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East Carbon, Utah

Rodney Leadbeatter of Nullamanna, Australia shared seeds from his monster tomatoes of earlier this year - largest was 4.905 lbs.!

Who else grew these in 2012? Here are some of my notes:
• Very healthy, vigorous and productive plants
• With proper care, most fruits will be in the 1-2 lb. range
• Red, yellow-skinned, attractive fruits with moderate fluting and significant hollow seed locules
• Prone to cracking (I irrigate, so get lots of cracking fruits) and not a good keeper
• Flavor is surprisingly sweet and very good - melt in your mouth...
• Consistently VERY stingy on seed production

Overall, I think this is an excellent variety for production of good tasting, attractive, large, red tomatoes - as long as one is willing to water evenly and pick fruits promptly when ripe. As with most heirlooms, fruits would need gentle handling if growing for market.

So WE NEED A NAME for this variety! Any and all ideas welcome. Rodney posts here on occasion, so hopefully he'll chime in. Of course he has final say on the variety name.

Here are some of my ideas:

• Nullamania (Nullamanna is the city where Rodney lives)
• Leadbeatter's Lunker
• Leadbeatter's Leviathan
• Rod's RPG (Red Prolific Giant)
• Rodney's RPM (Red Prolific Monster)

Please cast your votes and submit additional ideas. Perhaps by October 1st we can get a variety name finalized?

Although there are probably several similar varieties out there (Homer's German Oxheart is the closest I can think of), it's highly unlikely that the true lineage of this one can be tracked down.

If I'm remembering correctly, a friend or relative of Rodney found a tomato plant growing in an old pile of grass about 15 years ago and shared seeds with him. Rodney has been growing and selecting this variety ever since then.

9/27/2012 1:22:57 AM

Hamilton Nj

leadbeatter lunker for me i grew this tomato did not get anything over a pound at most but i have not so great soil if my soil was up to snuff i think this would be a good one to replant for upcomeing years!!! pizza

9/27/2012 7:17:22 PM

Massachusetts

Rod's RPG (Red Prolific Giant)

9/27/2012 7:32:04 PM

East Carbon, Utah

I just heard back from Rodney,

"...Leadbeatters Lunker sounds like a great name lets go with it ..."

So LEADBEATTER'S LUNKER it is, and getting a prime spot next growing season!

Thanks again for some great seeds, Rodney!

9/29/2012 12:30:25 AM