WHAT TOMATOES SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TO GROW?
I gave tomatoes away on a table outside my garden fence one year because they were multiplying in my greenhouse faster than I could eat them. I was very pleased how quickly they disappeared from the table outside and I thought it was because the fruit was so evenly red, the individual fruits so uniform and the whole works so beautifully blemish free. Until a ” tomato recipient” called over my fence one day. “Are you the lady who has been giving away tomatoes?”
I said, Yes, I was the one giving away tomatoes. The man immediately continued “They were the worst tomatoes I have ever tasted!“
If you are a tomato grower you probably have a favourite kind you choose and grow. End of story. But ‘Hamlet’ was a new variety for me that fateful year and I was still so absorbed with trying to find the best and biggest hybrid to show off, I didn’t even register how bad they tasted.
And so now, humbled a bit by my beautiful but tasteless Hamlet tomatoes, I once again evaluate my new crop. Now is the time to evaluate because as summer winds down, tomato tasting is winding up. Your timing is perfect! Everyone is harvesting tomatoes now so you can go on a neighbourhood taste test to choose your new favourite tomatoes or confirm that what you are growing is best overall.
My friend David (now passed) loved Big Beef and only Big Beef tomatoes, partly because they ripened early and partly because they are big enough for sandwiches. No mention was ever made of taste (although I have heard from other gardeners since writing this that they are still loved by some.)
This gardener gives Big Beef a thumbs down for flavour compared to newer varieties on the market. In fact, I think they taste a bit like Hamlets. But my best advice is not to take my advice. The field of possibilities is endless and ever changing among tomatoes and there is always going to be something better to match the flavour profile you enjoy in salads, or sandwiches or sauces.
This blog post is hopeful you are still open to trying something new and haven’t already eliminated most of the world’s tomatoes. I want to encourage a fresh start.
And of course I am not alone in this household. Helpful husband, looking at our early harvests of cherry tomatoes, asks “Where are the big tomatoes?” So while I do grow mainly cherry tomatoes, I also add a few larger ones each year for the Helpful one.
If you are choosing new tomatoes now for next year, cherry tomatoes like the new introduction Mochi has a penetrating tastiness. This is the number 1 palate pleaser among friends and family this year but it is a hybrid so I will have to buy seed if I want to grow it again in 2025.
GARDENING IN CALGARY IS A CHALLENGE FOR CHOOSING NEW TOMATO VARIETIES
I have written about tomatoes before (See HERE) but this is my first full summer back in Calgary, Alberta, a city where we got perilously close to frost on June 20 this year (2024), and then got roaring heat in July with no rain and a city-wide ban on watering! Finally, last week, we had hail so big it busted the roof of the International airport and damaged airplanes sitting on the tarmac! (luckily the recent hail skirted our garden so my plants, greenhouse and garden survived where siding and airplanes did not.)
If you are choosing new tomatoes I want to repeat: there are so many new kinds of tomatoes to choose, and even in a harsh climate options abound when choosing what to grow, especially if you have a greenhouse.
This blog post is an overview of some of the new and old varieties I am growing this year. I do love to choose tomatoes that are stabilized old or modern Heritage (aka Heirloom) types because stable tomatoes make seed I can save myself every year – eliminating shopping anew.
I also have zero tolerance for big bulky tomatoes that are tasteless or disease prone (such as Aussie or Hamlet) so don’t look for those large watery types in my garden or on this short list. Instead look for flavourful, yummy, easy to grow tomatoes with something unique about them. Maybe you can choose tomatoes next year that are even better than the ones you are growing right now.
CHOOSING OLD VARIETIES OF TOMATOES
Ananas noir is not a new variety, nor is it new to me, but my friend Lori wanted to try it this year and Helpful husband approved since it is a larger tomato. If you are choosing new tomatoes this year to grow in 2025, you should know this one comes true from seed so it is easy to save a few seeds from your first ripe tomato for growing again. It does, however, suffer from cat-facing and general cracking of the fruit as well as a thick, heavy core, which has to be removed before eating, so it is not one of my favourites. SEE VIDEO HERE.
