Best Varieties | Grow Your Health Gardening

Heaven Oregon

Heaven Oregon Tomato is an open pollinated variety and a favorite in 2021 by other growers and I can see why. It is an unusually shaped tomato. It is primarily red with a globe-shape that comes to a point at its base like a tear-drop and has purple shoulders. It has a hint of orange flecking and shading on the lower half near the purple shoulder on the skin (see photo below), but the interior flesh is bright red throughout. Its flesh is watery and best for slicing. Heaven Oregon tomato is about the size of a golf ball and looks so pretty on a plate!

Heaven Oregon Tomato has a tear drop shape and is about the size of a golf ball (around 1.75″ in circumference.)
Photo copyright 2024 Grow Your Health Gardening.

This is an indeterminate tomato and needs support as it grows to around 70 inches tall. I enjoyed watching it ripen on the vine. As you’ll see from the photo below, the Heaven Oregon tomato as a whole is green with dark purple shoulders while it is growing. It slowly fades to red as it ripens. She’s a no-fuss tomato with no disease issues or cracking. The hard part for you as a grower will be to be patient enough until it reaches that deep red indicating it is ready to enjoy!

One tip I want to offer is to harvest the whole cluster and keep the vine that holds the cluster attached if you want it to hold a couple of days indoors. Do not put these in the fridge. They’re best enjoyed harvest to table in my opinion. They are especially lovely roasted whole and added to any dish — especially pasta (yummmm)!

Our line of seed for sale comes from Oregon Heaven Tomato plants that were grown hydroponically / aeroponically in zone 7B Atlanta, Georgia, so unlike the line of seeds that come from the NW, we’ve adapted this variety to grow hydroponically in hot and humid conditions as well. As we have discussed in the past, research has found that plants can store 5+ years of environmental survival conditions in its DNA for future generations. Our seed will be adapted especially for hydroponic growers, but soil growers should also have no problem growing it.

Heaven Oregon hangs on the vine to ripen a little bit more.
Photo copyright 2024 Grow Your Health Gardening.

I tried to track down the back-story on this pretty tomato. One grower said it was developed by Dr. James “Jim” Ronald Baggett, a professor for 30 years who in 1973 became the head of the vegetable breeding program at Oregon State University OSU.¹ I could not find anything that supported that claim. Baggett has been credited for developing Oregon Eleven tomato, Oregon Spring, and Oregon Star, so it’s quite possible Heaven Oregon might be part of his work given the similarity with naming (even though it doesn’t seem to start with Oregon?) As a side note and nod to another great variety to try, Honey Boat Squash was also bred by Baggett’s program.

For now, I am not going to attribute Heaven Oregon Tomato to him until I get confirmation. For now, Heaven Oregon Tomato’s history remains unknown to us. If you happen to have a source to show Baggett should be attributed as the breeder, please feel free to share with our community in the comments below.

This is a chef’s delight and perfect for the home grower alike. You definitely won’t find this as a seedling start at any big box retailer garden center as a start, so it’s best to grow from seed. You also won’t find it in the grocery store where produce is bred to last 10+ days from harvest (yuck old food!) Grow this beautiful tomato and enjoy it at home knowing that you get to try what most folks miss out on!

Get Heaven Oregon Tomato seed for your own garden here >
(while supplies last)

Check back here to
continue reading Grow Your Health Gardening’s
Part 5 of New Tomato Variety Releases for 2024 >

Footnotes:

Happy New Year! As we look forward to the year ahead, it’s time to start thinking about what kind of nutritious food can be grown!

We’ve wrapped up our trials from 2021 and data and out of all the many cultivars grown of tomatoes, I’ve settled on these being my favorites to try in 2022.

When growing tomatoes, it’s always a good idea to think about HOW you plant to consume and use them. It will be a big help to you to evaluate this as it will determine what kind of tomato you should grow. And the BEST part of growing tomatoes is you can enjoy great taste as well that surpass anything that can be found at your local grocery store!

Here’s Erin’s tried and tested picks:

Casady’s Folly Paste Tomato (Sauce or Slicing)
Why Erin chose it:
“This variety is from tomato and potato breeder, Tom Wagner, of Washington State. It is a fantastic producer and beautiful on and off the vine. It is super versatile as well… you can slice it and add to any recipe that asks for a chopped tomato. It excels for making sauce. When compared to equal number of plants, it even out-performed 3.65x times the popular similar Speckled Roman paste variety. Casady’s Folly had more bud production and peaked in mid-July, but just kept pumping out the tomatoes until the end of September earning its spot as my top pick this growing season.”

