Free Shipping on Orders $35+

Login
Amazon American Express Apple Pay Diners Club Discover Meta Pay Google Pay Mastercard PayPal Shop Pay Venmo Visa
Guaranteed to Grow
Supports Family Farms
Heirloom

Opalka Heirloom Paste Tomato

Quick Facts:

  • Heirloom variety from Poland
  • Elongated, red, paste-type tomatoes
  • Coreless, few-seeded, meaty
  • Easy to process, great for canning
  • 85 days to harvest

View full description

Quantity: Packet (50 Seeds)

shipping estimated time of arrival Get it between -

We ship to all areas of North America including the United States, its territories and outlying islands, and Canada. International orders may incur an additional charge to cover the handling of customs paperwork. Returns are accepted within 30 days of receipt. Full warranty information can be found here.

Opalka Heirloom Paste Tomato

More about Opalka

Solanum lycopersicum

Opalka is a little-known Polish heirloom that is enjoying a resurgence in popularity. Vigorous, wispy vines produce excellent yields of large paste-type tomatoes.  Fruit have an unusual shape, which often catches the attention of visitors and double-blossomed flowers sometimes produce tomatoes with an almost cartoon-like appearance.  Besides being fun to look at, Opalka tomatoes are coreless, few-seeded, and larger than most other paste-types, making them a breeze to process.  Just take a thin slice off the end to remove the stem scar, halve the remainder and process as desired.  Very little work and very little waste.  Harvests begin approximately 85 days from transplanting.  Each packet contains ... More

Less

Solanum lycopersicum

Opalka is a little-known Polish heirloom that is enjoying a resurgence in popularity. Vigorous, wispy vines produce excellent yields of large paste-type tomatoes.  Fruit have an unusual shape, which often catches the attention of visitors and double-blossomed flowers sometimes produce tomatoes with an almost cartoon-like appearance.  Besides being fun to look at, Opalka tomatoes are coreless, few-seeded, and larger than most other paste-types, making them a breeze to process.  Just take a thin slice off the end to remove the stem scar, halve the remainder and process as desired.  Very little work and very little waste.  Harvests begin approximately 85 days from transplanting.  Each packet contains a minimum of 50 seeds.

Solanum lycopersicum

Opalka is a little-known Polish heirloom that is enjoying a resurgence in popularity. Vigorous, wispy vines produce excellent yields of large paste-type tomatoes.  Fruit have an unusual shape, which often catches the attention of visitors and double-blossomed flowers sometimes produce tomatoes with an almost cartoon-like appearance.  Besides being fun to look at, Opalka tomatoes are coreless, few-seeded, and larger than most other paste-types, making th... read more

read less

Solanum lycopersicum

Opalka is a little-known Polish heirloom that is enjoying a resurgence in popularity. Vigorous, wispy vines produce excellent yields of large paste-type tomatoes.  Fruit have an unusual shape, which often catches the attention of visitors and double-blossomed flowers sometimes produce tomatoes with an almost cartoon-like appearance.  Besides being fun to look at, Opalka tomatoes are coreless, few-seeded, and larger than most other paste-types, making them a breeze to process.  Just take a thin slice off the end to remove the stem scar, halve the remainder and process as desired.  Very little work and very little waste.  Harvests begin approximately 85 days from transplanting.  Each packet contains a minimum of 50 seeds.

Boy holding slice of watermelon
Kids eating watermelon

How to Grow Paste Tomatoes

Tomatoes perform best in well-drained soil that contains plenty of organic matter and adequate phosphorous and calcium.  Ensure that the planting site receives at least 6 hours of daily sunlight.  Tomatoes require about two inches of water per week, otherwise fruit may become prone to developing blossom end rot.  Mulching plants with poly, paper, or natural materials will ensure consistent moisture throughout the root zone, especially during dry periods. 

For earliest harvest, start seeds indoors 6 weeks before the last frost.  Sow seeds 1/4" deep in well-moistened, sterile seed-starting mix.  The ideal temperature for tomato seed germination is 80 degrees.  For best results, place a growers heat mat beneath trays until germination has occurred.  Under ideal conditions, germination should occur in 7-10 days.  Water only as needed, as watering cools the soil and encourages fungal growth.

After danger of frost has passed, set transplants 30-36" apart in rows 48-60" apart.  To encourage strong roots, pinch off all but the top three leaves and bury the bottom two-thirds of the plant.  Ensure that plants receive 2" of water per week.  Avoid over-application of nitrogen as this can cause vegetative growth at the expense of fruit set.  Caging or staking plants is recommended.  While plants can be left to roam, providing support to plants will minimize soil-borne diseases.

