Tomato Costoluto Fiorentino (106-18)

I am in zone 8a in north Texas. I started these from seed this year. They have been powering through the heat with tons of production in a raised bed (6” over native ground). They have been good as fried green tomatoes, good raw in salads/sandwiches, and excellent cooked. Suckers and broken branches root readily in water and I have given clones to friends who had less success with other varieties. I plan to keep growing this one in the future.

I ordered multiple varieties of tomato seeds from Seeds from Italy this year and started them under grow lights & on the window sill, then transplanted them in my organic raised beds in mid-April in my Zone 7b garden in Georgia. I kept them covered for the first several weeks. This was, by far, my best performer this year: the easiest-to-grow, most prolific, longest producing, most tolerant of cool weather (in April) and very hot, dry weather later; most likely to outfox the many pests that munched on it, the prettiest, juiciest and - yes - best performer in the Italian tomato sauce that now fills my freezer. I highly recommend this inexpensive, impressive variety, now my favorite. (It edged out Cherokee Purple and San Marzano.)

These plants were started from seed mid-January and by the end of April they're loaded with large, flavorful fruits. The unusually warm Florida winter and spring in Zone 9 have resulted in a early start to harvest.