Growing tomatoes from seeds at home
February 21, 2023 8:19 AM Subscribe
I'm looking for recommendations for the best tomatoes for use in:
* sandwiches (big and tasty)
* making tomato sauce (best for pasta/pizza sauce)
Store tomatoes have little flavor, so I'm going to try growing them myself this spring. I'm in Massachusetts.
Where is the best place to buy seeds online?
What are your favorite gardening resources for learning to grow tomatoes at home?
Store tomatoes have little flavor, so I'm going to try growing them myself this spring. I'm in Massachusetts.
Where is the best place to buy seeds online?
What are your favorite gardening resources for learning to grow tomatoes at home?
Oh hey, this is my jam. My... tomato jam? And it's seed starting time.
There are many common mistakes people make starting seeds for the first time. I recommend Reddit as a great place to learn, because if you peruse a subreddit like r/vegetablegardening regularly, you'll see pictures of all of these. Common issues include: not enough light, putting too many seedlings into one pot, lights too far away from the seedlings so that they're stretching, overwatering leading to mold, not moving seedlings to a larger pot once they get bigger, and once again because it shows up all the time, not enough light close enough to the plants. Your lights should be 4" away from your seedlings or less. Most sunny windowsills won't cut it for getting tomato starts all the way from seed to transplanting outside unless they're south facing and very bright.
Now, as far as what seeds to pick. It sounds like you want a slicer tomato for sandwiches and a paste tomato for sauce. You say you're in MA, but that state covers several different USDA hardiness zones. Which one are you in? What kind of outdoor space do you have for growing these tomatoes? In ground, or in pots? How many hours of sunlight will they receive? The length of your growing season and the hours of sunlight will both affect how long it takes your plants to set fruit and ripen. Different varieties of tomatoes have longer or shorter days to maturity, which you can think of as the number of days to harvest after you transplant starts into your garden. So if your last frost is May 3, and you transplant on that day, assuming your tomatoes have full sun (8+ hours of direct sunlight), you'd expect to harvest your first tomatoes from a 70 day to maturity variety around July 12.
This is my first year using MIgardener for seeds, but they've been sprouting well and the prices are right. If you come back with more info / questions, I can help guide you more on what varieties might work well. However, I also wouldn't be afraid to buy a few transplants for your first year! Or try starting seeds and if it doesn't work out perfectly, use it as a learning experience and buy an already started tomato, too!
posted by deludingmyself at 8:38 AM on February 21, 2023 [4 favorites]
There are many common mistakes people make starting seeds for the first time. I recommend Reddit as a great place to learn, because if you peruse a subreddit like r/vegetablegardening regularly, you'll see pictures of all of these. Common issues include: not enough light, putting too many seedlings into one pot, lights too far away from the seedlings so that they're stretching, overwatering leading to mold, not moving seedlings to a larger pot once they get bigger, and once again because it shows up all the time, not enough light close enough to the plants. Your lights should be 4" away from your seedlings or less. Most sunny windowsills won't cut it for getting tomato starts all the way from seed to transplanting outside unless they're south facing and very bright.
Now, as far as what seeds to pick. It sounds like you want a slicer tomato for sandwiches and a paste tomato for sauce. You say you're in MA, but that state covers several different USDA hardiness zones. Which one are you in? What kind of outdoor space do you have for growing these tomatoes? In ground, or in pots? How many hours of sunlight will they receive? The length of your growing season and the hours of sunlight will both affect how long it takes your plants to set fruit and ripen. Different varieties of tomatoes have longer or shorter days to maturity, which you can think of as the number of days to harvest after you transplant starts into your garden. So if your last frost is May 3, and you transplant on that day, assuming your tomatoes have full sun (8+ hours of direct sunlight), you'd expect to harvest your first tomatoes from a 70 day to maturity variety around July 12.
This is my first year using MIgardener for seeds, but they've been sprouting well and the prices are right. If you come back with more info / questions, I can help guide you more on what varieties might work well. However, I also wouldn't be afraid to buy a few transplants for your first year! Or try starting seeds and if it doesn't work out perfectly, use it as a learning experience and buy an already started tomato, too!
posted by deludingmyself at 8:38 AM on February 21, 2023 [4 favorites]
* pulls up chair and sits down *
So: a recommendation first if this is your very very very first time growing tomatoes - I would strongly suggest you go to a local nursery or garden store (not one that's in a Big-Box hardware store like Home Depot, but a proper one where that's all they do) and ask them for guidance. They can help you narrow things down based on what kind of food or eating you want to do, but can also make a recommendation based on what your growing conditions are (planting it in the ground vs. in a pot, how much sun you get, etc.). They may also have some young plants ready to go so you don't have to start them from seed (sometimes starting things from seed can be fussy).
