It’s freezing outside. Some parts of the country are covered in snow. Everything is frost-covered. The ground is solid as a rock. Buuuttt, here I am dreaming about a vegetable garden in the depths of winter. Those visions help me get through this frigid time of year. So let’s have some warm thoughts and turn our focus to spring-ish things, like planting seeds. Specifically let’s talk about tomato seeds and which ones are right for your garden. With a seemingly endless amount of tomato types, how do you know which ones you should be planting?
Here are the seeds I ordered and will plant this year in my own garden:
Sun Gold Cherry {57 days} Our favorite cherry tomato
Artisan Bumble Bee Blend Cherry {70 days}
Red and Yellow Pear {75 days}
Glacier Tomatoes {55 days}
Green Zebra {75 days}
Black Krim {70 days}
Red Pear Piriform {78 days}
Cherokee Purple {80 days}
Oxheart {85 days}
Pineapple {90 days}
And that’s just a fraction of the hundreds of tomato seed types available in most catalogues! Tomato varieties can be overwhelming but I’m here to help. Here are some questions you should ask yourself when picking your tomato seeds:
To Heirloom or Not to Heirloom?
Heirlooms are better, hands down!!! No question. There’s a reason your local farmer’s market or grocery store sells heirloom tomatoes for double, if not triple, the price of those blahtitty, blah Roma tomatoes with the fake shiny glow. In my opinion, heirloom tomatoes have always tasted better than the hybrid varieties many seed companies and most stores sell. Sure, some varieties of heirloom tomatoes might look a little funny, but you can taste the difference, trust me. So. Much. Better.
Fresh or Canning?
If I’m growing them to eat them fresh, my all-time favorite heirloom tomato is the Cherokee purple, followed closely by the green zebra tomato, beefsteak and Brandywine tomatoes for their unique flavor and amazing colors. Cherry tomatoes are a favorite for salads and snacking, too.
If I’m growing them to can or turn into salsa or sauce or even gift to friends around the holidays, then you’ll need a variety that holds up when canned. My favorite canning tomatoes are Ace, Roma, and San Marzano. The meaty textures of the tomatoes and their fairly uniform size make them great candidates for canning.
How Much Space Do You Have?
If you are limited on growing space, you’ll need to know whether your tomato seeds are determinate or indeterminate. When you are ordering your seeds, you can typically find DET or INDET on the packet somewhere, letting you know what variety you are dealing with.
Basically determinate tomato plants are smaller {3 to 4 feet tall} and typically ripen over a period of a few weeks. Romas, most paste tomatoes, Better Bush, Ace and Silvery Fir are all examples of determinate tomatoes.
Indeterminate tomato plants are super large {reaching as tall as 6-12 feet!} and bear fruit all summer long. They require a lot more space and support than a determinate. Cherry tomatoes, Red & Yellow Pear, Brandywine, Beefstake, Sun Gold, and most Heirloom varieties are indeterminate.
Hope this helps you choose the right seeds for you! Already have your tomato plan? Let me know what variety you’ll be growing this year!
The more you know, the more you can grow.
~Mavis
Terri at The Frugal List says
How much sun, or should I say, how little sun, will tomatoes tolerate? I have a small area behind our condo that I can grow stuff in, but it only gets a moderate amount of sun in the summer. Do you think I could grow tomatoes?
Peggy says
Oh my, I could do a 15 part post on tomatoes alone! I love my heirlooms, it’s what I plant, but there is a place for hybrids, there are some nice varieties, I just like the freedom of being able to save seed from any tomato I grow and know it will come back true. 🙂 When I order my seeds, I try to find something that is acclimated to my growing climate, and quite honestly because the name is so cool. Homer Fike’s Yellow Oxheart is one that fits both criteria: it was grown in WV for generations until the great granddaughter (I think) of Homer Fike shared the seeds with others. So cool! It’s also the most delicious tomato I’ve ever tasted. For years I tried to get my then younger daughters to like tomatoes to no avail, but one of them liked how beautiful the Homer Fike was and she loved it, she ate a huge slice right then and there! It’s a huge, meaning 1-2 lb. orangish oxheart. The skin is so tender, I have to be careful picking them, just the pressure of my fingers on their tender skin can bruise them, so they are very local….as in my garden to my table! You can’t buy these, and that’s what so wonderful about herilooms, the flavors of these tomatoes are so unique, it can’t be matched by something bred to be able to withstand transport and long storage. That’s a slicer, but we use it for everything. Other favorites are Mortgage Lifter, Hillbilly, and Ruth’s Perfect. Canning and sauce: San Marzano, of course, so dependable. Speckled Roman, Long Tom, and Roma. Cherry types are: Yellow Gooseberry and Snow White, yellowish orange and whitish cream respectively, both are out of this world sweet. 🙂 I’m blessed to have lots and lots of space for gardening, whatever I can keep up with and that’s the deciding factor there, I’m a one woman garden pretty much and I grow lots of stuff. All for our house, I can grow enough veggies for a years worth of tomatoes for sauce or recipes, salsas and condiment sauces. And that’s just tomatoes. Oh, I ‘sun dry’ them too, the little ones are perfect for it. I do this on a low temp in the oven tossed with a bit of olive oil and I freeze them. Best snack ever. 🙂
Carrie says
Cherokee Purples are my favorite! I always grow 3-5 of them. I want to try San Marzano instead of Romas this year.