Large Tomatoes
Ananas noir has been suggested by more than one friend over the years, probably because it looks so great on a plate when they are sliced. I grew it again this year only because Lori ordered the seed and shared it with me.
I had previously grown it in my Pacific Twinwall Qualicum Beach Greenhouse and I didn’t want it again because the cracked fruit have a short shelf life and there is really no sense choosing tomatoes just for their good looks when sliced on a plate. Also, I prefer the earlier producing cherry tomatoes because I find them so versatile in cooking (yummy shish kabobs) and so easy to eat on the run. If I can’t finish them all, cherry tomatoes are easy to toss in a freezer bag and add to soups later in the year.
The large variety of tomatoes I grew in Qualicum Beach in 2021 included Ananas noir (labelled) but the large core and cracking discouraged me from growing this tasty tomato again when choosing tomatoes to grow going forward.
The beautiful colour of a sliced Ananas noir doesn’t make up for the large dry core (removed in this photo) or cracking of fruit. Also, these are picked while still mostly green and I always forget and leave them too long on the vine.
Plum-Style Tomatoes
I am growing Audrey’s Love tomato again this year because it is an early (late July), fleshy and pretty plum tomato with striped fruit. It is also one of the dwarf tomato project introductions so the plants do not need staking and will reach only about a metre tall in my greenhouse. I use Audrey’s Love mainly for cooking so it doesn’t really matter what the flavour is, but for the record it is good.
Ripe Audrey’s Love dwarf tomatoes are so pretty on a plate and are good in so many ways. If you are choosing new tomatoes remember these also produce a lot of fruit on each plant. Read more about the Dwarf tomato project plants are.
Audrey’s Love, in my greenhouse were unripe until mid-August. Here they are grown in my Sproutbox in my new CAPE COD GREENHOUSE . If you want a 10% discount to try these cool planters in your garden USE MY COUPON CODE: DonnaB10 to get your discount at SPROUTBOX.
Is there any doubt why I choose to grow Audrey’s Love tomatoes? Striped PLUM-SHAPED fruit heavily packed on the vine is the norm and they are beautiful even when green.
Another plum tomato from saved seed, is Almandine , another short plum tomato I choose to grow for tomato sauce. Note: it is listed as a pink tomato so will not have the bright rich red colour normally desired for sauces but I find it is more burgundy than pink.
Almandine tomatoes are still sizing up in my greenhouse on the third week of August but when they are ready there will be plenty of really large plum-shaped fruit for tomato sauce and the freezer.
Cherry Tomatoes I CHOOSE TO GROW
I realized one year that sometimes I like quantity over anything else so I went back to growing Sweet 100 tomatoes. These 1″ wide tomatoes literally line their flowering stems with 40-100 tomatoes and they are ready to pick gradually from the top to the bottom of the flower stem. I was growing too many experimental types when I went back to these because now, upon reflection, they really are not that sweet so I should probably skip them in the future. They do grow super tall, though, so are perfectly suited to my greenhouse where they follow a string from ground to roof, growing ever taller until I finally cut back the tops in late August to ensure the flowers have time to ripen fruit in my short climate without extra heat.
Will I choose to grow these tomates again next year? Not sure. I have become so addicted to the Dwarf Tomato project and want to dig deeper into that rich group of plants even if they don’t get as tall.
I choose to grow a variety of cherry tomatoes and so far have used the heavy producing and very tall Sweet 100 red cherry tomatoes every year because it doesn’t split and produces hundreds of tomatoes on a very tall stem. In this photo most of the red cherries are Sweet 100 but you can also see the new to me yellow Esterina, brownish Sunchocola, and the small but so much more delicious than anything else Mochi red cherry tomatoes at top.
