Choose heirloom tomatoes for flavor, unusual colors, and seed you can save. Choose hybrid tomatoes for reliable yields and disease resistance, especially if blight or wilt has hit your garden before. Answer seven quick questions below to see which suits you, with named varieties to try.
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What Your Result Means: the chooser weighs what you care about against your garden’s conditions. Heirloom means your goals favor flavor and seed saving, and your conditions are kind enough for them. Hybrid means disease, a short season, heat, or a need for a dependable crop point to bred-in resistance and vigor. Grow both means a mix gives you flavor and a safety net.
Should You Grow Heirloom or Hybrid Tomatoes?
It depends on what you want most and what your garden throws at plants. Heirlooms reward you with flavor, color, and free seed, but they tend to be less productive and more prone to disease. Hybrids trade some of that character for vigor, bigger yields, and resistance to common diseases.
- Pick your priority: flavor, harvest size, disease resistance, or seed saving.
- Be honest about disease: if blight or wilt shows up most years, hybrids protect your crop.
- Check your season and heat: some heirlooms bear late and crack in hot weather.
- Choose your use to get named varieties that fit.
Heirloom vs Hybrid Tomato Comparison
| Trait | Heirloom | Hybrid |
|---|---|---|
| How it is made | Open-pollinated, passed down for generations | Cross of two chosen parent plants |
| Save your own seed? | Yes, grows true if not crossed | No, seed will not match the parent |
| Disease resistance | Usually lower | Often bred in, shown by letter codes |
| Yield | Tends to be lower | Usually higher and more dependable |
| Flavor | Prized by many gardeners | Varies; many were bred for shipping |
| Colors and shapes | Huge range: purple, green, striped, pink | Mostly uniform, with some colored types |
| Harvest | Some start later but bear over a long season | Often earlier and more uniform |
| Best for | Flavor, variety, seed savers | Beginners, disease-prone or short-season gardens |
What Do Hybrid Disease Resistance Codes Mean?
The letters after a hybrid’s name show which diseases it resists. Resistance lowers the risk but does not make a plant immune.
| Code | Resists |
|---|---|
| V | Verticillium wilt |
| F, FF, FFF | Fusarium wilt, races 1, 2, and 3 |
| N | Nematodes |
| T | Tobacco mosaic virus |
| TSWV | Tomato spotted wilt virus |
| A or ASC | Alternaria, Alternaria stem canker |
| S or L | Septoria leaf spot |
| St | Gray leaf spot |
Match codes to your problem with our Disease-Resistant Variety Matcher.
Heirloom Varieties to Try
These popular heirlooms come from the Iowa State University Extension list:
- Large slicers: Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Mortgage Lifter, Black Krim, Kellogg’s Breakfast, Green Zebra.
- Paste and sauce: Amish Paste, Martino’s Roma (determinate), Speckled Roman, Costoluto Genovese.
- Small fruit: Yellow Pear, Red Fig, Green Grape (determinate).
- Compact and early: Silvery Fir Tree (determinate).
Most heirlooms are indeterminate, so plan tall stakes or cages. Our Stake Length Calculator sizes them.
How to Save Heirloom Tomato Seed
- Keep varieties apart: plant different varieties at least 20 to 25 feet apart, ideally with a tall crop between them.
- Pick the best: save seed from healthy plants with the best fruit, picked ripe.
- Ferment: scoop seeds and pulp into a bowl with a little water and leave for 4 days, no longer.
- Rinse and dry: separate the seeds, rinse, and dry on paper towels or a screen for 5 to 7 days.
- Store: in an airtight container somewhere cool, dark, and dry. Check older seed with our Seed Viability Checker.
Worked Example
Say flavor matters most, you want to save seed, your garden has had few disease problems, and your summers are mild. Every answer leans heirloom, so the chooser recommends Heirloom, suggests slicers like Brandywine and Cherokee Purple, and adds seed-saving steps. Change the disease answer to serious blight and the heat to hot summers, and the result shifts to Grow both: heirlooms for flavor and seed, plus a few resistant hybrids so you still get a harvest.
Accuracy and Limitations
This is a guide to help you decide, not a rule.
What It Does Well: weighs the main trade-offs gardeners face: flavor, seed saving, yield, disease, season, and heat.
What It Does Not Do: rate individual varieties. Heirlooms vary a lot, and some are outstanding in one climate and disappointing in another. Try a few and keep the ones that do well for you.
Methodology
Method: each answer adds points toward heirloom (flavor priority 3 points, seed-saving priority 3, wanting to save seed 2) or hybrid (yield or disease priority 2, some or serious disease 1 or 2, short season 1, hot summers 1, first garden 1). A lean of 2 or more points gives that type; a close score gives Grow both. Wanting to save seed rules out a hybrid-only answer. Definitions and traits: hybrids cross two parents, often for disease resistance, and their seed does not resemble the parent; heirlooms are open-pollinated, tend to be less productive and more susceptible to diseases and disorders (Iowa State University Extension). Seed saving: open-pollinated crops such as tomatoes save easily because the flowers self-pollinate (University of Illinois Extension). Heirloom challenges and seed steps: lower yields, later bearing, cracking in heat, less resistance; 20 to 25 feet between varieties, 4-day ferment, 5 to 7 days drying (UC Master Gardeners of Sacramento County). Varieties: heirlooms from the Iowa State list; hybrid examples are widely sold F1 varieties.
Sources: Iowa State University Extension – Recommended Cultivars and Types of Tomatoes, University of Illinois Extension – Open-Pollinated vs. Hybrid, UC Master Gardeners of Sacramento County – Heirloom Tomatoes. Last reviewed: September 29, 2026 · Reviewed by Aiza Anwar.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between heirloom and hybrid tomatoes?
Heirloom tomatoes are open-pollinated varieties passed down for generations, so seed saved from them grows true to type. Hybrid tomatoes come from crossing two chosen parent plants, often for disease resistance and higher yields, and their saved seed does not grow the same plant.
Are heirloom tomatoes better than hybrids?
Neither is better overall. Many gardeners find heirlooms tastier and more colorful, while hybrids are usually more productive and more disease resistant. Many gardeners grow some of each.
Do heirloom tomatoes taste better?
Many gardeners believe so. Iowa State University Extension notes that many modern hybrids were developed mainly for commercial production and long-distance shipping, not flavor.
Can you save seeds from hybrid tomatoes?
You can, but the plants will not match the parent. Iowa State University Extension says seed collected from a hybrid tomato will not resemble the parent, so buy new hybrid seed each year.
How old does a tomato have to be to be an heirloom?
There is no universal definition. Many sources use varieties developed more than 50 years ago, and UC Master Gardeners also include varieties commercially introduced before 1940.
Why do heirloom tomatoes crack and get diseases?
Many were selected for flavor rather than resistance, so they tend to be more susceptible to diseases and disorders, and some varieties crack in hot weather.
What do the letters after a hybrid tomato name mean?
They are disease resistance codes, such as V for Verticillium wilt, F for Fusarium wilt, N for nematodes, and TSWV for tomato spotted wilt virus.
Is an open-pollinated tomato the same as an heirloom?
Not always. All heirlooms are open-pollinated, but not all open-pollinated varieties are heirlooms.
How far apart should I plant heirlooms to save pure seed?
UC Master Gardeners suggest at least 20 to 25 feet between varieties, ideally with a tall crop in between, to prevent most cross-pollination.
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This chooser gives general guidance based on extension advice, not a guarantee of how any variety will perform in your garden. Spotted an error? Tell us here.