📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Ispanskiy Gigant (Spanish Giant)
- 🌍 Origin: A Russian collector’s variety circulating under the “working name” Spanish Giant.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall) and a reliable, heavy yielder. It is a late-season variety.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Large red beefsteaks. They are mostly oblate (flattened and ribbed), though the plant occasionally throws wide, heart-shaped fruits.
- 👅 Flavor & Use: Very good, classic flavor. Its standout feature is its shelf life: it stores remarkably well and ripens beautifully indoors if picked green before the first frost.
🍅 Grown this variety? Click here to add your own photos and review below!
This is a working name. It’s a late-season indeterminate, large-fruited, and quite a productive variety. The tomatoes are red, ribbed, and oblate (flattened), though some show a slightly wide heart shape.
It ripens up perfectly indoors and actually has a pretty decent shelf life. The flavor is really good. Definitely a worthy variety to grow.
Definitely a late-season one. By September 23rd they were only just starting to blush on the sides, so I pulled them green. They’ll ripen indoors just in time for when all the other tomatoes are gone for the season. Thanks for the seeds, Tanya!
👨🌾 Editor’s Note: Beating the Frost (Indoor Ripening)
Olga’s post highlights a classic short-season survival tactic. In cold regions like Chelyabinsk (or the Northern US and Canada), late-season giant beefsteaks often run out of time on the vine before the first killing frost hits. Pulling them at the “breaker” stage (when they just start to blush) or even fully green is standard practice. The fact that Tatyana notes this variety “ripens up perfectly indoors and has a decent shelf life” makes it highly valuable. Many massive heirlooms turn to mush if picked green, but varieties with a good shelf life will slowly ripen on your kitchen counter, extending your fresh tomato harvest well into late fall!
Olga’s post highlights a classic short-season survival tactic. In cold regions like Chelyabinsk (or the Northern US and Canada), late-season giant beefsteaks often run out of time on the vine before the first killing frost hits. Pulling them at the “breaker” stage (when they just start to blush) or even fully green is standard practice. The fact that Tatyana notes this variety “ripens up perfectly indoors and has a decent shelf life” makes it highly valuable. Many massive heirlooms turn to mush if picked green, but varieties with a good shelf life will slowly ripen on your kitchen counter, extending your fresh tomato harvest well into late fall!
