Five Easy-To-Grow Heirloom Tomatoes for Home Gardens

Heirloom tomatoes are becoming increasingly popular, and more and more varieties are showing up in stores and garden centers. But if you're looking for something really unusual, or you want a large number of plants, it's best to start tomatoes from seed.

To start tomatoes from seed, you'll need to order your seeds during the winter months. Here are some heirloom tomato plants I have grown from seeds, and how they fared.

Mexico Midget
The Mexico midget variety, available from Seed Savers Exchange, is billed as producing hundreds of 1/2-inch to 3/4-inch fruits on each plant. I found that these were particularly easy to start from seed indoors, sprouting readily and producing healthy seedlings. The Mexico midget fruits, which grow in clusters of a dozen or more, were very small but very flavorful and abundant. They had a nice, balanced tomato flavor, not especially sweet or acidic. The plants, like many heirloom tomatoes, were indeterminate and required staking (I used tomato cages). The plants were full-sized tomato plants; the name Mexico midget refers to the size of the fruits. My Mexico midget stopped fruiting a few weeks earlier in the fall than some of the larger-fruited heirloom tomato varieties I grew.

Red Zebra
This variety, which is a cross between green zebra and another tomato, produces medium-sized red, orange, and green striped fruits. The red zebra tomatoes were slightly acidic, not sweet, and had a milder tomato flavor than Mexico midget. The fruits were especially good sliced in a tomato and basil salad with good vinegar and olive oil. The plants grew very large and vigorously, taking over a section of the garden. Red zebra was very productive, especially for a plant that produces full-sized heirloom tomatoes. When frost threatened, I picked the still-green fruits and made several quarts of interesting and tasty striped pickled tomatoes. Get it at Seed Saver's Exchange.

German Pink
German pink tomato is one of the original two heirlooms that Diane Ott Whealy used to start Seed Saver's Exchange. This heirloom tomato produces large fruits that have a mild but balanced tomato flavor. Though Seed Savers Exchange is very proud of their German pink tomato, I found it was not as productive in my Illinois garden as Mexico midget and red zebra.

Peron Sprayless
I've grown peron sprayless, from Seeds of Change, for two years now and had good luck with it both years. The catalog bills this heirloom tomato as highly disease- and crack-resistant, and I found that I had no trouble with disease or cracking. Like all the other heirloom tomato varieties mentioned here, peron sprayless is indeterminate and requires staking. Yields were good. I found that the fruits, which measured about 2 inches across, were closer to orange than red in color.

Yellow Pear
I have grown yellow pear, which is now occasionally available as transplants in garden centers, for several years now. These plants are fairly productive, producing lots of pear-shaped yellow fruit. These plants have a very mild tomato flavor and are best used in salads. My kids would not eat them, because they were yellow, not red. You can buy seeds from Seeds of Change and other vendors.