I Need to Find the Types of Heirloom Tomatoes

Heirloom Tomato Types

• Like other tomatoes, heirloom tomato varieties may be determinate (bushy and bearing all at once) or indeterminate (sprawling and bearing tomatoes until frost). Heirloom tomato varieties are open-pollinated which means that the seeds from a tomato, when planted, will grow and produce that same variety of tomato. Hybrid tomato seeds are a cross between two types of tomatoes. The seeds from a hybrid tomato, when planted, will not produce that same kind of tomato. Because tomatoes do not tend to cross-pollinate with other tomato varieties, it has been especially easy to create and pass down a wide variety of heirloom tomatoes generation to generation on small family farms.

Best Sources for Heirloom Tomatoes

• Many seed companies specialize in heirloom and open-pollinated vegetable seeds. A number of seed exchanges in the United States such as Seed Savers Exchange encourage seed trading to help preserve heirloom varieties and spread their popularity to new regions. Contact your local county cooperative extension office for more information about heirloom tomato varieties that do well in your location.

Where You Live

• The climate, soil types and length of days and seasons impact on the types of heirloom varieties you can or should grow. The most popular heirloom tomato varieties such as Brandywine and Mortgage Lifter are popular, in part because they have wonderful flavor, but also because they thrive in a variety of climates. Seed catalogs that specialize in open-pollinated and heirloom varieties are an easy way to find heirloom tomato seeds, but you may have to look through many catalogs to find some of the lesser known heirlooms.

What's So Special About Heirloom Tomatoes?

• Heirloom tomatoes are known for their great variety of colors from ruby red to black, green, yellow, striped and purple. They have deep, explosive tomato flavor, ranging from sweet to tart to beefy. Heirloom tomatoes come in a variety of shapes and sizes from giants weighing more than a pound to tiny tomatoes the size of a pea. They make wonderful sauces, canning tomatoes, slicing tomatoes and salad tomatoes. Because heirloom tomato varieties have been passed down through the generations, they have often come to be known by fanciful, expressive names such as Box Car Willie, Nebraska Wedding and Arkansas Traveler.

Buying and Saving Seed

• Heirloom tomato seeds are available from a variety of seed companies. Gardeners who grow open-pollinated varieties may also easily keep their own seed from year to year by selecting seeds from their heartiest and most prolific tomato plants. Preserving the genetic diversity of heirloom tomato and vegetable varieties is the mission of many organizations in the United States and around the world. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway has been gathering and storing millions of open-pollinated grain, vegetable and tomato seeds from organizations around the world.