Heirloom Tomato Varieties & Reviews | Tomat-Pomidor
Honest reviews of global tomato varieties from a 15-year-old growers community.
🍅 Quick take: Kleopatra is a highly productive, tree-type dwarf variety featuring potato leaves and a very stout, sturdy main stem. It produces beautiful raspberry-yellow striped plum tomatoes weighing around 2.8-3.2 oz (80-90 g). Growers love its massive yields (up to 11 lbs / 5 kg per plant) and extreme ruggedness late into the season. … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Ilona 🌍 Origin: A reliable variety named “Ilona”. 🌿 Plant Habit: Vigorous vines that reach around 5 feet (1.5 m) when grown outdoors. Known to be a very heavy yielder. 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Classic red, perfectly round tomatoes. They are on the smaller mid-size spectrum, averaging about 3 to 4 oz … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Donald F1 🌍 Origin: A commercial F1 hybrid variety. 🌿 Plant Habit: Determinate, staying very compact. Outdoors in open ground, it tops out at around 20 inches (0.5 m). 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Bright red, perfectly round, and incredibly firm. It has a highly uniform, “commercial” appearance. 👅 Flavor & Use: Standard … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Dragotsennaya Zhemchuzhina (Precious Pearl) 🌍 Origin: A Russian commercial/heirloom variety. The name translates beautifully to “Precious Pearl”. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, but stays relatively compact. Exhibits medium vigor and maxes out around 4 feet (1.2 m) tall by the end of the season. Mid-early maturity. 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Small, bright red, … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Detskaya Sladost (Children’s Sweetness) 🌍 Origin: Сommercial variety from the “Gavrish” seed company. The name translates to “Children’s Sweetness”. 🌿 Plant Habit: Determinate, compact bush growing about 20-24 inches (50-60 cm) tall. Suitable for open ground or container growing. 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Bright red, firm, egg-shaped/oval tomatoes weighing 3.5-4.2 oz (100-120 … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Jade Pink Round 🌍 Origin: A very rare heirloom variety. It is extremely hard to find information or grower reviews about it online. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate. A great choice for growers looking for a reliable, tall plant that produces uniformly sized salad tomatoes. 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Perfectly round, pink tomatoes … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Dieticheskiy Zdorovyak (Dietary Big Guy) 🌍 Origin: A commercial variety from Siberian Garden (SibSad). The name translates to “Dietary Big Guy”, referencing both its massive fruit size and its orange color (which in Russia is often marketed as “dietary” or hypoallergenic). 🌿 Plant Habit: Determinate (bush). Reaches about 3 feet (1 … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Datterini Red 🌍 Origin: An Italian-style heirloom/commercial variety. The name “Datterini” translates to “little dates”, perfectly describing their elongated, grape-like shape. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall). Very vigorous and heavily branched. Best grown by removing all suckers up to the first flower cluster, then allowing multiple stems to develop for maximum … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Babushkino Lukoshko (Grandma’s Basket) 🌍 Origin: A Russian commercial open-pollinated variety introduced by the “Gavrish” seed company. The charming name translates to “Grandma’s Basket”. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), reaching 1.5–2.0 meters (5–6.5 ft). It is known for being incredibly rugged, handling poor lighting and cramped greenhouse conditions without losing productivity. … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Berberana F1 🌍 Origin: A highly disease-resistant commercial F1 hybrid, popular in Europe and Russia for greenhouse production. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), but with short internodes, keeping the plant compact and manageable without having to constantly reach for the greenhouse ceiling. Produces strong, bushy dark green foliage. 🛡️ Disease Resistance: … Read more
Quick Summary of Skazochnaya Feya (Märchenfee / Fairytale Fairy) 🌍 Origin: A modern, highly decorative variety of German breeding. Part of the “Klewerhof Fairytale” (Klewerhof Märchen) series. The original German name is Märchenfee, which translates to Fairytale Fairy (Skazochnaya Feya in Russian). 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate. Famous for its “hyper-productivity”—it produces massive, overwhelming yields of … Read more
Quick Summary of Striped Pepper (Pertsevidnyy Polosatyy) 🌍 Origin: A classic Russian striped paste variety, though its origins are muddy. The name translates exactly to “Striped Pepper-shaped”. Warning: This variety suffers from a massive identity crisis on the commercial seed market. Different seed companies (SeDek, Gavrish, Nash Sad) sell completely different tomatoes under this name! … Read more