Heirloom Tomato Varieties & Reviews | Tomat-Pomidor
Honest reviews of global tomato varieties from a 15-year-old growers community.
🍅 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
🍅 Quick take: Longhorn is an indeterminate, early-to-mid-season oxheart originating from the US. It produces stunning elongated hearts in a deep purple-pink color with olive-green shoulders. Averaging up to 10.5 oz (300 g), the fruits are practically seedless, incredibly meaty, and boast a rich, sweet, and complex flavor. Growers rave about its massive yields and … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Lithuanian Crested Pink is a wispy-leafed, indeterminate heirloom that produces massive, meaty pink hearts weighing up to 14 oz (400 g). It is famous for throwing two different fruit shapes on the same vine: pointy hearts and flatter, ribbed “crested” hearts. While growers rave about its dense, sweet flesh and heavy yields, … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Lemon Slices (Limonnye Dolki) is a striking, elongated yellow-orange tomato marketed by the Russian seed company Aelita. Growers absolutely love its firm, sliceable texture and exceptionally sweet, fruit-like flavor profile. Interestingly, there is a strong consensus among gardeners that this might actually be a rebranded version of the popular variety Mango Django. … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Landshuter Riese is an indeterminate German heirloom that produces massive, incredibly tender pink oxhearts. Originally from Lower Bavaria and popularized by legendary seed collector Reinhard Kraft, this tall vine is praised for its long harvest window, excellent disease resistance, and nearly seedless, sweet flesh. While it can be a bit slow to … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Lariska’s Heart (Lariskino Serdtse) is an indeterminate, early-producing pink oxheart that sets beautiful, firm fruits weighing up to 10.5 oz (300 g). Growers praise it for its dense, sweet, nearly seedless flesh and its impressive ability to set fruit consistently all the way up the vine. Full summary ↓ Growers’ Notes and … Read more