Hope Gardens Non-GMO, Non-Monsanto

mostly Heirloom Tomatoes

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heirloom seedlings currently available...

A "black" tomato, indeterminate, beefsteak with medium to large fruits. Benefits from a dose of Epsom salts and bone meal. Mid to early - 69-80 days to maturity after germination. Brown-red to purple-pink. Known for its complex but fantastic taste, not too sweet. From the Isle of Krim in the Black Sea. Water consistently to prevent cracking and green shoulders.

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Black Krim

Aunt Ruby's German Green Tomato

85 days. Indeterminate. One of the largest green beefsteaks. Can grow to over 1 pound and are just delicious. They have brilliant, neon-green flesh with a strong, sweet, and fruity flavor, much tastier than most red tomatoes. This family heirloom from Germany is beautiful. The winner of the 2003 Heirloom Garden Show’s taste test.

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Gardener's Delight Cherry Tomato

80 days from transplanting. Indeterminate. Folks have proclaimed this the best cherry tomato; extra sweet and packed with flavor. Many clusters of 6 - 12 tomatoes all summer. I love having cherry tomatoes around as I can pop them in my mouth while I do my garden work. Provide support for vigorous vines that easily reach 6 feet long.

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Brandywine

80 to 100 days, indeterminate — It is by far one of the best known heirloom tomato varieties. Reportedly it is an old Amish heirloom, dating back to 1885 and named after Brandywine Creek in Chester County, Pennsylvania. The disease tolerant, regular leaf plants yield fruits that are red, globe to oblate shaped, and full of flavor.

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Pineapple Tomato

90 days. Huge meaty tomatoes. The 1 pound red-and-yellow streaked tomatoes look beautiful and one taste will transport you back in time with that great old-fashioned, full bodied tomato flavor. Indeterminate.

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Yellow Pear Tomato

75-80 days. This pear tomato is a real overachiever! Loaded with hundreds of small 1-2 inch yellow pear-shaped fruit. Indeterminate and fast-growing. Get some good stakes or a big cage for this one. An old-time favorite with a sweet, clean tomato taste.

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Juliet Tomato

A larger sister variety of Santa, Juliet is super resistant to late blight. They will keep their green leaves about them when the tomatoes one row over blacken and die. Deep red, shiny fruits average 2 inches in size. Typically 12-18 fruits per cluster. Delicious, rich tomato flavor for salads, great salsa, and fresh pasta sauce. Good crack resistance, vine storage, and shelf life. AAS winner. Indeterminate.

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Stupice Tomato

60-65 days. Indeterminate. This potato-leaf heirloom from Czechoslovakia is a cold-tolerant tomato that bears an abundance of very sweet, flavorful 2 to 3-inch, deep red, slightly oval fruit. A 1988 comparative tasting in the San Francisco area gave it first place for its wonderful sweet/acid, tomatoey flavor and production. Try it if you are closer to the coast. An excellent choice for first-of-the-summer salads, lunch boxes, and juicing. Stupice consistently gets high marks for taste throughout the summer.

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Kellogg's Breakfast Tomato

80-90 days. Indeterminate. 1 lb., pale to deep orange beefsteak tomatoes originally from West Virginia, that are thin-skinned, meaty, have few seeds and a fantastic rich, sweet, tangy flavor, good acid/sugar balance. Juice and inside flesh have the same bright orange color as orange juice.

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Druzba Tomato

Mid-summer. Indeterminate. Tomato goddess and Author of 100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden Carolyn Male first offered this tomato to the American public in 1995. It is a Bulgarian heirloom and the name translates to the word "friendship". Druzba has heavy 8-16 oz, 4-6" red fruits that are smooth, blemish free, sweet with just the right amount of tart. Delicious and perfect for sandwiches or salads. Produces on a large bush with pleasant-smelling foliage.

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non-heirloom, hybrid, but still GMO- and Monsanto-free tomatoes...

Sun Gold57 days. The Sun Gold tomato is an indeterminate variety of hybrid cherry tomato. These have a sugary sweet taste, and some describe the flavor as fruity. The Sun Gold grows on a long, 4-6 foot vine and produces sizeable clusters of the tiny tomatoes. Easily the most popular cherry tomato out there.

