Tomato Varieties: A Quick Guide for Gardeners

Tomato varieties: an overview

Tomatoes come in a remarkable range of shapes, sizes, and flavors. Understanding the main categories can help you pick varieties that fit your climate, space, and cooking needs.

What counts as a tomato variety

A variety, or cultivar, is a distinct plant type that has been selected for consistent traits across generations. Seeds labeled as hybrids (F1) often cross parent lines and may not come true from saved seeds. Heirlooms are varieties preserved over many generations, typically open-pollinated and stable in traits.

Common categories

• Indeterminate vs determinate growth
• Indeterminate plants continue producing fruit throughout the season and often need support like cages or trellises.
• Determinate plants grow to a compact size and tend to set fruit all at once, which can be convenient for small spaces.
• Fresh eating vs processing
• Slicers and beefsteaks are large and juicy, ideal for sandwiches and salads.
• Paste or processing varieties have dense flesh and fewer seeds, good for sauces and canned goods.
• Size and form
• Cherry and grape: tiny, prolific snacking fruit.
• Plums/paste types: intermediate in size with meaty flesh.
• Beefsteak and other slicers: large, easily sliced for fresh use.

Heirloom vs hybrid

• Heirloom varieties are often open-pollinated and prized for flavor, color range, and history. They can be less uniform and sometimes more susceptible to certain diseases.
• Hybrid varieties are bred for vigor, uniform fruit, disease resistance, and reliable yields. They may not come true from saved seeds and can vary in flavor.

Flavor and texture profiles

• Beefsteak and large slicers: juicy, rich, but can be seedy.
• Cherry and grape: very sweet, high flesh-to-seed ratio, great for fresh eating.
• Paste/plum: dense, meaty flesh with low seed content, ideal for sauces and canning.
• Color variety: tomatoes can be red, pink, yellow, orange, purple, and green when ripe, offering different sweetness and acidity cues.

Growing considerations

• Climate and season: warm-season crops; start seeds indoors if your last frost is late, and transplant after soil and air temperatures are reliably warm.
• Space and support: determinate types suit containers and small beds; indeterminate types often require staking or trellising.
• Disease resistance: some varieties carry resistance packages labeled with letters (for example, V, F, N) indicating tolerance to common tomato diseases. Choose types that match your local disease pressure when possible.
• Soil and sun: aim for well-drained soil with ample sun (about 6–8 hours per day) and consistent moisture.

Choosing varieties for your garden

• Start with a small mix: 1–2 slicers, 1 paste, and a cherry or grape variety to cover fresh eating, sauces, and snacking.
• Consider space and form: in a small balcony garden, choose determinate or dwarf varieties that stay compact; in a larger bed, mix indeterminate vines with support.
• Match climate and goals: for hot summers, pick heat-tolerant or disease-resistant varieties; for sauces, prioritize paste types with dense flesh.
• Plan for succession: stagger planting times or select varieties with different ripening windows to extend harvest.

With a little planning, you can enjoy a diverse tomato harvest that suits your taste, space, and cooking needs.