Heirloom Tomato Varieties & Reviews | Tomat-Pomidor
Honest reviews of global tomato varieties from a 15-year-old growers community.
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Gigantsky Mech (Giant Sword) 🌍 Origin: A fantastic Eastern European heirloom. The name translates to “Giant Sword”, which likely hints at the elongated, pointy shape of some of its fruits. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall). Very productive and vigorous. 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Bright red and massive. Interestingly, it produces two shapes … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Galaktion 🌍 Origin: A highly sought-after modern anthocyanin (antho) variety popular among Eastern European collectors. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall). An incredibly vigorous and productive plant that performs exceptionally well both in greenhouses and outdoors. Like most antho varieties, the fruits develop the darkest, most striking purple/black colors when exposed to … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Gloria 🌍 Origin: A very popular collector’s variety circulating on Russian tomato forums. Seeds were famously distributed by a beloved forum member named Galina (Esme). 🌿 Plant Habit: Generally behaves as an indeterminate (tall) variety, easily reaching 5.5-6.5 ft (1.7-2 m) in a greenhouse, though some older seed stock produced semi-determinate … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Gigante di Pavia 🌍 Origin: A fantastic large-fruited Italian heirloom originating from Pavia, an ancient city in the Lombardy region of northern Italy. Locally in Italy, it is often simply called “Tumatica Giganta” (Giant Tomato). 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall) and mid-season. The vines can reach up to 6 feet (1.8 … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Woterhorn (Waterhorn) 🌍 Origin & Naming Mystery: A rare bicolor heirloom circulating among Eastern European collectors. Due to hand-written seed trades, the name has morphed across various forums into WoterNhorn, WAterNhorn, WOterhorn, and WAterhorn. 🧬 Genetics (Is it Tuxhorn?): Many growers suspected this was just a misnamed clone of the famous … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Vasilina 🌍 Origin: A Russian/Ukrainian collector’s variety. In this thread, one of the seed sources is the well-known Ukrainian breeder and collector Aleksey Kulik. The name “Vasilina” is a traditional Slavic female name. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall). Out in the open ground, it reached about 4 feet (1.2 m), but … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Hungarian Heart Shaped 🌍 Origin: A classic heirloom variety. Judging by the name and characteristics, it belongs to the famous family of Hungarian pink oxhearts. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall). It matures surprisingly early for such a large tomato. It grows well both in a greenhouse and out in the open … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Hungarian Oval 🌍 Origin: A well-known international heirloom variety. In this thread, seeds were sourced from the famous Russian collector V. Redko. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate. Unlike many wispy oxheart varieties, this one has strong, vigorous vines. It produces heavily and responds well to being pruned to 2 main stems in … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Vechnaya Lyubov (Eternal Love) 🌍 Origin: A beautiful and highly sought-after variety popularized by the famous Ukrainian tomato collector Aleksey Kulik. The name translates romantically to “Eternal Love”. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate with Regular Leaf (RL) foliage. It is very adaptable: out in the open ground, it behaves almost like a … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Vishnya Krasnaya (Red Cherry) & Vishnya Zholtaya (Yellow Cherry) 🌍 Origin: Popular Russian commercial cherry varieties. “Vishnya” translates directly to “Cherry” in Russian, hence “Red Cherry” and “Yellow Cherry”. 🌿 Plant Habit: Very vigorous, sprawling indeterminate plants. They require ample space and staking. One grower noted that they can take up … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Vspyshka (Flash) 🌍 Origin: A commercial Russian variety. The name translates to “Flash” or “Outburst”, which perfectly describes how fast it grows and sets fruit. 🌿 Plant Habit: Determinate (short bush), usually topping out around 20 inches (50 cm). It stays short but loves to sprawl, throwing out a ton of … Read more
📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Viking 🌍 Origin & Confusion: This thread discusses a large, red heirloom variety originally sourced from Sweden. Important Note: There is an officially registered Russian commercial variety also named “Viking,” but that one produces small yellow tomatoes. The Swedish “Viking” discussed here is completely different. 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), reaching … Read more