Heirloom Tomato Varieties & Reviews | Tomat-Pomidor
Honest reviews of global tomato varieties from a 15-year-old growers community.
📌 Quick Summary: Krem Brule (Creme Brulee) 🌍 Origin: A Russian commercial dark tomato variety. The name translates to “Creme Brulee”. It is at the center of a famous seed-market confusion, as two major Russian companies (Aelita and Gavrish) sell completely different tomatoes under the exact same name. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall). Reaches around … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Zefir v Shokolade (Marshmallow in Chocolate) 🌍 Origin: A commercial Russian variety from the “Poisk” seed company’s “Vkusnoteka” (Flavor Library) line. The name playfully translates to “Marshmallow in Chocolate”. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall). Usually reaches around 6 feet (1.9 m) in open ground. It sets fruit consistently without dropping blossoms. … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Zilbert 🌍 Origin: A fascinating case of mixed-up heirloom history! There was once a pink Soviet beefsteak named Zilbert bred in the Ural mountains. However, the variety circulating today under the name “Zilbert” is actually a dark mahogany/black heirloom originating from Germany. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate. An incredibly resilient workhorse that … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Charbonneuse du Berry 🌍 Origin: A rare and very unusual heirloom from France. The proper French spelling is Charbonneuse du Berry (which roughly translates to “Coal-colored from Berry”), referencing its dark, charcoal-like hues and the historical French province of Berry. 🌿 Plant Habit: A relatively short indeterminate (sometimes acting as a … Read more
Quick Summary of Chernomor (Black Sea Man) 🌍 Origin: A well-known Russian commercial variety (produced by SeDek). The name translates to “Black Sea Man” or “Chernomor” (a character from Russian fairy tales). 🌿 Plant Habit: The seed packet claims it is a semi-determinate (1.3-1.5 m / 4.2-5 ft) variety for greenhouses and open ground. However, … Read more
Quick Summary of Paslyon Chernyy (Black Nightshade) 🌍 Origin: A Russian club variety (originally distributed by the St. Petersburg Tomato Club). The name intriguingly translates to “Black Nightshade”. 🌿 Plant Habit: Determinate, but a very tall one! It grows to about 1.5–1.7m (5–5.5 ft) before it terminates (self-tops) and stops growing upward. It performs very … Read more
Quick Summary of Purple Sugar (Purpurnyy Sakharnyy) 🌍 Origin: A commercial variety sold in Russia by the “Dom Semyan” (House of Seeds) company. The packet claims it is an “original variety native to Latin America,” but it appears to be a ribbed dark variety highly prone to fasciation. The name translates to “Purple Sugar”. 🌿 … Read more
Quick Summary of Paul Robeson (Pol Robson) 🌍 Origin: A legendary Soviet-era heirloom named in honor of the American singer, actor, and civil rights activist Paul Robeson. Some sources claim it was bred in the 1930s, while others point to breeder M. Danilenko in the 1960s. 🌿 Plant Habit: Generally behaves as a vigorous semi-determinate … Read more