Giant Belgium Tomato!

I sliced Orange Minsk, Giant Belgium, Druzba, and Phoenix Hybrid tomatoes for dinner today. As always, I had to sample them as I sliced them and fully expected the Orange Minsk to have the best flavor. I love Orange Minsk. I was surprised to find Giant Belgium too easily have the best flavor of the four. It is a strongly flavored, acidic tomato. I grew it this year simply to see if it would attain the huge size it is famous for. Mine have only reached the average large size with nothing outstanding so it is a pleasant surprise to find Giant Belgium is worth growing for taste as well as size. It is fairly productive. If I ever get serious about growing for size, I will probably need to pinch suckers and possibly remove all but a few small tomatoes early in the growing season. Druzba turned out to be worth growing but not outstanding in flavor. Phoenix hybrid is a tomato producing machine totally loaded with large, orange to red globes. It performs very well in the high heat of Texas. It's a shame it only tastes like a commercial, hybrid, determinate, store bought tomato.

My wife preferred Orange Minsk. She thought it tasted "fruity".

Ted

[tlintx]

Thank you for the variety reviews, especially helpful in context of Texas!

How would you compare Phoenix to Homestead or Big Beef? Or is there a better red slicer for heat out there?


Tl

[Tom A To]

I've got a good number of one-pound Giant Belgiums out in the garden as I write this. I agree with you on the taste.

I need to pick one of each variety I have and do a taste test/comparison like you've done here.

Originally Posted by tlintx

Thank you for the variety reviews, especially helpful in context of Texas!

How would you compare Phoenix to Homestead or Big Beef? Or is there a better red slicer for heat out there?


Tl

I grew Pheonix for the first time last fall. I think it tasted better last fall than it has this spring. My homestead tomatoes were also not very good this spring. The tomatoes are tiny on Homestead. I usually buy my Homestead seedlings and always buy my Pheonix plants from the nursery. I believe this year they got the Homestead mixed up with some kind of early determinate. Next year, I will grow them from seed. I don't believe Homestead or Pheonix taste as good as Big Beef. Both are much more productive than Big Beef in my garden but Big Beef tastes better. I suppose it just depends on if you want more tomatoes or better taste. I have grown Big Beef beside some of the "Brandywine" varieties and I believe it is comparable to some of the good Brandywines.

Ted

[greyghost]

I'm enjoying your reviews very much. Thats nice to know about Giant Belgium-
I've always thought it might be too mild to try. Darlene

[Sun City Linda]

Originally Posted by greyghost

I'm enjoying your reviews very much. Thats nice to know about Giant Belgium-
I've always thought it might be too mild to try. Darlene

Yes, me too! I live in a hot climate also so I really appreciate your reviews Ted!

I'm happy some people find my observations useful or at least entertaining. Camo is really the official reviewer on this forum. Unfortunately he has cut way back on the number of varieties he grows but certainly has provided some good information over the years. I hope other gardeners on this forum also contribute their observations to the discussions. I've learned a lot from many people on the forum and hope to continue learning.

I would guess each years tomato plantings in my garden originate from my experience in the past with various varieties. At least fifty percent are planted basis comments made by other gardeners. I keep two lists going all the time. They are "Grow Every Year" and "Grow In The Future". The Grow in the Future list is made from varieties other folks have commented on.

Ted

[camochef]

Ted,
I'm in agreement with you on the taste of Giant Belgium being right up there with some of my favorites. unfortunately I was never impressed with their size or production. Never got anywhere near some of my larger favorites.
Orange Minsk was one of those tomatoes that never did much for me taste-wise. I prefer a tomato that tastes like a tomato...not some other fruit. I'm not impressed with colors either. Having cut back from the hundreds of varieties I used to grow each year, to only twenty total tomato plants this year...I've eliminated all the different colors and smaller cherry, grape, current tomatoes as well as paste tomatoes so I can concentrate on the best tasting slicers, which is what I prefer.
Just checked the garden after last nights thunderstorms. Still have 42 tomatoes on my plants and all the cages are intact. (we had 60+ MPH go through). Still its going to be a while till I start getting ripe ones to taste. My largest Cowlick Brandywine has 9 tomatoes on it and 3 are just starting to turn color. Looks like it's going to be the first to ripen this year.
Thanks for your reviews and enjoy them all!
Camo

[b54red]

Ted my wife and I both thought Giant Belgium was in the top three for flavor this year. My largest tomato off of it was 17 ounces but it was a very good producer. This was the first year it was productive for me because it is one that always gets fusarium and the grafting of it onto a resistant rootstock made all the difference. I always read about it being so sweet but found it to be a very balanced full flavored tomato. It has been our favorite slicer for hamburgers and BLTs this year.

This was also my first year successfully growing Virginia Sweets. Now that is a really sweet tomato but with a flavor more full and rich than most of the really sweet tomatoes I have grown in the past like Pineapple or Lucky Cross. I also found VS to be more tolerant of the foliage diseases that have run rampant so far in this very wet season. It also produced fruits that were far larger on average than Giant Belgium but not as many. Both will get multiple plantings in my garden next season.

Bill

[Tom A To]

Picked a few GB's today. It's hard to judge but this bowl is pretty big. The fruits fill your entire hand easily.

[PaulF]

Like a lot of tomatoes with the name giant in them, I think as Carolyn first stated several years ago, " they may be giant in name and in flavor, but not necessarily in size." Giant Belgium when I have grown it averaged around 9-11 ounces, some bigger some smaller. The flavor was very good, but maybe not in my top 20.

Originally Posted by PaulF

Like a lot of tomatoes with the name giant in them, I think as Carolyn first stated several years ago, " they may be giant in name and in flavor, but not necessarily in size." Giant Belgium when I have grown it averaged around 9-11 ounces, some bigger some smaller. The flavor was very good, but maybe not in my top 20.

I've also read that Big Zac and Delicious don't get huge unless you limit the number of tomatoes on the vine and limit the branches on the vine. I don't plan on entering any size contests so I go for good production of good tasting, marginally large tomatoes. I've also read that Big Zac is a decent tasting hybrid tomato while Delicious is only a fair tasting, open pollinated tomato.

Looking at Tom A To's photo, it's easy to see Giant Belgium grows large and is very attractive. It's a bonus that it also tastes good.

Ted

[camochef]

Ted,
I grew Delicous last year for the first time, (seeds came free with seed starter kit from Burpee). It got plenty of ripe, ping pong ball sized tomatoes on it. They were spitters, and I pulled the plant fairly early in the season.
I was under the impression that it was a large slicer (suppossed to be the worlds largest tomato at 7 3/4lbs. ) Certainly wasn't this one.
Hope you have better luck than i did with it.
Enjoy!
Camo

Originally Posted by camochef

Ted,
I grew Delicous last year for the first time, (seeds came free with seed starter kit from Burpee). It got plenty of ripe, ping pong ball sized tomatoes on it. They were spitters, and I pulled the plant fairly early in the season.
I was under the impression that it was a large slicer (suppossed to be the worlds largest tomato at 7 3/4lbs. ) Certainly wasn't this one.
Hope you have better luck than i did with it.
Enjoy!
Camo

Burpee seems to have a tendency to assign any name they choose to any seed they choose. It doesn't seem to matter if the name already belongs to another variety. What better name can you imagine for seed that comes with a starter kit than "Delicious". It's good marketing.

Ted