New Heirloom Tomato Hybrids Offer the Best of Both Worlds
These crosses combine great heirloom tomato flavor with increased productivity and disease resistance
Heirloom tomatoes are revered for their out-of-this-world flavor, but for some favorites, like ‘Brandywine’ and ‘Cherokee Purple’, there’s a bit of a catch. When compared with modern hybrids, heirlooms are not necessarily the most productive or problem-free plants to grow.
Enter heirloom hybrid tomatoes. No longer true heirlooms, these crosses between two heirloom parents offer the best of both worlds: higher yields, increased disease resistance, often earlier ripening than their parents, plus all of the great flavor of classic heirlooms.
It may be too late to start tomatoes from seed for this summer, but tomato seedlings can still be planted in beds and large containers. The five tomatoes mentioned in this article are available now.
Getting started: How to Grow Tomatoes
Enter heirloom hybrid tomatoes. No longer true heirlooms, these crosses between two heirloom parents offer the best of both worlds: higher yields, increased disease resistance, often earlier ripening than their parents, plus all of the great flavor of classic heirlooms.
It may be too late to start tomatoes from seed for this summer, but tomato seedlings can still be planted in beds and large containers. The five tomatoes mentioned in this article are available now.
Getting started: How to Grow Tomatoes
1. Heirloom Marriage ‘Big Brandy’
Parentage: ‘Big Dwarf’ and ‘Brandywine’
Celebrated as one of the most flavorful tomatoes out there, ‘Brandywine’ is a beloved heirloom tomato with the drawback of only producing a few — albeit outstanding — tomatoes per plant.
Crossing ‘Brandywine’ tomatoes with ‘Big Dwarf’ tomatoes results in ‘Big Brandy’, a tomato plant that produces more tomatoes on each vine, features fewer blemishes on fruit and has increased disease resistance, all while preserving that quintessential ‘Brandywine’ flavor and bumpy heirloom shape.
Parentage: ‘Big Dwarf’ and ‘Brandywine’
Celebrated as one of the most flavorful tomatoes out there, ‘Brandywine’ is a beloved heirloom tomato with the drawback of only producing a few — albeit outstanding — tomatoes per plant.
Crossing ‘Brandywine’ tomatoes with ‘Big Dwarf’ tomatoes results in ‘Big Brandy’, a tomato plant that produces more tomatoes on each vine, features fewer blemishes on fruit and has increased disease resistance, all while preserving that quintessential ‘Brandywine’ flavor and bumpy heirloom shape.
Plants thrive in full sun and require staking to grow — particularly as the hefty, 12- to 15-ounce fruits can weigh down the branches and cause stems to snap.
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Indeterminate
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Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Indeterminate
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2. Heirloom Marriage ‘Cherokee Carbon’
Parentage: ‘Cherokee Purple’ and ‘Carbon’
‘Cherokee Carbon’ has all of the rich, complex flavor characteristics of parent varieties ‘Cherokee Purple’ and ‘Carbon’, with increased plant vigor, productivity and disease resistance resulting from the cross. Perfect for slicing into a salad, the large, 10- to 12-ounce tomatoes have a purple blush to their red skin, a slightly squat shape and a deliciously sweet and tangy tomato flavor.
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Indeterminate
Parentage: ‘Cherokee Purple’ and ‘Carbon’
‘Cherokee Carbon’ has all of the rich, complex flavor characteristics of parent varieties ‘Cherokee Purple’ and ‘Carbon’, with increased plant vigor, productivity and disease resistance resulting from the cross. Perfect for slicing into a salad, the large, 10- to 12-ounce tomatoes have a purple blush to their red skin, a slightly squat shape and a deliciously sweet and tangy tomato flavor.
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Indeterminate
3. Heirloom Marriage ‘Genuwine’
Parentage: ‘Costoluto Genovese’ and ‘Brandywine’
Globe-shaped ‘Genuwine’ offers classic, rich tomato flavor in a large fruit on a robust, disease-resistant plant. Its parents are the popular Italian heirloom ‘Costoluto Genovese’, which has deep flavor both eaten raw and cooked, and the flavor bomb ‘Brandywine’. The hybrid tomatoes are ready to harvest between 12 and 19 days earlier than either parent variety.
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Indeterminate
Parentage: ‘Costoluto Genovese’ and ‘Brandywine’
Globe-shaped ‘Genuwine’ offers classic, rich tomato flavor in a large fruit on a robust, disease-resistant plant. Its parents are the popular Italian heirloom ‘Costoluto Genovese’, which has deep flavor both eaten raw and cooked, and the flavor bomb ‘Brandywine’. The hybrid tomatoes are ready to harvest between 12 and 19 days earlier than either parent variety.
