Heirloom Tomato Varieties & Reviews | Tomat-Pomidor
Honest reviews of global tomato varieties from a 15-year-old growers community.
Quick Summary of Blue Keyes 🌍 Origin & Type: A striking novelty anthocyanin cherry/pear tomato. It is part of a series (along with Amber Keyes, Black Keyes, etc.). 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate. The bush tends to be tall, thin, and rather lanky/leggy with regular foliage. Several growers report that it is quite sensitive to extreme … Read more
Quick Summary of Amethyst Cream Cherry 🌍 Origin: A beautiful anthocyanin cherry tomato developed by Brad Gates at Wild Boar Farms (USA). Introduced in 2013, it has become highly popular among international collectors. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall). Performs excellently outdoors in open ground, typically reaching a height of about 1.7 m (5.5 ft). 🍅 … Read more
Quick Summary of Aurora Blue 🌍 Origin: A beautiful anthocyanin variety popularized by the well-known Latvian tomato breeder and collector, Valdis Puliņš. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), reaching about 1.7–1.8 meters (5.5–6 ft). Very vigorous and productive, known to keep setting fruit right up until the first frost. 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Medium-to-large slicing tomatoes weighing … Read more
Quick Summary of Cherry Ira F1 🌍 Origin: A very popular commercial F1 hybrid from the Russian seed company “Semko”. Often sold at a premium price compared to standard seeds. 🌿 Plant Habit: An extremely vigorous, wildly growing indeterminate. It can easily surpass 3 meters (10 ft) in height. It produces a massive amount of … Read more
Quick Summary of Chernaya Lakomka (Black Gourmand) 🌍 Origin: A Russian commercial variety from the “Poisk” seed company. The name translates roughly to “Black Gourmand” or “Black Sweet Tooth”, highlighting its dessert-like flavor profile. 🌿 Plant Habit: Tall indeterminate, typically reaching 1.5–2 meters (5–6.5 ft) in a greenhouse. It sets fruit in clusters and has … Read more
Quick Summary of Syzran Ladies’ Fingers (Syzranskie Damskie Palchiki) 🌍 Origin & Name: An heirloom variety from Syzran, a region in Russia historically famous for its legendary tomatoes. The name translates to “Syzran Ladies’ Fingers”. This specific line was sourced from private collector Alla Savinova. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), typically reaching 1.5 – 1.7 … Read more
Quick Summary of Serdce Tibeta (Heart of Tibet) 🌍 Origin: A highly productive Russian collector’s variety (seeds originally distributed by breeder Gusev). The name translates to “Heart of Tibet”. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate. It exhibits classic oxheart traits, meaning the bush is not overly vigorous and has delicate, “wispy” foliage. Outdoors it grows to about … Read more
Quick Summary of Black Icicle (Russian: Сосулька чёрная) 🌍 Origin: A very popular commercial heirloom variety originating from Ukraine/Russia, known natively as “Chornaya Sosulka”. It has gained worldwide fame among collectors as “Black Icicle”. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, tall, and highly productive. It easily reaches up to 2 meters (6.5 ft) in a greenhouse. Like … Read more
Quick Summary of Sgt. Pepper’s 🌍 Origin: A highly famous anthocyanin (blue/purple) cross bred in the USA (by Jason Haynes). It is named after the iconic Beatles album. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate. This variety is famous for its extremely “wispy”, slender, and weeping foliage. In the seedling stage and in the garden, it looks incredibly … Read more
Quick Summary of Red King 🌍 Origin: A highly reliable variety sourced from the collection of Russian tomato expert V.D. Popenko. 🌿 Plant Habit: Mid-season and indeterminate (tall vining). It performs exceptionally well outdoors in the open ground, especially when pruned to two stems. 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Bright red, perfectly round tomatoes weighing up to … Read more
Quick Summary of Rozovaya Bomba (Pink Bomb) 🌍 Origin & History: This is a highly sought-after community heirloom with a fascinating backstory. It originally appeared in a Russian grower’s garden as an off-type (segregation) of the famous Pink Sgt. Pepper. Instead of producing typical heart-shaped fruits, this rogue plant produced massive oblate beefsteaks. The Russian … Read more