Heirloom Tomato Varieties & Reviews | Tomat-Pomidor
Honest reviews of global tomato varieties from a 15-year-old growers community.
🍅 Quick take: Margareto is an indeterminate, mid-season heirloom oxheart sourced out of New York (USA). The vine is exceptionally slender and delicate, sporting textbook wispy foliage and producing very few suckers. It bears 8-16 oz (225-450 g) meaty, dense hearts that ripen into a deep reddish-pink. Growers note that the canopy should never be … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Mayo’s Delight is an indeterminate, mid-to-late season heirloom that yields colossal, blunt red oxhearts typically weighing 21 oz (600 g) with individual fruits tipping the scales at 2.2 lbs (1 kg). Vines reach 6 ft (1.8 m) and produce dense, solid meat with outstanding sweet, balanced flavor and virtually no seed cavities. … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Marek’s Pointy Heart is an indeterminate, mid-season heirloom oxheart with characteristic wispy foliage, originally obtained from Polish gardener Marek via Tatiana Kouchnareva. The vines set dense, elongated, tapered red hearts typically running 8-16 oz (220-450 g). The interior is solid, dense, and sweet with almost no seeds, though northern growers recommend greenhouse … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Homer’s German Oxheart is an indeterminate, late-season red oxheart. It produces large, slightly ribbed hearts with very few seeds and dense, buttery flesh. Growers note that while it isn’t an extremely heavy producer (averaging around 8 fruits per plant), the sheer size—most weighing around 14 oz (400 g)—and excellent, aromatic flavor make … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Herztomate Riehen is an indeterminate, mid-season red oxheart known for its classic wispy foliage and meaty, medium-to-large fruits. Growers report a nicely balanced, sweet flavor that makes it a perfect slicer for fresh eating. While outdoor yields might be just average, greenhouse growers have seen solid, above-average harvests. Full summary ↓ Growers’ … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Gritsyk is a mid-season, indeterminate red heirloom that produces massive, meaty plum-heart shaped fruits, often with a little point or beak on the blossom end. Growers praise its intensely sweet, rich flavor with practically zero acidity, and its outstanding resilience in extreme heat and wind. The huge fruits can weigh up to … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Konus (meaning “Cone”) is a vigorous indeterminate variety rescued by a dedicated seed saver over 20 years ago. It produces large, red, cone-shaped (oxheart-type) fruits that are meaty, juicy, and packed with old-school tomato flavor. The vine has a unique habit of naturally forking at the main stem. While it occasionally drops … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Red General (Krasnyi General) is a heavy-yielding indeterminate variety that produces large, glossy red tomatoes weighing up to 14 oz (400 g). Known among growers as an absolute workhorse, it boasts a classic, rich tomato flavor. While some seed lines produce oblate (flat-round) beefsteaks, other strains throw large, blunt oxhearts on taller, … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Krupnaya Grozd (Large Cluster) is an indeterminate, mid-season red oxheart tomato originating from Eastern Europe. It produces heavy yields of large, meaty, heart-shaped fruits that average around 12 oz (350 g), though some vendor descriptions claim they can reach over 2 lbs (1 kg). Growers appreciate its solid production and great late-summer … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Red Butter Heart 🌍 Origin: Originally tracing back to the USA, this variety became incredibly popular in the Russian heirloom community after being distributed by collector V. Redko. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall/vine). Exhibits the classic “weeping oxheart” gene with thin, wispy, droopy foliage. Do not be alarmed—the plant is not … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Klubnichnoe Derevo (Strawberry Tree) 🌍 Origin: A commercial Russian variety released in 2015 by the Siberian Garden (Sibsad) seed company. Not to be confused with the old European heirloom “German Red Strawberry”. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), but stays somewhat manageable. Outdoors it reaches about 3.3-4 feet (1-1.2 m), though it … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Kyzyl Tau 🌍 Origin: Modern heirloom bred by the famous tomato breeder Vitaly Alifirov from Almaty, Kazakhstan. The name “Kyzyl Tau” translates from Turkic languages to “Red Mountain.” 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall). A very productive and vigorous plant that performs exceptionally well in a greenhouse when pruned to 2 stems. … Read more