Heirloom Tomato Varieties & Reviews | Tomat-Pomidor
Honest reviews of global tomato varieties from a 15-year-old growers community.
📖 Diary Highlights: Ekaterina from Tomsk, Siberia (Zone 2/3) shares her incredible strategies for pushing the growing season to the absolute limit. To get ripe tomatoes by June in a harsh climate, she grows early determinate and dwarf varieties in large construction buckets inside her greenhouse. She also shares a clever hack for starting early … Read more
🍅 Quick take: In this thread, Radomila attempts the impossible: narrowing down her entire tomato grow list to just 6 essential varieties. The final shortlist is specifically tailored to withstand high humidity and massive day-to-night temperature swings, covering all needs from fresh eating to canning and freezing. The discussion also touches on whether the heirloom … Read more
🍅 Quick take: In this thread, growers debate one of the most controversial greenhouse topics: planting cucumbers and tomatoes together. While strict agronomy says they require entirely different microclimates (cucumbers love high humidity; tomatoes need dry drafts), backyard gardeners share how they successfully mix them in small spaces. The conversation also covers realistic yield expectations … Read more
Greenhouse Tomato Layout & Planning the Heirloom Grow List | Forum Diary 🍅 Quick take: In this thread, growers discuss narrowing down their annual tomato grow lists, focusing on reliable canning varieties and heavy-yielding family heirlooms. The conversation shifts into smart greenhouse management: how to arrange indeterminate (tall) and determinate (short) plants under an arched … Read more
📌 Quick Summary: Late Harvests & The “Small Tomato” Myth 🍅 Size Doesn’t Equal Speed: Many growers assume that small cherry or paste tomatoes will ripen much faster than giant beefsteaks. However, genetics play a bigger role than size! An early-season beefsteak will easily beat a late-season icicle tomato to the table. 🌿 The Density … Read more
📌 Quick Summary: The “Drought” Experiment & Generative Steering 🏜️ The “No Water” Myth: A popular piece of internet gardening advice claims you shouldn’t water tomatoes after transplanting until the 3rd flower truss blooms to encourage deep roots. Growers discuss why trying this during a heatwave is a surefire way to get weak, spindly plants. … Read more
📌 Quick Summary: The Tomato Blight Debate 🍅 The Standard Advice: When tomato leaves develop yellow halos and dry brown spots, most gardening books say it is a fungal disease (like Early Blight or Anthracnose) and you must reach for fungicides immediately. 🥶 Our Community’s Insight: Veteran growers from cold climates (Zone 3 and 4) … Read more
📌 Quick Diary Summary: The Leaf Mold Mystery 🍄 The Cladosporium Puzzle: Leaf Mold (Cladosporium) often infects tomatoes early in the spring when seedlings are trapped under plastic covers with high humidity. But sometimes, it mysteriously skips a season. 💨 Elevation and Condensation: A major factor in avoiding fungal diseases is the location of the … Read more
📌 Quick Summary: The “Stop Watering” Myth 🛑 The Theory: The old gardening advice says that if you stop watering your tomatoes in late summer, the stress forces the plant to stop growing leaves and push all its energy into ripening the fruit. 🔥 The Heatwave Reality: This method only works in mild weather. If … Read more
📌 Quick Diary Summary: Determinates vs. Heirlooms 🔥 Heatwave Survivors: During prolonged heatwaves (95°F+ / 35°C+), tall indeterminate and exotic heirlooms often drop their blossoms due to sterile pollen. However, gardeners are finding that compact determinate (bush) varieties keep setting fruit without dropping a single truss! 🍅 Early Determinates: Determinates are early producers, but some … Read more
📌 Quick Summary: Loaded Trusses, Heat and Blossom Drop in a Greenhouse 🍅 The Goal: Valeriy set out to grow several well-loaded fruit trusses on every plant. He says it worked on Bulgarian Miracle, Brandywine Covlik’s Strain, Chocolate Stripes, Japonka, Coeur Fondant, Summer Sun and Dark Galaxy, but he hasn’t figured it out for pink … Read more
📌 Quick Diary Summary: Mid-July Harvests 🧄 The Whole-Bulb Garlic Trick: You don’t always have to separate garlic into cloves. If you plant a whole garlic bulb directly into a strawberry bed (as a companion plant), it will grow a cluster of slightly smaller bulbs that are just as good as single-clove plantings! 🥒 Spider … Read more