Heirloom Tomato Varieties & Reviews | Tomat-Pomidor
Honest reviews of global tomato varieties from a 15-year-old growers community.
🍅 Quick take: Maciza Montserrat (Montserrat Macizo) is a heavy-hitting indeterminate Spanish heirloom from Catalonia. Unlike traditional hollow-pocketed Montserrat stuffing tomatoes, the “Maciza” (solid) strain is bred to be completely dense, meaty, and nearly seedless with warm salmon-pink flesh. While standard vines pump out ribbed 10.5-21 oz (300-600 g) slicers, plants with lighter fruit sets … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Lehrertomate (German for “Teacher’s Tomato”) is a traditional German indeterminate heirloom bred for producing massive, scarlet-red beefsteaks tipping the scales between 14-25 oz (400-700 g). The fruit are dense, meaty, and lightly ribbed with remarkably few seeds and a rich, old-fashioned balanced flavor. While it sets fruit reliably in cool northern summers, … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Lucky Cross is an indeterminate, mid-to-late season large bicolor beefsteak. Growers praise it for its outstanding sweet, fruity flavor, often ranking it above other famous bicolors like Virginia Sweets or Burracker’s Favorite. It produces gorgeous 7-14 oz (200-400 g) yellow fruits with red marbling inside and out. While a few noted it … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Lavender Lake is a massive, highly productive indeterminate beefsteak. It produces stunning terracotta/red-brown fruits with subtle green striping and deep crimson flesh, weighing a hefty 17.5-28 oz (500-800 g). Growers report it as an exceptional and very early producer, though the seeds can sometimes be notoriously finicky to germinate. Full summary ↓ … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Captain Lucky 🌍 Origin: A stunning modern heirloom cross stabilized by American breeder Millard Murdock. Known for its mesmerizing interior colors. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall) with Potato Leaf (PL) foliage. The vines tend to be somewhat wispy and sparse with foliage. Often tops out around 5.5 feet (1.7 m) in … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): The “Big Boy” Mystery 🧬 Hybrid vs. Heirloom Controversy: In the US, “Burpee’s Big Boy” is a famous commercial F1 hybrid introduced in 1949. However, in Eastern Europe and Russia, seed collectors have been trading saved seeds of a variety called “Big Boy” for years. It is highly debated whether this … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Brandywine Red 🌍 Origin: A classic red strain of the legendary Brandywine heirloom family, famous among collectors worldwide for its unmatched flavor. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, growing to about 6.5 ft (2 m) tall. It features the classic Potato Leaf (PL) foliage. The bush is medium in vigor but very densely … Read more