Every year I grow the same varieties that I have grown in previous years. Either they have become a customer’s favorite, or I just plain like them. I know it is overwhelming when you come to our house and are faced with 387 varieties (this year), and that is just the tomatoes!. It does not include the peppers, herbs, flowers or veggies. My goal is to introduce you to different varieties . . . of well, everything! Life is too short to eat store tomatoes. The old adage,”If it ain’t red, it ain’t a tomatah” keeps a lot of my customers from experiencing the broad range of colors and tastes. A lot of my plants have stories of their own.

I can almost guarantee that I have more tomato varieties for sale than anyone in the world. Granted, some of them are in limited quantities, seeds being somewhat scarce. Every year in the fall, I am so done with gardening. I think about having the garden paved over into a parking lot. Then, I start getting, THE CATALOGS. Yup. All my resolutions go out the door. Thoughts of Super Sweet 100’s, Romas and Early Girls are suddenly forgotten, as I thumb through the colorful pages of exotic looking tomatoes. Blue, green, striped, even white. Its a rainbow of colors. I consider myself the United Nations of tomatoes with varieties coming from all over the world. Russia, Ukraine, Italy, France, Mexico, Poland, Australia even Switzerland to name a few.

For the next several weeks, I am going to show you what you have been missing. Let the adventure begin!

But first, I should explain some basic things to you. I place my tomatoes into categories based on common uses, shapes, and maturity dates: Paste, Main Season, Patio, Cherry, Early, Heirloom, Oxheart, Dwarf, and Unusual.

Paste tomatoes are a type of tomato that have dense, meaty flesh, less juice, few seeds, and are usually cylindrical or pear-shaped. They can be snub-nosed like a Roma or San Marzano or large, long shape with a pointy tip such as the Polish Linguisa. They are what everyone thinks of when they think about tomato or spaghetti sauce.

Main-season tomatoes are classified (by me) as varieties that usually ripen 70 – 84 days. They also come in different colors, although most of the ones I know are red, medium-sized, and smooth-skinned. Big Boy, Better Boy, and Goliath come to mind.

Patio/Container friendly plants are good for large or medium-sized containers. Smaller in stature, they include the bush varieties i.e. Bush Goliath, Better Bush, Bush Beefsteak, Bush Early Girl, Bush Campion II, , Bush Blue Ribbon, and Patio. The bush tomatoes can range from cherry sized to beefsteak sized. Not to be confused with the dwarf tomatoes, which I will explain further down. Most are shorter season and do well on a patio or patio table.

Cherry tomatoes No one needs an introduction to a cherry tomato. It usually grows on long vines that need staking. Smaller-vined ones are available, such as Sweet Valentine, Tumbler, Tumbling Tom Red and Yellow, and Tiny Tim. These are some that come to mind. All the colors of its larger brethren, some sweeter than others. Sweet Aperitif is my husand’s new favorite, small, red, and sweet.. Sungold is the sweetest cherry tomato I’ve ever had and is a favorite of most everybody. You have not lived until you picked a sun-warmed Sungold off the vine in the garden. (You can plant any tomato in a large container but it will be constricted by the size of the container.)

Early tomatoes are just that: early, at 55-69 days. We also have some that are extra early, ripening 54 days or less. Early Girl, Subartic Plenty, Stupice, New Girl, and Moskvich are some early varieties. They are also mostly red and smaller sized. Taxi is the only heirloom that I know of that is early and produces beautiful, sweet, yellow fruit.

Heirloom tomatoes are what I started with in the beginning of my journey. Their descriptions made them sound really yummy and I was tired of the standard, staid tomatoes I bought fro the store. Whether you call them “Heritage” or “Heirloom,” these are still the varieties you will want to grow for taste. Heirlooms come from seed that has been handed down for generations in a particular region or area, and hand-selected by gardeners for their taste or specific growing characteristics. Heirloom tomatoes are open-pollinated, which means they’re non-hybrid and pollinated by insects or wind without human intervention. How experts define heirlooms can vary, but typically they are at least 50 years old, and often are pre-WWII varieties. All heirlooms are open-pollinated but not all open-pollinated are heirlooms. Most of them have stories. Mortgage Lifter paid off a man’s house in the depression years. Amana Orange takes its name from Amana, Iowa, Paul Robeson was named after an operatic singer in Russia. 

Oxheart tomatoes are very meaty, have less juice and fewer seeds, not unlike a paste tomato. The plants usually have wispy foliage, not unlike paste tomatoes.  There are exceptions to the rule. They can grow very large. Cuor di Bue is big, pink, and delicious. Colors range from deep, red, dark, pink to bicolors. My particular favorite is the Orange Russian. Steve loves German Red Strawberry and Kosovo.Those are huge! These work well for canning and preserving. As better, if NOT better, because they are usually larger than paste tomatoes and it takes fewer tomatoes to process in a jar.

Dwarf tomatoes They are perfect for a small space gardener who wants a slicer instead of the smaller tomatoes that are usually produced by most determinate tomatoes.This class of tomatoes exhibits characteristics of both determinate and indeterminate types. Historically called “tree-type,” they are now commonly referred to as” dwarfs”. Tree-type tomato plants have very thick main stems with minimal branching. Their foliage can be either regular or potato leaf but in either case, are rugose (e.g. dark green in color and crinkly in texture). Due to their slow growth rate, they appear from a distance to be determinate achieving three to four feet in height. However, like indeterminate, they continue to set fruit throughout the growing season. Compact and everbearing, what a great combination! They come in many color, shapes and sizes.

Unusual tomatoes are some of my favorites. They have been placed in this category because some of their characteristics defy any other definition. These tomatoes can be large or small, multi-colored, striped, oddly shaped, sweet or not so sweet. I had to put them somewhere! Green Zebra is a a more tart tomato, this one is for you. This year I am bringing back varieties from the Indigo family, Indigo Cherry Drop, Indigo Apple, and Indigo Blueberries. They have more anthocyanins in them. (Think blueberries). 

Another thing you should understand are the growth characteristics. There are two basic growth habits:
Indeterminate – means that the vines will keep growing for the entire time it is alive. there are instances in the south where I’ve heard of a 20 foot vine. They keep producing the entire summer, just not as extravagantly as the determinate varieties.
Determinate – These plants grow shorter vines and stop at a pre-determined height. That varies from 2 to 4 feet. Romas, San Marzanos are determinates. They produce a large flush of tomatoes that ripen over a period of about two weeks and then they are done for the year. There are exceptions to the rule however, some, like Taxi will produce, take a rest and then produce more. These are good when you are putting up your harvests. Glacier is another early, determinate that produces for longer periods of time. Semi-Determinate and Dwarfs (see the entry about Dwarfs up above) are a couple of other types. (I have to be honest, not sure what a semi-determinate defines as.)

Wow, that is a lot of information. The next post will start showcasing tomatoes. Below is another tidbit I want to share.

I changed actual days to a seasonal range for our area of Eastern Washington. If you aren’t familiar with your climate, contact your local extension agency. Our weather is so unpredictable here, the days to maturity are from transplanting into the garden. On a seed packet it may say “72 days.” That means you should start seeing ripe tomatoes around 72 days from when you put the plant into your container or bed. It is not from the time when your seed has germinated. There are a lot variables that affect your plants. Weather, condition/health of your soil or planting medium, variety, microclimates, amount of sun, even the area of the country you live in, etc.
Very Early – 54 days or less.
Early – 55-69 days
Mid-season – 70-84 days (most of them are mid-season)
Late Season – 85 or more days (late yes, but worth the real estate)