Edible Gardens
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10 Delicious Heirloom Tomatoes to Grow This Summer
Irresistible heirlooms offer outstanding flavor and variety. Choose from a rainbow of colors in all shapes and sizes
If there’s one reason to grow heirloom tomatoes, it’s for their outstanding flavor. Worlds apart from the sometimes watery tomatoes at the grocery store, heirloom tomatoes boast a range of flavors from rich and sweet to deliciously tangy. Once you’ve sampled an heirloom, or grown your own, it’s hard not to get hooked on the taste and number of varieties available.
Whether you’re growing heirloom tomatoes for the first time or want to add a new one to the rotation, take a look at this list of top choices for flavor in a rainbow of colors. You’ll find tried-and-true favorites, such as ‘Brandywine’ and ‘San Marzano’, as well as a few less-common ones to try — such as an early-ripening cherry tomato that’s great for cold climates and a white-fleshed tomato that’s as sweet as candy.
Getting started: How to Grow Tomatoes
Whether you’re growing heirloom tomatoes for the first time or want to add a new one to the rotation, take a look at this list of top choices for flavor in a rainbow of colors. You’ll find tried-and-true favorites, such as ‘Brandywine’ and ‘San Marzano’, as well as a few less-common ones to try — such as an early-ripening cherry tomato that’s great for cold climates and a white-fleshed tomato that’s as sweet as candy.
Getting started: How to Grow Tomatoes
1. ‘Brandywine’: Off-the-charts flavor, large size and pink skin. ‘Brandywine’ is perhaps the most well-known — and well-loved — heirloom tomato out there. They may not be much to look at, but these large, often ribbed, pink-skinned fruits pack so much rich flavor in their juicy flesh that many other tomatoes pale in comparison. A single vine doesn’t produce many tomatoes, but the ones they do will not disappoint.
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Indeterminate
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Indeterminate
2. ‘Cherokee Purple’: Exceptional flavor with a deep red-purple color. With its easily recognizable dark green shoulders and reddish-purple skin, ‘Cherokee Purple’ is often one of the first to get picked out of a tomato bin at the farmers market. People choose them (or grow them) for the gorgeous color, nice texture and delicious sweet-tangy flavor. Show it off in slices on a platter drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt.
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Indeterminate
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Indeterminate
3. ‘Cherokee Green’: A tasty green tomato with excellent flavor and a unique gold-green color. If you’re looking for a green tomato for color variety on a plate, this one’s your best bet. Similar to heirloom ‘Green Zebra’ but with even better flavor, ‘Cherokee Green’ has the same sweet-tangy taste as ‘Cherokee Purple’ but a unique coloring of green streaked with gold.
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Indeterminate
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Indeterminate
4. ‘San Marzano’: The granddaddy sauce tomato. You just can’t beat classic Italian heirloom ‘San Marzano’ when it comes to making a rich, flavorful tomato sauce. The teardrop-shaped tomatoes are meaty and thick-walled and can grow up to 5 inches long. Exposure to heat entirely changes their flavor, transforming a fairly bland raw tomato into one with delicious tang and sweetness. The vines are vigorous, growing over 6 feet tall and producing heavy clusters of tomatoes; stake to prevent branches from breaking.
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Indeterminate
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Indeterminate
5. ‘Hillbilly’: Large yellow blushed-with-red beefsteak tomatoes with a mild, sweet flavor. If you don’t like too much acidity in your tomatoes and are looking for a big, juicy slicer, this one’s it. These 1- to 2-pound tomatoes are golden yellow with a red blush at the base and offer a tasty, sweet flavor and a texture well-suited for slicing for sandwiches or for layering with fresh mozzarella.
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Indeterminate
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Indeterminate
6. ‘Mortgage Lifter’: Hefty 1- to 2-pound tomatoes with a rich flavor and meaty texture. The lore behind this heirloom variety is that a farmer facing bankruptcy selected this tomato for its unmatched productivity and was able to sell the plants to other farmers to pay off his mortgage. Whether or not there’s truth to the story, there’s no denying that ‘Mortgage Lifter’ produces a large quantity of huge tomatoes — some up to 2 pounds. The fruits are full of rich, old-fashioned tomato flavor.
