Categories: Blog

Growing Heirloom Tomato Plants

For some, growing heirloom vegetables is a reaction to the increasing numbers of genetically modified foods introduced commercially. For others a return to simpler times and cultural heritages is a motivating factor. Still others are seeking the health benefits of organic gardening and so look for disease resistant, heirloom varieties.

Many people will swear that heirloom tomatoes taste better than the newer varieties available and everyone agrees home-grown tomatoes fresh off the vine taste better than store-bought produce.

Whatever your reason, growing heirloom tomatoes is an easy and rewarding experience and there are many hundreds of tomatoes to choose from. Heirloom tomatoes come in a wide range of colors, shapes, sizes and flavors.

All heirloom variety plants are older than 50 years and will set true seed which means gardeners can save the seeds each year. Heirloom tomatoes can be categorized by their color, fruit size or rate of maturity.

Heirloom tomato color categories:

Red Heirloom Tomatoes – The well-known and popular color for tomatoes.
Orange and Yellow Heirloom Tomatoes – Lower in acid than typical red tomatoes, these heirlooms would be a great choice for anyone suffering from ulcers.
Pink or Purple Heirloom Tomatoes – Second lowest acid content they are similar in flavor to the red tomatoes.
Green Heirloom Tomatoes – Unusual tomatoes that remain green tinted even when fully ripe.
White Heirloom Tomatoes – Often sweeter than others, these are white or near white tomatoes.
Striped Heirloom Tomatoes – Some of the most unusual tomatoes of all these can be red and yellow; green and orange or anything in between.

Heirloom tomato fruit size categories:

Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes – small bite-sized or salad sized tomatoes.
Heirloom Paste Tomatoes – meaty flesh with fewer seeds.
Heirloom Slicing Tomatoes – large, round tomatoes also called ‚”beefsteak” tomatoes.
Heirloom Shaped Tomatoes – odd-shaped tomatoes that don’t fit into typical categories.

Heirloom tomato rate of maturity – This number is the count of days the plant needs for the fruit to fully ripen, usually stated as the number of ‚”days to maturity”, after transplanting.

Early Heirloom Tomatoes (to 75 days)
Mid-Season Heirloom Tomatoes (75-90 days)
Late Season Heirloom Tomatoes (over 90 days)

By choosing heirloom tomatoes with a variety of maturity times, uses and colors you can insure a unique and varied crop throughout a long growing season. Here is more information on planting tomatoes or saving vegetable seeds from Sally Morton in our Vegetable Gardening department.