Tomatoes, Pink & Red

75 days. This is the “Winter Grape” tomato of old Italy, where farmers would hang the fruit-covered vines and they would stay fresh well into the winter. They also dry perfectly and resemble little “Roma” tomatoes. The flavorful fruit is delicious and great for snacking, fresh or dried.

• Full Sun
• Sprouts in 7-14 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-95 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8 inch
• Plant Spacing: 24"
• Frost Hardy: No
• Solanum lycopersicum

Growing Tips: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before last frost. Heat mat helps to warm soil and speed germination.

80 days. The Original Abe Lincoln Tomato: This wonderful old heirloom was shared with us by Diann Dirks-- The Garden Lady of Georgia (Her gardening blog can be found at  www.thegardenladyofga.wordpress.com). Diann is a seed saver and seed sharer at heart and received this variety from a gentleman she had struck up a conversation with one day while pumping gas. She writes “A man (in his 80’s?) and I got to talking while pumping gas and I told him I collected seeds. He said he grew the original Abe Lincoln tomato--not the ones that were later sold but from the 1923 seed catalog.” Released by H.W. Buckbees in 1923, this meaty variety has incredible thick flesh with a tiny seed core and great old-fashioned tomato flavor. Vines are indeterminate with medium to very large red fruit. Vines in our 2016 trial here in southern Missouri were not excessively vigorous but yielded well nonetheless and with no apparent sunburning.

• Full Sun
• Sprouts in 7-14 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-95 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8 inch
• Plant Spacing: 24"
• Frost Hardy: No
• Solanum lycopersicum

Growing Tips: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before last frost. Heat mat helps to warm soil and speed germination.

80 days. Many seed savers believe this is the ultimate paste tomato. Giant, blocky, Roma type tomatoes have delicious red flesh that is perfect for paste and canning. It has world-class flavor and comes from an Amish community in Wisconsin.

• Full Sun
• Sprouts in 7-14 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-95 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8 inch
• Plant Spacing: 24"
• Frost Hardy: No
• Solanum lycopersicum

Growing Tips: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before last frost. Heat mat helps to warm soil and speed germination.

75 days. The famous old canning tomato that was selected out of Chalk’s Early Jewel by one George W. Middleton and introduced in 1908 by Walter P. Stokes seed house. It became one of the most respected canning varieties in America in the first half of the twentieth century. Medium-sized fruit is round, red, meaty and loaded with flavor. A good producer that makes a fine slicer too. Becoming hard to find due to modern, flavorless hybrids.

• Full Sun
• Sprouts in 7-14 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-95 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8 inch
• Plant Spacing: 24"
• Frost Hardy: No
• Solanum lycopersicum

Growing Tips: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before last frost. Heat mat helps to warm soil and speed germination.

80 days. The most popular heirloom vegetable! A favorite of many gardeners, large fruit with superb flavor. A great potato-leafed variety from 1885! Beautiful pink fruit up to 1½ lbs each!

• Full Sun
• Sprouts in 7-14 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-95 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8 inch
• Plant Spacing: 24"
• Frost Hardy: No
• Solanum lycopersicum

Growing Tips: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before last frost. Heat mat helps to warm soil and speed germination.

80 days. This delectable, meaty, oxheart type is an heirloom from Russia. The name refers to the traditional custom of offering special guests, bread and salt, a symbol of health and fortune. The fruit is a large with dense, meaty flesh. It is exquisite for slicing, sauce making and everything in between. The leaves are naturally wispy, so be sure to provide a strong support for this tomato to help it carry the weight of these delicious tomatoes.

• Full Sun
• Sprouts in 7-14 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-95 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8 inch
• Plant Spacing: 24"
• Frost Hardy: No
• Solanum lycopersicum

Growing Tips: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before last frost. Heat mat helps to warm soil and speed germination.

85 days. The classic beefsteak tomato of yesteryear is back! Massive fruit, easily reaching 1-2 lbs has deep red flesh and good old-fashioned tomato flavor. These are the tomatoes that grandma grew, meaty and firm, perfect on sandwiches or served straight up with a pinch of salt. A particularly good producer in the Northeast, but well adapted to the entire U.S. as well. Scientists recently determined that Beefsteak’s massive fruit was originally caused by a chance mutation. This happy accident created a much larger tomato. Spanish conquistador, Hernan Cortez, brought samples of a larger, flattened tomato back to Europe. From this seed was developed many larger tomatoes we know today.

• Full Sun
• Sprouts in 7-14 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-95 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8 inch
• Plant Spacing: 24"
• Frost Hardy: No
• Solanum lycopersicum

Growing Tips: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before last frost. Heat mat helps to warm soil and speed germination.

