Heirloom Tomato Varieties & Reviews | Tomat-Pomidor
Honest reviews of global tomato varieties from a 15-year-old growers community.
🍅 Quick take: Vintage American heirloom Dad’s Sunset is a mid-season indeterminate variety that produces large, dense, yellow-orange fruits weighing 10.5-17.6 oz (300-500 g). The grower notes it has an excellent fruity flavor and yields heavily. A great bonus is its holding ability; the ripe fruits can hang on the vine for a while without … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Diva de Deva (Prima Donna from Deva) is an indeterminate, mid-season family heirloom from the Deva region of Romania. It produces large, red, ribbed beefsteaks weighing 8.8-17.6 oz (250-500 g) with sweet, old-fashioned, buttery flesh that is excellent for slicing and thick sauces. Growers praise its heavy yields and cold tolerance. However, … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Piedmont Flask is a late-season, indeterminate heirloom tracing its roots back to Northern Italy. It produces unique, large bottle-shaped fruits weighing up to 14 oz (400 g). Like many classic Italian paste types, it has dense meat and a balanced flavor, making it excellent for dehydrating. However, growers in shorter or cooler … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Orange Berry (Oranzhevaya Yagoda) is an indeterminate bicolor heirloom with a surprisingly wispy, scrawny vine habit. It produces oblate, orange fruits with a beautiful pink blush on the blossom end. Flavor reviews are stellar—noted as being exceptionally sweet. However, fruit size and yield seem highly dependent on the grower’s environment and pruning … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Hazel Gold is an indeterminate, rare American heirloom that produces oblate (flattened) slicers weighing between 5 to 9 oz (150-250 g). Despite the name, growers report the fruits often feature orange skin with bright yellow flesh. They have thick, firm walls and a mild, sweet flavor. It is a solid yielder, though … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Opalka is an indeterminate, mid-season red paste tomato with famous Polish roots. True to its oxheart/paste heritage, the plant features very thin, wispy foliage that looks frail but produces exceptionally well. Growers highlight its massive yields, meaty texture, and perfectly balanced sweet flavor, making it a top-tier choice for sauces and sun-drying. … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Oaxacan Jewel (Oaksakanskaya Dragotsennost) is an indeterminate bicolor heirloom originating from Mexico, circulating here in a distinct potato leaf (PL) mutation alongside the standard regular leaf strain. Known for its golden-yellow skin marbled with raspberry streaks and marble-patterned orange interior, it offers a sweet, fruity flavor. Gardeners praise it as one of … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Cresta di Fuoco #2 (Fire Crest #2) is a distinct, deep brownish-red indeterminate Italian heirloom known for its eccentric, crested, and ribbed fruit forms. While technically a later-maturing variety, it can drop its ripe crop in a concentrated wave, outpacing other late-season varieties. With dense, meaty flesh and moderate sweetness, it stands … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Ocean (Okean) is a vigorous, indeterminate Italian cocktail/cherry variety producing glossy red, globe-shaped fruits up to 0.8 oz (23 g). Known for its distinct, apple-crisp bite, sweet flavor, crack resistance, and exceptionally sparse canopy. Northern greenhouse growers report remarkable resistance to greenhouse leaf mold (Cladosporium), making it a reliable, heavy-setting producer that … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Orange Russian 117 is an iconic indeterminate, mid-to-late season bicolor oxheart bred by California grower Jeff Dawson (a cross of Russian 117 and Georgia Streak). The vines carry classic delicate, weeping oxheart foliage and produce breathtaking 9-19 oz (250-540 g) gold and crimson hearts. Forum growers note that its legendary, sweet, peach-like … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Oaxacan Jewel (Joya de Oaxaca) is a gorgeous indeterminate, mid-to-late season heirloom beefsteak from Oaxaca, Mexico. It pumps out massive, striking yellow-orange slicers with ruby-red marbling, routinely tipping the scales between 20 oz and 2.2 lbs (600 g to 1 kg). Forum growers love its super juicy, sweet, low-acid flavor, but warn … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Orange Strawberry is a vigorous, indeterminate, mid-to-late season heirloom known for producing massive, meaty, heart-shaped or oblate orange fruits with very few seeds. Originating in the US as a stray from a Pineapple tomato packet, it thrives on heavy potassium/phosphorus feeding and sunshine, though it can be a sparse yielder in cooler … Read more