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San Diego Tomato

64 days. Indeterminate. An uber-successful plant that will be loaded with large, perfectly round, bright red, paste tomatoes that have a thin skin that doesn't crack and just enough acidity to provide a superb taste. Pictured here is my all-time favorite way to eat tomatoes.

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Ace Tomato85 days. I nicknamed my boyfriend Ace and this tomato is as reliable and tasty as he is. It tolerates heat and humidity, so this is a tomato that can be grown in the warmer climates. Meaty, low acid, 12-oz fruits on plants that go and go and go. A keeper. <3

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Super Sweet Million Tomato

65 days. These indeterminate, bright red cherry tomatoes are extremely sweet, often the first to ripen, and are still producing ripe fruit well into October. They produce hundreds of small, flavorful "two-bite" tomatoes on 3-foot plants. Pick often, especially before rainstorms to keep them from bursting.

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heirlooms available later this spring...

Amish Paste Tomato

81 days. Indeterminate. Very productive heirloom from Wisconsin that produces up to 12 oz, deep-red oxheart-shaped, meaty fruit. (Probably one of the largest paste tomatoes) Lots of sweet, tomatoey flavors from this coreless meaty fruit. A great slicing and sauce tomato.

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Chadwick Cherry aka Camp Joy

80 days. Delicious, sweet flavor makes this 1-ounce cherry popular with home gardeners. Large vines set huge yields and are disease resistant. Developed by the late horticultural expert Alan Chadwick.

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Pink Brandywine

90 days, indeterminate. 'Brandywine' tomato has "potato-leaf" foliage and produces very large, boat-shaped, dark-pink fruits that average between sixteen and twenty four ounces each. The flavor is exceptional and of gourmet quality. Fruits ripen gradually over the season. Like many of the larger blossomed, potato-leafed varieties, it is not a heavy producer.

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Cherokee Purple Tomato

80 days. Indeterminate. An old Cherokee Indian heirloom, pre-1890 variety; beautiful deep dusky purple-pink color, superb sweet flavor, and very large sized fruit. Try this one for real old-time tomato flavor. My favorite "black" tomato.

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Rutgers Tomato

Determinate 60-100 days .Our most “acidic” heirloom. Had a nice bite to it. Good for canning and fresh eating. Medium-large red 8-oz. globes. Good yields and flavor on large disease-tolerant vines. A fine New Jersey heirloom.

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Tomato growing tips...Before planting, mix a fertilizer high in phosphorus into the soil. This application will take care of the plant until the first fruits are set. Feed then and every month while the fruit is developing. Stop fertilizing when the tomatoes near maturity.

Tomatoes love heat. Cover the planting area with black or red plastic a couple of weeks before you intend to plant. Those extra degrees of warmth will translate into earlier tomatoes.

When you grow or purchase seedlings, aim for the ideal, which is a stocky plant. Unlike other plants, tomatoes are set deep in the soil. Plant them so that the first leaves are just above the soil line. Plant leggy plants horizontally so roots will form along the buried stem.

Remove the bottom TWO rows of leaves from your seedling before transplanting and bury the seedling very deep up to the next set of leaves. Be merciless. You need to encourage your seedling to grow deep roots to support the large plant.

Plant tomatoes where they will get 6-10 hours of light in summer. And leave room between plants for air to circulate.

Avoid soil-borne diseases by rotating your crop-don't plant in the same spot you did last year and refresh the soil in your garden containers.

Determinate type tomatoes tend to set and ripen their fruit all at one time, making a large quantity available when you’re ready to make sauce. You can get indeterminate type tomatoes to set fruit earlier by pinching off the tips of the main stems in early summer.

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Pinch off suckers to keep the main branches of your tomato plant at their strongest.

Water deeply every other day in the summer. Stake your plants so the branches don't break under the weight and fruit doesn't rot on the ground. Harvest earlier rather than later. Pull when ripe rather than dead ripe. Over-ripe tomatoes can be mealy...into the sauce they go! Or the gazpacho. If animals tend to steal your tomatoes, pull them early and let them fully ripen indoors.

More tomato and other summer veggie advice here. Questions about heirlooms vs. hybrids answered here.

Want your own garden but need help? That’s what we’re here for. Give us a shout.

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