How I Select my Tomato Varieties
Accepting there is neither room nor time to grow them all is the first step. Sometimes it’s hard to move past this. I get it. This is the annual plight of a home gardener.
In 2017, we grew a modest tomato garden. To some of you, it wouldn’t even qualify as growing tomatoes…. I think we had 6-8 plants in total. One each Sun gold, Brad’s Atomic Grape, and Cherokee Purple, plus two each San Marzano and Amish Paste. It was, in hindsight, a perfect succession of tomato goodness commensurate with a time in our lives where eating tomatoes was an exception.
Fast forward to the age of being influenced by the rainbow baskets I didn’t know I needed. But wait, do I really need them? Ah, can you hear my exhale of relief as I remind myself that I don’t actually need them. I mean, we tell ourselves we need all the tomatoes, but I’ll be honest: the pounds of cherry tomatoes I dehydrated last summer are mostly still storing in containers waiting to be needed in a future tomato-based dish that needs a little extra punch of flavor.
I could have grown less tomatoes, and more of the right ones. But it always comes back to this time of year and the seeds in hand and the yearning for those bursts of flavor only summer sunshine can summon on the vine.
Flavor is my number one priority; productivity a very, very close second. So, I am growing some tomatoes again that surprised me last year, like Dragon’s Eye. It’s a subtle tomato, but it pumped them out in quick succession. It was a workhorse for us, and we are tomato sandwich enthusiasts from July - September, and this heirloom was definitely a sandwich stuffer. These are the kinds of tomatoes I am searching for, not only for one year of productivity, but for multiple seasons of consistency. So this second year is its true test: was last year an anomaly, or is it consistently productive across variable seasons? (My 2022 tomato lineup is forthcoming later this week.)
Within the flavor and productivity buckets, I try to bring in as much diversity as possible —that is, represent all the shapes and sizes and colors. I am drawn to a red tomato, to be honest, so if I grew all the tomatoes I think I’d love, I’d have a monochromatic basket. I know this because I have to actively assess the color palette of my grow list.
A few years ago I wanted a rainbow of cherry tomatoes. I achieved it with Sun Gold, Colombianum Wildform, Blue Berries, and Yellow Berries. I was sorely disappointed in the flavor of latter two, but boy did they produce prolifically and look good on glass. It was that 2019 season that really halted my enthusiasm for trying too many new varieties each year. We had a lot of tomatoes that were tasteless. like, a LOT of them.
Since that season, I am much more comfortable growing the same tomatoes year over year, in particular I have really solidified my beefsteak list and am growing many for the fourth year in a row. I’m committed to them. I limit newbies to one or two a season, mixed in for good measure.
Sometimes change is forced upon us, like how I can’t find one of my favorite plum tomato seeds (Plum Perfect) so I had to try a new variety this year. Sometimes sticking with what works is its own kind of strategy, like growing our own comfort food.
While I’ve sowed most of my tomatoes, I will sow more again in a few weeks, so if you haven’t finalized your grow list yet, fear not! There’s still time, no matter where you grow.
