Heirloom Tomato Varieties & Reviews | Tomat-Pomidor
Honest reviews of global tomato varieties from a 15-year-old growers community.
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Bychiy Lob (Bull’s Forehead) 🌍 Origin: A commercial Siberian variety released by the Russian seed company “Siberian Garden” (SibSad). The name translates to “Bull’s Forehead” in English. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, though some growers report that it occasionally self-tops (terminates with a flower truss) around 6.5 ft (2m) in the greenhouse. … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Babushkino (Grandma’s) 🌍 Origin: A highly popular heirloom variety widely circulated among collectors. The name translates to “Grandma’s”. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, vigorous, and tall (easily pushing past 7 ft / 2m in a greenhouse). An absolute workhorse of a plant that pumps out heavy yields. Often grown to 2 or … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Burracker’s Favorite 🌍 Origin: A famous heirloom variety from the USA (Virginia), named after the Burracker Hollow in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was introduced to the gardening world by Craig LeHoullier. In Russia, it’s known as “Burrakerskie Lyubimtsy”. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate. The plant is notorious for having somewhat “wimpy” … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Babushkino Bychie Serdtse (Grandma’s Oxheart) 🌍 Origin: A Russian family heirloom that is over 80 years old. Introduced to seed collectors by Angelina Khilenko. The name translates to “Grandma’s Oxheart”. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, vigorous, and tall. Can easily reach over 2 m (6.5 ft) in a greenhouse. Its performance is … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Bolshoy Oranzhevyi Khrebet (Big Orange Ridge) 🌍 Origin: A Russian heirloom variety. The name translates to “Big Orange Ridge”. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate. Requires pruning/training (growers typically prune to 2 or 3 stems). It can experience slow fruit set during unfavorable early-season weather but compensates heavily once conditions stabilize. Demonstrates good … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Big Zac 🌍 Origin: Bred in the USA by Minnie Zaccaria. It is famous worldwide among competitive growers for producing record-breaking giant tomatoes. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, vigorous, and noted for producing exceptionally thick stems. It can easily exceed 2 meters (6.5 ft) in a greenhouse. 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Red, oblate … Read more
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📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Grosse de Christophe 🌍 Origin: A large European variety. The name translates from French as “Christophe’s Large”. 🌿 Plant Habit: Produces a sturdy, robust plant. 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Raspberry-pink beefsteaks. The fruits are shiny, uniform in shape, and relatively smooth with slight ribbing. They are consistently large, typically ranging from 300–500 … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Chernyi Oxheart Large 🌍 Origin: Sourced from the collection of American seed saver Dale Thurber. The name is a linguistic mix (“Chernyi” means “Black” in Russian). It likely circulated in the US as “Chernyi Oxheart Large” before being translated back into Russian by local growers as “Large Black Oxheart”. 🌿 Plant … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Uriasa de Baltatesti 🌍 Origin: An old Eastern European heirloom from the Bălțătești commune in Romania. The name translates to “Giant of Bălțătești”. The seeds trace back to the collection of Vali Cucu, a well-known Romanian seed saver who researches and preserves local varieties. 🌿 Plant Habit: Produces an enormous yield. … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Gramma Climen Hagen 🌍 Origin: An heirloom from the McIntee family, grown for many years by their grandmother, Bertha Jean (Anderson) Climenhaga (born in 1910). Introduced to seed collectors by Dale Thurber. Note: The variety is often circulated under the spelling “Gramma Climen Hagen”. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall). A heavy-yielding … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Mamie Brown’s Pink 🌍 Origin: A family heirloom from West Virginia, USA. It was introduced to the Seed Savers Exchange (SSE) in 1995 by Alice Brown-Mattes. The seed traces back to her grandmother, Mamie Brown, who grew it in the 1930s. The Russian lineage of this seed often traces through American … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Babushkin Med (Grandma’s Honey) 🌍 Origin: A Russian collector variety bred by Angelina (Domashniy Pomidor). The name translates to “Grandma’s Honey”. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate and vigorous. There is some minor variation in leaf type among growers (some report standard Regular Leaf, others mention oversized foliage or even Potato Leaf segregations), … Read more