Heirloom Tomato Varieties & Reviews | Tomat-Pomidor
Honest reviews of global tomato varieties from a 15-year-old growers community.
🍅 Quick take: Moneymaker is a classic indeterminate, mid-season English heirloom (introduced by F. Stonor of Southampton around 1913) known for heavy trusses of uniform, medium-sized red tomatoes. Growers praise its hybrid-like reliability, strong disease and weather resistance, and balanced sweet-tangy flavor that works equally well for fresh slicing and whole-fruit pickling. Full summary ↓ … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Matina is a classic early-season, indeterminate German potato-leaf heirloom that produces round, 1.8-2.8 oz (50-80 g) bright red saladette tomatoes. Ranked in the top 10 out of 3,500 varieties in the University of Göttingen outdoor trials for home gardeners, it is prized by growers in USDA Zones 4-7 for its balanced sweet-tart … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Marizol Magic is an indeterminate, mid-season fuzzy peach-type tomato (associated with New Jersey breeder Joe Bratka’s Marizol line) that produces 1.5-3.5 oz (40-100 g) yellow-orange fruits with a pink blush. Growers love its uncanny resemblance to real apricots, heavy yields, and sweet, fruity dessert flavor when ripened on the vine, though fruits … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Marizol Korney is a potato-leaf, mid-season dark slicer bred by Joe Bratka (New Jersey, USA) and named after heirloom collector Mark Korney. Vines bear generous clusters of 3.5-7 oz (100-200 g) round, slightly flattened dusky pink-purple fruits with deep burgundy flesh. Northern gardeners strongly urge planting it outdoors in open ground rather … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Matt’s Black (Chernyy Metta) is an indeterminate, mid-season dark cocktail cherry originating from the United States (USA). The vigorous vines easily climb to 6.5 ft (2 m), setting generous trusses of round, ~1 oz (25-35 g) large cherries that ripen into a deep, glossy burgundy-brown. Growers highlight its exceptional table quality: thin-skinned, … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Midnight Tiger is an indeterminate, mid-season novelty slicer bred by J&L Gardens (USA). Plants produce 5.3-7 oz (150-200 g) round saladette-to-slicer fruits featuring an olive-green skin patterned with yellow, copper, and orange stripes beneath dark purple-blue shoulders. Growers note its rich, aromatic sweetness with a crisp skin zing, outstanding disease tolerance, and … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Livingston’s Beauty is a landmark 19th-century indeterminate heirloom introduced in 1890 by Alexander W. Livingston. Renowned for helping transform the American tomato from a ribbed, wrinkled curiosity into a smooth slicer, it yields dependable crops of round, slightly flattened pink globes averaging 6-8 oz (170-230 g). Northern growers confirm its legendary hardiness, … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Lugas F1 is a renowned Hungarian greenhouse truss hybrid bred by ZKI (Vegetable Crop Research Institute). While some foreign catalog listings mistakenly label it determinate, it behaves as a tidy, manageable indeterminate vine reaching 5.2-5.5 ft (160-170 cm) with minimal suckering. It yields heavy clusters of uniform, oval-round red fruit weighing 2.1-3.9 … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Little Lucky is an indeterminate, potato-leaf bicolor bred by American heirloom pioneer Craig LeHoullier from an accidental cross of Brandywine. Unlike typical massive bicolor beefsteaks, it produces round, tennis-ball sized saladette fruit weighing 2-5 oz (60-140 g) that ripen golden-yellow with a vibrant ruby-pink blossom-end blush. Growers love its extended production right … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Lucky Tiger is an indeterminate, mid-season elongated cherry/plum tomato originally bred by Fred Hempel (Artisan Seeds). It produces stunning 1-1.4 oz (30-40 g) green fruits with pink and red striping. Growers universally praise its massive yields, crack resistance, and complex, sweet, tropical flavor with a satisfying crunch. It’s an aggressive grower that … Read more
🍅 Quick take: K 25-56 is a highly productive, compact determinate bush variety. The plant stays very short, around 16 inches (40 cm), making it great for tight spaces or containers. The fruits are small, dark burgundy-purple tomatoes weighing about 2.5-3.2 oz (70-90 g). Growers report excellent, rich flavor and a very long shelf life, … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Jaune Flammee (Yellow Flame) is a classic French heirloom. It’s a mid-season, indeterminate vine that produces heavy trusses of small, bright orange cocktail tomatoes (around 1-2 oz). Growers praise its outstanding disease resistance and thick skin, which makes it an absolute workhorse for canning and pickling. Full summary ↓ Growers’ Notes and … Read more