70-80 days. The fluted, old Italian favorite that has been around since the early 19th century. Fruit is rather flattened and quite attractive with its deep ribbing. This variety is a standard in Italy for both fresh eating and preserving, and known for its intensely flavorful, deep red flesh. This variety has also become very popular with chefs in this country.

• Full Sun
• Sprouts in 7-14 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-95 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8 inch
• Plant Spacing: 24"
• Frost Hardy: No
• Solanum lycopersicum

Growing Tips: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before last frost. Heat mat helps to warm soil and speed germination.

70-80 days. This heirloom was brought into the seed store a few years ago by a local gentleman who had been saving this tomato for many years. His family brought this variety to the U.S. when they immigrated here. The fruit is the size of a small egg, vibrant pink, sugar sweet, and begging to be eaten. Perfectly sized for salads or putting in the lunchbox! A favorite!

• Full Sun
• Sprouts in 7-14 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-95 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8 inch
• Plant Spacing: 24"
• Frost Hardy: No
• Solanum lycopersicum

Growing Tips: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before last frost. Heat mat helps to warm soil and speed germination.

85-90 days. One of the tomatoes that originally ignited the heirloom movement in America, this variety originated in Bavaria. It made its U.S. debut in 1883, brought here by Michael Ott, a great-grandfather of Seed Savers Exchange co-founder Diane Ott Whealy. The luxuriant potato-leaf plants give high yields of 1- to 2-lb, nearly seedless meaty fruit. The prestigious Slow Foods USA Ark of Taste enthused: “a full sweet flavor, even floral, and...tender skinned.” This gorgeous pink fruit is extremely versatile, excellent for canning and freezing but also for slicing and juicing. This one is sure to become a favorite in your garden!

• Full Sun
• Sprouts in 7-14 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-95 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8 inch
• Plant Spacing: 24"
• Frost Hardy: No
• Solanum lycopersicum

Growing Tips: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before last frost. Heat mat helps to warm soil and speed germination.

80 days. Brilliant reddish-pink oxheart type fruit is large—frequently exceeding one pound! The fruit of this heirloom is firm and meaty like all oxheart types—great for paste, canning or fresh use. The crack-resistant fruit contains very few seeds and shows very little tendency to develop cores—just rich tasting, solid flesh across each hefty slice! Heavy production all season long. Originated outside of Budapest, Hungary, around 1900.

• Full Sun
• Sprouts in 7-14 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-95 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8 inch
• Plant Spacing: 24"
• Frost Hardy: No
• Solanum lycopersicum

Growing Tips: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before last frost. Heat mat helps to warm soil and speed germination.

90 days. Pendulant, pointed, pepper-like fruit is slow to set on but yield very heavily. 5-6-inch, ruby-red, paste-type fruit is very meaty and have but few seeds. Incredible flavor. This variety was another pillar of the New Jersey tomato industry, and is an ancestor to “Jersey Giant.” Jere has been growing these for 30 years and they are a favorite!

• Full Sun
• Sprouts in 7-14 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-95 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8 inch
• Plant Spacing: 24"
• Frost Hardy: No
• Solanum lycopersicum

Growing Tips: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before last frost. Heat mat helps to warm soil and speed germination.

85-90 days. Unique, tasty and versatile, the Korean Long tomato is a sauce or slicing tomato with meaty flesh and superb flavor. The long pinkish red fruit has a slightly curved pointed nose or tail and ranges between 6-14 ounces, with some fruit being more heart shaped. A crack-resistant paste tomato that is productive, reliable and bursting with heirloom flavor. This sumptuous and flavorful variety is delicious fresh or cooked.

• Full Sun
• Sprouts in 7-14 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-95 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8 inch
• Plant Spacing: 24"
• Frost Hardy: No
• Solanum lycopersicum

Growing Tips: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before last frost. Heat mat helps to warm soil and speed germination.

70-80 days. Determinate. Fantastic yields of richly flavorful plum-shaped tomatoes, on compact plants that require very little staking! Resistant to early blight, reliable for home or market gardens! The paste-type fruit weighs in at 2-3 ounces, dry-fleshed and very meaty with few seeds. Great for sauces, salsas and pastes.

• Full Sun
• Sprouts in 7-14 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-95 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8 inch
• Plant Spacing: 24"
• Frost Hardy: No
• Solanum lycopersicum

Growing Tips: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before last frost. Heat mat helps to warm soil and speed germination.

75-85 days. Big, pink fruit are very rich-tasting, certainly a favorite pink tomato. This potato-leaf variety has a long history in the “Show Me” state. It was grown since the Civil War by the Barnes family, who grew it as an ornamental, believing (as many people did at the time) that tomatoes or “love apples” were poisonous. We are grateful the Barnes family kept this variety going so we can enjoy the wonderful fruit today.

