Choosing Heirloom Tomato Varieties to Grow and Saving Seeds

There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of heirloom tomato varieties from all around the world.  How is one to choose which varieties to grow?  The number one deciding factor, and one we all tend to ignore (especially me!) is the climate will they be grown in.  Tomatoes have certain parameters of growth and for best results, these must be provided. Tomatoes originally came from the mountains of Mexico. The climate is temperate due to elevation.  So all tomatoes perform well in temperate areas.  Temperatures below 100F, not extremely humid in the summer with moderate rainfall.  In places which experience freezes, tomatoes  are grown as annuals, but if there is no frost to kill them, they are perennial.  In the wild, they scramble across the ground as long vines. If one lives in a temperate climate, just about any tomato variety should do well. 

The next consideration is length of growing season.  In the northern hemisphere, the further north one goes, the shorter the growing season.  In the southern hemisphere, the further south one goes, the shorter the season. Most variety descriptions will tell  how many days from planting in the ground (not taking into account seedling time which is usually 6-8 weeks) to when they ripen fruit. This is called days to harvest.  If one is in a place where the growing season is around 90 days, it's best to find varieties that will produce fruit within that time frame or be prepared to grow them in a greenhouse or ripen fruit in the house. It also is beneficial to find varieties which will tolerate cool temperatures, still set fruit, and ripen them.   I tend to ignore days to harvest and just follow the rule that the smaller the tomato, the quicker it ripens. Small tomatoes take less time, big and huge tomatoes take more time.

Type of growing season is also important.  Lots of rain is a difficult situation in any type of climate for tomatoes.  Either they need to be grown in pots or in raised beds to keep their roots from drowning. Very rainy or cloudy climates limit the amount of sunlight the plants receive.  Less sunlight does not bode well for plant growth and tomato production.  This combination promotes disease.  Lack of rain is not so much of a problem because the plants can be mulched and if water is available, it can be added to the soil. There is generally less airborne diseases in dry climates, more in wetter ones.

My garden is located in upstate NY, in USDA zone 5.  Do a search for USDA Agricultural Zone maps to discover yours if you are in the US.  My garden experiences summers which are rarely up to 100F and our winters can get to -25F.  This is  a temperate climate with a moderately short growing season. We are supposed to get a moderate amount of precipitation with occasional wetter years and drier years.  Our average last frost is May 20th and our average first frost is September 20th.  I need to think about tomatoes that can produce in less than 120 days, which fortunately, is nearly all of them, even the really big ones.  Of course, I have to bring in a lot of green tomatoes at the end of the season to ripen, but it extends how long I have tomatoes to eat.  The further south one travels, the longer and warmer the growing season, often with increased humidity.  Most varieties can still handle this. Deep south and along the coast? Difficult situation for any tomato.  A friend who worked at a greenhouse in Costa Rica told me that growing tomatoes in tropical climates is, well, he used the word...nightmare.  It rained every day, a lot of it at one time, and was hot and humid for the rest of the day. He described what happened to them as they looked like they melted. So, tomatoes to be grown in subtropical and tropical climates need to be tolerant of these conditions. 

If there are specific problems such as soil borne diseases, and there isn't fresh garden area to grow the plants in to avoid the diseased soil, the only alternatives are to grow susceptible varieties (all are unless they are bred to be resistant to them) in pots or grow hybrids that are bred for disease resistance to fusarium and verticillium wilt.  To my knowledge, there are no heirloom tomato varieties resistant to these diseases and the only option would be to grow tomatoes in pots.

After all these considerations, it comes down to personal preference and whether you want indeterminate tomatoes (ones that will keep growing taller and taller and need to be staked or caged) or determinate ones which can do well in pots and need minimal staking because they grow to about 2-3' and that's it. Heirloom tomatoes come in all colors, red, black, yellow, purple, white, green, pink, orange, striped, spotted, tiny, huge, sausage shaped, heart shaped, acidic, not so much acidic, pouch shaped, pleated, pear shaped, hollow for stuffing, grape size, cherry size, beefsteak for sandwiches, sauce tomatoes, salad tomatoes, cocktail tomatoes, etc. Heirloom tomatoes also come from nearly every country in the world where they have been selected to do the best in the climates they are being grown in.

