Moruno PL Tomato Review & Photos: Spanish Heirloom

On 3/1/2021 at 7:46 PM, Murka said:
Hey Julia! Do you happen to know the difference between Moruno, Moruno de Madrid, and Moruno PL? Was going through my seed packets and realized I have all 3. Googled them, and mostly Moruno de Madrid pops up in collections.

Good evening, Masha! Moruno is a traditional Spanish heirloom tomato. It has a gorgeous color and shape, kinda like this one, with really great traits.

Back when I was digging into Spanish tomatoes, I seem to remember there are 4 different strains of it. Some are bigger and meatier, while others run smaller. Way I see it, it’s basically the same regional tomato grown across different parts of Spain.

Moruno de Madrid – which a lot of folks here have grown – has brick-red fruits. Moruno PL doesn’t have any green shoulders either, it’s mostly red – Larisa grew that one.

If you have the space, plant all of them and compare. If you gotta pick just one, I’d go with the classic Moruno.

In Spain they also call it the Moorish tomato.

Here is Larisa’s @CUCSA beauty –

Edited March 1, 2021 by Tiffany

On 3/1/2021 at 8:28 PM, Murka said:
Checked out those beauties, Larisa! Not sure why I didn’t think to look for the description under your photos when they popped up in my search. Thanks! Honestly, the second I read right here that they’re super sweet, there was no question whether to plant it or not.

Moruno PL

Indeterminate. Tall vine, reached 4.3 ft (1.3 m) outdoors. Handsome, sturdy plant with potato leaf foliage and a massive yield. Big, gorgeous slicers – meaty, juicy, beautiful color, weighing 9-21 oz (250-600 g). Pure sweetness with zero acidity, a kind of spicy-sweet flavor. Considered a superfood for its ability to help lower prostate cancer risk, the Moruno tomato has twice the normal level of natural cancer-fighting lycopene and as much vitamin C as an orange.

The potato leaf version ripened earlier for me than the regular leaf one. Though the regular leaf plant gave bigger fruits.

After we talked about Moruno yesterday… I went looking at different photos… 😁 could practically taste it right through the screen… Dug into my seed vault and found seeds from 2 different sources. Had a dangerous thought in the middle of the night… maybe I should squeeze it in. 😁 Pushed that crazy thought right back down… staying strong, no extra varieties allowed. I already have a whole pile of seed packets set aside in my box that I still need to narrow down 🤦‍♀️

I know my friend in Latvia has the classic dark-tinted Moruno with green, ribbed shoulders. 😁 Talked myself off the ledge by remembering she’ll send me her seeds this fall. So my 2022 grow list is officially started.

Julia, I actually decided to go ahead and grow it! Think I’ll bump one of my dark varieties to next year to make room. Really loved Larisa’s description about how sweet they are, so my mind’s made up – planting Moruno this season.