters. Taste ??? But it works in preserves. If I plant it again, it’ll probably just be for the fun of it.

Ladoga: Today I opened a jar of canned tomatoes. Michael Pollan is absolutely unfit for whole canning. Turned to mush…

I also marinate using the triple-pour method. And I also love firm icicle tomatoes that you can slice with a knife. BUT, I put Michael Pollan into the jars without waiting for the fruits to yellow—meaning, I canned them slightly underripe. They turned out delicious! The skin didn’t split, nothing turned to mush, and they looked amazing in the assorted jars! 👍 The stem end of the fruit is firmer, making it easy to pull out of the jar, while the round bottom is juicy—you can practically drink the Michael in one bite and just be left holding the skin 😋 😆

Grew it outdoors in the dirt, plant was about 3 ft (1m), huge clusters, but not all flowers set. Mid-season, over half the harvest ripened outdoors by mid-August. Average weight 1.5 oz (40g). Very striking variety. Eaten fresh it’s not bad, but lacks sweetness—it’s definitely not a sweet cherry.

Svetikk: I put Michael Pollan into the jars without waiting for the fruits to yellow—meaning, I canned them slightly underripe.

I also canned them without waiting for them to start “bronzing.” 🎩

Edited September 6, 2016 by Drosera

Found a photo of the flowering bush 👋 😛

Here is what my Michael Pollan looks like on August 4, 2015.

In marinade, every single tomato of this variety splits: I tried pasteurization and the double-pour method. But the clusters are mind-blowing. I will definitely plant it again, and a friend has already ordered seedlings of this variety for next year.

Gorgeous variety – I’m thrilled! 👍 Grew outdoors in the dirt – indeterminate, didn’t push too many suckers, the clusters were amazing 👋, and the taste was honey-sweet… but honestly, all my green tomatoes were sweet this year..

I liked the taste, gave it a 5 out of 5, but it barely set any clusters in the greenhouse heat. I’ll try planting it outdoors in the dirt next time.

Lana_s_Kavkaza: I liked the taste, gave it a 5 out of 5, but it barely set any clusters in the greenhouse heat. I’ll try planting it outdoors in the dirt next time.

Svetlana, definitely plant it outdoors—if it’s this beautiful for me, it will be absolutely gorgeous in your climate 👍

I planted this variety in 2016, outdoors in the dirt. The vine was tall, grew to about 6.5 ft (2m), was productive, and the fruits looked beautiful. But the taste wasn’t nearly as good as the looks 😞 The tomatoes were sour; a hint of sweetness only appeared when the color shifted from light green to lemon-yellow and they started getting soft. I rated the taste a B- (4-). But for the beauty and yield, I’ll keep planting 1 bush. Thanks Vera for the seeds 🌺

Edited February 7, 2017 by LiliyaYa

I liked the taste, very productive, I believe the photo shows just a single cluster. But for canning—not my thing, too watery. Maybe you really do need to marinate them slightly underripe.

I liked it. In the greenhouse it reached 4-5 ft (1.2-1.5m), the fruits were around 1 oz (30g) or slightly more, but there were tons of them. Pleasant taste with characteristic green tomato notes. Very decorative. I picked them for canning slightly underripe, right before the yellow tint appeared, and they held their shape well.

Hey folks, has anyone grown a Michael Pollan with potato leaves (PL)? Last year at a meetup, Nadyushka brought seeds from her mom’s stash. I snagged 4 seeds labeled Michael Pollan. Planted 2, and both plants have potato leaves. I thought this was supposed to be a regular leaf (RL) variety. Now I’m wondering what’s actually going to grow.

Larisa, mine is growing with regular leaves.

Mine is also growing with regular leaves. Planted it 2 years ago, but forgot to save seeds, so I planted it again just for that. Very beautiful, but I won’t put it in the greenhouse again. People wrote that it grows to 5 ft (1.5m), but mine was definitely no less than 10 ft (3m). It hit the roof and started bothering the neighboring plants. Yield was great. It also grew outdoors in the dirt, but I completely forget how it performed outside.