 I will mention a few specific varieties to grow but in lieu of that, there are a few simple tips to choose from the names of the varieties or if you know their country of origin.  Color is the most obvious if it appears in the name. Size can be determined by the words:  tiny, currant, grape, cherry, and represent small tomatoes with the words describing shape as well.  Giant is also very obvious. Shape is more difficult to determine.  Ox heart indicates tomatoes that are shaped like hearts, plum are shaped like plum, sausage like a sausage. Seeing a description or a picture is the only true way to see shape.  Heirloom tomatoes with the name of the country from which they come can give a clue to what type of climate they will do well in.  Cold tolerant and short season: those from Russia particularly Siberia, Canada, Nepal, and places with high elevation which would have a short growing season. Tropical and subtropical areas: Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan, Laos, African countries, and any tomato variety mentioning any one of the USA's southern states. High heat but dry: varieties from the Middle East, Iraq, Iran, Morocco, some parts of Spain.  Cloudy, rainy areas: varieties with the names San Francisco, and those from the United Kingdom. Nearly all the varieties from Europe will do well in a temperate climate.

Now for specific varieties for specific situations.  The  most difficult situations are extreme heat, extreme heat with high humidity, and short season. The heirloom tomato varieties I will be mentioning are only ones I am familiar with. I'm sure there are many, many others.

Tropical, sub-tropical, Vietnam 01, Vietnam 10, Caribo (Vietnam), Thai Egg, Ghost (Laos), Bali

Extreme heat: Togorific (I've seen it listed as from Iran, Iraq, and Togo Africa), Banjan Roomi (Middle East)

Cloudy, rainy, temperate: Tigerella aka Mr. Stripey (UK), San Francisco Fog, Qi Huang (China).

Cold tolerant, short season: Nepal, (Nepal) Novosadatsky 37 (Soviet), Sasha Altai (Siberia), Tarasenko (Russia), Zunami (Russia), Mao (China)

Just for fun and authenticity of varieties from their true home all from Indian tribes in Mexico: Zapotec, Wild, Tlacalula Pink (Aztec), Oaxacan Pink

One last thing.  If you like to tinker with plants and want to create a tomato which will be the best performer in the conditions of your climate, it is a relatively simple matter.  Choose the most productive tomato, one which has grown the best, produced the quality of fruit you desire, most disease resistant, whatever criteria you want your personal strain of  tomato to be.  Save the seeds from at least one fruit, I'll explain in a minute how to do that. Sow those seeds and again, save whichever tomato performs the best.  After a few years, you will develop a strain of that variety which performs the best in your local.

Saving tomato seeds is not difficult. They can be scooped out onto a paper towel and left to dry there and if they are spaced well, the paper towel and seeds can be planted like they are the next season.  The best way to ensure that all seeds are viable and it's not a sticky, jell mess on a paper towel is to ferment the whole lot.  Put the seeds complete with gel in a plastic cup or other such container and let it stand in a warm place. It will get disgusting, but this is what we want.  Within 3 or 4 days the gel will ferment off. Take the cup to the sink and add water to it.  Wait until everything that might settle settles and then carefully pour off the liquid, discarding every thing that floats. Seeds which are not viable will float and will be poured off.  Good, viable seeds will be at the bottom.  Keep adding water and pouring off until the water is pretty much free of material other than the viable seeds on the bottom. Pour these out into a tea strainer and rinse under the water.  Then lay the seeds out to dry on a paper towel, spread them out so they don't stick together too much and they dry down quicker.  After about 2 weeks, take them off the paper towel and store them in a paper envelope for sowing the following season.  Tomato seed can remain viable for up to 10 years.  Just storing them in paper envelopes in a cool dry place, I have gotten over 50% germination from 7 year old seed.

Welcome to the world of heirloom tomato growing, have fun, eat well, and keep the varieties going.  They will only be around as long as someone grows them and saves