Heirloom Tomato Varieties & Reviews | Tomat-Pomidor
Honest reviews of global tomato varieties from a 15-year-old growers community.
🍅 Quick take: Purple Fairy is an indeterminate Chinese novelty variety that produces heavy cascades of dark, mahogany-black and green-striped plums with a distinctive pointed beak (nipple tip). Weighing 1 to 2 oz (30-60 g), these cocktail-sized fruits offer a sweet, marmalade-like rich flavor with crisp flesh. Highly rated across Russian and European trials for … Read more
🍅 Quick take: OSU O Blonde avec Tetons is an indeterminate, mid-season specialty plum derived from Oregon State University anthocyanin genetics and refined in Europe. It bears variable 4.2-8.8 oz (120-250 g) red plum-shaped fruits splashed with dusky purple shoulders, frequently sporting a prominent pointed beak. In cool northern greenhouses, it yields firm yet remarkably … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Mini San Marzano is a miniature plum/spray tomato known for producing heavy clusters of up to 20 bite-sized, 1 oz (30 g) elongated fruits. Vines grow with a wispy, slender habit, frequently topping out around 4 feet (1.2 m) in open ground. Renowned for its high sugar content and tough skins that … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Main love is an indeterminate, mid-season culinary stuffer tomato. It yields bright red, elongated pepper-shaped fruits with semi-hollow seed cavities designed specifically for baking and stuffing. Tough and fuss-free, it delivers strong yields outdoors in short northern seasons, with seeds that scoop out effortlessly. Full summary ↓ Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Maiden’s Kiss is an open-pollinated variety originally hailing from Nebraska, USA (introduced around 2007). It is a vigorous, indeterminate, mid-season paste tomato producing meaty, red plum-shaped fruits weighing 6-7.8 oz (170-220 g) and larger. In northern trial conditions, it proved to be a heavy yielder with a balanced sweet-tart profile and excellent … Read more
🍅 Quick take: strong>Monkey Ass is an indeterminate, mid-season family heirloom oxheart originating from the United States. Renowned for monstrous vine vigor that easily stretches 6.5-10 ft (2-3 m), it yields massive 14-21 oz (400-600 g) pink fruits. Lower trusses usually bear classic pointed hearts, but upper trusses frequently produce the iconic deeply cleft, double-lobed … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Marek’s Pointy Heart is an indeterminate, mid-season heirloom oxheart with characteristic wispy foliage, originally obtained from Polish gardener Marek via Tatiana Kouchnareva. The vines set dense, elongated, tapered red hearts typically running 8-16 oz (220-450 g). The interior is solid, dense, and sweet with almost no seeds, though northern growers recommend greenhouse … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Maglia Rosa is a celebrated semi-determinate artisan cherry tomato bred by Fred Hempel of Artisan Seeds in California. Plants form tidy, well-behaved bushes ranging from 2 to 4 ft (0.6 to 1.2 m) that require minimal to no suckering. It yields prolific trusses of elongated, pink-and-yellow marbled “bullets” weighing up to 0.9 … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Marina’s Praise is an exquisite indeterminate, potato-leaf novelty tomato bred by American grower Jason Haynes from a cross of Orange Russian 117 and Potato Leaf Variegated. Seedlings showcase stunning white-and-green variegated foliage that transitions into manageable 5.5-6 ft (1.7-1.8 m) vines. It pumps out clusters of dense, elongated bicolor hearts averaging 3.5 … Read more
🍅 Quick take: La-chan-y-ha is a compact, determinate bush paste tomato of Chinese origin, highly valued in cold Siberian regions for its reliability. Plants stay under 32 inches (80 cm) tall while pumping out dense clusters of elongated scarlet plums measuring up to 3 inches (8 cm) long. Unlike many rubbery commercial processing types, the … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Lucky Tiger is an indeterminate, mid-season elongated cherry/plum tomato originally bred by Fred Hempel (Artisan Seeds). It produces stunning 1-1.4 oz (30-40 g) green fruits with pink and red striping. Growers universally praise its massive yields, crack resistance, and complex, sweet, tropical flavor with a satisfying crunch. It’s an aggressive grower that … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Largo de Jauja is a mid-season, indeterminate heirloom (noted here as originating from Spain) that produces long, meaty red plum tomatoes. Growers love it for its fantastic keeping qualities and versatile culinary use. It sets heavy yields of 3.5-7 oz (100-200 g) fruits with very few seeds and almost no gel, making … Read more