I need help on staking up indeterminate tomatoes. Everything I try fails and my garden is a mess by July. Anyone have a surefire way of keeping them up?
Tracy says
I’ve grown tomatoes for over 30 years and have, over that period, tried every type of tomato plant support out there. I finally found Texas Tomato Cages about 12 years ago and have never looked back. They’re not cheap, but work perfectly. Perfectly! Strong, usable year after year, collapse flat for storage (without having to dissemble anything), and can come in two sections so you can just slide in the top section when the plants top 4 feet or so. I bought 8 of them 12 years ago and am still using the same ones. Stand up to heavy fruit laden plants, wind, storms, everything but aren’t ugly or imposing. I learned about them from Margaret Roach’s blog awaytogarden.com. Check them out: http://tomatocage.com/
Carrie says
Those are really neat but out of my budget for now. Maybe I’ll save up for a few next year. Thanks!
Brenda Lage says
Cages made from concrete reinforcement wire, buy a tall roll cut for diameter and create a cage. The mesh openings are large enough to reach in and get the tomato. They are firm enough but you can add tent stakes to keep from falling over or nail them on your raised beds, or bury bottom in the soil. We connect 3 together and zip tie them..I have grown up to three plants inside one cage. We have a guy who makes them here in NC area but husband questions why I pay for them…Well, I pay because if I waited for him the season would be OVER! Good project for farm friends, buy a roll or two take a few hours and you will have cages that out live you! 60 in. x 150 ft. Steel Mesh Roll @ Home Depot. If you are really tall 7′.
Carrie says
I tried that method about 5 years ago before I moved to my current house. I left the cages behind. I had to store them outside behind my shed, much to my boyfriend’s dismay. My dad also uses them in his garden. I wish they stored better but they are probably my best option this year since I can’t afford the Texas tomato cages. Thanks!
I’m a NC girl too! Grew up in Greensboro. Lived in Boone and Sanford and now back in Greensboro. I love our state!
Melinda W says
If you’ve got the room, I highly suggest a tomato tunnel. I made one 2 springs ago when I started straw bale gardening. The arch itself is made from 8 9-foot t posts and 3 12-foot long cattle panels. (Do a search for “straw bale arch trellis” to see pics.) That gives me a 6 foot tall trellis to walk under, a pathway in the middle, and growing areas inside and outside the trellis. I just walk through the tunnel and pick tomatoes from overhead. As the plants grew I would lay them onto the arch and secure with ties, and by summers end sometimes the plants would wrap from one side of the arch to the other, then back. Lately it’s been hard for me to find proper straw bales that don’t collapse halfway through the summer and kill my plant roof systems, so I’m using fabric grow bags this year. I grew cucumbers, eggplants, and squash in the bales, and with the grow bags this year I’m going to try carrots surrounding the tomato plants. You can also make the same design a greenhouse by adding plastic tarp or a hoop coop for chickens by adding doors on each end.
Carrie says
I would love to have a tunnel for squash! Unfortunately I don’t have space for one. My property is .18 acres in the city. I have 4 4×8 and 2 4×4 raised beds in my front yard. My neighbors don’t mind the garden (I keep them happy with fresh summer veggies) but they may not take a tunnel of vines over too well. If I could grow in my backyard I would totally have one but it is completely shaded in the summer from the old huge trees.
That’s a good idea to grow carrots around the tomatoes! Good luck with the grow bags! I have heard good things just make sure you are committed to where you put them because they get heavy once filled with soil.