NEW (TO ME) VARIETIES I CHOOSE TO GROW
Dwarf Cherry Tomato: BING
I recently fell in love with Dwarf Tomatoes and Micro Dwarf tomatoes from the Dwarf Tomato Project because staking isn’t possible in every situation and I want to make sure I keep trying easily grown types of tomatoes. In the newer category of Micro-Dwarf tomatoes I tried BING this year but it is not one of the open-sourced Dwarf plants- it is a hybrid from a big breeder. Bing is listed as a 20 – 60 cm (18 – 24″) tall hybrid plant with red cherry tomatoes. Mine grew to 45 cm before it flopped sideways. This may have been the squirrels digging daily in the pot until I covered the soil with rocks like my neighbour suggested (Thanks Marie!) Bing is a heavy producer and fruit have been ripening since early August so that is something to keep in mind if you are choosing a dwarf cherry tomato plant for 2025.
Bing is a new dwarf tomato for me and it looked beautiful in this red pot on my front stair until it flopped over. (Wind? Squirrels?) I picked twenty five ripe tomatoes from this plant August 15 and over 100 since then. ON THIS ONE PLANT. If you are choosing a dwarf tomato with an okay flavour then this is the one for you. By the way, my neighbour, growing the same plant but on her north facing step, has not harvested even a single tomato as of August 26. Because tomatoes love heat so prefer to grow in a south facing situation.
Will I grow BING again? It is a cute plant with super heavy yields but is it better than the other “free seed” dwarfs I grew before? Modern Heirlooms like Rosie Finch, Bonsai, Moment, Home or Jip & Janneke were the first micro-dwarf plants I grew and they seem about the same in flavour actually even if they are not producing quite as many fruit. Bing are hybrids so I expect more from them and I am certain they will not come true from seed. I think I will stick with the Modern Heirlooms (But I’ll save a few seed from Bing just in case)
In positive news Bing fruit are not cracked or split even when they are left on the plant after they are ripe. And my other micro-dwarf plants also tipped over as they matured so maybe I need to plant them deeper or in fact support them a bit to keep them upright even though they are small plants. Bing tomatoes did hold up nicely on our chicken skewers last night so that is something.
Taller Red Cherry Tomato: Mochi
My new absolutely favourite tomato is not one I chose for myself. In fact I did not even notice it in the catalogues this spring. Mochi was discovered by my friend and fellow horticulturist Patty Bretin, who ordered seed from Johnny’s selected seeds this winter where it is an exclusive offering. MOCHI has red cherry fruit (see first photo at top) and is so sweet and unique that everyone who tastes it remarks on its flavour and texture. It is simply outstanding with intensely sweet and tomato-flavoured fruit. So yummy. It doesn’t matter what friends and families taste after they have experienced this fruit. They simply want more of this and less of everything else.
When choosing to grow a new tomato you probably think you have to start it from seed. I am glad my friend Patty shared this super easy propagation technique for tomatoes because if your friends choose the wrong tomatoes and you want to make one for them in a hurry, take a cutting or slip of a side shoot and root it in water. In a week or two it will be ready to pot up or plunk directly into your greenhouse soil. So simple.
Yellow, Black and Other Cherry Tomatoes I Choose to Grow
Sakura Red Cherry Tomato
My new back yard neighbour told me he is growing the sweetest, best and most popular cherry tomato known in Canada, brought from his home province of Quebec. He rooted a cutting (easy to do in a glass of water – see above) and gave me a small piece of his favourite: Sakura.
In recent taste tests with friends and family I admit it is red, and it is a cherry, but it is not overly sweet. Or at least not sweet compared to my new favourite Mochi. It is about the same as Sweet 100 and it is also a hybrid, so unless you get a cutting from a friend you will have to buy seeds every year. No saving seeds with this one.
Another hybrid tall, red, cherry tomato reported to be very flavourful is one you might choose to grow next year is Sakura.
Esterina Yellow Cherry Tomato
I love a change of colour when I grow tomatoes so this year I tried a brand new yellow tomato. Vigorous is the middle name of this tomato as it has grown 10′ tall (supported by a string in my greenhouse.) Flavour? Not so much. But no irritating cracking or other problems. Fast growth? Yes. Flavour? Not so much. When choosing to grow tomatoes it is not all about flavour but that does count for something.
