Yesterday it was a whopping 40 degrees here in Maine.
The sun was shining, the snow melted and I couldn’t help but walk around the yard and dream about this year’s garden.
It will be SO NICE to finally get rid of all the asphalt and concrete and weirdo parking spaces around us. We’ll gain a little more grass for Miss Lucy, plus some room for flower and vegetable beds too.
I haven’t decided yet if I’ll do raised beds or a regular garden but I do know one thing, I want to grow a lot of tomatoes this year.
Tomatoes for canning {especially my favorite salsa}, tomatoes for salads and if all goes well, some extra tomatoes to set out on the cart out front.
I’ve grown a lot of different kinds of tomatoes over the years but it’s still always hard when it comes time to decide which ones to order. What is your favorite tomato variety?
So far I’ve narrowed it down to:
Pink Bumble Bee {I love the color and flavor of these}
German Lunchbox
Chocolate Pear
Principe Borghese {salsa and sauce}
Martino’s Roma {salsa and sauce}
I think the only one on the list I haven’t grown before is the German lunchbox variety.
The last few years I’ve grown Black Krim and Purple Cherokee so I thought I’d focus on smaller tomatoes this year. I still might pick up one or two plants at the local nursery when they do their plant sale, we’ll see.
I’m also on the fence about sun gold tomatoes. When I grew them about 5-10 years ago, they were so sweet!! But the last few times I’ve grown sun golds they were duds. Not at all like they used to be.
I’m also on the hunt for 1 beefsteak tomato variety to grow this year. The pineapple tomato is one of my favorites but I want to try something new this year.
That’s the best part about vegetable gardening if you ask me. There are so many different varieties of every plant, it keeps you coming back for more.
Have you decided what tomatoes you’ll grow this year? Are you still working on your list, or have you ordered your seeds yet? Curious minds want to know.
~Mavis
Joely says
I absolutely love mountain magic tomatoes. They are larger than a cherry, full of flavor. They produce well into fall in my zone 6a garden and they are resistant to early and late blight.
Mavis Butterfield says
I just looked these up!!! Adding them to my list.
Christa H. says
I have tried 100+ types of tomatoes grown from seed. I have a permanent list that I grow every year.
Mortgage lifter, Brandywine, and German Johnson for sandwich slicing.
Blackcherry and Pink bumblebee cherry tomatoes.
I finally found my favorite paste and it’s Juliet- they are small but PROLIFIC. I had more tomatoes than ever from this plant last summer and it was producing clusters in November, didn’t crack, and disease resistant. I grew over a hundred tomato plants last summer in 11 varieties. All were heirloom minus one Juliet and one Sungold.
This year I will plant probably 30 Juliet plants for sauces, canning, and roasting.
Katy @ Practical Walk says
My sis in law gave me mortgalifter seeds, can’t wait to try them!
Mavis Butterfield says
Added Juliet to the list. They basically sound like baby romas from the description.
German looks interesting too. Thanks!
Erin says
The sungold plants we bought from at Broadway nursery in South Portland last year were the best I’ve ever had! All our neighbors loved them so much after we left them out for them to grab bowls of, they’d ask if they could come pick them themselves (it was a 6-pack of plants so we were overflowing with them). And for a slicer I always love a tie-dye variety. They’re so pretty & always taste great. Our house had raised beds when we bought it, but they’re old & falling apart. We’re replacing one or two a year now with the metal raised beds. Time will tell how they hold up in our coastal weather, but I’m tired of having to constantly repair the old wood beds.
Amy says
Ditto on the Sungolds! They are the best and everyone who has them wants more.
Mel says
As an alternative to Pineapple, try Summer Cider. Hands down our favorite tomato ever.
For an alternative to Sungold, try White Currant. It’s different than Sungold (softer skin, smaller), but very sweet and absolutely prolific. We easily get 1000 of them per plant. I prefer them to Sungold partly because they are truly bite size.
Mavis Butterfield says
I can’t find summer cider but did see white currant. Thanks Mel!
Mel says
A few places have them, including some Etsy sellers. But here’s one option!
Tomato ‘Summer Cider’ | Megan’sHeirloomSeeds https://share.google/bRPn38rXH2gCEjDF4
Emily says
Juliet is my absolute favorite. They’re a Roma-cherry hybrid with wonderful flavor for snacking. The plant gets a little huge and unwieldy but is so productive. It has a place every year in my garden.
I love the flavor of brandywine tomatoes but I e had my heartbroken. By too many lost to split tomatoes so I’ve compromised on a newer variety called Abigail, that has been very productive the last two years.
Janet says
Ditto on Juliet here in the Northwest (seattle area). Hugely prolific in our short summers (meaning high sun for only 3 months, warm weather through September, still sunny but low sun). They taste amazing and keep producing until then.
