Anyone planted "Kumato" seeds from store-bought fruit before?

[Anthony_Toronto]

I've found that the kumato that I have bought have stored so well as to never ripen...stay 'crunchy' until they rot. On the flip side some of my heirloom varieties seem so delicate that I have to either eat them quickly (which I can't always do) or end up having to cut off the rotted part or having to toss them...Green Giant is one that I find particularly delicate (and particularly juicy and delicious). I assume growing out something with reputed storability and attempting to cross with something with reputed taste would probably yield something that was merely average on both counts.

[kurt]

We just got a Trader Joes up in Miami and when I "have to"go up "there" once in a while the wife has me stop and get some selected items. Last week I went and TJoes had some Kumatos from Canada.They are excellent for us.Most times T Joes has the Mexican grown Kumatos that are not up to par.The Mexicans are a lighter brown,with hardly any shoulders(dark).The Canadian Kumato has that real dark mahogany color with the dark shoulders to match.These I have saved seed from for this season.

[ddsack]

I too have experienced that not all Kumato packs are equally good. I hope the ones I am growing are the Canadian type. The seeds are from the first batch I ate back in 2012, but I didn't note the producer at that time. The skin may be a bit thicker than many heirlooms, but the inside was soft and juicy, not crunchy at all. I would not have saved seeds, if I didn't like the taste or texture. Now I am all curious to know if my grow outs will be anything like the original.

Hey, Anthony - average is good, when all you can find are hard cardboard tomatoes in the off season.
And if you keep selecting for flavor with each generation, it should keep getting better. Only way to find out is to give it a try.

[Anthony_Toronto]

My Kumato packs (largely from Costco) have varied widely, some took on a deeper red colour and softened and had a great tasted, others that did so had good texture but tasted green and stemmy. And far too many just never ripened at all, stayed crunchy and then rotted as mentioned. Took a long time for that to happen though!

I hope I have enough fruits this year to make a huge batch of gazpacho and freeze it so that I can pull it out and get that raw 'fresh' tomato taste all winter. I preferred some of the smaller red varieties sold in the winter for consistency, though they were not very interesting. Ended up with some disappointing kumato/basil/buffalo mozzarella salads with the crispy cruncy ones.

[MrBig46]

I never wanted to grow Kumato, but I got the seeds from my friend Baikal (Spain- Mallorca). I am growing two plants, one in the bed (pict.) and second in the container (I'll be watering NaCl).
Vladimír

[Anthony_Toronto]

I like your wire support setup

[cythaenopsis]

Originally Posted by kurt

We just got a Trader Joes up in Miami and when I "have to"go up "there" once in a while the wife has me stop and get some selected items. Last week I went and TJoes had some Kumatos from Canada.They are excellent for us.Most times T Joes has the Mexican grown Kumatos that are not up to par.The Mexicans are a lighter brown,with hardly any shoulders(dark).The Canadian Kumato has that real dark mahogany color with the dark shoulders to match.These I have saved seed from for this season.

Interesting, I didn't realize they were being sourced from different climates. Now that you mention it, I think the ones that were tastier were from Canada (recall a "Canada" source label). Maybe the ones I found weaker in taste were from Mexico.

Kumato do exhibit great shelf life and storage. I could buy a pack and they'd last several weeks before softening and nearing rot stage, while still tasting good. Of course, not as great as heirloom.

I'll have to inquire with our local Trader Joe's and see if word can be sent up stream to change their source back to Canada for our district.

[kurt]

I am almost sure it is a seasonal occurance.The local Norman Bros produce here has Mexican sourced Kumatos during the Canadian winter (greenhouse shut down I guess)but now he carrys the Canadian Kumatos.The produce manager at Normans says the Canadian Kumatos sell better for him than the Mexican sourced hence he carrys(and customer demand) them when avaliable over the Mexican.