| Scientific Name: | Solanum lycopersicum |
| Hardiness: | Frost-tender annual in most zones |
| Spread: | 24”-84” tall by 18”-24” wide, see notes |
| Spacing: | 18”-36” depending on variety |
| Light Requirements: | Full sun |
| Soil Requirements: | Rich, moist soil with good drainage |
| Days to Maturity: | 8-14 weeks (60-100 days) depending on variety |
| Start Indoors: | 8-10 weeks before last frost |
| Germination: | 5-7 days at 75°F |
| Direct Sow: | Not Recommended |
| Succession Plant: | Not Recommended |
| Difficulty Level: | Easy |
About Plant
Tomatoes are quite arguably the most popular garden-variety vegetable of all time. They are the quintessential home garden fruit and are quite often the “gateway” plant into growing vegetables not just because they’re relatively easy to grow, but because the quality and flavor of home-grown tomatoes is so superior to supermarket standards you’re likely to be ruined after eating your own harvest fresh and warm from the vine.
“Hundreds of years ago, long before Europeans had set foot in the New World, tomatoes grew wild in the Andes of western South America. The indigenous people cultivated them, eventually bringing the plant northward through Central America and into Mexico. When the Spanish arrived in the early 16th century, they found the inhabitants growing a food crop called “tomatl” in the native language.
Tomato seeds were brought from Mexico to Spain by those early explorers. From there the plant spread to Italy by the mid-1500s where it began to be incorporated into regional cuisine. Over the following decades, tomato plants were cultivated throughout Europe, but primarily as an ornamental plant.Thomas Jefferson reportedly grew tomatoes in his vegetable garden at Monticello and enjoyed eating the fruit. It wasn’t until the early 1900s that tomatoes’ popularity became widespread throughout the United States.“
A History of Tomatoes, University of Vermont Extension
Popular Varieties
This is a hard one to narrow down! There are a few different types of tomatoes that can be grown depending on what you want to use them for, so I’ll split them up that way. I’m all about heirlooms here on the homestead so the varieties listed will be strictly heirlooms, although there are as many types of tomatoes as there are gardeners. Many of the selections below are sourced from Tomatofest, my favorite source for heirloom and rare tomato seeds. They are a wonderful company and they always stock the uncommon varieties I am most fond of.
Cherry Tomatoes
Red Pear & Yellow Pear are an heirloom classic – that quintessential garden snack. They have thin skin and are a fabulous choice for any setting.
Matt’s Wild Cherry is the quintessential round, red cherry tomato bursting with old-fashioned tomatoey flavor (as Tomatofest’s Gary Ibsen likes to say.)
Black Cherry is my number one cherry tomato. I absolutely love the rich, complex flavor and beautiful deep coloring. I rarely take any into the kitchen because they’re usually gone before making it inside!
The Bumble Bee series has become one of my favorites to grow. They are beautiful, productive, and multipurpose – they are great eaten fresh by the handful, sliced and thrown in salads, or roasted for delicious, rich flavor.
Beefsteak/Slicing Tomatoes
Black Krim tied with Black Seaman tomato for my favorite slicer this year. It was my first time growing the latter but the former is an old-time staple of home gardens since the 1990’s when it was introduced in the US as the first commercially available black tomato. It frequently outpaces other beefsteak types in size, appearance and flavor; however I find the Seaman to be comparable in many ways, and being determinate makes it more worthy of precious space in my veggie patch.
Kellogg’s Breakfast is an heirloom that vies for space on nursery shelves despite being old-fashioned. It is an award-winning tomato and perseveres as one of the most commonly grown beefsteaks around. I have a hard time with this cultivar because it has such a long maturity period, so other cold-climate gardeners should keep that in mind.
Mortgage Lifter is a powerhouse tomato which has as much history as it does flavor. You can read more about it here.
Brandywine is another heirloom that competes with other hybrids of lesser quality for space on supermarket shelves every Spring. It’s an “ole’ reliable” in the home vegetable garden and comes in a variety of colors for your choosing.
Paste Tomatoes
Roma is the most popular variety of paste tomatoes by a long shot. I sell out of Roma starts every year even though there are other heirloom varieties that taste and perform better. They are just like the supermarket variety but benefit from improved flavor when grown in the home garden. I also really enjoy the Speckled Roman for the same qualities but with an aesthetic twist.
Orange Roma is just what it sounds like; I threw this variety in here because I enjoyed the flavor so much. I first grew it in 2023 and I immediately added it to my very elite list of favorite heirloom varieties. It would be great sliced into a salad, and we ate many tomatoes fresh just with salt and pepper; but the real treat for us were the “tomato chips” – dehydrated slices sprinkled with Italian seasoning. Next I would like to try making sun dried tomatoes with these cheerful orange beauties.
San Marzano is another quintessential heirloom tomato, this time of the paste persuasion. Very productive, flavorful, and dense, they are a staple fruit for preserving your own sauces and pastes. This one doubles for fresh eating as well.
