Grampa's Tomatoes

Heirloom Tomato: An heirloom is generally considered to be a variety that has been passed down, through several generations of a family because of it's valued characteristics. Since 'heirloom' varieties have become popular in the past few years there have been liberties taken with the use of this term for commercial purposes. Heirloom tomato experts, Craig LeHoullier and Carolyn Male, Ph.D. have classified down heirlooms into four categories:

1.Commercial Heirlooms: Open-pollinated varieties introduced before 1940.

2.Family Heirlooms: Seeds that have been passed down for several generations through a family.

3.Created Heirlooms: Crossing two known parents (either two heirlooms or an heirloom and a hybrid) and dehybridizing the resulting seeds for how ever many years/generations it takes to eliminate the undesirable characteristics and stabilize the desired characteristics, perhaps as many as 8 years or more.

4.Mystery Heirlooms: Varieties that are a product of natural cross-pollination of other heirloom varieties.

Note: All heirloom varieties are open-pollinated but not all open-pollinated varieties are heirloom varieties.

Open-pollinated: Seeds from open-pollinated varieties produce plants and fruit that are identical to their parent.

Hybrid Tomato: Where as Heirloom Tomatoes are open-pollinated or purebred tomato varieties, hybrid tomatoes are those which are the direct result of cross-breeding two or more varieties together.

Maturity: xx days - The number of days from transplanting seedling to the first mature fruit. Early-Season varieties generally mature between 55 to 68 days; Midseason varieties- 69 to 79 days; Late season varieties from 80 days and beyond.

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Grampa's Tomatoes' sells Heirloom, Open Pollinated and Hybrid tomatoes. In general, an heirloom will taste better than a hybrid but not look as pretty. But, there are some hybrid's that have excellent taste, like Big Beef and Sun Gold Cherry.

When selecting a variety, I go for taste first and foremost.