by Hannah Kampen

Created on: March 18, 2010   Last Updated: March 19, 2010

Ahh, two of my favorite subjects - gardening and tomatoes. It is very important for you to decide which type of tomatoes you want to grow; heirloom or hybrid, and then choose your variety. A lot of people don't even know that hybrids are hybrids; the tomatoes you get from stores like Wal-mart? Those are hybrids. 

Hybrid tomato plants are plants that were bred with other varieties of tomato plants for a specific reason; their offspring produces fruits based on what we need them for. Some we need to mature fast, some we need miniature tomatoes, some we need giant ones with soft skins, sometimes we need tomatoes with hard skins that have a tendency not to rot as fast as others (perfect for shipping and packaging at stores). 99% of the time, the seeds from those fruits will not produce the plant they came from, they will produce one of the parent plants.

Heirloom tomato plants are bred with only others of the same variety, throughout the years gaining popularity as almost a last name in a family would. True heirloom tomato plants have a history that come with them; you can learn when they were brought to America, by who, where they went, everything. Some heirloom varieties have been kept and cherished and grown more, thus increasing their popularity, because of a particular trait that people like. Heirloom tomato plants you can grow, and save the seeds from every year; you will get the same plant it came from, and never have to buy seeds again.

Now that you know how they grow different, now I can tell you the differences between the fruit of the plants, the tomatoes.

I'll be honest with you, many heirloom tomatoes are ugly. You will more than likely have reserves about trying one for the first time. They're lumpy, and oddly shaped, with so many colors they look like they're bruised or rotten. But when you bite into one, you will be amazed at the flavor that explodes in your mouth. All the heirlooms have their own flavors; from sweet and juicy, right down to smoky and bittersweet. The only problem with heirlooms is that with all of the "inbreeding" you may call it, there is almost no bred resistance to disease and pests unless it was originally in the starter seeds that came from the first plant. So you have to take more care to ensure that your heirloom tomato plants won't die from pestilence, disease, and less than cold weather.

Hybrid tomatoes are the ones that most people know and are comfortable with; round and red, with firm skin. Sometimes the tomatoes you get from the store are squishy; do you know why? When they're picked, they're picked green, to allow the chemicals in the tomatoes to slow down, and ripen on the way to the store, or at the store. So when your tomato from the store is picked from its plant, thousands of miles away, it stops the amount of water and nutrients coming to the fruits, and it begins breaking down sugars to turn red. (That's why red tomatoes are sweet, green ones are not). So the hybrid tomatoes you buy are not nearly as flavorful, nor as big, as heirloom tomatoes. They're just cheaper (unless you grow your own tomatoes) and more convenient. 

Those are the majority of the differences between heirloom tomatoes and hybrid tomatoes. I hope you try booth and compare!

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