Some general advice, though:
1. There are so many varieties of the various tomatoes that you will be spoiled for choice. But the two types of tomatoes you want are either "slicing" tomatoes for the sandwiches, and then for making tomato sauce, you want "paste tomatoes".
2. There are LOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADS of places to buy seeds online. You can even get the damn things from Amazon. So instead there are a couple BRANDS I will recommend instead, which are generally good (and they do have direct mail order):
* The Hudson Valley Seed Company has made a whole niche out of "selling seeds that will do well in upstate New York or similar climates", with an emphasis on "heirloom" varieties. My parents live in Cape Cod and have had success with their seeds (in fact, the arugula did so well that it's started to grow as a weed in their yard). Their tomato seed selection is so huge they have it grouped into sub-categories (slicing and paste tomatoes, plus cherry tomatoes and even tomatoes they say are best for drying).
* Botanical Interests seeds are pretty widely available, even if the tomato selection isn't quite as huge. But their web site is also pretty good about education and advice; there's even a Youtube channel called Epic Gardening that collaborates with them sometimes to offer advice and training.
3. Whatever you do, and however you grow them, invest in fertilizer - tomatoes get hungry. I slacked off on fertilizing my tomatoes last year and my three little tomato plants only gave me like three tomatoes each all year, and they were all way smaller than usual. I pointed that out to our community garden expert and he asked about fertilizer, and when I said I hadn't really been feeding them he said "well there's your problem." There are a squillion different kinds of fertilizer, but the aforementioned community garden expert uses this organic stuff called Neptune's Harvest, which is made from seaweed and fish guts or something like that. It's a little smelly, but you just put a splash of it in your watering can and do it that way, so it's diluted down, and you only use some every three or four weeks or so. So a bottle will last you a good while if you just have a small patch or just a couple containers of tomatoes.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:48 AM on February 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
So: a recommendation first if this is your very very very first time growing tomatoes - I would strongly suggest you go to a local nursery or garden store (not one that's in a Big-Box hardware store like Home Depot, but a proper one where that's all they do) and ask them for guidance. They can help you narrow things down based on what kind of food or eating you want to do, but can also make a recommendation based on what your growing conditions are (planting it in the ground vs. in a pot, how much sun you get, etc.). They may also have some young plants ready to go so you don't have to start them from seed (sometimes starting things from seed can be fussy).
Some general advice, though:
1. There are so many varieties of the various tomatoes that you will be spoiled for choice. But the two types of tomatoes you want are either "slicing" tomatoes for the sandwiches, and then for making tomato sauce, you want "paste tomatoes".
2. There are LOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADS of places to buy seeds online. You can even get the damn things from Amazon. So instead there are a couple BRANDS I will recommend instead, which are generally good (and they do have direct mail order):
* The Hudson Valley Seed Company has made a whole niche out of "selling seeds that will do well in upstate New York or similar climates", with an emphasis on "heirloom" varieties. My parents live in Cape Cod and have had success with their seeds (in fact, the arugula did so well that it's started to grow as a weed in their yard). Their tomato seed selection is so huge they have it grouped into sub-categories (slicing and paste tomatoes, plus cherry tomatoes and even tomatoes they say are best for drying).
* Botanical Interests seeds are pretty widely available, even if the tomato selection isn't quite as huge. But their web site is also pretty good about education and advice; there's even a Youtube channel called Epic Gardening that collaborates with them sometimes to offer advice and training.
3. Whatever you do, and however you grow them, invest in fertilizer - tomatoes get hungry. I slacked off on fertilizing my tomatoes last year and my three little tomato plants only gave me like three tomatoes each all year, and they were all way smaller than usual. I pointed that out to our community garden expert and he asked about fertilizer, and when I said I hadn't really been feeding them he said "well there's your problem." There are a squillion different kinds of fertilizer, but the aforementioned community garden expert uses this organic stuff called Neptune's Harvest, which is made from seaweed and fish guts or something like that. It's a little smelly, but you just put a splash of it in your watering can and do it that way, so it's diluted down, and you only use some every three or four weeks or so. So a bottle will last you a good while if you just have a small patch or just a couple containers of tomatoes.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:48 AM on February 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
Johnny's Selected Seeds.
