Big Ol’ Tomaters

One of the pleasant surprises of this summer’s tomato season is this Costoluto, an old Italian heirloom that’s doing very well in our dry desert summer heat.

The plants are large (8 feet tall) indeterminates and bear heavy loads of large (8 – 22 ounces) fruit in clusters of six. As you might guess, the definitely need heavy duty support. They snapped the Arundo cane poles I normally use, so I had to support them with 6 foot steel stakes and 1×2 lumber.

Costaluto tomatoes on the tomato plant

The fruit is an orange-red, dense and meaty (they sink in water) with small seed cavities, so they’re great as both slicers and saucers. The flavor is outstanding.

To date, we’ve picked about 40 pounds of fruit from the four plants and expect to get another 40 or so before the season is done.

Fresh picked Costaluto tomatoes

I highly recommend the variety and will be growing more next year.