Insect Pests

Biological controls such as Bacillus thuringiensis can be effective in controlling climbing cutworms and tomato hornworms.  Flea beetles, and other hard-shelled insects can be controlled with a simple homemade insecticidal soap solution.

Diseases & Other Problems

Contact your local university extension office to learn which tomato diseases are most prevalent in your area.  To prevent common tomato diseases like Septoria leaf spot, anthracnose, tomato wilt and blight, avoid watering plants at night or on cool, cloudy days.  Watering from below the canopy, mulching, and ensuring ample space between plants can also slow the spread of disease.  Finally, removing plant litter in the fall along with proper crop rotation and tillage will further limit the spread of disease.  Blossom end rot is a common issue caused by calcium deficiency and/or insufficient water intake.  Excess nitrogen and/or insufficient phosphorous can cause tomato plants to become bushy and produce few blossoms. 

For best flavor and texture, allow tomatoes to remain on the vine as long as possible.  If any fall before they have ripened, place them in a paper bag or wrap them in newspaper and set in a cool, dark place, stem side up, until fully ripened.  Tomatoes should not be refrigerated as it inhibits flavor-enhancing enzyme activity and contributes to an unpleasant, mealy texture.

CONSIDERATIONS:

Tomatoes are inbreeding plants with self-fertilization usually occurring before flowers have opened.  Therefore, measures to control cross pollination are usually not necessary.  Reports of out-crossing in tomatoes range from 0 to 5 percent, with substantially higher rates seen in potato-leaved cultivars.  Varieties with larger tomatoes are more prone to out-crossing because their large flowers are more open and the stigma may extend beyond the flower.  For this same reason, seeds should never be saved from double fruit of any variety.  Examine the stigma length of a particular variety to determine whether flowers will need to be bagged to prevent out-crossing.  If needed, inexpensive organza bags, like those used for wedding favors, can be placed over blossoms until nascent fruit appear. Bags should then be removed and the fruit tagged.

HARVESTING SEED:

To harvest seeds, cut fully ripened tomatoes in half and squeeze seeds and pulp into a container.  Cover with mesh and let sit until a layer of white fungus covers the surface (about 3-5 days.)  Fill container with cold water, stirring until seeds settle on the bottom.  Pour off water and pulp.  Repeat until seeds are clean.  Dry on a coffee filter.

SEED LONGETIVITY:

Tomato seeds will remain viable for up to 10 years when stored under ideal conditions.

San Marzano Heirloom Roma Tomato

Customer Reviews

Based on 6 reviews
83%
(5)
0%
(0)
17%
(1)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
E
E.
My new favorite

I had great success rate all around. I had 10/12 seeds germinate. My plants are super heavy producers. The slugs do like them so as soon as they blush with a little color I pick them. They have very little juice and seeds, with no core. This is my new favorite paste tomato.

g
gary
Very hard to rate this tomato (3 stars isn't that accurate)

First off, 98% germination rate was fantastic. I used a fairly heavy mix of compost to soil. I have a tremendous amount of organics in my soil. I plant in raised beds. These plants were Magnificent. Because I use only Chicken manure for fertilizer, the Nitrogen count is very high so my plants were 7'-8' tall. I use fly-ash heavily and ag-lime to balance my PH. The ash has a lot of K so the blossom production was incredible. I had perhaps 65 - 80 tomatoes per plant. They grew beautifully, that is until the blossom end rot started. That and pests would devastate these tomatoes. I literally had Olpalkas touching Italian Heirlooms, the Olpalkas would be hit hard, the Italians showed no signs of any trauma, at all.

The fruit was beautiful but stayed on the vine and took forever to ripen. big beautiful fruit and almost no yield because of end rot and pests. I started the BT on them early and maintained a regiment, but to no avail.

So, with all this being said, the plants were gorgeous, the fruit was gorgeous, the yield was horrible. I was disappointed, but I still feel this was something I was or was not doing right and I will definitely take another crack at the Olpalkas again.

R
Rocco Cratus Benardo
Excellent

Plants are growing great.

D
Dale Reimer
so far so good

I only planted ten seeds and they all came up in 7 days. First time trying these.

T
Teresa Catron
Love these!

Every seed I've planted has sprouted. I've never grown or eaten Opalka tomatoes, so I'm eager to see how they do.

Thresh Seed Company, I've been 100% pleased with every seed I've purchased from you. Thank you!

Thank you, Teresa! We're so happy you've had such success with your seeds-- with rates that high, we think some credit is due to the gardener as well!

Search