Livingston’s Globe Tomato

85 days, indeterminate — Although it nearly disappeared from the commercial seed trade by the late twentieth century, ‘Livingston’s Globe’ has been preserved and remains available to modern gardeners.

It is a very productive variety with beautiful, globe to slightly elongated shaped, rich pink colored, medium sized fruit that average about six ounces each but can reach up to thirteen ounces. They have a pleasant, mild flavor and are excellent for slicing. ‘Livingston’s Globe’ was marketed for production and home garden use as well as being described as well suited to greenhouse applications.

Here is how it was introduced by the A. W. Livingston’s Sons Seed Company in 1897:

‘Livingston’s Globe’ is reported to be a selection of a cross made by Robert Livingston in between ‘Livingston’s Stone’ and the ‘Ponderosa’.  Livingston stated that the characteristic roughness of ‘Ponderosa’ persisted in ‘Livingston’s Globe’ and that only gradually was the present form developed.^[2,3]  However, by the time that it was announced in 1897, it was smooth-skinned and “fixed” (true-to-type). It was introduced for wide scale distribution, including being offered by most of the major seed houses of the era, in all of their 1905 seed catalogs.

Back in the late 1990s when we started recreating the Livingston Collection, several merchants were offering what they were calling ‘Livingston’s Globe’. We ordered and grew all of those out along with three accessions from the USDA (G 32193, PI 270186 and PI 270187).

Our seed stock has been grown and selected from seed sent to us in 2002 by author and tomato authority Craig LeHoullier who received the seed from the late seed saver Gary Staley in 1992. Reportedly, Mr. Staley’s source was USDA accession number PI 270186 which traces back directly to Livingston Seed Company. Each packet contains approximately 20 seeds.