Tomato 'Green Giant'

DANG! These tomatoes are FABULOUS! Was really pleased with my experience of "Green Giant" after growing them for the first time this yea...Read Morer. "Green Giant" is a large, meaty tomato with a sweet, clean, fresh taste...though to my palate there is just the barest hint of an almost black pepper-like finish at the end that makes the flavor a bit more complex and interesting. The fruit visually remind me of Christmas; mine actually got a pretty decent overall red-hued flush to them when dead-ripe despite being a green tomato, so there was this contrasting red & green coloration going on. It's still a green tomato, but there was more red to it than I was anticipating and it carries into the meat of the fruit like a stain - very pretty! Really loved this cut up on a plate with some good mozzarella, a hit of flaky sea salt, a generous chiffonade of fresh basil, and hefty drizzle of balsamic reduction - superb! It is a bit thicker-skinned than "Cherokee Green" so doesn't split as readily if rain/watering has been inconsistent, but the fruit is tender and does seem to bruise rather easily FWIW so just be delicate when handling. 10/10, though; will most definitely grow again!

ETA: We had a very hot, very dry summer here; pretty consistently in the very high 80's to +90F temps. I was good about watering but the unusual weather may have affected flavor (for the better) and output (less productive than I had hoped, but the fruit that came in were of A++ quality) so your results might vary in a similar zone under more normal conditions. I did not find these tomatoes to be notably watery/juicy/"wet" as another reviewer below had stated, but I do understand the dryness of the season in my locale may have been a mitigating factor.

When grown in strong sun, this is one of my two favorite-tasting tomatoes, so far.

Growing environment: I grew this in sou...Read Morethwestern Idaho, near a couple high deserts. We had an exceedingly hot summer (especially in late June; usually it's hottest in late July and early August, however). The soil was compact clay-loam. I gave the plants worm castings, basalt rockdust, rock phosphate, potassium sulfate, and one or two early applications of even fertilizers (like 20-20-20). It's a little on the arid side here (not humid). It's very dry. We hardly got any rain. I watered the plants a lot at first, but eventually, I switched over to dry-farming, pretty much. I planted them extra deep, with a post-hole digger. They didn't complain for water, particularly. The plants had lots of sun. There were plenty of white flies around. I grew about 30 varieties of tomatoes. They were grown in the city limits; so, they got city water when I did water them.

Taste: The taste is awesome. It definitely tastes like a tomato. It's not smokey or zingy. I didn't taste any melon in it (maybe it's my growing environment). It's not particularly sweet or acidic, but it just tastes awesome. It's hard to describe. The flavor is rich. It's exceedingly juicy (so, I wouldn't recommend it for sauce, salsa or a pizza topping—I tried it as a pizza topping, and it made the pizza soggy). The juice is also very tasty (it would be an excellent juice tomato). I think it's best use is for fresh-eating. Everyone else I gave it to seemed to love it. No salt needed, said my neighbor in surprise (he lamented the idea of putting salt on it earlier, which he suggested before he tasted it). The one that ripened in the shade did not taste nearly as good (it tasted like a grocery store Roma). Those in the sun tasted totally awesome. They seem to taste great whether they're fully ripe or a little bit under-ripe. They don't seem terribly acidic either way. I had one tomato that was a little bit more acidic than the others, though, but not much (and it was a pleasant acidic).

Appearance: These are medium-large to large, round tomatoes. Mine were susceptible to circular cracking on the top of the tomatoes. They are indeed entirely green (inside and out), even when quite ripe. The way to tell if they're ripe is to feel them. If they're soft, they're ripe. The appearance surprises people. My mom thought it was totally weird that they weren't sour (but she quite liked them).

Overview: These are great-tasting, very juicy tomatoes, though they require sun for the taste, it seems. They are not heat-tolerant. Mine didn't set fruit until after the heat wave cooled. However, they weren't particularly late, considering. The plants were potato leaved and grew fine (although they looked like they needed more nitrogen). I didn't get loads and loads of tomatoes, but I didn't give the plants great conditions for producing loads and loads of tomatoes (I planted them late; they needed more nitrogen, I think; so, the plants were small from not growing fast). We got maybe a few tomatoes per plant. However, I'm guessing these plants could be more productive if planted earlier, with better conditions (especially if you don't have super hot early summer weather, city water, etc.) They would probably appreciate some alfalfa hay, too (people in my area who use hay seem to get more and better tomatoes, it seems). It's a fun tomato to grow.

My seeds came from rareseeds.com, packed for 2015. I saved lots of seeds.

This is probably the only non-heat-tolerant tomato that I grew this year that I plan to grow again, next year. I really want to breed some heat-tolerance into it, and breed the cracks out of it. The taste is just that awesome. German Pink was a pretty cool one, too (and if I had more space I'd probably grow it, as well).

Wow! What a great tomato! Not real'y a big producer for me, but makes up for it with big, juicy,tasty tomato's! Plants are huge!

A very productive and reasonably disease-free variety in my garden. Like the previous reviewer stated, this variety has a melon flavor. ...Read More Cool, refreshing, and sweet. A good salad or salsa tomato. It would also make an interesting pasta sauce!
I will definitely grow it again.