“The Year of the Ukrainian Tomato Seeds”

“The Year of the Ukrainian Tomato Seeds”

Our 2025 tomato trial will always be remembered as “The Year of the Ukrainian Tomato Seeds”. We love the variety Tomatoberry and the only website Gaby could find them this year was organicseeds.top. So we ordered seeds online, not realizing that these tomato seeds came from the Ukraine. It only dawned on us when we received the following e-mail:

“In this difficult time for us, if you have the opportunity to share information about our store with your friends, WE WOULD BE VERY GRATEFUL! We draw your attention to the fact that we are currently working as usual and sending orders to our customers, but now, due to the war, it is not possible to issue an official international certificate, so we indicate on all shipments that the parcel contains PRODUCTS FOR HOLIDAYS, NOT SEEDS. We indicate the approximate cost of the parcel at 10 euros and additionally indicate that the parcel is a gift - so that buyers do not pay additional customs fees.”

And when we received the PRODUCTS FOR HOLIDAYS, NOT SEEDS by post and opened the tin (see pictures above) we were surprised to not only find the seeds we ordered but many more seeds labelled as “small gifts”.

Think about it, this is a seed supplier operating in a country at war against the Russian aggressor and they still find the time to include gifts when sending orders. So you can imagine that there was no way not to sow all these seeds from the Ukraine. “We work despite the war” is their message on the website and the least we can do is to promote their company and encourage you to do the same.

So, as we write, we grow Tomatoberry, Pink Flamingo , Cherry Black and the bush varieties Kremenchug and Ukrainian Ultra Early in our polytunnel and conservatory.

Neantog tomato varieties 2025

This year we grow 27 varieties, five of them are bush tomatoes. Apart from the Ukrainian varieties new this year are Baseler Roeteli, Bolstar Granda, Datella, Noire de Creme, Striped German and Sunheart, the latter two are gifts from friends, who brough them back from a tomato show in the Algarve, Portugal.

In our experience reliable varieties, especially for beginner growers are Gardeners Delight, Sungold F1, Yellow Submarine and Matina. The last few years our favourites at Neantog are: Tomatoberry, Arielle, Magda, Santiono, Rosella and Bolstar.

In 2024 we trialled 29 varieties and as in 2023 Arielle is still our favourite. It has a thick skin, but they taste utterly delicious. The top five were Arielle, Santiono, Bolstar, Rosella and Sungold. and the surprise was Alter Kommunist, which has just the right balance of sweetness and acidity.

The World of Tomatoes

Tomatoes are one of the most loved vegetables around the world, with China the leading producer (50 million tons), Italy and Spain come 8th jointly (6 million tons) and Ireland is ranked 140th (4000 tons). Source: wikipedia 2017

If we accept that there are around 7500 varieties of tomatoes according to Wikipedia and that Gerhard Bohl, a German collector grew 3000 varieties then the 20 to 30 varieties we grow in any normal year in our polytunnel are actually ‘peanuts’, if you allow me that comparison. I remember the year 2001 when my former colleague Klaus Laitenberger tried around 100 varieties in The Organic Centre and “discovered” Sungold F1, which subsequently won any competition as the sweetest tomato until 2013, when I organised a trial of 60 varieties at The Organic Centre and Sweet Aperitif was the outright winner with chefs Neven Maguire, Brid Torrades and Piero Melis amongst the judges.

Growing tomatoes in Ireland

In comparison to the growers in southern Mexico, who cultivated tomatoes 500BC or the farmers of the Lower Andes, who have grown them since 1500, or the people of Italy, where the tomato arrived in 1522, we are really “green behind our ears” when it comes to tomatoes. The reality is that growing tomatoes in Ireland has only really be made possible for the wider public with the arrival of polytunnels merely 30 years ago

Heirloom versus Hybrid (F1) varieties

In recent times the trend has gone back to Heirloom varieties and the following chapter from the website of the Ukrainian seed supplier is illuminating:

“Heirloom, also called Heritage, refers to varieties of tomatoes whose seeds have been passed down for generations because of desired qualities and characteristics. Basically, they are older varieties (but not always!) of tomatoes that are prized due to their unique colors, flavors, textures and characteristics. Heirloom varieties are open-pollinated. You can save seeds from the heirloom tomatoes, plant them, and they will grown into new tomato plants. If two or more varieties are planted near each other, you never know - you might end up with a new mystery variety!”

On of the great advantages of growing heirloom varieties is that we can save seeds from them and build our own seed bank. E.g. every year we grow a beef tomato that came from a neighbour’s garden of my late mum in Germany. We don’t know the variety, but have named it Magda, after the gardener. On of our favourites from last year was “Alter Kommunist”, grown from seeds given to us by a course participant from the former East Germany.

Bush or vine tomatoes?

One of the classifications for tomatoes are determinate or indeterminate, referring to the growing habit of tomato plants, the former are bush tomatoes best grown in big pots with no or little need of support, the latter are vine tomatoes, where each plant is supported by bamboo poles or twine.

We feel bush tomatoes are highly underrated, as they can produce fruit very early and can be grown in big pots or confined spaces. We grow up to 8 plants in our big conservatory, our most favourite variety is Cherry Falls, probabl;y the first tomato we eat every year, closely followed by Red Profusion. New in 2025 is Lizzano and two from Ukraine Kremechug and Ultra Early.

Tip: When to sow

We recommend to think backwards from the time you can plant them in situ in the polytunnel: E.g. if you plant them out last week in April or first week in May (when the chance of ground frost is gone) then you need to sow latest by the middle of March as it takes usually about 6 weeks from seed to mature seedling.