AMSEED American Seed Intelligence Platform
AMSeed · American Seed Intelligence Platform https://amseed.com/varieties/ponderosa-tomato
Tomato variety

Ponderosa

Heirloom tomato

Breeding
Heirloom
Growth habit
Indeterminate
Days to maturity
80-90 days
2 sources, none independent · basis unstated
Fruit
pink, beefsteak
Weight
16-32 oz
2 sources, none independent
Bred by
-

Grey captions say what stands behind that particular figure. Breeding, growth habit and fruit characters carry no caption because they rest on the record's sources as a whole rather than citing their own; closing that gap is ordinary outstanding work, not a finished job.

Origin & history

Peter Henderson's 1891 introduction, sold as the largest tomato of its day. The deeply ribbed pink beefsteaks run well over a pound and set the template for the giant-fruited class.

Measurements

MeasurementValueContext
Days to maturity 80-90 days Consensus range across the cited commercial catalogs; no independent source documents it yet.
Fruit weight 16-32 oz Typical range for the cultivar, as a consensus across the cited sources. Not a measured mean from any single crop: fruit weight varies with season, spacing and where on the plant the fruit set.

Against the rest of the tomato database

Where this variety sits among every tomato we hold a comparable figure for. Position is not merit: earlier is not better than later, and hotter is not better than milder. Only cultivar-level figures are compared, never trial results, and maturity is only ranked against figures counted the same way.

Days to maturity 80-90 days · ranked at its midpoint, 85
47.5 median 75 90

later than 92% of the 258 tomatoes we hold a figure for. None of these figures state whether they are counted from sowing or from transplant, so they are ranked against each other on the assumption that suppliers use one convention, which is not something any of them says.

Fruit weight 16-32 oz · ranked at its midpoint, 24.0
2.5 median 12.0 32.0

heavier than 88% of the 72 tomatoes we hold a figure for.

Traits

Disease resistance

No documented disease resistance, typical of heirlooms and older open-pollinated varieties. See tomato diseases for the cultural playbook that fills the gap.

Related varieties

Explore all tomato varieties · compare any two · when to plant it where you are

Sources & References

Evidence: 2 sources, all seed catalogs. No independent reference documents this yet.

  1. Victory Seeds variety histories · Victory Seed Company, Seed Catalog
  2. Tomato Growers Supply catalog · Tomato Growers Supply Company, Seed Catalog