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Indeterminate
4. Heirloom Marriage ‘Marzinera’
Parentage: ‘San Marzano’ and ‘Cream Sausage’
Many home cooks swear by Italian heirloom ‘San Marzano’ as being the single best tomato for tomato sauce. Crossing ‘San Marzano’ with heirloom ‘Cream Sausage’, another Roma tomato, that has pale yellow skin and a sweet, non-acidic flavor, produces a tomato that has both richness and sweetness and a firm, meaty texture on a compact plant. ‘Marzinera’ is excellent cooked into sauce or eaten raw in a salsa.
Parentage: ‘San Marzano’ and ‘Cream Sausage’
Many home cooks swear by Italian heirloom ‘San Marzano’ as being the single best tomato for tomato sauce. Crossing ‘San Marzano’ with heirloom ‘Cream Sausage’, another Roma tomato, that has pale yellow skin and a sweet, non-acidic flavor, produces a tomato that has both richness and sweetness and a firm, meaty texture on a compact plant. ‘Marzinera’ is excellent cooked into sauce or eaten raw in a salsa.
Drawing from their ‘Cream Sausage’ (a determinate type) parentage, the hybrid plants are classified as “semi-determinate,” meaning that the plants stay smaller, don’t require as much staking and are well suited for containers.
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Semi-determinate
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Semi-determinate
5. Heirloom Marriage ‘Perfect Flame’
Parentage: ‘Peron’ and ‘Flamme’
‘Perfect Flame’ is a luminous orange, perfectly smooth tomato that’s a cross between heirlooms ‘Peron’ and ‘Flamme’ and boasts the best characteristics of each parent. ‘Peron’ brings good tomato flavor and crack-resistant skins that help the tomatoes keep well and avoid blemishes. ‘Flamme’ (also called ‘Jaune Flamme’) is a French heirloom celebrated for its balanced sweet-tart flavor and apricot-orange color – characteristics that were passed on in the cross.
The tomatoes of ‘Perfect Flame’ are the earliest-ripening among the Heirloom Marriage series (fruits ripen in 65 to 75 days), making them great for cold climates.
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Indeterminate
Parentage: ‘Peron’ and ‘Flamme’
‘Perfect Flame’ is a luminous orange, perfectly smooth tomato that’s a cross between heirlooms ‘Peron’ and ‘Flamme’ and boasts the best characteristics of each parent. ‘Peron’ brings good tomato flavor and crack-resistant skins that help the tomatoes keep well and avoid blemishes. ‘Flamme’ (also called ‘Jaune Flamme’) is a French heirloom celebrated for its balanced sweet-tart flavor and apricot-orange color – characteristics that were passed on in the cross.
The tomatoes of ‘Perfect Flame’ are the earliest-ripening among the Heirloom Marriage series (fruits ripen in 65 to 75 days), making them great for cold climates.
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Type: Indeterminate
Where to buy heirloom hybrids. Heirloom Marriage tomatoes can be purchased either as seeds or as small plants. You can buy Heirloom Marriage tomatoes from mail-order plant catalogs, online sources or local independent garden centers. Pick a Carrot is a useful online tool for finding growers for Heirloom Marriage tomatoes and heirloom varieties of all types of plants.
More:
How to Grow Tomatoes
How to Grow Tomatoes in Pots
See how to grow more summer fruits and vegetables
More:
How to Grow Tomatoes
How to Grow Tomatoes in Pots
See how to grow more summer fruits and vegetables
The team began by growing hundreds of heirloom tomato varieties that have been grown and passed down among gardeners for generations. They evaluated them for the best flavor, color, shape and texture, plus desirable plant characteristics such as disease resistance, vigor, and early fruit ripening.
After identifying outstanding varieties, they crossed those with complementary characteristics — such as choosing one heirloom for outstanding flavor and another for larger fruits to create a “marriage”. Next, the team grew out dozens of these crosses, finally narrowing it down to the top five for the Heirloom Marriage series.
Indeterminate versus determinate tomatoes. Indeterminate tomatoes grow into taller, leggier vines than determinate varieties and always require staking. Determinate varieties stop growing after flowers form on the ends of stems, forming shorter, bushier plants that are well-suited for containers. The tomatoes on determinate plants often ripen all at once.