For a slicing, eating, all-around tasty tomato, my favorite is Brandywine. I don't grow paste tomatoes. I strongly recommend cherry tomatoes; they thrive in pots, and when you go your little garden to weed & water, you pick and eat some ripe ones and it's just the best. I grew some Large Red Cherry tomatoes that were really tasty and grew well. Supersweet 100s are sweet, easy, prolific.
I don't have a good environment for starting seeds, and I love going to the Farmer's Market, where a particular farmer likes to grow a variety of seeds, many based on cool names or interesting colors, as well as classics like Early Girl and Brandywine, and her prices are quite low, so I buy seedlings from her. I will also stop for any roadside table with some tomato plants, and end up having to scrounge for pots and space.
There are lots of web pages devoted to tomatoes, and your local Cooperative Extension Office is an excellent resource. I find this site's planting charts useful. Use a calendar, put dates for fertilizing in it. I save and crush egg shells to add calcium to my garden, and I add home compost, a swell as good bagged compost. I have been known to pick up leaves bagged in paper as winter cover for the garden; they'll compost over winter.
posted by theora55 at 9:43 AM on February 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
For a slicing, eating, all-around tasty tomato, my favorite is Brandywine. I don't grow paste tomatoes. I strongly recommend cherry tomatoes; they thrive in pots, and when you go your little garden to weed & water, you pick and eat some ripe ones and it's just the best. I grew some Large Red Cherry tomatoes that were really tasty and grew well. Supersweet 100s are sweet, easy, prolific.
I don't have a good environment for starting seeds, and I love going to the Farmer's Market, where a particular farmer likes to grow a variety of seeds, many based on cool names or interesting colors, as well as classics like Early Girl and Brandywine, and her prices are quite low, so I buy seedlings from her. I will also stop for any roadside table with some tomato plants, and end up having to scrounge for pots and space.
There are lots of web pages devoted to tomatoes, and your local Cooperative Extension Office is an excellent resource. I find this site's planting charts useful. Use a calendar, put dates for fertilizing in it. I save and crush egg shells to add calcium to my garden, and I add home compost, a swell as good bagged compost. I have been known to pick up leaves bagged in paper as winter cover for the garden; they'll compost over winter.
posted by theora55 at 9:43 AM on February 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
I will simply note that the larger a tomato is, the more likely a squirrel is to come along and take one single bite out of it.
Take care to protect your crop if they are active in your area.
posted by bug138 at 10:00 AM on February 21, 2023 [5 favorites]
Take care to protect your crop if they are active in your area.
posted by bug138 at 10:00 AM on February 21, 2023 [5 favorites]
Assuming you are planting 10 plants or less, I recommend buying seedlings rather than seeds so that you have a good variety. This strategy isn't just to try different varieties, it also allows for a mix of early and late bloomers so that they don't all ripen at once. It also hedges against seasonal variations, since the different plants all have different strengths.
Farmers markets and plant shops are likely to have good seasonal sales in spring with heirloom varieties. Not sure if it's near you, but Berkshire Botanical Garden puts on a good one.
posted by veery at 10:42 AM on February 21, 2023 [4 favorites]
Farmers markets and plant shops are likely to have good seasonal sales in spring with heirloom varieties. Not sure if it's near you, but Berkshire Botanical Garden puts on a good one.
posted by veery at 10:42 AM on February 21, 2023 [4 favorites]
Seconding if you don't have any experience gardening then I would start with buying tomato plants to take out one level of frustration and potential failure.
Also from previous experience with paste tomatoes, make sure you're giving calcium. One year we lost basically all of them to blossom end rot and didn't know what to address.
posted by brilliantine at 10:46 AM on February 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
Also from previous experience with paste tomatoes, make sure you're giving calcium. One year we lost basically all of them to blossom end rot and didn't know what to address.
posted by brilliantine at 10:46 AM on February 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
I got some non-standard tomato seeds from urban farmer last year. I wasn't too pleased with their germination rate, but the tomatoes came out tasty. I love cherry tomatoes and sunsugar is the best there is!
May I suggest a rephrasing though - the tomatoes you buy in the store taste like nothing not because of the variety, but because of the picking / storage conditions. A Rutgers or Big Boy tomato (these are varieties sold as "tomato" in supermarkets I believe) grown in your back yard and picked at peak ripeness in full sun will taste amazing and, I would argue, better, than many "heirloom" varieties. Burpee has great seeds for these with fantastic germination rates.