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Indeterminate
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Indeterminate
7. ‘White Currant’: Tiny, candy-sweet, cream-colored tomatoes. Think of these tiny fruits as the sugar drops of the tomato world. ‘White Currant’ tomatoes are only half the size of a cherry tomato but pack loads of deliciously sweet flavor in each fruit. They grow almost like heavy clusters of grapes on the sprawling, indeterminate vine — making it easy to pick many at once. Eat right out of hand or toss onto a salad to add color and juicy bursts of sweetness.
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Indeterminate
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Indeterminate
8. ‘Koralik’: Flavorful, early-ripening cherry tomato — great for cold climates. This Russian heirloom variety is still relatively uncommon in the U.S., but it is an excellent choice for colder regions. The plants take only 61 days to mature — up to a month earlier than most other tomato varieties — which helps ensure fruit production in areas with short summer seasons. ‘Koralik’ produces heavily, forming loads of 1-inch-diameter cherry tomatoes with delicious flavor on stems that produce six to eight fruits each. Cut the stem with the cluster intact for a pretty presentation on the table.
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Determinate
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Determinate
9. ‘Glacier’: A sweet, early-ripening variety — great for cold climates. ‘Glacier’ is another option for cold regions with short summer growing periods, producing clusters of juicy 2-inch tomatoes with a nice sweet flavor. The determinate plants reach maturity in a mere 55 days and stay small and squat — about 2½ feet tall and 3½ feet wide. Try growing ‘Glacier’ in a container with minimal staking, or in garden beds.
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Determinate
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Determinate
10. ‘Great White’: Big, pale-yellow slicers with mild, non-acidic flavor. ‘Great White’ tops the charts of white tomatoes with its creamy, mild flavor. It’s a good slicing tomato to try if you prefer your tomatoes on the non-acidic side. Mature tomatoes are large (up to 1 pound), rounded, well-textured throughout and look good when sliced with tomatoes in other colors.
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Indeterminate
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Indeterminate
Where to buy heirloom tomatoes. You can purchase heirloom tomatoes either as seeds or as plant starts. Purchase from local nurseries, mail-order plant catalogs, or online from sources such as Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Territorial Seed Company, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and Seed Savers Exchange.
Plant starts ordered from a plant catalog or online source will often not ship until it’s a good time to plant them in your region (after the last frost date).
Plant starts ordered from a plant catalog or online source will often not ship until it’s a good time to plant them in your region (after the last frost date).
There are so many delicious heirlooms to choose from, editing down a list was a challenge. Other great varieties to try include: ‘Sun Gold’, ‘Black Krim’, ‘Rosella Purple’, ‘Black Cherry’, ‘Speckled Roman’, ‘Super Snow White’, ‘Cherokee Chocolate’, ‘Kellogg’s Breakfast’ and ‘Goldie’.
Tell us: What’s your favorite variety of heirloom tomato?
More:
How to Grow Tomatoes
How to Grow Tomatoes in Pots
See how to grow more summer fruits and vegetables
Tell us: What’s your favorite variety of heirloom tomato?
More:
How to Grow Tomatoes
How to Grow Tomatoes in Pots
See how to grow more summer fruits and vegetables
There’s no single industry standard of how many years of “passing down” classifies a tomato as being an heirloom variety and, for family-grown varieties, it can be difficult to track. Some growers, like Territorial Seed Co., use the term “heirloom” if a tomato variety is at least 40 to 50 years old; others require the variety to be 75 years old. All tomatoes must be naturally open-pollinated to be considered heirlooms.
Indeterminate versus determinate tomatoes. Indeterminate tomatoes grow into taller, leggier vines than determinate varieties and always require staking. Determinate varieties stop growing after flowers form on the ends of stems, forming shorter, bushier plants that are well-suited for containers. The tomatoes on determinate plants often ripen all at once.
See how to grow tomatoes in pots