Margo says
Since I don’t use a ton of tomatoes now that there’s only 2 in our household, I plant Tasmanian Chocolate tomatoes, a semi dwarf heirloom with delicious salad sized tomatoes. I will usually plant one cherry sized tomato, and I like sweet 100’s for that. I really enjoyed Thornburn’s Terra Cotta, a good sized deep orange tomato that did well in the heat of Southern California in summer. I’ll star my seeds indoors toward the end of February. Can’t wait!
Mavis Butterfield says
Checked out Tasmanian Chocolate tomatoes and they look like they’d be perfect to grow in pots on the deck!!
Sue says
The yellow & red Striped/Speckled Roman Tomato is just amazing for gazpacho!
Carla says
My favorite is from a local greenhouse here in West Michigan. It’s called “Maatman’s Choice” and they are a full body tomato that have an absolute excellent flavor. They are firm and not mushy. I just save the seeds every year, or some years pick up a plant or two just to keep the seeds. They are my absolute favorite!
Diana says
This year I planted tomatoes in the fall and did succession crops all year. It worked so well here in the San Diego area. I have had fresh tomatoes all winter! We grew Roma, cherry, and Costoluto Genovese. I actually have quit canning tomatoes, and just freeze the whole tomato. When I need tomato sauce I just make it in the insta pot and freeze it in souper cubes. Makes life so easy!
Jennifer P says
Last year made an impulse purchase of a German striped plant. It was delicious, produced many tomatoes and the yellow was easier on my GERD.
Heather says
In 2024 I purchased a sun sugar and it was amazing, but in 2025 I accidently got a sungold instead and I was not impressed. My all time go to tomato is an Heirloom pineapple tomato. They vine gets huge, the fruit gets huge, and they are my absolute fav on sandwiches or just sliced! Being a yellow/red mixture also is very eye catching. If I can’t find them, my 2nd choice is a big rainbow tomato for slicing.
Tonya says
You nailed it! The problem with sun sugar is some places actually have sun gold, they are NOT the same! Sun sugar are amazing, sun gold are not.
Susan says
Our tomatoes of choice are Sweet Millions and Sunglo for snacking. San Marzano Gigante for paste tomatoes. We have always had issues with blossom end rot, but not a spot of it on this plant. And we grow Stupice for an all-around tomato. They’re small, but are the first tomatoes of the season here in Oregon, weeks earlier than others, and the plants are very prolific producing well in October. This past year, health issues put us behind so our neighbor gave us most of these tomato plants, and we saved the seeds to be sure we got the same variety as they were all exceptional.
Mavis Butterfield says
I’ve grown Stupice before and they are great! Thanks for the reminder
kari says
I love the Sungold Select tomatos from seedtreasures.com. They have SO many tomatoes, and all of them, including the Sungold are open pollinated, not hybrid, so you can save the seeds and replant them for the same delicious tomatoes next year. I’ve tried a ton of varieties from them and am always pleased.
Plus it’s a little company owned by homesteaders and they are saving seeds from rare plants so we don’t lose them. You fill out a paper form and mail it off with a check, just like the good old days.
The sungolds are almost to the bottom of the page here: https://seedtreasures.com/seed-catalog/tomatoes/
Love it!
Karen says
I really enjoy bronze torch. They are like a smaller plum tomato, but sweeter and better flavor than Juliet. I grow Juliet too….they make awesome whole canned tomatoes and they are prolific like others have said.
Archie says
I knew a old nurseryman who told me SunSugar was the best and his favorite cherry tomato variety. Like others have, I mistakenly got Sungold and wasn’t impressed. Finally got the SunSugar! Nurseryman was correct, fabulous tasty tomato. Sweet Million is my second favorite
Michelle S. says
I love Prairie Fire, Solar Flare, Rutgers and Big Rainbow. Those have done really well for me.
Bee says
Chocolate Sprinkles has been a favorite small variety of mine for the past few years. Sweet, nice texture, and honestly pretty to look at! I picked up some sungold I think from a small seller on etsy (or even ebay?) around the pandemic and they were great. Sungold seeds I’ve tried more recently just haven’t been as good. I’ll have to give SunSugar a try!
Gigi says
My favorite is Azoychka. It’s a yellow orange. Great flavor, medium heirloom. The lower acid is better for me and looks beautiful in salads with red tomatoes . I get my seeds from Urban Farmer Seeds.
Chris Limpel says
One of my favorites is a paste variety called Verona, I got the seeds from Johnnys, they are disease resistant and very prolific and according to Johnny’s have a better flavor than Juliette. I have had great success growing them in the community garden in West Kennebunk.