Nizami Tomato Review: Seedless Georgian Heirloom

This variety has a very unusual history… Last year, in the fall of 2013, someone gifted me a large, orange tomato at an exhibition. They called it an old Georgian variety named “Nizami” and pleaded with me to keep it going so it wouldn’t be lost…

The tomato was dense, heart-shaped, with buttery, sweet flesh… A distinguishing feature from other orange hearts is the faintly visible dark stripes on the top of the fruit. There were very few seeds inside. I decided to send these seeds to a few of our forum girls living in different climate zones for further testing: to Olya in Belarus, to Lyubushka in Volgograd, to Lena Danko in the Tambov region, to LenaN in Kostroma, and to Galochka in Lipetsk…

Based on the 2014 season results, the variety performed quite well for everyone… (haven’t heard back from Volgograd yet)…

Edited November 24, 2014 by Yaroslavna

Natalya, I have a variety I call Persimmon Heart (self-named ;D ) that is very similar in characteristics, though I don’t see any little dark stripes on mine. The plant is vigorous, thick-stemmed, but the tomatoes aren’t huge, sitting just under 7 oz (200 g). I should probably try planting them side-by-side.

The variety turned out to be incredibly delicious! I think this is a true family heirloom of the folks who passed it on to Natasha. I grew it out in the dirt, and it’s a variety with huge potential=meaty, firm little tomatoes with a very harmonious taste. I shared seeds with many forum members, so I think by next year a lot of orange-tomato lovers will be trying it and it’ll truly make its way out into the world! 🙂 Apologies for the photo quality.

Edited November 24, 2014 by Danko

I liked Nizami too. It’s the type of tomato that people describe as “buttery.” Dense flesh, very few seeds, sweet. The vine is indeterminate, quite neat, not wide, but you couldn’t call it skinny either, like many of the other heart-types are.

Edited November 24, 2014 by Cherry

Here’s the Nizami fruit I photographed, although I did get some oval-round ones like the other girls mentioned. The taste of these tomatoes is very good, but for me, they were practically all seedless. The orange color is very unusual. The vine has average foliage. Huge thanks to Natasha for this variety!

I’m definitely planning to plant this one this year (seeds from Olya). I’m very drawn to the word “buttery” in the description.

It’s in my planting plans for next year too, seeds courtesy of our lovely Galya.

Yep, it’s officially in my plans too now. I was just looking for seeds, and Galya somehow read my mind and sent it to me.

Really loved this variety (Natasha, thanks for the seeds!). Very delicious tomatoes, firm, the flesh is truly buttery, and there are practically no seeds at all. My yield was moderate, but then again, we completely skipped having a summer this year. A very worthy variety.

Thanks, Irisha! They did great in the Urals!

Thanks for the seeds Natasha and Lena! An amazing variety! The vine is thin and elegant, about 4.5 feet (1.4 m) tall. I grew it in the greenhouse to 2 stems, average yield. The fruits are incredibly beautiful, round-orange hearts with dense, buttery, and very delicious flesh. There are almost zero seeds in the fruits–it’s a disgrace! 😀

Very tasty, sweet, dense, just solid meat! And there wasn’t a single seed in this tomato 🙁

Agreed. Very tasty, but an incredibly low-seed variety. I managed to scrape together exactly 3 seeds from one tomato. 🙁

To say I liked this variety is an understatement! I am absolutely thrilled with Nizami!!! Considering how many varieties turned out bland this year, Nizami was one of the few that ended up mega-tasty. Plus, it’s gorgeous; the photos don’t convey how bright this tomato gets. When fully ripe, peach-pink strokes appear on its cheeks. Yield was so-so, but I’m hoping to tame this handsome guy using my own saved seeds. Thank you for the seeds, Lena!

Marina, look at the Nizami I grew from your seeds! I’m just waiting for those peach-pink strokes on the cheeks to appear, I want them to be brighter. The vine is quite vigorous for a heart-type, I really liked it. The taste is excellent, thank you so much!

Really loved this variety. It’s been living in our greenhouse for three years now. A highly successful discovery. My seeds were from Svetikk. Germination was 100%. Yield is average. The vine has medium foliage, quite neat. I ran it to two stems. It grew to nearly 6.5 feet (2 m). It wasn’t even growing in the brightest spot. Very healthy, didn’t get sick.

As for the fruit shapes, the first ones on the bottom were flat-round, and the higher up they grew, the more heart-shaped they became. They are so beautiful! Average weight 7-14 oz (200-400 g).

But the most important thing is the taste! It was after eating this that I finally understood what “buttery flesh” means—dense, yellow-orange, glossy, like firm jelly, with zero graininess/mealiness. The flavor is pleasant, decidedly sweet, with a delicate fruity aftertaste. But the fruitiness isn’t overwhelming; it just makes the flavor richer. It decorates a salad with both its colors and its taste. Superb!!!

Here is what that beautiful flesh looks like. So buttery. Almost zero seeds. The skin is of medium thickness.

I grew Nizami in 2016 in a hoop house. It had a completely dismal yield. 🙁 But it was SO delicious!!! By the way, it was the very first variety to ripen out of everything in the greenhouse.

I grew it again this year from my own seeds. Excellent variety, and it turned out to be a heavy yielder for me. I planted it in the greenhouse in early April with night heating because of the frosts. The taste is mind-blowing! It has a permanent residency in my garden now. We were eating the first ripe fruits in early July, and it kept producing right up until November.

I repeated this variety, and it confirmed its title as one of the best-tasting orange tomatoes out there. Grew it in the greenhouse to two stems, average yield, but I’m going to keep growing it purely for the flavor anyway! There are barely any seeds in the fruit, and they are incredibly tiny – I had to search for them with a magnifying glass. It was one of the very first indeterminate vines to start ripening.

Edited December 23, 2018 by Svetikk

My turn finally came this year and I planted Nizami. Seeds were from Olya (Cherry). This variety is a pure delight! The vine didn’t get too tall, around 4.5-5 feet (1.40-1.50 m). It’s thin with sparse foliage, but sturdy compared to other heart-types. Started ripening among the first and fruited for a long time; the yield wasn’t bad at all. The taste is amazing. Fruits have a beautiful shape, rich orange color, buttery texture, and very small seed locules. I will absolutely be growing it again in the future.

I just now realized what tomato I pulled out of my ripening box in late October! It was counter-ripened and extremely delicious. I went through all the yellow varieties I planted in my head, and nothing fit. I completely forgot about the Nizami vine. When I cut it open, it was solid meat with very few locules.

I agree with all the glowing reviews about this variety! An absolute miracle, so delicious! It’s just a shame my yield turned out to be average. And I still can’t harvest any seeds from it! Not a single tomato has had any real seeds yet, just empty embryos. I have a few more ripening on the vine, really hoping I can scrape together at least a couple of seeds.

It’s a shame, but this variety disappointed me. Primarily because of a very low yield. Maybe it got unlucky with its placement in the greenhouse (grew in the shade), or some other factors, but still. The vine was thin and sparsely leafed. It was one of the latest varieties to ripen for me. Out in the dirt, it didn’t even get to ripen at all. Despite all that, I did like the taste; perhaps the variety just performs better in more southern regions.

I also had a low yield. It’s possible I planted it in an unlucky spot. But the taste didn’t blow me away either…

My Nizami was buttery and large, but not heart-shaped. Planted late this year, and the seedlings were flimsy. I planted two vines per planting hole. They seemed to like that. Produced a massive crop of large tomatoes.