‘Tis the season to plant tomatoes
Tomatoes are native to the Americas, like peppers, and were grown by the Aztecs who called the fruits “tomatl”—meaning “plump thing with navel.” Botanically, tomatoes are actually berries—believe it or not!
Finding Your Favorite Tomato Variety
So, which tomato is the best? I can only share my favorites because subtle flavor differences mean everyone’s preference is unique. My advice: try one new variety every year. That’s how you find your favorite—just like I did!
Here’s the list of tomatoes we’ll be carrying this season:
- Amana Orange: 1 to 2-pound fruits, mild and sweet. Heirloom.
- Beefmaster: Meaty, flavorful fruits up to 2 lbs.
- Better Boy: Disease-resistant, reliable harvests.
- Big Boy: Large, smooth red fruits, heavy mid-summer bearing, continues until frost.
- Black Cherry: Sweet burgundy cherry tomatoes.
- Black Krim: 10–12 oz., heat-tolerant, rich with salty undernotes. Heirloom.
- Brandywine: Exceptionally sweet, large beefsteak-type fruits. Amish heirloom.
- Celebrity: Great for canning/freezing, large crop in a short time, disease-resistant. Determinate.
- Cherokee Purple: (My favorite) Heirloom from Tennessee, rich smoky flavor, large burgundy fruits.
- Early Girl: Reliable early tomato with 4–6 oz. fruits.
- German Johnson: Heirloom from NC and VA, meaty pinkish-red fruits about 1 lb.
- Grape: Long vines, clusters of meaty, bright red fruits.
- Hillbilly: Golden orange with red streaks, 1–2 lb. fruits. WV heirloom.
- Juliet: Clusters of 1-inch bright red grape tomatoes, late blight resistant. Indeterminate.
- Lemon Boy: Bright yellow, mild, and sweet ½ lb. fruits.
- Mortgage Lifter: Large, meaty, red fruits, up to 2 lbs. Heirloom.
- Patio: Small plants (2 ft.), 3–4 oz. red fruits. Determinate.
- Roma: Popular for sauces, meaty fruits. Determinate.
- Rutgers: Since the 1920s, productive and flavorful. Heirloom. Determinate.
- San Marzano: Mild, meaty Roma-type, great for sauces. Heirloom. Determinate.
- Sun Sugar: Crack-resistant golden-orange cherry tomatoes, disease-resistant vines. (My other favorite)
- Supersonic: 8–12 oz. crack-resistant, meaty fruits, and some disease resistance.
- SuperSteak: Large fruits (1–2 lbs.), vigorous disease-resistant vines.
- Super Sweet 100: Clusters of sweet red cherry tomatoes, vigorous vines.
- Whopper: Disease-resistant vines with ½ lb. fruit.
- Yellow Brandywine: Golden yellow fruits 1–2 lbs.., delicious flavor. Heirloom.
- Yellow Pear: Sweet, pear-shaped 1–2 inch fruits. Heirloom.
Important Tomato Growing Tips
- Rotate your planting: If you had disease issues last year, don’t plant tomatoes or related crops (potatoes, peppers, eggplant, tomatillos) in that spot for at least three years. Plant cucumbers, squash, or beans instead.
- Give tomatoes full sun: They need full sun for best productivity. Less sun means fewer fruits.
- Use fertilizer: Compost is great, but tomatoes need nutrients like nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. I recommend Espoma Organic Tomato-tone for extra calcium, which tomato family plants love. You can use it on other veggies and flowers too!
- Indeterminate vs. Determinate:
- Indeterminate tomatoes keep growing and producing fruit until frost. Most varieties fall into this category.
- Determinate tomatoes produce a large crop all at once—ideal for canning or freezing—and are usually smaller bush types. I marked the determinate varieties above.
- Container growing: Use containers at least 18 inches in diameter with good potting soil (never garden soil). Tomatoes have deep roots and can grow 6 to 10 feet tall, so ample space is key.
- Support your plants: Tomatoes are technically vines. Use cages, trellises, or ties.
- Watch the weather: Tomatoes struggle to set fruit when daytime temps exceed 92°F and nights stay in the mid-70s. Pollen becomes clumpy, hurting pollination. Bees help, so plant bee-friendly flowers nearby.
- Watering: Never wet the foliage. Use a hose or soaker hose to water at the base only. Avoid overhead watering or in-ground sprinklers.
People always ask me which tomato they should plant. If you’ve only grown Better Boys or Super-Steaks, try something new! I always stuck with what my dad grew—Better Boys and Big Boys—until one year I tried “Cherokee Purple,” an heirloom with a rich, smoky flavor. It blew me away.
Tomato Varieties Available at The Great Big Greenhouse
Stop by The Great Big Greenhouse in Richmond, VA, to browse. Right now, our selection is fabulous! Whichever variety you pick, you’re growing the quintessential American fruit—well, berry!
Do you have any grafted varieties this year?
Which tomato is best for container planting?
Love your stuff…Thanks!
Dan–we do have three grafted varieties this year–San Marzano, Cherokee Purple, and Mortgage.
Janis, you can grow ANY variety of tomato in a container. Choose a container that around 18 inches in diameter and put a tomato cage in there to hold it up. You do not have to grow a special “container” type tomato. I always grow a Sun Sugar cherry tomato on my deck (that’s the one I snack on when I’m sitting out in my rocking chair drinking my iced tea). It grows to be about eight to ten feet tall.
Hi Bonnie,
How many hours of sun is ideal for tomatoes, and what is the least number of hours a tomato plant can receive and still be productive? Thanks.
Kelly, ideally tomatoes need FULL sun–six to eight hours. If you only get four or five hours, you will still get something but not nearly as much as if they were in optimum sunlight. The timing of the sun is important, too. Four or five hours of direct sun around the middle of the day is better than the same amount earlier or later in the day.
Well you said you could only tell us what your favorite was but not the “best” that we would have to decide. So what is your favorite and why?
My favorite slicing tomato is Cherokee Purple. It’s an heirloom variety with dark burgundy fruits that are rich and sweet. It’s fairly disease resistant.
My favorite cherry tomato is Sun Sugar. It has almost a citrusy back note to it and is an incredible producer.
Like I said, different people have different tastes. When it comes right down to it, ANY homegrown tomato tastes better than a store-bought tomato.