Heirloom Tomato Varieties & Reviews | Tomat-Pomidor
Honest reviews of global tomato varieties from a 15-year-old growers community.
🍅 Quick take: Lampochki (which translates to “Lightbulbs”) is an early-season, indeterminate potato leaf (PL) cherry tomato. It produces gorgeous clusters of sweet, meaty yellow pear-shaped cherries. It was grown side-by-side with the famous commercial variety “Honey Drop” to see if it was just a renamed clone, but proved to be vastly superior—ripening earlier, tasting … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Swan Song (Lebedinaya Pesnya) is a mid-season, indeterminate pale yellow/white tomato. The vines are very well-behaved and manageable, producing excellent yields over a long production window. The fruits weigh between 3.5 and 10.5 oz (100-300 g) and develop a beautiful pink blush on the blossom end when fully ripe. It has a … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Lyubov Irana (Love of Iran) is a mid-late season, indeterminate pink beefsteak tomato. It is known for producing massive, uniform slicers weighing anywhere from 10.5 oz to over 2 lbs (300 g to 1 kg) with a rich, classic tomato flavor. While most growers report huge yields and beautiful fruit with no … Read more
At a Glance 🍅 Quick take: Gajo de Melon is a late-season, aggressively growing indeterminate cherry tomato. The vine easily tops 6.5 feet (2 m) and has a massive, sprawling footprint that requires strict pruning to keep it from turning into a jungle. While the yields are only average due to smaller clusters, the flavor … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Layner (Liner) is a mid-season, indeterminate pink tomato from Russian breeder Petrov. It produces highly versatile, barrel-to-plum-shaped fruits, making it an excellent choice for paste and canning. The vine is notable for its compact, narrow footprint and shorter regular-leaf foliage, making it easy to manage. Growers praise its solid yields and reliability, … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Lyon-1 (Flax-1) is a mid-season, indeterminate red tomato praised heavily for its commercial qualities. Reaching over 6 feet in a greenhouse, it produces very dense, crack-resistant fruits weighing 5-10.5 oz (150-300 g). Growers love its incredible productivity, noting it sets fruit beautifully without dropping blossoms. While the flavor is described as a … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Lyubimyi Malyshik (Favorite Baby) is a mid-season, indeterminate Russian family heirloom promoted heavily by seed vendor V. Kolyakov. The vendor claims it produces incredibly beautiful, sugary fruits up to 7 oz (200 g) with great late blight resistance and massive yields. However, real-world grower experience tells a different story: poor yields, constant … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Lampa (The Lamp) is an indeterminate, mid-season orange tomato distributed by the Russian seed company Gavrish. It’s supposed to produce 3.5-5 oz (100-140 g) pear-shaped fruits in massive clusters. Growers report a great sweet flavor with a slight tang, making it perfect for canning and dehydrating. However, the commercial seed packets seem … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Summer Apricot (Letniy Abrikos) is a moderately tall indeterminate vine that produces massive, bright orange beefsteaks weighing anywhere from 14 oz to over 2 lbs (400 g – 1 kg). Known for its tender, melt-in-your-mouth flesh and very few seeds, it is widely considered an excellent fresh-eating slicer, though its flavor can … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Liguria is a mid-late season indeterminate variety that produces gorgeous, heavily ribbed, pear-shaped red tomatoes. While growers agree it is a vigorous vine that sets stunning fruit, reviews on taste and texture are highly mixed. Some report dense, juicy, and sweet fruits with heavy feeding, while others find them hollow, tart, and … 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 take: Lev Minusinskiy (Minusinsk Lion) is a striking, heavily ribbed, indeterminate heirloom from the famous Minusinsk region of Siberia. Producing large, meaty beefsteaks often weighing well over 10.5 oz (300 g), growers praise its rich, sweet flavor and excellent shelf life. While the flesh is thick and dense, some slices may reveal hollow … Read more