Heirloom Tomato Varieties & Reviews | Tomat-Pomidor
Honest reviews of global tomato varieties from a 15-year-old growers community.
🍅 Quick take: Orlinyi Klyuv (Eagle’s Beak) is a famous commercial Russian heirloom from Siberian Garden (SibSad). It is an indeterminate, early-to-mid season pink heart/beak-shaped tomato. Like many classic oxhearts, it has a very spindly, wispy (“weeping”) foliage habit that looks frail but pumps out massive yields of large fruits up to 1.3 lbs (600 … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Olesya is an indeterminate Siberian heirloom bred by Sibirskiy Sad, renowned for producing meaty, golden-orange elongated plum tomatoes packed with exceptional sweetness. Plants display classic feathery, weeping foliage that can look scrawny despite being healthy. While yield is notoriously light on single-stem setups, multi-leader pruning and leaving fruit to fully vine-ripen unlocks … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Orange Russian 117 is an iconic indeterminate, mid-to-late season bicolor oxheart bred by California grower Jeff Dawson (a cross of Russian 117 and Georgia Streak). The vines carry classic delicate, weeping oxheart foliage and produce breathtaking 9-19 oz (250-540 g) gold and crimson hearts. Forum growers note that its legendary, sweet, peach-like … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Orange Heart from Angelini is a tall, indeterminate, mid-season oxheart variety that produces vibrant, sun-colored orange fruits averaging around 7 oz. Known for its sweet, juicy flavor and solid yields, it performs beautifully in greenhouses, especially for growers dealing with short northern summers. Full summary ↓ Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA Zones … Read more
🍅 Quick take: A highly productive, wispy-leafed indeterminate vine that produces stunning, small-to-medium red oxhearts that literally look like giant strawberries. Known for an exceptionally sweet, classic flavor and very few seeds, it thrives in both greenhouses and outdoors but can be prone to yellow shoulders without enough potassium. Full summary ↓ Growers’ Notes and … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Minusinskie Shary (Minusinsk Globes) is a red, indeterminate heirloom from the famous Minusinsk region in Siberia. It produces large, blunt heart-shaped tomatoes on vines with classic wispy foliage. While one grower praised its meaty, sweet flesh, another noted that the fruits were very juicy but had disappointingly thin walls. Full summary ↓ … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Morkovnyi (Carrot) is an early-season, determinate bush variety famous for its striking, finely cut, carrot-like foliage. Staying compact at around 20-32 inches (50-80 cm), it is an excellent choice for outdoor growing and early harvests. The fruits are medium-sized, red, slightly ribbed, and usually weigh around 5-9 oz (150-250 g). While everyone … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Mishka Kosolapy (Clumsy Bear) is a classic oxheart variety known for its massive, meaty fruits and traditional wispy, weeping foliage. Most growers report an indeterminate habit with excellent yields of sweet, dense tomatoes that feature a “watermelon-like” internal texture. Originally famous in its red form, it now exists in pink (raspberry) and … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Mango Django is a highly productive, indeterminate orange paste/plum variety featuring elongated fruits with a distinct point (often called “icicle” types by growers). The fruits typically weigh between 2 and 5 oz (60-150 g). The vine has wispy, downward-pointing foliage but is surprisingly vigorous, easily reaching the top of a greenhouse by … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Minusinskie Bychki (Minusinsk Bulls) is a massive, indeterminate heirloom hailing from Siberia. It typically produces large pink or red blunt hearts weighing anywhere from 5.3 to 14 oz (150-400 g) and beyond. Growers report an exceptionally sweet, meaty, and buttery flavor profile with no hard cores or green shoulders. Some folks note … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Moonlight Delight (Lunnyi Vostorg) is a heavy-yielding yellow oxheart tomato. While plant heights seem to vary (some report compact determinate bushes, others indeterminate vines), it consistently produces massive, meaty slicers weighing up to 19 oz (550 g) with a sweet, mild, low-acid flavor. The main drawback reported by growers is its incredibly … Read more
🍅 Quick take: Favorite Holiday (Lyubimyi Prazdnik) is a heavy-yielding Russian pink oxheart originally released by Siberian Garden. While the commercial seed packet claims it is a short 30-inch plant, growers consistently report it behaving like a tall, wispy-leafed vine reaching 5 feet (1.5 m) or more in a greenhouse. It produces massive, meaty, heart-shaped … Read more