Heirloom Tomato Varieties & Reviews | Tomat-Pomidor
Honest reviews of global tomato varieties from a 15-year-old growers community.
Quick Summary of Utomlennoe Solntse (Weary Sun) 🌍 Origin: A beautiful heirloom variety originating from Ukraine. The name translates to “Weary Sun” (a reference to a famous vintage Russian tango song). 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall) and vigorous. In a greenhouse, it easily reaches 1.8 – 2 meters (6 – 6.5 ft) in height. Pro … Read more
Quick Summary of Ukrainskie Domashnie Serdtsa (Ukrainian Home Hearts) 🌍 Origin: A treasured family heirloom variety from Ukraine. The name translates to “Ukrainian Home Hearts” (or “Ukrainian Family Hearts”). 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), growing up to 2 meters (6.5 ft) in height. Requires sturdy staking or trellising to support the heavy fruit load. 🍅 … Read more
Quick Summary of Ukrainskaya Elena (Ukrainian Elena / Olena) 🌍 Origin: A highly regarded heirloom from Ukraine, popularized by the well-known breeder and collector Ruslan Dukhov. The name is often translated and circulated as Ukrainskaya Elena, Ukrainska Olena, or simply Ukrainian Alena. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), powerful but slender plants with Potato Leaf (PL) … Read more
Quick Summary of Carbon (Uglerod) 🌍 Origin: A world-famous heirloom variety, widely known and grown by Russian tomato collectors under the translated name “Uglerod” (Carbon). 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), but growers note it behaves very adaptably. Outdoors in open ground, it often acts semi-determinate, stopping around 1 m (3.3 ft). In greenhouses, it easily … Read more
Quick Summary of Teplichnyi Temnyi (Greenhouse Dark) 🌍 Origin: A Russian heirloom variety, originally distributed by a well-known collector named Suvorov from St. Petersburg. The name translates to “Greenhouse Dark”. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), but growers note that it doesn’t aggressively shoot upward like some vines. The bush is quite sturdy. Interestingly, despite its … Read more
Quick Summary of Tamara 🌍 Origin: A Russian commercial heirloom variety. It is well-documented in North America via Tatiana Kouchnareva’s TOMATObase. 🌿 Plant Habit (The Det vs. Indet Debate): There is some conflicting information regarding its growth habit. Commercial Russian vendors (like Redko) list it as a determinate, and some growers report it stopping around … Read more
Quick Summary of Tomawak (Tamawak) 🌍 Origin & History: A fascinating “supermarket rescue” variety! It originally started as a commercial ribbed tomato imported from Spain (or Holland) under the name Tomawak (likely a play on “Tomahawk” due to its ribbed shape). Forum members saved seeds from the store-bought fruit, and it successfully de-hybridized over several … Read more
Quick Summary of Timofeich (Тимофеич) 🌍 Origin: A highly productive Russian commercial variety, originally distributed by the GISOK seed company. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall) and extremely vigorous. The bush is described as very powerful, easily growing over 2 meters (6.5 ft) in a greenhouse setting. 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Large, slightly oblate (flattened) beefsteaks. Growers … Read more
Quick Summary of Tie Feen (Tiffan) 🌍 Origin & The Name Mystery: Known in Russian collections as Tie Feen (Ти Феен), forum members suspect this is actually a localized mispronunciation of the American heirloom “Tiffan”. Tatiana Kouchnareva’s database lists Tiffan as a potato-leaf pink beefsteak from Dorothy Beiswenger (MN). 🌿 Plant Habit & Genetics: Indeterminate, … Read more
Quick Summary of Tomande F1 🌍 Origin & Genetics: This is a commercial F1 Hybrid with French roots, bred to resemble the famous traditional “Marmande” heirloom types. Note for seed savers: Because it is an F1 hybrid, seeds saved from these fruits will likely not grow true-to-type the following year. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall). … Read more
Quick Summary of Topol (Топол) 🌍 Origin: A massive Russian heirloom variety (originally popularized by seed vendor V. Redko). The name translates to “Poplar tree”, fitting for its towering height. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), regular leaf, and extremely vigorous. In a greenhouse, it easily reaches over 220 cm (7.2 ft). Growers note that it … Read more
Quick Summary of Turban Bayran 🌍 Origin & The Name Mystery: This variety is famous on Russian forums not just for its taste, but for its highly debated, mysterious name. “Turban Bayran” is widely believed to be a mangled translation. 🔍 The Etymology Detective Work: Forum members speculate that the original name might have been … Read more