Heirloom Tomato Varieties & Reviews | Tomat-Pomidor
Honest reviews of global tomato varieties from a 15-year-old growers community.
🍅 Quick take: Brown Flesh is a mid-season, mid-tall variety that produces heavy yields of stunning, dark maroon beefsteaks with green stripes. Weighing up to 14 oz (400 g), these oblate slicers are praised for their dense, meaty crimson flesh and an outstanding, sweet fruity flavor profile. Full summary ↓ Growers’ Notes and Photos O … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Korneevsky Pink (Korneevskiy Rozovyi) is a vigorous, indeterminate heirloom producing heavy yields of large, dark pink, oblate (flat-round) beefsteaks weighing up to 14 oz (400 g). Highly praised for its sugary, meaty, and tender flesh, it is a fantastic mid-season fresh-eating slicer. Its genetics are so respected that Russian agricultural institutes have … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Krupnaya Grozd (Large Cluster) is an indeterminate, mid-season red oxheart tomato originating from Eastern Europe. It produces heavy yields of large, meaty, heart-shaped fruits that average around 12 oz (350 g), though some vendor descriptions claim they can reach over 2 lbs (1 kg). Growers appreciate its solid production and great late-summer … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Queen Elizabeth (Koroleva Elizaveta) 🌍 Origin: A fantastic commercial Russian variety from Siberian Garden (Sibsad). Interestingly, it was later renamed/repackaged by the company as “Tsarsky Podarok” (Tsar’s Gift) to avoid trademark confusion with a famous strawberry variety of the same name. 🌿 Plant Habit: A gorgeous determinate, tree-type dwarf. It grows … Read more
📌 Quick Summary: Krem Brule (Creme Brulee) 🌍 Origin: A Russian commercial dark tomato variety. The name translates to “Creme Brulee”. It is at the center of a famous seed-market confusion, as two major Russian companies (Aelita and Gavrish) sell completely different tomatoes under the exact same name. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall). Reaches around … Read more
📌 Quick Summary: Kartofelnyi Malinovyi (Potato Raspberry) 🌍 Origin: A commercial heirloom variety distributed by Siberian Garden (SibSad). The name perfectly describes it: it has “potato” style leaves and produces “raspberry” pink fruit. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall). Reaches about 5.2 feet (1.6 m) in height. Features highly distinctive Potato Leaf (PL) foliage that lacks … Read more
📌 Quick Summary: Caspian Pink 🌍 Origin: A legendary heirloom originally sourced from Russia/Kazakhstan. It gained massive fame in North America for reportedly beating the famous Brandywine in taste tests. Russian seed vendors later re-imported it, marketing it heavily as the “Queen of all Pink Tomatoes.” 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall) and naturally bushy. It … Read more
📌 Quick Summary: Korol Londona (King of London) 🌍 Origin: A famous Russian heirloom name surrounded by confusion. There are at least two completely different varieties sharing this name. The original old strain comes from Russian breeder N.S. Bykhanov and produces large, oblate beefsteaks. Modern commercial seed companies (like Siberian Garden) sell a variety under … Read more
📌 Quick Summary: Kardinal (Cardinal) 🌍 Origin: A classic Russian/Ukrainian commercial heirloom. The seeds in this thread originally came from the “Narodnaya Selekciya” (People’s Selection) company in Dnepropetrovsk. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall) in a greenhouse, requiring strong staking, but generally stays shorter when grown outdoors in open ground. It produces very sturdy trusses that … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Cardio 🌍 Origin: An Italian heirloom variety popularized by V. Redko. The name “Cardio” perfectly matches its classic, broad anatomical heart shape. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall). Reaches about 6 to 6.5 feet (1.8-2 m) in a greenhouse but adapts excellently to open ground. Known for its fantastic fruit set, rarely … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Beauty King 🌍 Origin: A legendary modern heirloom bred by Brad Gates at Wild Boar Farms in California. It is a cross between Big Rainbow and Green Zebra. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall). Known for being a bit wimpy and spindly in the seedling stage, but it vigorously stretches to 6-6.5 … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Red Butter Heart 🌍 Origin: Originally tracing back to the USA, this variety became incredibly popular in the Russian heirloom community after being distributed by collector V. Redko. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall/vine). Exhibits the classic “weeping oxheart” gene with thin, wispy, droopy foliage. Do not be alarmed—the plant is not … Read more