The garden season is upon us, and we bet you have a few signature recipes that need the freshness and flavor of homegrown herbs and vegetables to make them taste just right. Tomatoes enjoy a prominent place in many of our gardens, and picking out which varieties to grow each year is an exciting part of the growing process. Whether your plans include attempting Grandma’s famous spaghetti sauce, entering a local salsa contest, or simply snacking right off the vine – we have a tomato for that. And here, we make it easy to find just the right one for your favorite recipe and your garden space.
Start With Your Recipe
The path to finding the right tomato plant to grow in your garden begins with deciding how you intend to use its fruit. In general, there are three basic ways to enjoy a tomato: sliced in sandwiches and salads, used as a base for sauces and salsas, and enjoyed as a fresh snack. Each tomato variety is a little different and lends its own unique combination of flavor, texture, and color to your eating experience.
For Sandwiches + Salads: Heirloom
If you’re looking for a rich, flavorful tomato to bring back that nostalgic taste in a perfect BLT or Caprese salad, try one of our many heirloom varieties, particularly those that produce large fruit. Simply put, heirloom tomatoes have been passed down over time – unchanged by hybridization – because of their superior, memory-making flavor or other valued characteristics. A few examples of large, heirloom tomatoes in our collection include ‘Rutgers,’ ‘Mr. Stripey,’ and ‘Brandywine.’
For Sauces + Salsas: Plum or Roma
For sauces and salsas, you’ll need a tomato with a nice, firm flesh that stands up to all the cooking and chopping that goes along with these culinary uses. Often, these varieties are relatively small and have an elongated shape a bit like a plum or pear. Examples you’ll see include ‘La Roma,’ ‘Health Kick,’ and ‘San Marzano.’
For Snacking: Grapes or Cherries
Of all the ways to eat a tomato, one of the most enjoyable is to simply pop one in your mouth – fresh off the vine and still warm from the sun. Bite-sized grape and cherry tomatoes are perfect for impromptu snacking or tossing with a lettuce salad. And with their characteristic sweetness, they’re almost like eating candy. In our collection, look for both hybrid and heirloom examples including ‘Sweet Million,’ ‘Sun Sugar,’ and ‘Gardeners’ Delight.’
Consider Your Space
Another important consideration when selecting a tomato to grow is the size of your garden space. While all tomato plants produce fruit, they do so with a couple different growth habits that make them better suited for either large or small garden spaces – even containers.
For Large Spaces: Indeterminate
If you have a big, in-ground or raised garden bed – with space for a tomato plant to grow several feet tall and wide – then you have a large and varied selection of tomato cultivars to choose from. That’s because most tomato varieties are classified as indeterminate growers, meaning the plants grow continuously, setting and ripening fruit until frost ends the growing season. Some notable hybrid and heirloom examples include ‘Big Boy,’ ‘Beefmaster,’ ‘Arkansas Traveler,’ and ‘Yellow Pear.’
For Small Spaces + Containers: Determinate
On the other hand, determinate tomato plants – sometimes called “bush” varieties – grow to a predictable, compact size and stop when fruit set begins. After that, most of the year’s fruit develops and ripens in a short period of time – a convenient schedule if canning a supply of tomatoes is your goal. And their compact, predictable size makes determinate tomatoes perfect for growing in containers on the patio – where they’re also in easy reach of the kitchen. The cultivars ‘Bushsteak,’ ‘Early Girl Bush,’ ‘Patio Picnic,’ and ‘Bush Champion’ are some popular choices in this group.
We’re Here to Help
Once you start noticing all the enticing ways to prepare and eat tomatoes, selecting the cultivars you want to grow gets even more exciting. Once you have the perfect tomato in mind, come visit us in the Greenhouse. With over fifty varieties to choose from, we’ll be glad to help you find the one that’s right for you and your garden.
