Heirloom Tomato Varieties & Reviews | Tomat-Pomidor
Honest reviews of global tomato varieties from a 15-year-old growers community.
Welcome to one of the most unique and comprehensive tomato databases on the English-speaking web. This catalog isn’t based on generic seed packet descriptions—it is built entirely on the real, hands-on experience of everyday gardeners.
For over a decade, thousands of growers have shared their successes, failures, and harvest photos on one of the oldest and largest Russian-speaking gardening forums. We have taken this massive, multi-year knowledge base and carefully translated and summarized the very best of it for you.
What you will find in our catalog:
Whether you are looking for a bulletproof hybrid for a short season, an exotic anthocyanin variety, or the sweetest beefsteak you’ve ever tasted, the collective experience of our gardening community will help you find the perfect seed for your next harvest. Browse our subcategories below to explore!
🍅 Quick take: Orlinyi Klyuv (Eagle’s Beak) is a famous commercial Russian heirloom from Siberian Garden (SibSad). It is an indeterminate, early-to-mid season pink heart/beak-shaped tomato. Like many classic oxhearts, it has a very spindly, wispy (“weeping”) foliage habit that looks frail but pumps out massive yields of large fruits up to 1.3 lbs (600 … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Oranzhevaya Sosulka (Orange Icicle) is an incredibly productive, indeterminate orange paste tomato. Growers praise it for its firm texture, sweet flavor, and perfect size for canning. Interestingly, a few growers have reported the variety occasionally throwing off a determinate (bush) mutation, though the classic vine is known to be a massive, late-season … 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: Eagle’s Heart (Orlinoe Serdtse) is a popular Siberian pink oxheart bred by Sibirskiy Sad. It produces hefty, dense, blunt heart-shaped slicers weighing anywhere from 6.3 to 17 oz (180-480 g) with minimal gel and high sweetness. The vine has typical sparse, wispy oxheart foliage and thrives both in protected greenhouse setups and … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Orange Bredero (Oranzh Bredero) is an indeterminate heirloom vine producing bright orange, ribbed pear-to-barrel-shaped fruits up to 6 inches (15 cm) long. Praised for its dense, low-moisture, sugary flesh, this variety holds its structure exceptionally well in hot water bath canning and traditional crock pickling. Experienced forum members note that it is … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Olesya is an indeterminate Siberian heirloom bred by Sibirskiy Sad, renowned for producing meaty, golden-orange elongated plum tomatoes packed with exceptional sweetness. Plants display classic feathery, weeping foliage that can look scrawny despite being healthy. While yield is notoriously light on single-stem setups, multi-leader pruning and leaving fruit to fully vine-ripen unlocks … 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
🍅 Quick take: Fiery Turban (Ognennyy Tyurban) is an indeterminate, mid-season anthocyanin variety bred by Sofia Saakova. It produces stunning truffle-shaped (pleated pear) tomatoes that ripen to yellow-orange with red stripes and heavy antho splashing. Weighing 3.5-10.5 oz (100-300 g) on average—with some hitting over 1 lb (500 g)—these beauties boast a rich, sweet flavor … Read more