Heirloom Tomato Varieties & Reviews | Tomat-Pomidor
Honest reviews of global tomato varieties from a 15-year-old growers community.
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR) 🌍 Origin: A well-known heirloom variety. It is documented in Tatiana’s TOMATObase. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, mid-season. It features Potato Leaf (PL) foliage. Growers note that the seedlings are sturdy and don’t get leggy. It produces a manageable amount of suckers and shows good disease resistance. 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Beautiful, shimmering … Read more
Quick Summary of Brandywine Covlik’s Strain 🌍 Origin: A specific strain of the famous American Brandywine heirloom tomato. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), featuring large, wide potato-type leaves. The bush is described as tall, slender, and somewhat sparse in foliage. It responds very well to fertilization. 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Large, smooth, rounded-oblate beefsteaks. The color … Read more
Quick Summary of Blaue Kasachstan 🌿 Plant Habit: INDETERMINATE (Tall/Vining). It reaches about 1.9 m (6.2 ft) but remains relatively compact for an indeterminate. It features potato leaf foliage. 🌍 Origin: Despite the name “Blue Kazakhstan”, little is known about its exact origins, though it is believed to have been introduced via Hartman (Germany) around … Read more
Quick Summary of Aunt Ginny’s Purple 🌍 Origin: A renowned heirloom variety with German roots, popularized in the USA. (Note: In heirloom tomato terminology, “Purple” often refers to a deep, dark pink color rather than true purple). 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (very tall) with classic potato leaf foliage. The vines are highly vigorous. 🍅 Fruit … Read more
Quick Summary of Aunt Gertie’s Gold 🌍 Origin: A very famous American heirloom tomato variety, frequently ranked among the top 10 best-tasting heirlooms in the USA. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), highly vigorous, and fast-growing with massive potato leaf foliage. In a greenhouse, it easily reaches over 2.1 m (7 ft). Growers recommend pruning it … Read more
Quick Summary of Aces High 🌍 Origin: A rare dark cocktail tomato. In the Russian seed market, it became famous due to a hilarious translation error: the first person to import it used Google Translate, resulting in “High Aces” (as in playing cards: Tuzy Vysokie). Growers later pointed out it’s actually named after the famous … Read more
Quick Summary of Yantarnyi Med (Amber Honey) 🌍 Origin: A Russian commercial heirloom, most famously distributed by the “Uralskiy Dachnik” (Ural Summer Resident) seed company. The name translates to “Amber Honey”. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall). There is an ongoing debate and mystery regarding its foliage—some seed batches produce Potato Leaf (PL) plants (as usually … Read more
Quick Summary of Yablonka Rossii (Little Apple of Russia) 🌍 Origin: A highly popular commercial and heirloom variety in Russia. There is an ongoing debate among collectors that it is identical to the old East German (GDR) variety Tamina, or closely related to Matina. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (though often behaves as semi-determinate in open … Read more
Quick Summary of Ela 18 🌍 Origin: A recent cross from a Polish breeding line. The lineage is listed as Malinowy nn od przekupki x Albenga (which roughly translates from Polish as “Unknown Pink from a market woman” crossed with “Albenga”). 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate, vigorous plant. Best suited for greenhouse growing in cooler climates. … Read more
Quick Summary of Cherniy Gigant (Black Giant) 🌍 Origin: A popular commercial Russian heirloom. Some experienced growers note it is practically identical to the well-known variety Cherniy Slon (Black Elephant). 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), usually reaching 1.5 – 2 meters (5-6.5 ft). Some growers report it can terminate its own growth (top itself out) … Read more
Quick Summary of Chernyi Slon (Black Elephant) 🌍 Origin: A well-known Russian commercial heirloom. The name translates to “Black Elephant”. It is distributed by several seed companies in Russia (like TomAgros and Gisok). 🌿 Plant Habit: Mostly described as a tall determinate or semi-determinate that eventually tops itself (stops growing upward). Height ranges from 1m … Read more
Quick Summary of Faworyt 7/2 Potato Leaf 🌍 Origin: A new Polish breeding line resulting from a cross between Kuban Black Pepper and Malinowa Sakiewka. The name translates to “Favorite 7/2”. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate. A powerful, well-foliaged plant with a dense canopy of large Potato Leaf (PL) foliage. It shows excellent disease resistance and … Read more