Hi jg,

I don't have a variety suggestion, but keep in mind that humidity can play a role in pollination. I would suggest, if there is no time to coddle the plants with individual attention, they you just shake each plant if you can. Best is a couple of hours after the morning dew burns off but anything is better than not.

It doesn't allow you to forget about them, but at least it is only 5-10 sec per plant, easy access and not tedious ... and you probably need to check on them anyway, but unfortunately, it is something you can't put on autopilot without suffering some consequences.
PC

You may try "Market growers" forum.
Most, if not all, greenhouse tomatoes, commercially grown, are special hybrids. with uniform round fruits.
But that does not mean that one cannot grow heirlooms in greenhouse.

But that does not mean that one cannot grow heirlooms in greenhouse.

I'm assuming you mean with good yields. If I were in the OP's situation, this is how I would think about it, but upfront this is pure opinion.

If I ask commercial heirloom growers they are going to say you have to pollinate them if the air is still. If I were to ask mass producer greenhouse growers, they would say, we can't afford not to pollinate if the air is still.

So either way you are going to be told to pollinate since they can't afford to let a crop go un-pollinated. That would leave me with asking a plant scientist and using my own rusty wiles.

So I ask the scientist and after distilling her complete explanation, I walk away with the impression that in still air I need a tomato that does exceptionally well self-pollinating in still air. There was then a long explanation and controversy as usual where no one agrees much, but the gist of it was, for pollen to concentrate around the stigma, you need:

a short-style tomato.

Then I look up my favorite heirlooms and find most of them are long style tomatoes and cross pollinate more easily than the crop of commercial varieties, and need more effort to pollination.

Crap, I think. Well, at least this explains a big stereotypical difference between heirlooms and high-yielding commercial varieties. That's right, "high-yielding". Generally when a tomato is a high yielder, it pollinates easier in controlled conditions - and this frequently relates to the length of the style.

So, all I need to do is go look for any high yielding tomato. Trouble is most are not the heirlooms I want. So at that point I would just get a good quite large beefsteak, my favorite, and make it my business to go in the greenhouse and hand pollinate a few flowers whenever I could knowing the ones I got would be big ones so my per flower pollination efforts would be amortized. Yeah, I'd go with Mortgage Lifter. If I wanted to go with an intermediate tomato, Stupice has had mixed reviews (who better than seysonn) but seems to give a large yield.

Then, reality would set in, and I would realize I kept missing flowers because I was late for work, etc., and I would decide to grow cherry tomatoes which I understand generally have short styles; many prolific cultivars to choose from; and just leave them be to do whatever they could. Some of the sweet ones might be great, but honestly I really prefer heirlooms and still would want something a little bigger.

Other options: You can significantly boost your production by putting a fan in your greenhouse if it is a hobby size one and you don’t mind some air inside. Put it on a repeat timer for just 10 minutes max around 11 am. Another option: walk through your greenhouse with a stick and tap the plants a couple of times and you will boost your yields.

In the end I would set up a trial with the heirloom (yeah!) variety "Santorini". Flavor, multipurpose, history, downright gorgeous, short-style and larger than your typical cherry.

Since I am sure every point I've made can be argued either way, I hadn't suggested a variety, but this follow-up post would be the "old college try" And Santorini is an awesome place!
PC

Here is a link that might be useful: Santorini (The real deal)

A Canadian Coop manager gave a presentation where he stated that Trust is the most offen grown greenhouse tomato. However over my many years of growing various varieties I've had more success with cheaper seed price varieties like Big Beef, Country Taste and First Prize. Pollination is not that big of an issue if you use string line for support since just regular clipping of growing plants seems to provide enough plant movement for fruit set.

Although I grow well over 200 varieties, mostly heirloom, in my greenhouses if there was one defining criteria which I were to look for in a GH variety it would be Leaf Mold resistance. I didn't do anything special this spring and had ripe fruits by late May. I sell lots of heirloom tomatoes and sell them early so the lower yield is justified by higher price but I need heirlooms to look like heirlooms so I grow few Mortgage Lifter or other "Red look-alike" heirloom varieties. A few heritage varieties like Mr. Ugly, Conestoga or BrandyMaster will yield better and still offer heirloom-like qualities.