Whether you like tomatoes cut, sauced, or cooked in your favorite recipe, they taste best when they are grown and harvested from your garden or container. With over 10,000 varieties available it can be difficult to select the best ones to grow in your garden.
Start by looking for the varieties best suited to the intended use whether for cutting, cooking, preserving or snacking. Most seed catalogs and websites, as well as plant tags and garden centers provide recommendations.
Bite tomatoes are ideal for salads, side dishes and snacking. Trailing varieties such as Lizzano, Tumbling Tom, Litt’l Bites Cherry, and Red Robin also grow well in hanging baskets and even window boxes.
Pasta and sauce tomatoes have fleshier fruits that make them perfect for sauces, soups and preserves. Roma is the traditional favorite with an egg-shaped fruit that has thick walls and few seeds. The All-America Selections Early Resilience Roma has excellent resistance to disease and blossom rot and does not require staking.
Use pasta tomatoes during the growing season for sauces, chop and add to an omelet, can or freeze for future use.
Grow a few sliced tomatoes to enjoy on sandwiches, grilled or on their own. Beefsteak and Better Boy are longtime favorites while Iron Lady, Galahad and the colorful Chef’s Choice series are more recent additions to this category.
Perhaps you are looking for an heirloom tomato, one that has been cultivated for more than 50 years and has maintained its original characteristics and popularity. Cherokee Purple’s rich flavor consistently ranks high in taste tests. Brandywine, Black Cherry, Chocolate Stripes, Amana Orange and Black Krim are also gardener favorites.
Coax reluctant veggie eaters of all ages to try some of the sweeter varieties, like Sunsugar, often called the sweet garden tomatoes. Consider having a taste test after growing a variety of super sweet tomatoes like Sungold, Super Sweet 100, Suncherry and Sunrise Bumble Bee.
Boost your success by selecting disease-resistant varieties and growing your tomatoes in full sun and moist, well-drained soil. Plant tags, internet sources, and catalog descriptions usually highlight this and other useful information.
Look for tomato varieties suited to your growing conditions. Check with your University Extension for a list of varieties recommended for your area. You will also find useful information about the best time to start tomato seeds indoors and when they can be transplanted into the garden.
(https://www.melindamyers.com/plants/fruits-vegetables/tomato )
Start enjoying the harvest sooner with fast ripening tomatoes. These are perfect if you have a short growing season or are just looking forward to your first fresh garden tomato. Early Girl is a long-time favorite, Bush Early Girl produces more fruit on a compact plant, and New Girl produces larger fruit and has better disease resistance.
Glacier, Alaska and Juliet are a few of the many others to consider. Check the catalog description or plant label for the number of days to harvest.
Select plants with the growth habit that works best with your garden space and garden style. Determine the tomatoes are perfect for small gardens and containers spaces. They grow to a certain height, stop growing, and produce their fruits in a relatively short time. The indeterminate tomato continues to grow throughout the season producing flowers and fruit until the tip is pruned or frost kills the plant. Stake or tower the plants to save space, reduce diseases and insect problems, and make harvesting more convenient.
Bring your family and favorite recipes together. Make a list of longtime favorites and new tomato varieties to include in this year’s garden. Be sure to save some space as you might find a few additional varieties that you can’t resist planting this year.
Notes: Melinda Myers has written more than 20 gardening books, incl Midwest Gardeners Handbook Second Edition, and Small Space Gardening. (https://www.amazon.com/Midwest-Gardeners-Handbook-2nd-maintain/dp/0785839526/ ) She hosts The Great Courses “How to grow something” instant video series and DVDs (https://www.thegreatcourses.com/search/melinda%20myers ) and Melinda’s national union Radio Garden Moment program (https://www.melindamyers.com/audio-video ) Myers is a columnist and contributing editor Birds and flowers magazine Myers’ website is www.MelindaMyers.com . Snail Mail: Melinda Myers LLC, PO Box 798, Mukwonago, WI 53149 United States
