Heirloom Tomato Varieties & Reviews | Tomat-Pomidor
Honest reviews of global tomato varieties from a 15-year-old growers community.
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Anna Maria’s Heart 🌍 Origin: A well-known heirloom oxheart variety, highly prized by collectors worldwide for its beauty and reliability. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate. Grows to about 1.5 meters (5 ft) in open ground. Shows incredible cold tolerance and adaptability, performing exceptionally well even in the short, challenging summers of Siberia. … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Bychie Serdtse Oranzhevoe (Orange Oxheart) 🌍 Origin & Confusion: A popular commercial Russian variety sold by various seed companies (Russkiy Ogorod, Poisk, Sibsad, etc.). However, growers report massive variations depending on the seed vendor. It is often confused with varieties like Liskin Nos (Fox Nose), Oranzhevoe Serdtse (Orange Heart), and Korol … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Zore’s Big Red 🌍 Origin: A renowned heirloom variety. In Russian collections, it is often circulated under the translated name “Bolshoy Krasnyi Zora”. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate and tall. A notable feature of this specific strain grown by forum members is its Potato Leaf (PL) foliage, which is an interesting trait … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Bychie Serdtse Kanarskoe (Canary Oxheart) 🌍 Origin: The exact history and origin of this variety are unclear. The name translates to “Canary Oxheart.” It is circulated among Russian growers from domestic private seed collections (such as Ananyeva’s line). 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate. Shows average vigor and reaches about 5.5 ft (1.7 … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Belorusskoe Serdtse (Belarusian Heart) 🌍 Origin & History: A fantastic heirloom with a verified history! In 2006, a tomato grower named Andrey from Minsk (Belarus) bought a massive 900g (2 lb) tomato from an elderly woman at a local market. She had grown it for years but didn’t know the name. … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Huge Lemon Oxheart 🌍 Origin: Known in Russia as “Bolshoye Limonnoye Serdtse” (Big Lemon Heart) or “Limonny Oxheart”. An outstanding yellow/pale heirloom variety. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate. A very tall and vigorous plant that can easily exceed 8 ft (2.5m) in a greenhouse. Requires aggressive pruning (usually kept to 2 stems) … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Bychok Chernyi (Black Steer) 🌍 Origin: Sourced and popularized by a well-known collector (Vitaly / “Señor”) from Almaty, Kazakhstan. The name translates to “Black Steer” or “Black Bull-Calf”. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, PL (Potato Leaf). This plant is an absolute monster! It grows incredibly vigorous and tall (up to 14 ft … 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): 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): 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): Bolshoy Cherniy Volonter (Big Black Volunteer) 🌍 Origin: A dark heirloom variety circulating among seed collectors. The name translates exactly to “Big Black Volunteer”. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate. Height can vary; some growers report it staying relatively compact in a greenhouse, reaching about 1.6 m (5.2 ft). 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Oval … Read more