Heirloom Tomatoes ~ Dinosaurs

Heirloom Tomatoes Facts


in general heirloom plants are those that have been passed down from generation to generation, this definition has been altered into several classifications since the 'Heirloom' hype has commercial folks scampering for an apron string to ride.

These are the classifications as posted on the TomatoFest page


http://www.tomatofest.com/what-is-heirloom-tomato.html

Commercial Heirlooms: Open-pollinated varieties introduced before 1940, or tomato varieties more than 50 years in circulation.

Family Heirlooms: Seeds that have been passed down for several generations through a family.

Created Heirlooms: Crossing two known parents (either two heirlooms or an heirloom and a hybrid) and dehybridizing the resulting seeds for how ever many years/generations it takes to eliminate the undesirable characteristics and stabilize the desired characteristics, perhaps as many as 8 years or more.

Mystery Heirlooms: Varieties that are a product of natural cross-pollination of other heirloom varieties.

(Note: All heirloom varieties are open-pollinated but not all open-pollinated varieties are heirloom varieties.)

This is a very informative page I suggest you keep reading there because I cannot put things any better that they have.
It is sad that due to hybridization and GMO's we are losing some of our Edibles History, some tomatoes are actually Dinosaurs because they are now an extinct organism.