Tomato 'Aussie'

I grew "Aussie" last year for the first time, with multiple other heirlooms, and it was by far my favorite!! Being indeterminate, it gre...Read Morew & grew to about 7 feet, setting lots of large fruit, so I used very long stakes to hold up the fruit-laden branches. By then the fruit wasn't ripening, so I snipped off all the ends to channel energy into the ripening. It finally (this is Seattle) started turning red in early September. I was worried about our cool September nights & cracking, but these tomatoes were the most durable of all the varieties. I kept picking clear through October! So you have to wait for a harvest while this plant grows, but you don't have to pick green & bring in. I got I think 30 or so gigantic tomatoes, and they were also the best-flavored of all my varieties! I had planted this in a 1-foot raised bed last year, but rotated to a southern wall this year, and it's doing just as well. Picture is posted. I can't recommend this heirloom enough!

I grew an Aussie several years ago in San Diego, CA. I asked the grower specifically for a good tomato to grow in a western-facing wall ...Read Moresituation, as my garden was very tiny and got quite hot in the afternoons, and she recommended an Aussie.

I LOVED this tomato. It grew to be about 7 feet tall in a large cage, and produced several dozen 1-2 lb, bright red, beatifully tasty fruits. I used some of them to make pasta sauce, but where they really stood out was in salsa, because of their intense flavor. This one plant almost made me independent of the Farmers Market for the entire month of September.

I planted the Aussie again the next year, after I moved to the San Francisco Peninsula, and although it grew to be a fine, healthy-looking plant (in a container, no less), it didn't set any fruit in our cooler climate. My theory is that it needs a lot of heat and sunlight to set fruit. Maybe I'll try it again in San Jose.

Aussie was my choice for 1st= this season (alongside Mortgage Lifter Bi-Color) out of the 65 varieties I grew. Fantastic rich tomato flav...Read Moreour, intensely sweet and gently tart, juicey and meaty with few seeds, all the good things were there and perfectly balanced. Fruit size was above average for a large beefsteak, every fruit was perfectly shaped, no catfacing, splitting, or contortions. Plants were large, productive, robust, and not at all affected by diseases. Humid conditions this year meant that over half the plants in my garden succumbed to either fusarium wilt or late blight or sclerotina or CMV, so for every single Aussie to remain unaffected is amazing. A truly wonderful tomato.

An 85 day large red beefsteak.