Bonus: Oxheart Tomatoes
Oxheart are a specific type of tomato that I thought bore mentioning here. They have an endearing heart shape, are deliciously fleshy with very little seeds, and have an unparalleled flavor. I have grown a few in my own garden but because they are very slow maturing I want to experiment with planting some in the greenhouse. The very first variety I tried was a tomato my husband’s uncle grew which was very similar to the Hungarian Heart, an heirloom type. Two new cultivars that I am trying this year are the German Strawberry and Orange Strawberry.
Note: Another important quality to note is whether the tomatoes you have selected are determinate or indeterminate. Any category of tomatoes listed above may be determinate or indeterminate; the seed packet should list this information for you along with growing instructions. You can read all about the differences between tomato growing habits on my post here.
Sowing
Tomatoes are fairly easy to start from seed but you will have greater success with a few simple tips and tricks. To see some of my favorite posts on seed starting check out this blog category.
You can follow the packet instructions for the most part, however the addition of a heat mat will aid the germination process. You can remove the mat after the majority of your seedlings have sprouted. Keep your tomatoes well-watered but allow them to dry out slightly in between watering and don’t allow them to sit in water in their trays. I start all my seedlings in soil blocks but I will still transplant my tomatoes into cups once they reach about 6 weeks old, or as soon as your plants reach about 6″ tall; they will benefit from pruning all but the top leaves and potting up into a deeper container which will cover the stem in soil. They grow extra roots from the stem which is submerged and are one of the only plants that can be propagate this way. Most other plants aren’t like this, so don’t deeply plant other types of vegetables!
Transplanting
Tomatoes are easy to transplant and normally suffer very little from transplant shock. You can apply the same deep-planting method mentioned above by either digging a deep planting hole and planting all the way up to the newest set of leaves, or by laying the seedling horizontally in a trench and gently bending the top leaves upright and burying the stem. Give the plants a deep watering and again, allow them to dry out in between watering. Tomatoes need about 1-2″ of water a week, but if you mulch deeply you can water a lot less frequently.
Growing
Tomatoes are one of the easiest food crops to grow because they generally require very little care. Fertilizing once or twice in a season with well-rotted compost or manure will provide plenty of nutrition for your fruiting period. If you have an excessively long growing season (120+ days) you can amend once a month or as you see fit. Most tomatoes will produce heavily in good quality soil without any additional amendments added.
There are two schools of thought on pruning tomato plants: you can leave them completely alone, or you can selectively prune non-fruit-bearing branches to allow sunlight through, prevent pest and disease problems, and increase productivity. If you do choose to prune your tomato plants you will not want to prune branches or take the tops off of your determinate tomato plants because it will drastically decrease the overall harvest. I would like to write my own guide to pruning tomatoes for productivity in cold climates, but The Spruce has a great article on the subject here.
Harvesting
For best flavor, completely cut off water supply a few days before final harvest, and harvest late in the afternoon. Late in the season you can pinch blossoms and even tops of plants to force ripening of existing fruit. If there are any trusses of green tomatoes remaining on the plants and you are close to freezing weather in the fall, you can trim those branches, with the fruit still attached to the vine, and bring them inside to ripen gradually. Place them in a cool, dark location and check frequently for ripened tomatoes. Some gardeners prefer to harvest all of their tomatoes in this manner, allowing them to ripen on the countertop for convenient use in the kitchen.
Aftercare
Some parts of the country that are particularly hot and/or humid will experience more afflictions with their tomatoes than others. Blight, wilt, and powdery mildew are a few problems that can be partially remedied by pruning non-fruiting branches from all but the top six inches of the plants. You will want to remove diseased plants and either trash or burn them. Do not put afflicted plants in your compost!
When a determinate plant has finished fruiting, it can be removed and replaced with a new plant if your growing season allows, or the space can be utilized for a rotational crop such as beans or peas to fix nitrogen in the soil.
Sissy’s Notes
Since tomatoes are such a popular plant I wanted to share a selection of my favorite books about tomatoes! There are few other vegetables which garner so much interest as to have entire books written about them as a singular subject.
Growing tomatoes in a cool, Northern garden can be quite challenging. I have discovered that there are varieties that fare much better than others in our discerning climate and I have narrowed my selections down quite a bit by requiring a much shorter days to maturity. This means that the total growing time before a first harvest is shorter than other varieties, and I benefit from this greatly in my limited warm season. I am also a big fan of selective pruning indeterminate plants to encourage ripening and overall production.
Using a thick mulch helps keep some heat on the roots of the plants during the cooler nights, and tenting or covering may even be required to bring fruit to maturity during especially harsh years. What I can say with certainty is that starting seedlings at the right time indoors during the winter is key to a good harvest. Eight weeks before your last frost in the spring is average for indoor sowing. Any longer and you will stunt your plants before they even go outside; and any shorter will not add much benefit to the effort of starting them beforehand. Balance is key and you should keep notes on your trials and errors to refer back to in future seasons.
Favorite Varieties: Black Cherry, Chocolate Pear, Bumblebee Series, Cherry Falls, Vintage Wine Tomato, Watermelon Beefsteak, Jaune Flamme, Black Krim, Black Seaman, Orange Roma, Opalka Paste, Striped Roman
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