I'm USDA zone 4 and put the seeds in on Tax Day to be ready for replanting into the soil in early June.
on preview: seconding blossom-end rot issues - sprinkling some sweet lime helped enormously.
posted by Dotty at 10:49 AM on February 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
May I suggest a rephrasing though - the tomatoes you buy in the store taste like nothing not because of the variety, but because of the picking / storage conditions. A Rutgers or Big Boy tomato (these are varieties sold as "tomato" in supermarkets I believe) grown in your back yard and picked at peak ripeness in full sun will taste amazing and, I would argue, better, than many "heirloom" varieties. Burpee has great seeds for these with fantastic germination rates.
I'm USDA zone 4 and put the seeds in on Tax Day to be ready for replanting into the soil in early June.
on preview: seconding blossom-end rot issues - sprinkling some sweet lime helped enormously.
posted by Dotty at 10:49 AM on February 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
I don't have a lot of specific information, but I will tell you that for a small donation, the Univ of Florida will send you experimental seeds of assorted varieties. You can submit data on your progress. I had some sent to my father a few years ago and he enjoyed the results.
posted by mmascolino at 12:21 PM on February 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by mmascolino at 12:21 PM on February 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
Nthing going with seedlings instead of seeds. It's really so much easier and unless you're planning to plant hundreds, it's not even much more expensive. Buy your seedlings from a local place after the last frost - Mother's Day is a good rule of thumb in many places - and try several varieties. Plant them deep, cover up the first set of leaves. They need full sun, which is to say a minimum of 6 hours - and they'd really like more - of direct sunlight every day. Water the roots, not the leaves and I find it's easiest to go ahead and put the tomato cage around them as soon as they're planted. Enjoy!
posted by mygothlaundry at 12:43 PM on February 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by mygothlaundry at 12:43 PM on February 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
Growing really large tomatoes is an entirely different process than growing smaller ones. I recommend the combo of talking to/shopping from your Local Garden Center and finding a tomato-specific local gardening youtuber who will give you a better idea of what the lifecycle is going to look like in your climate.
posted by Lyn Never at 1:42 PM on February 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Lyn Never at 1:42 PM on February 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
I work in a fancy-pants gardening center. I'd like to make some suggestions so that you actually have edible, ripe tomatoes by mid-late July through September.
Start with seedlings, not seeds. Tomatoes need to be started early in a warm spot well before the weather in Massachusetts is warm enough. This is difficult for a beginner. Please take my word for it. Go to a good garden center in mid to late May and buy established plants that are already 6 inches tall or more. Put them in the ground outside around Memorial Day as a rule of thumb. If it looks like a week or 2 before then the weather will not get below 50F, maybe then.
Get yourself some early-ripening varieties (one is called Early Girl, there are others). If you go to a decent garden center—NOT Home Depot or the like—they can help you pick out early ripening varieties. Also—go for disease resistant varieties. Ask about this at the store.
It's trendy (in an admirable way) to want to grow so-called Heirloom varieties. Don't do this when starting. Though it's possible to get good tomatoes this way, many of these are not super hardy and may succumb to common pests and diseases that are in the soil. This is "hard mode." If you insist on doing this, try one or two plants and mix them in with the disease-resistant, early-ripeners.
By the way, disease-resistant and early ripening varieties does not mean genetically altered though scary chemical futuristic Michael Crichton processes! They are bred this way through selection, the way we get almost all of our fruits and vegetables. The way we get German Shepherds versus Chihuhuas. Selective breeding which has been going on for thousands of years.
Choose a warm area with lots of sun... 7+ hours of sun per day. Remember, what's sunny in early spring is not necessarily where it's sunny during mid-Summer.
These things alone will make it pretty damn sure you will be successful your first time.
Tomatoes are tropical plants. Massachusetts is far enough north that a not-great summer could very well mean that unless you have some early-ripening varieties, you won't have red tomatoes until mid-September. By then the days are getting shorter. I see SO MANY people with tons of green tomatoes on their plants in September, and the season and photo period just isn't long enough that late in the year for those to get ripe.
Another tip: if you really, really want tomatoes, opt for a couple small, cherry sized varieties. I know your question doesn't ask for those specifically, but in my experience (and in the experience of many people I know who grow tomatoes) cherry tomatoes are nearly fool-proof. At least you will have some delicious tasting fruit to enjoy if your big ones don't do so well.
