George Detsikas Italian Red

General Info
Seed Availability

George Detsikas Italian Red
Maturity	midseason
Growth habit	indet.
Leaf type	regular
Fruit color	red
Fruit shape	heart, beefsteak
Fruit size	large
Fruit type	slicer
Variety type	open-pollinated, family heirloom
Country	Italy

[[File:|thumb|250px|Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T).]]

B.C KO T

Seed source:

Tracy Mathesius of Illinois

Year grown:

Location: Zone 7b, PNW, Anmore, BC, Canada (760 ft above sea level)

For me, even in a non-ideal location, these tomatoes were the first to ripen (of almost 40 varieties), and were very vigorous and productive. They produced good sized tomatoes, many over 1 lb. Some look to be blunt hearts, others not really. They are very meaty and juicy, with a good rich old-fashioned flavor.

Seed source:

Maureen Key-Del Duca of Colorado / Kathy Carella in Ontario, Canada

Year grown: 2014

Location: Illinois

ID DE M

In 2016, this produced four large, impressive-looking fruits, with decent taste. They were about 2lbs each. I had a feeling it could be much more productive in future years from the seeds I saved. To be fair, it was crowded with other plants (as were many of my other tomatoes, in 2016). In 2017, I grew one plant from a seed of the largest fruit I had in 2016; it had somewhat less sun than the full sun it had in 2016, and much less water, but it produced more fruit (and very large fruit, still, but they had more flavor and were not as dense, probably on account of watering them less). It had more above-ground space in 2017, but was still crowded. This was one of my favorite varieties of 2017, and probably the largest of about 105 varieties (rivaled for size only by Pink Berkeley Tie Dye, Evergreen, and Chapman; I preferred its taste in 2017 to any of these other large ones in 2017, though, but I preferred the taste of Chapman in 2016 to that of George Detsikas Italian Red in 2016).

Seed source:

ginger2778 of tomatoville.com (from Marsha's 2016 SASE SEED OFFER)

Year grown: 2016, 2017

Location: New Plymouth, Idaho

History

A family heirloom that originally came from Italy.
The seeds originally came to Tracy Mathesius of Illinois via Maureen Key-Del Duca of Colorado from Kathy Carella in Ontario, Canada. Kathy's father George Detsikas had saved seeds from these tomatoes each year for decades. This seed was from the last batch that her father grew in 2013, as he passed away over the winter. George was originally given the seeds over 25 years ago by an old Italian man who had brought the seeds from Italy. The family always referred to them simply as "George's Tomatoes". The family described them as "giant beautiful sweet dark red tomatoes".
Tracy Mathesius grew out 3 plants in isolation in 2014, and shared the seed with many tomato gardeners via Tomatoville gardening forum.

Picture Gallery

Tracy Mathesius, IL. George Detsikas Italian Red - leaf. 2014. Posted with owner's permission.
Tracy Mathesius, IL. George Detsikas Italian Red - flowers. 2014. Posted with owner's permission.
Tracy Mathesius, IL. George Detsikas Italian Red - flowers. 2014. Posted with owner's permission.
Tracy Mathesius, IL. George Detsikas Italian Red - green fruit. 2014. Posted with owner's permission.
Tracy Mathesius, IL. George Detsikas Italian Red - green fruit. 2014. Posted with owner's permission.
Tracy Mathesius, IL. George Detsikas Italian Red - green fruit. 2014. Posted with owner's permission.
Tracy Mathesius, IL. George Detsikas Italian Red - green fruit. 2014. Posted with owner's permission.
Tracy Mathesius, IL. George Detsikas Italian Red - ripe fruit. 2014. Posted with owner's permission.
Tracy Mathesius, IL. George Detsikas Italian Red - ripe fruit. 2014. Posted with owner's permission.
Tracy Mathesius, IL. George Detsikas Italian Red - ripe fruit. 2014. Posted with owner's permission.
Tracy Mathesius, IL. George Detsikas Italian Red - ripe fruit. 2014. Posted with owner's permission.
Tracy Mathesius, IL. George Detsikas Italian Red - ripe fruit. 2014. Posted with owner's permission.
Tracy Mathesius, IL. George Detsikas Italian Red - ripe fruit. 2014. Posted with owner's permission.
Tracy Mathesius, IL. George Detsikas Italian Red - sliced fruit. 2014. Posted with owner's permission.
Tracy Mathesius, IL. George Detsikas Italian Red - sliced fruit. 2014. Posted with owner's permission.