• Indeterminate
• Full Sun
• Sprouts in 7-14 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-95 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8 inch
• Plant Spacing: 24"
• Frost Hardy: No
• Solanum lycopersicum

Growing Tips: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before last frost. Heat mat helps to warm soil and speed germination.

85 days. Large, smooth, 1-lb pink fruit has a delicious, rich, sweet taste. This variety has become very popular in recent years and was developed by M.C. Byles of Logan, West Virginia. After crossing varieties for 6 years and selecting the best, he introduced this beauty that he named Mortgage Lifter in the 1940s, after he sold plants for $1 each and paid off the $6000 mortgage on his house.

• Full Sun
• Sprouts in 7-14 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-95 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8 inch
• Plant Spacing: 24"
• Frost Hardy: No
• Solanum lycopersicum

Growing Tips: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before last frost. Heat mat helps to warm soil and speed germination.

75 days. A favorite variety, introduced from Russia. One of the most beautiful and attractive tomatoes we have ever grown. It is very ribbed and pleated, but otherwise very uniform, large and perfect looking, being a vibrant watermelon-pink color with cream colored speckles that really make the fruit sparkle and glisten. Short, indeterminate plants produce a large mass of these fruit in a thick clustered area in the center of the plant. The flavor is sweet, mild and good; flesh is firm and the seeds are very few.

• Indeterminate
• Full Sun
• Sprouts in 7-14 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-95 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8 inch
• Plant Spacing: 24"
• Frost Hardy: No
• Solanum lycopersicum

Growing Tips: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before last frost. Heat mat helps to warm soil and speed germination.

65-75 days. Indeterminate. A darling pink tomato that is more heat and disease resistant than its pretty looks and smooth f lavor let on! The pink tomato is emblematic of the agricultural history of Arkansas, and Ozark Pink is a toothsome vestige of the tomato’s heyday there. Joe McFerran, who had a 50-year career in agriculture in the state of Arkansas, bred this variety and a number of other notable heirlooms at the University of Arkansas. He selected Ozark Pink to stand up to the barrage of heat, humidity and diseases known to stress tomatoes. The result: phenomenal, sweet flavor, great storage quality and very rugged constitution!

• Full Sun
• Sprouts in 7-14 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-95 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8 inch
• Plant Spacing: 24"
• Frost Hardy: No
• Solanum lycopersicum

Growing Tips: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before last frost. Heat mat helps to warm soil and speed germination.

75 days. A Roman heirloom that was sent to us by Mr. Barbetti from Italy. The fruit is large and deep red, with almost a purple tint. The flesh is very rich, flavorful, and juicy. An excellent tomato for home and market gardeners; very rare and delicious.

• Full Sun
• Sprouts in 7-14 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-95 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8 inch
• Plant Spacing: 24"
• Frost Hardy: No
• Solanum lycopersicum

Growing Tips: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before last frost. Heat mat helps to warm soil and speed germination.

70 days. Semi-determinate.  (Also known as Peron Sprayless) Compact vines are fairly disease resistant. Deep-red, dual-purpose canning and slicing sort. Smooth, slightly oblate fruit is very dense-fleshed and meaty, and show very little core. Skins are very thick and tough, simplifying peeling when processing, and making the crack-resistant fresh fruits keep extremely well. Fruit runs 3-6 ounces; flavor is very good, and sweet enough for fresh use as well. Developed prior to 1954 by Prof. Abelardo Piovano of Argentina.

• Full Sun
• Sprouts in 7-14 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-95 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8 inch
• Plant Spacing: 24"
• Frost Hardy: No
• Solanum lycopersicum

Growing Tips: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before last frost. Heat mat helps to warm soil and speed germination.

This exotic looking beauty has the best taste of any paste tomato we have tried. The flavor of this big paste tomato will put a regular Roma to shame! Incredibly flavorful and so sweet! The super-long, 6-inch fruit of this paste tomato has very few seeds and thick, sweet flesh. Try making this meaty, sweet variety into paste or marinara. You won’t be disappointed! Our favorite for snacking, too!

• Indeterminate
• Full Sun
• Sprouts in 7-14 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-95 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8 inch
• Plant Spacing: 24"
• Frost Hardy: No
• Solanum lycopersicum

Growing Tips: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before last frost. Heat mat helps to warm soil and speed germination.

70-75 days. Determinate. The Italian heirloom that is famous for sun drying. Small 1-to 2-oz, grape-shaped fruit is very dry and has few seeds. It has a rich tomato taste that is wonderful for sauces. Vines yield clusters of fruit in abundance, perfect for selling in fresh markets and making specialty products. We offer pure Italian seed.