Gardening and growing tomatoes is a hobby and it takes experimentation and trial and error to figure it out. Every yard is different. There's even micro-climates within each yard. Of course, read some books about it and Google some general info, but that's my input. Good luck and mostly: have fun.
posted by SoberHighland at 2:10 PM on February 21, 2023 [7 favorites]
Start with seedlings, not seeds. Tomatoes need to be started early in a warm spot well before the weather in Massachusetts is warm enough. This is difficult for a beginner. Please take my word for it. Go to a good garden center in mid to late May and buy established plants that are already 6 inches tall or more. Put them in the ground outside around Memorial Day as a rule of thumb. If it looks like a week or 2 before then the weather will not get below 50F, maybe then.
Get yourself some early-ripening varieties (one is called Early Girl, there are others). If you go to a decent garden center—NOT Home Depot or the like—they can help you pick out early ripening varieties. Also—go for disease resistant varieties. Ask about this at the store.
It's trendy (in an admirable way) to want to grow so-called Heirloom varieties. Don't do this when starting. Though it's possible to get good tomatoes this way, many of these are not super hardy and may succumb to common pests and diseases that are in the soil. This is "hard mode." If you insist on doing this, try one or two plants and mix them in with the disease-resistant, early-ripeners.
By the way, disease-resistant and early ripening varieties does not mean genetically altered though scary chemical futuristic Michael Crichton processes! They are bred this way through selection, the way we get almost all of our fruits and vegetables. The way we get German Shepherds versus Chihuhuas. Selective breeding which has been going on for thousands of years.
Choose a warm area with lots of sun... 7+ hours of sun per day. Remember, what's sunny in early spring is not necessarily where it's sunny during mid-Summer.
These things alone will make it pretty damn sure you will be successful your first time.
Tomatoes are tropical plants. Massachusetts is far enough north that a not-great summer could very well mean that unless you have some early-ripening varieties, you won't have red tomatoes until mid-September. By then the days are getting shorter. I see SO MANY people with tons of green tomatoes on their plants in September, and the season and photo period just isn't long enough that late in the year for those to get ripe.
Another tip: if you really, really want tomatoes, opt for a couple small, cherry sized varieties. I know your question doesn't ask for those specifically, but in my experience (and in the experience of many people I know who grow tomatoes) cherry tomatoes are nearly fool-proof. At least you will have some delicious tasting fruit to enjoy if your big ones don't do so well.
Gardening and growing tomatoes is a hobby and it takes experimentation and trial and error to figure it out. Every yard is different. There's even micro-climates within each yard. Of course, read some books about it and Google some general info, but that's my input. Good luck and mostly: have fun.
posted by SoberHighland at 2:10 PM on February 21, 2023 [7 favorites]
Oh yeah, if you're in New England, please see Gary Pilarchuk for all things tomato.
posted by Lyn Never at 2:19 PM on February 21, 2023
posted by Lyn Never at 2:19 PM on February 21, 2023
In my experience almost any home-grown tomato that has at least partially ripened on the vine will taste better than a supermarket tomato by a big margin, so don't worry too much about the best flavoured varieties. Some are better than others, it's true, but as long as you heed the advice above about selecting for your area and good care, you'll be getting better flavour no matter what.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 3:36 PM on February 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 3:36 PM on February 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
Yep, any home-grown tomato will be delicious. One place with a lot of seed choices is Tomato Growers Supply. Buying started plants will be easier than starting them yourself from seed. But don't assume that all the seedlings for sale in your area are actually well-suited to your area. Look up info on the varieties online before buying. Get several different varieties because some may do better than others in your particular conditions but you can't really know until you try them which will work out the best.
Starting tomato seeds yourself is not all that challenging, as long as you can give them enough light. You'll almost certainly need to get a grow light. I grow my tomato plants by a large south-facing window with a skylight overhead and it's barely adequate. They still end up kind of leggy. There aren't many spots in most houses that get even that much light. You'll have to figure out a setup where you can raise the light or lower the plants as they grow, so the light is always close to the plants. If that doesn't sound like too much hassle, I'd suggest starting some from seed but also planning to buy a few started plants just to increase your chances of success.
One of the choices you'll need to make is between open-pollinated (often called heirloom) varieties and hybrid varieties. With open-pollinated varieties, you can save seeds from the tomatoes you harvest and plant them next year. Hybrid plants can only be produced by crossing two plants of different varieties. If you save the seeds of a hybrid, you won't get the same type of plant. It's not practical for home gardeners to produce their own hybrid seeds; you have to buy them from a big seed company. The most perfect-looking and disease resistant tomatoes tend to be hybrids. The tomatoes most likely to be considered really delicious tend to be heirlooms. But you shouldn't assume all heirlooms will taste better than all hybrids. Every tomato you grow yourself will taste great. A lot of people like the idea of varieties people can grow themselves year after year and share with other gardeners (vs. hybrids that everyone has to pay a seed company for every year.) That, rather than better taste, is really the big advantage of heirlooms.
