Beefsteak Tomato
Where to buy seeds
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Marianna's Peace Tomato is a generous, old-fashioned beefsteak that delivers everything tomato lovers crave. Each plant produces substantial one-pound fruits with deep red color and a beautifully balanced flavor, sweet and acidic in equal measure, the kind that tastes like summer itself. This open-pollinated heirloom grows as an indeterminate vine reaching 3 to 8 feet, bearing fruit in 70 to 79 days from transplant, and thrives in hardiness zones 2 through 11, making it reliable across most of North America.
Full Sun
Moderate
2-11
96in H x ?in W
Annual, Perennial
High
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What sets Marianna's Peace apart is its singular focus on flavor excellence. These large red tomatoes earn consistent high marks from gardeners specifically for taste, combining genuine sweetness with bright acidity rather than the flat, mealy character of many commercial varieties. The indeterminate growth habit means you'll harvest continuously throughout the season, and the heirloom genetics ensure you can save seeds year after year, building a deeper connection to your garden with each season.
Marianna's Peace Tomato excels as a slicing tomato, delivering the substantial flesh and balanced flavor that fresh summer tomato dishes demand. Its size and meaty texture make it ideal for tomato sandwiches, salads, and any preparation where you want the tomato to be the star. The generous yield from indeterminate vines means you'll have enough to eat fresh throughout the season and preserve extras through canning, sauce-making, or freezing.
Start seeds indoors six to eight weeks before your last spring frost. Keep soil temperature around 70 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit for reliable germination. Plant seeds at the recommended depth and maintain consistent moisture — not waterlogged — until seedlings emerge in 5 to 10 days.
Harden off seedlings by gradually exposing them to outdoor conditions over 7 to 10 days before transplanting. Move them outdoors after all danger of frost has passed and soil temperature reaches 60 degrees Fahrenheit or warmer. Space transplants 24 inches apart in rows 36 inches apart, planting slightly deeper than they grew indoors to encourage a stronger root system.
Pick Marianna's Peace tomatoes when they reach full red color and yield slightly to gentle pressure. The variety typically matures in 70 to 79 days from transplant, and continued harvesting encourages the plant to keep flowering and producing throughout the growing season. Twist fruits gently from the stem or use a slight downward pull; they should release cleanly when fully ripe. You can also harvest slightly underripe fruits and set them on a windowsill to finish ripening if frost approaches.
As an indeterminate variety, Marianna's Peace benefits from selective pruning to manage its vigorous growth and improve air circulation. Remove suckers, the shoots that emerge between the main stem and branches, to keep the plant focused on fruit production rather than excessive foliage. This also reduces disease pressure and makes harvesting easier. Allow the main stem and primary branches to develop fully, and in late summer, pinch out the growing tip to channel energy toward finishing the fruit already developing on the vine.
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“The seeds that became Marianna's Peace Tomato carry a lineage stretching back well before modern seed commerce, a testament to gardeners who saved and replanted them generation after generation. This heirloom emerged from those quiet, deliberate acts of preservation, passed hand to hand through families and communities who recognized something special in its flavor and reliability. It represents the broader movement to recover and protect open-pollinated varieties at risk of disappearing as industrial agriculture consolidated seed stock.”