Solanum lycopersicum
Tomate Ananas, Pineapple, Ananas noire: nothing to do with the tropical fruit, apart from the colors. Cut into slices, it reveals a marbling of yellow, orange, and red that cannot be guessed from the outside—each fruit is different. This is a very large tomato, sweet and slightly tangy, grown as much for its appearance as for its flavor.
Characteristics:
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Marbled flesh: yellow, orange, and red mixed together, with a different pattern in every slice.
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Very large fruits: often 500 g or more, slightly ribbed.
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Rich flavor: both sweet and tangy, with few seeds.
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Open-pollinated heirloom variety: you can sow your own seeds every year.
Sowing advice:
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Exposure: full sun and warmth are essential for ripening fruits of this size.
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Soil: deep, rich, loose, and well drained. A very large-fruited variety is particularly demanding: a generous application of well-rotted compost is essential.
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Method: sow from March, under cover or indoors, at a minimum of 20 °C—below this temperature, the seeds will not germinate. Cover with 5 mm of soil. Transplant into pots at the two true-leaf stage. See how to sow your seeds.
Planting advice:
- Transplant outdoors after the last frosts, spacing plants 80 cm apart. Bury the stem up to the first leaves: tomatoes produce roots along the entire buried section, resulting in a significantly more vigorous plant—essential for supporting such large fruits.
- This is an indeterminate variety: install a very sturdy stake at planting time.
Care advice:
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Always water at the base, never over the foliage, preferably in the morning: water on the leaves provides an entry point for blight. Mulch heavily.
- Water regularly and evenly: with very large fruits, irregular watering causes splitting and blossom-end rot.
- Remove suckers and limit the plant to 4 trusses: this is the price to pay for producing beautiful, fully developed fruits rather than a multitude of unfinished ones.
- Rotate crops every three to four years.
Harvesting advice:
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Tricky point: with a variegated variety, color alone is not enough to judge ripeness. Rely on touch—the fruit should yield clearly under your finger—and on its aroma, which becomes noticeable when ripe.
- Support the fruit when picking it, as its weight can easily break the truss. Store at room temperature, never in the refrigerator.
Beneficial companions:
Benefits for biodiversity:
- Its flowers are pollinated by vibration: only bumblebees make full use of them. Welcoming bumblebees directly improves your harvest, especially with large-fruited varieties.
- As an open-pollinated heirloom variety, growing it helps preserve cultivated diversity. See our heirloom tomatoes to sow.
Uses:
- Raw, in thick slices, with a simple drizzle of olive oil: this is the best way to enjoy its marbling and flavor. Cooking would spoil both.
Harvesting your own seeds:
Take the pulp from a beautiful, fully ripe fruit and let it ferment for two to three days in a little water—this step destroys the gelatinous coating that inhibits germination—then rinse it: the healthy seeds sink to the bottom. Dry them flat. See how to store your seeds.
Commitment to Quality: at SemiSauvage - Permaculture, we grow and select our seeds with respect for living things as our guiding principle. Based near the Volcanoes of Auvergne, we choose open-pollinated, non-hybrid varieties, tested for their germination rate, carefully sorted and packaged, with no chemical treatment. Our conviction: to give gardeners back the ability to resow, year after year, seeds that truly belong to them.
A different marbling in every slice: the most spectacular of heirloom tomatoes.