Sunchocola Cherry Tomato
Like yellow tomatoes, I love a bit of dark colour in my greenhouse tomatoes and when I lost a local fair prize because the Black Cherry tomato won I was convinced I need to get into the game! So this year I chose to grow sunchocola, without studying this carefully enough. The listing doesn’t even say it is black, I just inferred that from the name (sounds like chocolate right?) and photo on the packet! Next year it is back to black cherry again…. (photos in the group pic above)
Choosing New Tomatoes Every Year
When I look at the tomatoes I have chosen to grow every year, it is a journals worth of joy:Juliet, Tasmanian Chocolate, Purple bumblebee, Hamlet, Japanese black Trifele, Sungold, New Girl, Damsel, Granadero, Matt Giant, Bigdena, Toronjina, Edox, Red Robin, Tiny tim, Mountain Magic, Sun Sugar, Chocolate sprinkles, Striped chocolate,Aussie, Chocolate stripe, Jasper, Moskowich, Vlementine, Clare, Arbason, Walter’s fancy,Indian stripe, Teensy chocolate, Dwarf speckled heart, Siderno, Candyland, Polaris, Karma purple,True colours, Karma miracle, Karma peach, Tundra, House, Mila, Sunrise bumblebee, little bites, black cherry, Cherokee purple, Midnight sun, Pink bumblebee, Sgt Pepper, Isis candy, Barry’s crazy cherry, Brad’s atomic grape, San Marzano, Blush tiger, Orange icicle, Martinos roma, Ardwin, Margold, Marbonne, Pantero romanesco, Golden delight, Bosque bumblebee, Tumbler, Primo, Strawberry cherry, moment, rosy finch, pinocchio, Bonsai etc etc
What tomato should a new grower choose to grow in their very first garden? Try to settle on a group or type of tomato rather than starting with A and working your way through the alphabet. Most tomatoes are worth choosing but each gardener will choose what they like and owning a greenhouse will definitely make it easier. So try a cherry, a roma, a big one and maybe something with a unique colour. The flavour will always be subject to your own local jury but something as crazy as Brad’s Atomic Grape? Well you just can’t make that stuff up. It is a tomato worth choosing even if you don’t eat tomatoes.
ABOUT MY GREENHOUSE
I grow in my polycarbonate and glass CAPE COD GREENHOUSE in Calgary Alberta. Last year I installed the greenhouse on a 20″ high foundation of recycled cement blocks and this spring I harvested my first crop of spinach starting in March. I love growing in my greenhouse. For details about where you can see more information LOOK HERE.
Early morning in my greenhouse this week. I love growing and hanging out in my Cape Cod greenhouse so this 10 x 12 size is perfect for me. It is easier to choose a new tomato when you have a greenhouse to grow in because you can start it earlier, pick fruit faster and keep plants alive longer in a greenhouse.
We love cooking the food we grow in our greenhouse including this little dinner of fresh sliced cucumber, fresh tomatoes and basil and a zucchini latka
A pile of oven dried cherry tomatoes ready for the freezer or to pop on a cracker and serve for snacks.
SUMMARY FOR CHOOSING NEW TOMATOES
ARE YOU CHOOSING A NEW TOMATO VARIETY? Taste test with your friends and family over the next six weeks to get the flavour and size and type of tomato you like this year before you grow it next year because you can never grow it all. Don’t just go for a beefsteak or a cherry. Go for a red or striped or anything that tempts your palette!
Other tomatoes I am growing this year after good success in the past include Indian Stripe, Rosella and Sarandipity. None of these were ripe at the time of writing.
I gave tomatoes away on a table outside my garden fence one year because they were multiplying in my greenhouse faster than I could eat them. But the real reason, when I think about it, is that the tomatoes I was choosing to grow were just too boring to eat. Home grown doesn’t always mean best unless you really are growing the tomatoes you like best.