I agree with the suggestion to plant at least one cherry tomato. They do seem particularly likely to succeed. Matt's Wild Cherry is an open-pollinated variety that is very disease resistant and has tiny tomatoes with a kind of unique taste that I like. Sun Gold is a hybrid cherry tomato that is really delicious.
Check the days to maturity of every variety you're considering. For your first year, I wouldn't grow anything with more than 80 days to maturity. There's just too much chance that they'll succumb to some disease before you get much of a harvest. I'd get at least one or two varieties with less than 70 days to maturity. (Ten or 15 days difference in time to maturity doesn't sound like much, but the real difference in when they start ripening can be a lot more than that. Use the numbers for a rough comparison between varieties, not as definite predictions.)
posted by Redstart at 10:04 PM on February 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
Starting tomato seeds yourself is not all that challenging, as long as you can give them enough light. You'll almost certainly need to get a grow light. I grow my tomato plants by a large south-facing window with a skylight overhead and it's barely adequate. They still end up kind of leggy. There aren't many spots in most houses that get even that much light. You'll have to figure out a setup where you can raise the light or lower the plants as they grow, so the light is always close to the plants. If that doesn't sound like too much hassle, I'd suggest starting some from seed but also planning to buy a few started plants just to increase your chances of success.
One of the choices you'll need to make is between open-pollinated (often called heirloom) varieties and hybrid varieties. With open-pollinated varieties, you can save seeds from the tomatoes you harvest and plant them next year. Hybrid plants can only be produced by crossing two plants of different varieties. If you save the seeds of a hybrid, you won't get the same type of plant. It's not practical for home gardeners to produce their own hybrid seeds; you have to buy them from a big seed company. The most perfect-looking and disease resistant tomatoes tend to be hybrids. The tomatoes most likely to be considered really delicious tend to be heirlooms. But you shouldn't assume all heirlooms will taste better than all hybrids. Every tomato you grow yourself will taste great. A lot of people like the idea of varieties people can grow themselves year after year and share with other gardeners (vs. hybrids that everyone has to pay a seed company for every year.) That, rather than better taste, is really the big advantage of heirlooms.
I agree with the suggestion to plant at least one cherry tomato. They do seem particularly likely to succeed. Matt's Wild Cherry is an open-pollinated variety that is very disease resistant and has tiny tomatoes with a kind of unique taste that I like. Sun Gold is a hybrid cherry tomato that is really delicious.
Check the days to maturity of every variety you're considering. For your first year, I wouldn't grow anything with more than 80 days to maturity. There's just too much chance that they'll succumb to some disease before you get much of a harvest. I'd get at least one or two varieties with less than 70 days to maturity. (Ten or 15 days difference in time to maturity doesn't sound like much, but the real difference in when they start ripening can be a lot more than that. Use the numbers for a rough comparison between varieties, not as definite predictions.)
posted by Redstart at 10:04 PM on February 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
The Fedco Seeds Catalog has wonderful descriptions that you may find helpful to determine the varieties you want.
posted by JanetLand at 6:50 AM on February 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by JanetLand at 6:50 AM on February 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
In North Carolina, my favorite sandwich tomato is Black Krim. I don’t have a clue whether it likes Massachusetts or not.
posted by musicinmybrain at 8:21 AM on February 22, 2023
posted by musicinmybrain at 8:21 AM on February 22, 2023
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For tomato sauce, you'll want paste tomatoes, that are typically a determinate type, meaning they fruit all at once so you have a big crop for canning. The most common example of this type is a Roma, folks at the garden center will likely be happy to tell you about their favorites in your area.
For sandwiches, you want slicing tomatoes, and maybe an heirloom variety. These are typically indeterminate, which means they fruit over a longer period. These will also make perfectly acceptable sauce if you're not planning on canning / making large quantities. Tastes in tomatoes for fresh eating vary a lot, I'm partial to Brandywine-type (big purple-ish lumpy heirlooms) and also pink Japanese varieties (usually more consistently round). Wanting a big red, round beefsteak is fine, too. Again, ask people at the garden center / people you know in your area who garden, they'll have recs.
If you have access to farmer's markets or farmstands, these are great places to try out some different tomato varieties.
posted by momus_window at 8:36 AM on February 21, 2023 [3 favorites]