Heirloom Tomato Varieties & Reviews | Tomat-Pomidor
Honest reviews of global tomato varieties from a 15-year-old growers community.
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Costoluto Fiorentino sel. Canestrino di Lucca 🌍 Origin & The Great Seed Mix-Up: A fascinating piece of seed history! Commercial Italian vendors sometimes sold seeds under this long, combined name. However, as Russian growers quickly discovered in this thread, these are actually two different Italian varieties. 1) Costoluto Fiorentino: A small, … Read more
📌 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 well-known elongated plum/paste tomato variety, often grown for sauces and processing. 🌿 Plant Habit: Determinate / Semi-determinate. A mid-late season variety that grows relatively compactly, reaching about 0.8 m (2.6 ft) when grown outdoors in open ground. 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Red, elongated plum-shaped tomatoes. Grower tip on size: … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR) 🌍 Origin: An interesting and somewhat unstable heirloom paste tomato. Its lineage is linked to crosses involving Amish Paste and Amish Red. 🌿 Plant Habit: Mid-season, indeterminate. The plant has thin, wispy foliage (typical for many paste/oxheart types) but is surprisingly sturdy and not flimsy. Highly productive. 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Elongated, … Read more
Quick Summary of Bronza (Amarillo Rusty Paste) 🌍 Origin: Known in the US and Europe as Amarillo Rusty Paste, this variety is often circulated among Russian collectors under the translated name “Bronza” (Bronze) due to its unique coloring. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, mid-early. The bush is thin with weeping (droopy) foliage of medium length. Despite … Read more
Quick Summary of Andenhorn 🌍 Origin: A highly prized heirloom variety originating from the Andes mountains, brought to Europe and made famous in France (often known as Cornue des Andes or Andes Horn). 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate. Can be grown successfully outdoors even in challenging, rocky soils. Plants are somewhat wispy but sturdy, reaching about … Read more
Quick Summary of Abbattista 🌍 Origin: A treasured heirloom variety. Some international collectors have recently started spelling it “Abbittista”, but it remains widely known and grown as Abbattista. (Note: Not to be confused with “Abbattista Paste,” which is a smaller, semi-determinate cocktail type). 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, mid-season, and very tall (reaching up to 2.5 … Read more
Quick Summary of Yantarnyi Kubok (Amber Cup) 🌍 Origin: A popular Russian commercial heirloom variety (famously distributed by the “Aelita” seed company). The name translates to “Amber Cup”. 🌿 Plant Habit: There is a well-known seed mix-up in the market. The original, true strain is Determinate (bush), growing stout and compact around 70–100 cm (2.3–3.3 … Read more
Quick Summary of Elegant 🌍 Origin & Naming Confusion: “Elegant” is a name shared by several completely different tomato strains in the Russian/Ukrainian seed market. This forum thread is highly valuable because it breaks down the differences between the commercial version and the private collector versions. 🍅 Strain 1 (Commercial / SibSad variety): A mid-early … Read more
Quick Summary of EM-Chempion (EM-Champion) 🌍 Origin: A famous Russian commercial variety released by Sibirskiy Sad (Siberian Garden). The name translates to “EM-Champion”. 🌿 Plant Habit: Determinate (bush), reaching about 60–70 cm (24–28 inches) outdoors. It has very sparse, thin, downward-hanging leaves (often described as “wispy” or “weeping willow” type). Because of this, it can … Read more
Quick Summary of Ela 06 🌍 Origin: A spectacular Polish breeding line. It is a cross between Aurija (a famous elongated paste tomato) and Megagroniasty (a legendary Polish cherry tomato known for its massive multiflora trusses). 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, extremely vigorous, and disease-resistant. Growers describe it as growing “like a tree” with very thick, … Read more
Quick Summary of Shchedraya Slivka Tarasenko (Tarasenko’s Generous Plum) 🌍 Origin: Developed by the legendary Soviet/Ukrainian tomato breeder Feodosiy Tarasenko. The name translates to “Tarasenko’s Generous Plum”. It is considered one of his rarer varieties that didn’t become as widespread commercially as his other famous creations. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, mid-season. The bush is exceptionally … Read more