Heirloom Tomato Varieties & Reviews | Tomat-Pomidor
Honest reviews of global tomato varieties from a 15-year-old growers community.
🍅 Quick take: Polish Linguisa is a classic 19th-century indeterminate heirloom paste tomato carrying slender, wispy foliage and massive 7-9 oz (200-250 g) sausage-shaped red fruits with pointed tips. Renowned for its low seed count and remarkably sweet, non-acidic flesh, it is a staple for thick sauce and sun-drying. Like many wispy paste vines, high … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Piramide (sold as Domati Piramide) is an indeterminate Italian heirloom paste tomato distributed commercially in Eastern Europe by the Bulgarian seed house Florian. Shaped like a long, tapered Corno di Toro (bull’s horn) pepper, it features dense, nearly seedless dry walls packed with intense, sweet flavor. Unlike many paste varieties that turn … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Purple Dragon is an indeterminate anthocyanin saladette tomato bred by American breeder Mark McCaslin (Frogsleap Farm). The 1.5-2.5 oz (40-70 g) pointed plums transition from jet inky-black when unripe to a glossy orange-red with purple splashes. Growers praise its candy-like, fruity-spicy sweetness and continuous blossom setting, though gardeners note stubborn calyx attachment … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Pastel Sleeves is an eye-catching indeterminate elongated paste variety bred by American breeder Tom Wagner. The 3-4.5 oz (80-130 g) cylindrical to pear-shaped fruits display shimmering, semi-translucent cream skin with a gentle pink blush and lime-green seed gel. Prized for its sweet fruity walls and suitability for dehydrating, growers report a stark … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Piedmont Pear (often listed simply as Piedmont) is an indeterminate, heavy-setting cocktail tomato producing 2-4 oz (50-120 g) pear-shaped bicolors with a yellow-orange body and vivid pink blush. Gardeners praise its sweet flavor and meaty texture, making it legendary for whole-fruit canning in tomato juice. However, thin skins make it prone to … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Pink Tiger is an indeterminate, mid-season julienne cherry bred by Fred Hempel (Artisan Seeds). The plant produces slender, pointed pink mini-plums adorned with shimmering golden stripes, averaging around 0.7 oz (up to 20 g). Gardeners in USDA Zones 3 and 4 report solid crack resistance, great shelf life, and high sugar content … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Purple Smaragd (also known as Purple Emerald or Lila Smaragd) is a slender indeterminate artisan variety originating from Austria. It bears skinny, pointed icicle plums weighing up to 2.5 oz (70 g), patterned with dark olive-green stripes over a smoky mahogany-purple background. Characterized by an exceptionally thick, durable skin, it requires intense … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Purple Russian (also celebrated as Purple Russian Plum) is an authentic heirloom originating from Ukraine. Growing as an indeterminate vine up to 6.5 ft (2 m) with distinctively wispy, weeping foliage, it sets heavy loads of oblong, plum-to-egg-shaped dark mahogany-purple fruits weighing 2.1 to 6.3 oz (60-180 g). Renowned for its rich, … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Pera Naranja (frequently traded in Eastern Europe as Grushevyi Apelsin or Pear Orange) is a tall indeterminate cherry variety producing immense sprays of luminous, orange, teardrop-to-finger-shaped fruits weighing 0.35 to 0.7 oz (10-20 g). Renowned for its explosive pure-honey sweetness that develops even in dismal, sunless summers, the vine carries a delicate, … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Polish Pastel is a unique indeterminate bicolor heirloom bred by John Smars of Australia. Bearing pastel yellow-orange, pear-shaped fruits flushed with soft pink and red striping, it features a prolific, non-stop harvest window right up to frost. Russian growers document a major two-strain divide in circulation: a tender, sweet cocktail-sized pear (1-2 … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Pascal de Picardie (originally developed under the working title Crazy Horse Antho Paste) was bred by Dean Slater (USA) and named in honor of French tomato enthusiast Pascal Antigny. An indeterminate vine characterized by distinctively wispy, weeping foliage, it yields elongated, pointed plums weighing 2.1 to 4.6 oz (60-130 g) that turn … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Pera D’Abruzzo (frequently traded simply as Abruzzo) is an ancient indeterminate Italian heirloom originating from the coastal and mountainous Abruzzo region. It bears heavy clusters of large, deeply ribbed, bell- or pear-shaped red beefsteaks weighing 7 to 12.7 oz (200-360 g), with pruned plants capable of pushing 2.2 lb (1 kg). Celebrated … Read more