"Belmonte" Hey Raso Girl, Look at This!

[amideutch]

I got the seed from tomatoaddict, who in turn received them from one of our French tomato friends. Anyway grew it at my surrogate garden at work along with 8 other varieties and this is what I found today. Beautiful, red, and tucked away in the foliage. I'm going to keep them whole for a day or two before I open them up for a look-see and taste. And there are more of these monsters on the vine in differnt stages of growth. Enjoy the pictures. The salad with the two together is made up of Serenity and Sweet Dreams. Ami

[carolyn137]

Let me know about the taste Ami. I have Belmonte seeds but had higher priorities in what was grown this summer.

If outstanding taste I can consider it for next season.

[carpi]

congrats Ami
your toms look very nice, although a bit different from what I expected

btw, a friend of mine just gave me 30+ seeds from a 1700 g (almost 4 pounds) Belmonte bought by his dad in Calabria (pic coming soon)
could share a few, if anybody is interested

[amideutch]

Hey carpi, whats up? Glad to see you posting. Bring on the photo's. BTW, you got mail. Ami

[amideutch]

Here are photo's of the two fruit cut in half and had mixed feelings about the taste. Nothing to scream about but was good. The interior of the tomato is kind of interesting. Ami

[tomatoaddict]

Hey Ami!! Your Belmonte's look like mine.
Here's a pic of one of mine. 2.5lbs. My opinion of it is:
It's a good producer, seems very disease resistant. Big and beautiful to look at. Taste wise....Ho hum. Nothing that really stood out. I grew Fritz Ackermann this year and that one was a Wow tomato... last two pics are FA

[amideutch]

Yeah, agree on the taste. I have seed for FA so I'll have to give it a grow next year. After reading Ray's discription of a tomato good for "Marinara Sauce" maybe Belmonte might fit. Ami

[carpi]

hey guys, your toms look really beautiful, but I'm not so sure about the variety
I live in the north of Italy, so I don't have any first hand experience, but from what I've read, belmonte is pink (generally with green shoulders) and heart shaped (or half way between heart and beefsteak)
have a look here:
http://www.comunedibelmontecalabro.c...gallfoto25.jpg
I suspect the pic to have been unproperly stretched somewhat, but it is on the official website of the Belmonte municipality, and the toms have the stickers on them, so they must be the real thing
more pics here: http://www.belmontetravel.net/pomodoro.htm

[carolyn137]

I'm pretty darn sure that the person who sent me my Belmonte seeds also said they were pink and since I hadn't heard of the variety before I did some Googling and it is pink.

Belmonte is also listed by Deerpark ( Michael ) as a pink in the 2008 SSE Yearbook.

[tomatoaddict]

Carpi,
Do you have seeds for the heart shaped one pictured on the link?
I would like to see the pic of the 4lb Belmonte..

[carpi]

the seeds are from a tomato grown in Calabria (within 50 miles from Belmonte), by a hobbyst grower, who said it was the Belmonte variety
so i'm pretty sure it didn't have the sticker (only those grown in the Belmonte area can have it), but I guess the genes are the real ones
the problem is that I got the seeds, but haven't got the pic yet (my friend has a connection problem, so he cant send me an email, and needs to copy the file on a usb drive and bring it to me)
i'm very curious too about how it looks!

[carolyn137]

I grew Fritz Ackermann this year and that one was a Wow tomato... last two pics are FA;

And just so there's no color confusion, the variety Fritz Ackerman is a pink with PL foliage.

I got the seeds from Bill Ellis in 1991 but I don't think he's still an SSE member. He's best known for his Polish variety which usually has the words brick red associated with it but it too is pink.

I think I've offered seeds for Fritz Ackerman in several of the seed offers I've made both here and at GW and I introduced it to the SSE Yearbook back in 1992.

A darn good variety as I see and taste it.

[carpi]

did some more search about belmonte color:

here http://www.comunedibelmontecalabro.cs.it/pomodoro.htm they say "non diventa mai rosso" (it never turns red)

here http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_di_Belmonte they say "In commercio si trova una cultivar a frutto rosso, ma non presenta le caratteristiche tipiche del "belmonte" in fatti questo e da ritenersi una ibridazione con i caratteri dominanti del marmande. Il pomodoro detto belmonte rosso si presenta con pezzature inferiore rispetto alla cultivar tipica, con acquosità abbondante e mancanza di turgore. Quest'ultima varietà è stata scelta per la riproduzione commerciale, soprattutto per la ridotta pezzatura dei frutti,( fino a 350 gr.) certo la qualità è molto distante dal rappresentare la cultivar tipica di "Belmonte"
(there is a commercially available variety with red fruit, but it doesn't show the typical traits of the "belmonte" and has to be considered as an hybridization whith the dominant traits of the marmande. The tomato called red belmonte has a size smallerthan the typical variety, with lots of water and lack of consistence. This last variety has been chosen for commercial production, mainly because of the smaller size (up to 350 gr.) of course the quality is very far from representing the variety typical of Belmonte)

maybe you got some big specimens of the red variety?

by the way, this summer in France i tasted some marmandes: they were big (600 g) and full ripe, very juicy but i liked them a lot

[tomatoaddict]

So, If I understand correctly Carpi....The oxheart shaped Belmonte is the true Belmonte. The large pink that Ami and I have grown is an imposter???
Can you get seed for the Oxheart Belmonte?

[dice]

Belmonte in TOMATObase (good picture, maybe not quite ripe):

http://t-garden.homeip.net/mwiki/index.php/Belmonte