The fruits are cherry size, yellowish white, taste awful (might be right down your alley), and most of all, the seed do NOT come true to type. This is a genuine hybrid and the segregation in the offspring is tremendous. The vines are beyond vigorous in trying to take over the world. They will easily get to 10 times the size of any other tomato plant you have ever seen.

Fusion

Fusion,

When you have grafted some of your favorite varieties on to Maxifort rootstock, have you ever noticed any difference at all in the flavor of the fruit or is the flavor true to the type of variety that was grafted to the rootstock?

Jay

Yes, I certainly want to try some maxifort seeds. What would you like in trade? I have many varieties of tomatoes.
Tabbie

I don't need anything in trade.
email instructions to cw@ponyshow.com
include MAXIFORT in the subject so i can see it over the spam.

Hi All,

I let a maxifort grow in my garden a couple of years ago before I realized it was a hybrid. Vigorous, stinky plants. Did not even want to try the toms. My grafted Marianna's Peace were very healthy, tasted great. I plan on more grafted plants this year to overcome the (confirmed) Fusarium wilt in my soil.

Beth

Hello everyone -these were from a grafting trial two years ago (small backyard garden) -
I rooted several Maxifort tops from some young seedlings (scions left over from tube grafts). They would have quickly taken over the whole garden if I hadnt kept whacking them back - which was practically a daily chore. Vigorous is an understatement. Im not sure how productive it ultimately could have been, since I kept it so severely pruned, but that one three foot stub grew out quite a few seeds(F2). Seedlings from the F2 all had the same characteristic scent/leaf form, but seemed to lack much of the aggressive vigor of the F1. I didnt grow them out past that.
I couldnt tell any difference in flavor from grafted fruit, but some varieties did seem to ripen fruit up to a couple of weeks sooner than their non-grafted counterparts. No real disease problems that season, so I cant speak to that issue. Not very scientific maybe, due to small number of total plants, but my overall impression was very encouraging. George

@geol

Can you give more detail on the taste of the maxifort?

elskunkito,
I didnt bother to taste the Maxifort fruit. The one F1 I grew out was just to get some seed to experiment with, and the trusses I picked were fermented for that. The rest , just the root stock was used. I grew some sprouts from the saved F2 seed, just to test, and got 100% germination. All were healthy and strong, just not as rampant as the F1. I didnt grow any F2 to maturity, but couldnt see any segregation in any of my sprouts. I still have F2 seed if anyone has an interest. When doing the grafts, I kept re-rooting the discard Maxifort tops, and using them to practice making additional graftings. The rootings seemed to be equal to the rootstock that came from original seed in every regard. They root very vigorously , and were a simple source of additional material. Hope your trials are going well. I know that others share my intrest, please keep us posted, George

A search turned up this thread as what seems to be Fusarium has ravaged my Marianna's Peace, Bloody Butcher, and Japanese Black Treuffle. My Sun Gold Hybrid, Black Cherry, and Sioux seem to be unaffected.

Please correct me if I don't understand things right -

I would sow the Maxifort seed and grow it out for a while, at the same time growing out a vulnerable variety. Eventually, I would snip the Maxifort plant beyond the 1st true leaves. I would then make a V-notch above those first true leaves and graft a scion of the vulnerable variety onto it there...right...??

Is there a preferred vendor for Maxifort seed?

Is this a reasonable course of action for a person who just wants decent tomatoes grown in the ground?

My hydroponic plants never have any of these issues so I'm not experienced at dealing with them.

Shelbyguy,
I was hoping someone with a lot more experience than I have would respond to your question but I can at least say yes, you've correctly described it. My understanding is the original rational to graft tomatoes was to work around common diseases by using resistant rootstock but some experienced increased production and thats what caught my attention.

I purchased Maxifort seeds this winter from Paramount Seeds. The seeds are quite expensive (minimum purchase is 250 seeds) and are getting even more so (see email copied below) but being "pre-season" I somehow was able to justify the expenditure. My motivation was pretty much limited to try and get better production from Prue, my absolute favorite (taste wise) tomato. I normally do not have serious disease problems and Prue doesnt seem to be any more susceptible than anything else Ive grown but it sure is stingy for me.

I attempted ten grafts. Be advised the closest thing to grafting I'd done prior to this was hitting the graph button in EXCEL. I was only successful with four grafts and lost three of those (including Prue!) within the first week of planting to 55mph+ wind gusts. The sole survivor is Anna Maria's Heart. The grafted AMH is more than twice as big as an un-grafted one and I counted 33 greenies on it compared to 9 on the un-grafted one. Ive not grown AMH before so I dont have any idea what production is normally but 9 fruit is very similar to my experience with Prue. Im not seeing any kind of disease on either plant.

Will I attempt more grafts next year? Absolutely!! Im sold (and already have the seeds!) but with only a single grafted plant I would be hard pressed to suggest anyone put out the cash to try it. On the other hand Sungold seems to be pretty much impervious to disease and you might attempt using it as rootstock instead of Maxifort. It even has a distinctive smell very much like Maxifort.
Terry Light
Oak Hill, Virginia

Dear Growers,
This email is to notify growers who have previously bought De Ruiter Seed varieties (e.g. Trust, Geronimo, Clarance, Maxifort etc) through Paramount Seeds. De Ruiter will increase their seed prices on July 14th.

The US $ is weak and the breeding companies have most of their expenses in euros. The price increase averages 6-7% but some varieties have a larger increase and some lower.

For example - Current Price of Trust Tomato is $305.00 per 1000 seeds. New price $ 347.00/1000 seeds. For total orders of 5,000 seeds or more, current price Trust is $290.00/1000 seeds. New price $330.00/1000 seeds

Geronimo has an increase from $351/1000 seeds to $376/1000 seeds (for 5,000 or more price increases from $333/1000 to $358/1000)

If you would like to pre-order your future requirements and take delivery by the end of July, we can purchase the seed at current pricing. We hope you can take advantage of this opportunity to delay the effects of these price increases.

Regards
Paramount Seeds

Richard Blakey
Glen Kaufman

my grafted plants are definitely bigger than their non grafted counterparts.

for fun I planted a straight maxifort plant, ungrafted. It's the most vigorous plant I have ever seen. 2 parts kudzu, 1 part 'mater. lotsa blooms too. I hope they taste good...

You might find that the new Japanese-I think ?, (He-Man ) rootstock seeds are more suitable than maxifort, as in trials it gave a much higher rating and protection against various diseases and is just as vigorus as maxifort, it is also a hybrid but has slightly more normal tomatoes on it when grown out,

It is widely available accross Europe and the far east, especialy in Greece where it is used almost exclusivly against some soil born problem in Greece where commercial tomatoes are grown under polythene covered tunnels.

The seeds are expensive to buy, but very good.

Although I must admit that I have not seen any USA seed suppliers stocking it at the moment.