Crop: Solanum lycopersicum L. (Tomato)

The landrace called ‘Gyöngyös’ originates from Gyöngyös (Hungary) and it was collected by the Centre for Plant Diversity in 1977.

Gyöngyös is an indeterminate, vigorously growing tomato landrace, with red, elongated, paprika shaped (approx. 100-120 g) fruits, 3-4 fruits/cluster. It flowers from the beginning of June and it ripens from mid-July, with a peak in early September. The fruits have a characteristic taste, rich in sugars, with a thin skin, making them ideal for fresh consumption and processing as well (salad, canned, dried tomatoes). It is homogeneity and development is evaluated good during on-farm tests. The appearance, taste and marketability are also satisfying. This landrace is sensitive to diseases, Calcium deficiency can cause problems and it also has a weak stem.

Cultivation System: ND.

Geographical Information

Country: Hungary

Gyöngyös was traditionally cultivated in home gardens of the village Gyöngyös (North of Hungary). The National Gene Bank (Centre for Plant Diversity www.nodik.hu) collected and preserved this landrace. The Hungarian Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (ÖMKi) requested accessions from the Centre for Plant Diversity in order to carry out on-farm participatory experiments between 2012-2016, comparing tomato landraces (including Gyöngyös) in five growing seasons in Hungary. In 2018 citizens could ‘adopt’ a seedling choosing from 6 varieties and in 2019 the seedlings of 3 varieties (including Gyöngyös) out of the aforementioned six were available in a supermarket.

Nowadays it is cultivated by several farmers and hobby gardeners spread out in the country.


Farmer(s) description:

The farmers, gardeners used to save seeds, which is not a difficult process as this landrace produces a huge amount of seeds and the crop is predominantly autogamous. Seeds are saved from healthy and good performing plants.


Propagation system: Seed, self-pollination

Multiplication procedures and consequences on landrace diversity:

Tomato is a predominantly self-pollinating plant, but crosses do occur where presence of insects is high. Each farmer multiplies his own seed under slightly different agronomic conditions. The average number of plants multiplied by each farmer each year ranges from a few to several hundreds. At harvesting, each farmer selects seeds that will be used for the next season.

Management plan existence:

No support from local authorities.

Added Values

Market - existing and novel:

If there is any market for this landrace, at the moment is very small, it’s mainly grown for own consumption, by hobby gardeners. The landrace is best used for fresh consumption, drying and juice making. The productivity is reasonably low, therefore there are evidences that this landrace is mainly suitable for home production and for local farmers’ markets.

Others (e.g. commercial/geographical brands or special traits):

‘Gyöngyös’ is registered as conservation variety in the European Common Catalogue of Conservation Varieties following the Commission Directive 2008/62/CE of 20 June 2008.


The Hungarian Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (ÖMKi) launched a participatory research on the usability of Hungarian tomato landraces on organic farms in 2012. The aim of the analysis was to reintroduce landraces that were the most suitable for organic production into Hungarian gardens so that their special and diverse colour, shapes and flavours could be rediscovered. In order to make seeds and seedlings available for the wider public, after a precise description ÖMKi registered the most popular and successful 6 landraces in 2019 and support the seedling production in the frame of the campaign ‘From research to plate’.

Accessions of ‘Gyöngyös’ are kept, under long terms storage conditions in the germplasm bank of the Centre for Plant Diversity, Hungary.

The landrace is maintained since 2012 on-farm beyond and as part of the ÖMKi landrace tomato project.

Centre for Plant Diversity www.nodik.hu

Limited number of seedlings are available in the LiDL supermarket since 2019

Seeds available via Magház community seed bank

Case study prepared by The Hungarian Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (ÖMKi), Hungary.

  • Cseperkálóné Mirek B., Dr. Drexler D., Papp O. (2017) Paradicsom tájfajták vizsgálata ökológiai gazdálkodásban.