Leslie says
From 6 Black Krim plants, I harvest 75 lbs of tomatoes in 2016. Late season, too. Didn’t start picking until August. I had probably another 75 lbs rot because they fruit was touching the ground, or dropped when I wasn’t there to pick it up. Amazing. I froze the fruits whole, and pull them out as I need them. After they thaw a bit, it’s easy to slip the skin off, and cut the core out. Or, I don’t bother and throw them (thawed) whole into the Vitamix, and all seeds, core and peel disappears into the puree.
I prefer pastes, in general, because I don’t like losing too much space to the juice. However, BK’s are my favorite, fresh, hands down.
Carrie says
I have 3 gallon bags of romas in my freezer. Do you have a recipe for sauce? That is a good tip to use the blender. I love my Vitamix!
Melissa A Schulze says
My favorites are Black Krim, Cherokee Purple and Mortgage Lifter. Mortgage Lifter’s make the best fried green tomatoes.
Mel says
For frozen tomatoes, I actually use Mavis’s heirloom tomato sauce recipe and crockpot pizza sauce recipe. I blend both with an immersion blender, but Vitamix would work.
suzanne says
I’ve been making tomato sauce from frozen toms for years. I use a combo of what ever was ripe that week. I throw the entire gallon bag in my crockpot or slow cook on stove top. I don’t bother to remove skin or seeds. Cook long and slow, season well and blend with stir stick. Put the leftovers in the freezer in mason jars. I love fenel seed in my pasta sauce.
Carrie says
Thanks! Sounds like a good rainy day chore!
Mel says
Summer Cider is our favorite the past few years. We’re still looking for a great cherry tomato (Sungold only does so-so around here), so we’re trying bumblebee and chocolate pear this year, in addition to several beefsteak, paste, and slicer types. I think we have 18 varieties this year. And I still have 45 lbs or so in the freezer that I need to make into sauce.
I knew about determinate and indeterminate, but I’m also trying dwarf tomatoes, which only get a foot or two tall!
Susie says
I would LOVE if everyone would state where they live when they talk about what varieties they grow. I’m guessing Peggy might live in WV since she was happy to find a variety originally from there. I’m in DeLand, FL Central Florida) about 30 minutes north of Orlando. What varieties grow for some obviously won’t for others.
I’m fairly new to growing veggies, and my bf lived all his life in MD where he grew TONS of stuff, but he says it’s different down here. We have to bring in yards of good rich dirt because all we have here is sand. BUT I can’t grow what people in Oregon or Massachusetts are growing, or at least not on the same schedule!
We happen to like Super Sweet 100’s (grape tomatoes) and they do very well here. We also like Patio Container (not very glamorous, I know) and I’ve tried Cherokee Purples from seed but they haven’t sprouted yet. Yes, we are already starting our seeds indoors with a grow light. If the Cherokee Purples don’t sprout, I’m going out to get a few more interesting varieties. Or order them. That’s why I’m really paying attention to this thread. Thanks!
Mel says
I’m in southern Maryland. This year, we’re trying Snow Fairy, Mark Twain, Kellogg’s Breakfast, Chocolate Pear, Orange Banana, and Sunrise Bumblebee for the first time. Riesentraube, Black Brandywine, Paul Robeson, Roma, Destor, Summer Cider, German Johnson, Amos Coli, Pineapple, Sungold, Prudens Purple, and Amana Orange were all invited back from last year.
Each year, we repeat the ones we’ve found work well, cut the ones that don’t do well, and supplement the difference with new types we want to try. Last year we cut Lucid Gem (pretty, tasty, but slow to ripen), Rose de Berne (delicious, but running slow and small), Black Vernissage (great for sauce but mealy and a bug magnet), and Orange oxheart (love oxhearts, but these were oddly crunchy and not meaty).
Katie P NC says
I’m wanting to start my tomato seeds soon in paper egg cartons so I can hopefully have them outside in April. I live in coastal NC so its pretty warm here by then. I’ve had a smallish garden in my front yard the past 7 years and last year I planted 8 tomato plants and got….. 3 tomatoes from them. I’m hoping doing containers this year will allow better soil and moisture levels. So I’m wondering what is the best container tomato? I don’t typically like a larger (Better Boy) size tomato but love grape size ones. Any tips for container tomatoes? Are there any other veggies that people have had luck with in the past?
Lynn says
We grew tomato plants in our hoophouse last year that reached 14 feet by stringing them to the ceiling and pruning, pruning, pruning. I love mixing a basil plant or two in with my tomatoes. I think they make them taste that much better. Make sure you rotate your tomato planting. We had the very evil tomato plant worm that we ended up capturing and drowning. It will chomp down all your hard work in a matter of days. Luckily, once eradicated, your plants will grow back.