I’ll wait and see what grows. Might just be a crossed seed/mix-up. If it does turn out to be Michael Pollan, I’ll report back that this leaf type exists. Just have to wait now.

Growing this for the first time. Here is what it looks like today. Hasn’t ripened yet. What immediately catches the eye are the huge clusters (even though early summer wasn’t easy weather-wise) and the beauty of the fruits 😘

Michael Pollan in the greenhouse was productive, tall (5 ft / 1.5m), and mid-season. Fruits are tasty, sweet with a nice tang.

Didn’t like it at all. I love green tomatoes, but this was my biggest failure. Grew several vines, and that’s when I regretted not just planting one to test it out like everyone else does. Keep in mind, all my other varieties ate well this year and were very pleasant tasting.

I also didn’t like it. Grew it about 5 years ago, didn’t even bother saving seeds 🤷‍♀️ Turned out very sour for me.

The taste didn’t impress me either. I canned them in jars, we’ll see how they are in marinade.

Olvika70: The taste didn’t impress me either. I canned them in jars, we’ll see how they are in marinade.

Olya, so how was yours in marinade? Slugs chewed up my Michael Pollan pretty badly 😞 Because those massive, productive clusters were resting on the ground 🤷‍♀️ I can’t say I disliked the taste—it wasn’t particularly amazing, but not gross either, just an ordinary tomato flavor. It has both sweetness and tang, not bland. But it is insanely beautiful, and worth planting just for the looks 👍 I also shoved them into jars, and I can’t figure out if it’s because they were slightly underripe… or something else, but the skins are super hard to peel off in the preserves, though the taste is good.

VERY TASTY VARIETY! I regretted only planting 2 bushes. When it’s green with stripes – it’s hard and underripe. But when the orange tint appears (the green color shifts toward an orange, coppery tone) and the skin gets slightly soft – it’s finger-licking good! Definitely making the cut for next season. Seeds from Biotechnica. Height was about 4 ft (120 cm). Was in a poly tunnel for the first half of summer, then open dirt. Latitude 53. Well-amended bed. Prone to whiteflies, which were swarming like clouds for us this year.

Michael Pollan. Repeated this variety, really love it for its beauty and uniqueness.

It went through a lot during the seedling stage – got snapped in half and had to be re-rooted, so I ended up growing both the top cutting and the rootstock in pots. The rootstock pushed out two sucker stems, grew quickly in the pot, and was planted outdoors in the dirt where a zucchini had just finished fruiting. Managed to pump out several beautiful clusters 🙂

Fruits are sweet-and-sour, up to 1.7 oz (50g).

Edited September 25, 2019 by Svetikk

Unfortunately, this tomato disappointed me with its taste. Thick skin and not sweet, just bland. It’s only good for its external beauty with those massive fan clusters. Maybe it grows better outdoors in the dirt rather than in a greenhouse, because it set fruit very poorly for me in the heat. Turned out mid-late. Seeds were from Siberian Garden, germination was good. I’ll add that the plant is not disease-prone, didn’t suffer from Blossom End Rot (BER). Maybe I just got lucky.

Michael Pollan ripened a bit late for me. Grew outdoors, picked on August 27 along with the others because I was afraid of late blight.

Today we finally finished the last 5 fruits. Apparently, they were fully ripe because they were soft, but the taste was ordinary, nothing to rave about. It’s very hard to determine the level of ripeness, you can only really tell by touch—that’s a minus. Photo is from today. Matches the variety description. Won’t plant again.

Sat indoors in a room for 1.5 months without any damage, didn’t even shrivel up—that is a plus.

Edited October 19, 2022 by Vinogradinka

Beautiful, productive, but alas, the taste didn’t impress at all. Bland. Went straight into a sweet marinade, didn’t bother saving seeds.