Casady's Folly Open Source Tomato Paste Variety bred and developed by Tom Wagner Tomato breeder. Seed for Sale Hydroponic Adapted

Cancelmo Family Heirloom Paste Tomato (Sauce or Slicing)
Why Erin chose it:
“Cancelmo Family Heirloom Paste Tomato is a wonderful oxheart-type tomato variety. It steadily produces good size meaty fruit making it a wonderful option for great tasting sauce, but can also make a nice slicer for BLT sandwiches as the size fits a slice of bread well and has low seed/pulp ratio. Because doesn’t produce as many seeds, we may swap in another variety once we sell out of our inventory with another variety that also performed well, so grab it while it’s part of the collection while you can.”

Cancelmo Family Paste Heirloom Tomato Oxheart Type good for Sauces Seed for Sale Hydroponic Adapted

Charlie Chapman Heirloom Tomato (Slicing or Stuffer)
Why Erin chose it:
“I was originally attracted to Charlie Chapman Heirloom Tomato for it’s ruffled mid-size appearance and that it was touted as a good stuffing cultivar. I think part of the fun of growing food you can’t find in the store is using it in new ways in the kitchen. It’s a great way to add interest to what you’re eating and delights younger children as well. It did not disappoint and actually produced well throughout the growing season. This is a red tomato, but an orange-tinted red. I love how they look like miniature pumpkins.“

Charlie Chapman Heirloom Tomato Seed for Sale Hydroponic adapted

Cherokee Purple Tomato or Paul Robeson Tomato ((Sauce or Slicing)
Why Erin chose it:
“Cherokee Purple is one of our favorite tasting tomatoes. It’s not our biggest producer, but I chose this variety based on its flavor profile. Our seed comes from local stock and has been adapted over several generations. In fact, when I compared my seed to other seed providers, our seed was larger and more plump — these are traits that World Guinness Book Record holder, Charles Wilber, recommends looking for in seed with good DNA.“

Cherokee Purple Heirloom Tomato Seed for Sale Hydroponic Adapted

Wagners Salad Green Tomato (aka: Green Elf) (Sauce or Slicing)
Why Erin chose it:
“We love fried green tomatoes and this determinate variety just pumped out nice firm green tomatoes much to our delight. The multiple buds it produced and actually set was amazing. I did have to prune it a bit for the Southern climate and for airflow, but I loved the thick sturdy stalk it had and the amount of production we got out of it. It’s a versatile tomato that looks pretty when added to red varieties in diced salsas or topping tacos or salads as well. “

Green Elf (aka: Wagner's Salad Green Tomato) developed by Tom Wagner tomato breeder. Hydroponic adapted. Grown using organic method.

Nostrano Grasso Italian Tomato (Sauce or Slicing)
Why Erin chose it:
“I was drawn to this variety because of the rariety of it in the United States as an Italian variety. I also thought the slight ruffled look of it was pretty and it did not disappoint. The production was wonderful and the tomato taste true Italian tomato flavors rang through checking all the boxes for me for a fantastic cultivar to grow. “

Nostrano Grasso Italian Heirloom Tomato Hydroponic adapted seed for sale Rare variety in the United States

Blue Cream Berries Cherry Tomato (Salad Topper or Snacking)
Why Erin chose it:
“This is a most unusual tomato. It looks unimpressive on the vine, but I always love to share it with my guests that come to the garden, just to see their look of surprise when they taste it. Your mind thinks it’s going to tart, but it’s not. It’s unlike any other tomato I have tried to date and the fact that it is known to also have those purple shoulders containing anthocyanans, well, it’s a tomato we should all be enjoying on salads or for snacking. What’s interesting is that the second year of adapting this variety the first fruits that came on where actually bigger than the previous year. This will be one I continue to grow out and adapt through hydroponics in the Southeast.“

Blue Cream Berries Cherry Tomato hydroponic adapted grown with organic methods seed for sale

Black Cherry Tomato (Salad Topper or Snacking)
Why Erin chose it:
“Our entire family loves the Black Cherry Tomato variety. Cherry Tomatoes are also easier to grow in the Southeast, so it’s a good starter tomato for anyone who hasn’t grown tomatoes before from seed. Like our other cultivars that have been adapted through hydroponic growing conditions, Black Cherry Tomatoes were larger and super tasty — especially early on in the season. These can be used for snacking, salads, sliced for tacos, or even sun-dried. “

Black Cherry Tomato hydroponic adapted grown using organic methods seed for sale

+ Bonus: Naughty Marietta French Marigold (Co-planting and other beneficial uses)
Why Erin chose it:
“I wanted to include a marigold to encourage new growers to think of co-planting beneficial plants near one another. The marigold is fantastic for keeping some pest pressure down. You can grow and place in-between and around your plants that are growing, but the real benefit will be if you harvest some leaves and petals and make a biological tea and spray on your tomato plants once a week as a pro-active pest deterrent. “

Naughty Marietta French Marigold beneficial flower seed for sale

If you want to learn more about this collection, feel free to click here. We wish you the best and a wonderful 2022 Growing Season! Be sure to let us know in the comments below what your favorite tomato variety was from your last growing season. We all learn from each other through sharing!