Heirloom Tomato Varieties & Reviews | Tomat-Pomidor
Honest reviews of global tomato varieties from a 15-year-old growers community.
🍅 Quick take: A large, sweet, deep pink beefsteak slicer. There is significant confusion in the seed market between a commercial determinate hybrid version and a soaring indeterminate heirloom strain traded among gardeners, but both produce massive, meaty fruits. Full summary ↓ Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA Zones 4-6) S Sweet (Svetlana) Pro | 8,792 … Read more
🍅 Quick take: A highly contested name covering several different strains. The heirloom swap version produces sweet, deep pink oblate tomatoes on a regular leaf plant, while commercial seed packets often produce a completely different compact, carrot-leaf plant with mixed-to-negative flavor reviews. Full summary ↓ Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA Zones 3-6) L Lana_s_Kavkaza (Svetlana) … Read more
🍅 Quick take: An early indeterminate producing pale yellow-milky hearts with a mild flavor. Known for its delicate, wispy foliage and excellent resistance to blossom end rot and blossom drop. Full summary ↓ Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA Zones 3-5) C Cherry (Olga) Pro | 6,822 posts 📍 Baranovichi (USDA Zone 5) White Medovik. Indet, … Read more
🍅 Quick take: A compact, early determinate variety producing sweet, yellow-orange elongated hearts. Known for setting fruit reliably even in cool, wet weather and boasting wispy, weeping foliage. Full summary ↓ Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA Zones 3-4) S Semechka Pro | 23,540 posts 📍 Krasnoyarsk suburbs (USDA Zone 3) D decorshtor (Irina) Beginner | … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Mikada Orange is a sweet, meaty, and highly aromatic orange tomato. While the “true” version is a tall, Potato Leaf (PL) heirloom, rampant commercial renaming has flooded the market with Regular Leaf (RL) variants. Regardless of leaf type, growers consistently praise its fantastic fruity flavor and juicy texture. Full summary ↓ Growers’ … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Pink Monisto is a cocktail-sized pink tomato that seed companies claim will produce massive trusses, but in reality, it often delivers much smaller clusters. While visually attractive and great for canning, growers report average flavor and a somewhat mealy texture. Full summary ↓ Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA Zones 8 Experience) R … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Honey Giant is a sweet, meaty, bi-color (orange skin with pink flesh) indeterminate heirloom that can produce massive fruit. However, growers report rampant seed mix-ups from commercial vendors like Aelita, so trading seeds with trusted growers is highly recommended! Full summary ↓ Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA Zones 4-6 Experience) S Sweet … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Mom’s Love (Mamina Lyubov) is a vigorous, highly productive indeterminate red beefsteak from Russia. Treasured for its nostalgic, old-fashioned “real tomato” flavor, this variety produces beautiful, uniform red fruits generally weighing around 9-10.5 oz (250-300 g). The vines are powerful and require heavy-duty staking, as they often get weighed down by the … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Red Minusinsk Glasses (Minusinskie Stakany Krasnye) is an indeterminate, elongated paste-type Siberian heirloom. Known for its blocky, cylindrical shape resembling a drinking glass, this robust vine easily reaches over 6.5 feet (2 m) in greenhouse conditions. It is a heavy yielder producing meaty, juicy, and sweet fruits that are excellent for both … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Apple Malinovka (Malinovka Yablochnaya) is a stout, highly productive indeterminate Russian heirloom that produces beautiful, oblate, deep pink beefsteaks. Known for its thick stems and manageable height, it typically pumps out meaty 5.5-10.5 oz (150-300 g) fruits with a rich, buttery texture and sweet flavor. Because the name “Malinovka” is often used … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Tarasenko’s Dream (Mechta Tarasenko) is a vigorous, indeterminate mid-season variety known for producing large, sweet, raspberry-pink beefsteaks. Thriving best in greenhouses, this sturdy vine easily pushes 6.5 feet (2 meters) and throws heavy yields of meaty fruits weighing 10.5 oz (300 g) and up. While occasional off-phenotypes can produce gnarly shapes, the … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Medvezhye Serdtse (Bear’s Heart) is a highly productive, early indeterminate variety that produces large, ribbed pink hearts weighing 7-12.3 oz (200-350 g). Growers praise it for its excellent heat tolerance, ability to set fruit all the way to the greenhouse roof, and its rich, sweet, meaty flavor. Full summary ↓ Growers’ Notes … Read more