Livingston’s Magnus Tomato

90 days, indeterminate — The plants of ‘Magnus’ are a potato leaf type that produce six to eight ounce, oblate, pink fruit. This combination of pink fruit on a potato leaf plant is somewhat rare. Additionally, the fruit are quite smooth, attractive, and have an excellent balanced flavor.

Developed by the Livingston Seed Company, it was introduced in their 1900 seed catalog as follows:

Eighteen years after its introduction, they further exclaimed:

By the later part of the twentieth century, ‘Magnus’ had all but become extinct in the seed industry and unavailable to home gardeners. Through the efforts of Craig LeHoullier and Carolyn Male, they located seed, accession number NSL 27381, stored within the National Seed Storage Lab in 1994.

The seed sample was so old that it was nearly sterile. One seed germinated with the correct leaf structure and was grown, nurtured, and eventually shared with seed savers. Our original seed is from this stock and was sent to us by Craig in 2003. Each packet contains approximately 20 seeds.