Heirloom Tomato Varieties & Reviews | Tomat-Pomidor
Honest reviews of global tomato varieties from a 15-year-old growers community.
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Curtis Cheek 🌍 Origin: A highly prized heirloom oxheart variety from the USA. It is named after the American grower, Curtis Cheek, who cultivated and popularized this fantastic giant tomato among heirloom collectors. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall). An incredibly vigorous and powerful plant. Standout feature: It is an early-season variety, … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR) 🌍 Origin: A productive heirloom beefsteak variety. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall). Proves to be exceptionally hardy and performs wonderfully when grown outdoors in open ground. 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Large, classic beefsteak-type tomatoes with a bright, vibrant color. Unlike some beefsteaks that are dry and dense, this variety is wonderfully juicy. … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR) 🌍 Origin: A striking anthocyanin (blue/purple) novelty variety. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, mid-season. It grows very vigorously and produces a lot of suckers/side shoots quickly, so regular pruning is recommended. Even when started late from seed, it performs well outdoors, reaching about 1.1 meters (3.6 ft) in open ground. 🍅 Fruit … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR) 🌍 Origin: A dark heirloom variety originating from the USA. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, but generally medium-tall (semi-determinate behavior in some conditions). It shows great disease resistance and continues to grow and produce late into the season. 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Dark (purple/black) beefsteaks. The texture is dense, sugary, and very meaty. … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR) 🌍 Origin: A specific heirloom strain known as Big Orange (from Amuz). 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, early season. The plant has a thin, “wispy” foliage structure, which is completely normal for this variety (don’t worry if the seedlings look a bit frail). It is very low-maintenance and unpretentious. 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR) 🌍 Origin: A dark heirloom variety known as Black Early. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, mid-season. Interestingly, the plant habit is described as quite compact for an indeterminate variety, making it manageable. 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Dark purplish-pink/black fruits. They have an excellent texture that manages to be both juicy and reasonably meaty … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR) 🌍 Origin: A classic heirloom yellow pear-shaped cherry tomato. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), mid-season. A vigorous grower that performs excellently in a greenhouse environment. 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Bright yellow, small pear-shaped cherry tomatoes. They have a firm texture that holds up well. 👅 Flavor & Use: The flavor is described … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR) 🌍 Origin: A commercial variety produced by the famous French seed company Vilmorin. 🌿 Plant Habit: Determinate / Semi-determinate, mid-season. It is relatively compact and easy to grow, reaching about 1 m (3.3 ft) outdoors and up to 1.6 m (5.2 ft) in a greenhouse. Perfect for both open ground and … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR) 🌍 Origin: A very reliable and tasty pink heirloom variety. 🌿 Plant Habit: Determinate or Semi-determinate, mid-season. It is much more manageable than sprawling indeterminates, reaching a modest height of about 1.3 – 1.4 meters (4.2 – 4.6 ft) when grown in a greenhouse. 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Medium-sized pink tomatoes. The … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR) 🌍 Origin: A yellow/bicolor heirloom variety. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, mid-season. Reaches a height of about 1.8 meters (6 ft) when grown in a greenhouse. Known for being an unpretentious, low-maintenance workhorse that shows great cold tolerance, continuing to produce well into the autumn. 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Medium-to-large beefsteaks weighing 200-300 … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR) 🌍 Origin: A highly regarded specific strain of the famous Brandywine heirloom family. Documented in Tatiana’s TOMATObase. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, mid-season. Features the classic Potato Leaf (PL) foliage typical of Brandywines. Notably, it performs very well even when grown outdoors (open ground) in cooler northern climates. 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Large, … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR) 🌍 Origin: A very famous commercial Russian/Ukrainian heirloom that has caused a lot of naming controversy! Many growers assume “Black Sea Man” is just a direct translation of the Russian variety Chernomor. However, as documented by growers in this thread who planted both side-by-side, they are completely different varieties. The strain … Read more