• Full Sun
• Sprouts in 7-14 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-95 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8 inch
• Plant Spacing: 24"
• Frost Hardy: No
• Solanum lycopersicum

Growing Tips: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before last frost. Heat mat helps to warm soil and speed germination.

75-85 days.  Semi-determinate.  A customer favorite! Simply stunning raspberry-pink fruit is of medium size. Firm flesh is very sweet and richly flavored. This variety from Russia is perfect looking, one of the prettiest tomatoes we have grown. It is almost free of imperfections, making it ideal for marketing.

• Full Sun
• Sprouts in 7-14 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-95 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8 inch
• Plant Spacing: 24"
• Frost Hardy: No
• Solanum lycopersicum

Growing Tips: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before last frost. Heat mat helps to warm soil and speed germination.

76-85 days. This old German heirloom was offered in Philadelphia by the mid-1800s. The sweet, red 1-oz fruit grow in large clusters; the name means “Giant bunch of grapes” in German. This is likely the most popular small tomato with seed collectors, as many favor the rich, full tomato flavor that is missing in today’s cherry types. Large plants produce massive yields.

• 8-12 hours of Sun
• Sprouts in 7-14 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-95 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8"
  
• Plant Spacing: 24"
• Frost Hardy: No
  
• Solanum lycopersicum
  

Growing Tips: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before last frost. Heat mat helps to warm soil and speed germination.

65-70 days. Micro mini fruit, just the size of a tiny pea, and said to be the world’s tiniest tomato! A delightful edible ornamental, the tiny, fire engine-red fruit is arranged beautifully along super long trusses. What Spoon lacks in size, it makes up in flavor. This variety packs tons of bold classic red, tangy tomato flavor, which is another reason why it is a kid favorite! Spoon tomatoes pop in your mouth when you bite into them; they are a joy to eat and grow.

• Full Sun
• Sprouts in 7-14 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-95 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8 inch
• Plant Spacing: 24"
• Frost Hardy: No
• Solanum pimpinellifolium

Growing Tips: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before last frost. Heat mat helps to warm soil and speed germination.

Sugar-sweet, crunchy and so delicious! This cherry tomato is simply packed with sweetness and a rich, berry-like flavor. It is quite crisp, and the fruit can keep long on the vine, making it extra high in sugar! Sweetheart Berry is a wildly productive little snacking tomato great for greenhouse and outdoor production. This was an outstanding tomato in our trials for flavor and yield, and the strong vines produced heavy yields of tomatoes longer than any other variety we have tried! Extra long trusses are smothered in small red cherry-sized fruit that resists cracking. Allow the fruit to ripen on the vine to a deep red for the very sweetest flavor, or pick earlier if you like it a bit more tangy; either way it is superb! It proved productive and flavorful even in our cool winter greenhouses, with only 42 F degrees at night. These little strawberry-shaped jewels were a staff favorite last season.

• Full Sun
• Sprouts in 7-14 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-95 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8 inch
• Plant Spacing: 24"
• Frost Hardy: No
• Solanum lycopersicum

Growing Tips: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before last frost. Heat mat helps to warm soil and speed germination.

75 days.  Indeterminate.  (Also known as Steakhouse) Vigorous plants produce hundreds of small, 1-inch cherries, unfazed by heat and humidity. The flavor is very good, not exactly sweet but with an old-fashioned, full, complex flavor. Originated in the Ozarks around 1900, but also exceedingly popular in Australia—two ostensibly English- speaking regions where puns, apparently, are popular as well.

• Full Sun
• Sprouts in 7-14 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-95 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8 inch
• Plant Spacing: 24"
• Frost Hardy: No
• Solanum lycopersicum

Growing Tips: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before last frost. Heat mat helps to warm soil and speed germination.

We have grown this remarkable tomato for several years, and it has never disappointed. If you are the tomato grower with a fetish for big red fruit, then here is the tomato of your vegetable fantasies. Developed in the 1920s by W. T. Woods & Sons of Richmond, Virginia, this tomato produces large 3 to 4-inch red fruit of perfect round shape. We are not certain whether this variety was developed as a canning tomato or as a dinner slicer because it makes the perfect BLT sandwich. That said, this tomato variety was created and bred in the Mid-Atlantic region, so it will thrive in our humid Midwestern summers and yield wildly off-the-books quantities of picture perfect monster red tomatoes. This is an heirloom that needs to be brought back into mainstream creative regional cuisine. Plan on profitable harvests and juicy BLTs all summer.

• Full Sun
• Sprouts in 7-14 Days
• Ideal Temperature: 75-95 Degrees F
• Seed Depth: 1/8 inch
• Plant Spacing: 24"
• Frost Hardy: No
• Solanum lycopersicum

Growing Tips: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before last frost. Heat mat helps to warm soil and speed germination.