The Heirloom tomato is an old favorite with Cherokee Purple and Brandywine being amongst the most popular of these. They are well known for their flavour and are great for the home gardener. The reason they are not generally available commercially is because of the need for robustness during transportation and the supermarkets need for a long shelf life. Consequently they are maintained primarily due to the enthusiasm of the home gardeners who cultivate them from seed for their own purposes.

There are a few other options available to the home gardener and the list below represents a few of the popular ones: -

Alicante – good quality tomato generally with good disease resistance
Big Boy – very large fruit with an excellent texture, great for sandwiches
Eurocross A – a bit like Moneymaker but more vigorous and produces more fruit
Growers Pride (F1) – Great for the beginner, fruits early and useful for most things
Mandel (F1) – Good for disease resistance, dark red colour and can be used for a variety of things
Odine (F1) – Great for a small greenhouse with many uses
Tigerella – Yellow striped fruit, lots of flavour and is available early in the season
Vibelco – very disease resistant
Yellow Perfection – Lovely yellow fruit with great flavour and high quality fruit

(more…)

If you are interested in growing tomatoes from seed then you can find out the technique for separating the seeds from the fruit and preparing them for cultivation in the following video. The video describes the process in a clear and easy way that most anyone will be able to follow.

Heirloom tomato varieties are very popular for their full flavour and taste. Although the video does not use heirloom tomatoes the technique is pretty much the same for all tomato types. If you want to find out how to cultivate the seeds and turn them into plants you can find out how to grow tomatoes from seed by clicking on the link.

(more…)