Heirloom Tomato Varieties & Reviews | Tomat-Pomidor
Honest reviews of global tomato varieties from a 15-year-old growers community.
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): McClintock’s Big Pink 🌍 Origin: A North American heirloom variety heavily circulated among Eastern European and Russian seed collectors (like V. Redko). 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, vigorous vines. It features classic Potato Leaf (PL) foliage. Known for being highly disease resistant (“bulletproof”) and performing well even in damp, cool conditions. 🍅 … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Pink Brandywine 🌍 Origin: The undisputed king of American heirlooms. Legendary Amish origins, with the Sudduth’s Strain being widely considered the original, purest, and best-tasting lineage. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, vigorous vines. It has classic, robust Potato Leaf (PL) foliage. Typically performs much better and more reliably in greenhouses/hoophouses in cooler … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Bogema (Bohemia) 🌍 Origin: An Eastern European/Ukrainian Open-Pollinated (OP) heirloom. Name translates to “Bohemia”. Crucial Note: Do not confuse this collector’s heirloom with the commercial Russian hybrid “Bogema F1” or the commercial dwarf variety sold under the same name! 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), vigorous vine. Performs very well both in … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Biyskaya Roza & Biysky Rozan (Biysk Rose) 🌍 Origin: Siberian commercial heirlooms distributed by the “Semena Altaya” (Seeds of Altai) company. Named after the city of Biysk in Siberia. Growers generally agree that “Roza” and “Rozan” are practically identical strains of the same variety. 🌿 Plant Habit: Officially sold as a … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Bergamot 🌍 Origin: A Russian/CIS variety circulated by heirloom seed collectors like Tamara Yashchenko and Lidia Ganzen. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, but relatively manageable in height (around 1.2–1.5m / 4–5 ft in open ground). It features sparse/wispy foliage. The first fruit truss sets quite high (usually after the 11th leaf). 🍅 … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Bolgarskaya Roza (Bulgarian Rose) 🌍 Origin: An Eastern European variety. “Bolgarskaya Roza” translates to “Bulgarian Rose”. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall) and vigorous. It features “sparse” or open foliage, which is great for airflow and disease prevention. 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Large, beautiful red-pink tomatoes averaging around 400g (14 oz). Interestingly, while … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Barany (Rams) 🌍 Origin: A Russian heirloom sourced from collector T. Yashchenko. The name “Barany” translates to “Rams” (male sheep)—named because the elongated fruits often curve at the tip, resembling a ram’s horn. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall vine), reaching up to 1.8 m (6 ft). Can be easily pruned and … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Brikadel Rozovaya (Pink Brikadel) 🌍 Origin: Vintage Russian heirloom tomato. The name translates directly to “Pink Brikadel.” 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall) and highly vigorous. Expect the vines to easily reach 2 meters (6.5 ft) or more when staked in a greenhouse or open garden. Mid-season maturity. 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Large, … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Bakinskie (From Baku) 🌍 Origin: This is a fascinating collector’s variety. Originally, it was a “numbered test line” sent directly from a breeder in Baku, Azerbaijan, to members of the Russian ForumHouse for trial grow-outs. Because it never received an official name, growers simply started calling it “Bakinskie” (From Baku). Note: … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Bychok (Little Bull) 🌍 Origin: Introduced to North America and popularized by the famous tomato collector Tatiana Kouchnareva (Tatiana’s TOMATObase). The name “Bychok” literally translates to “Little Bull” (a play on the famous “Bull’s Heart” oxheart tomatoes). 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate. It exhibits the classic “wimpy” oxheart growth habit with thin, … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Bull’s Heart of Minusinsk 🌍 Origin: A famous local heirloom from Minusinsk, Siberia (the tomato capital of Russia, known for its giant tomato festivals). Also known as Bychye Serdtse Minusinskoe. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), but generally tidy, growing up to 1.7m (5.5 ft) in the greenhouse. Like most true oxheart … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Bulgarska Hala 🌍 Origin: A magnificent heirloom from Bulgaria, highly prized by seed collectors. The name translates to “Bulgarian Hala” (in Balkan folklore, a Hala is a mythical dragon—a fitting name for such a monstrously large tomato!). 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, but widely praised for having a very tidy and manageable … Read more