The Best Growing Tomato Plants

Tomatoes come in a wide variety of sizes, shapes and colors.

The versatile tomato is legally a vegetable, and technically a fruit. However you choose to categorize this juicy, nutritious food, many gardeners want to know which is the best growing tomato plant. The answer can be complicated. The best varieties of tomato depend on where you live, and what you want from your plants.

Choosing Tomatoes by Growing Zones

Tomatoes can grow in almost any zone, but it is very important to know your location's climate zone and the date of the last day of frost, so that you can safely put your tomatoes outside in the garden. Even areas with very short summers can grow tomatoes if they are partially grown indoors, and the best tomato plants in these areas will be early varieties that mature quickly. In areas where permafrost is a concern, such as extreme northern countries like Canada, Russia and even states like Alaska, the best tomato varieties will do well grown solely indoors. If starting plants from seed, any area with a freeze/frost climate should start tomato plants indoors.

Best Use

Select tomato varieties based on your desired use. The best way to determine the right variety for your garden is to decide how you will use the product. For sauces, you need a beefy, thick tomato with little pulp such as the San Marzano. It has very little juice and is too dry to be a good slicing tomato, but its heavy flesh gives thick substance to tomato paste and sauces. For slicing, the juicier and bigger, the better. Beefsteak and Big Beef are popular choices for use on sandwiches and in salads. For snacking, cherry tomatoes like the Sweet Milton variety are a good choice.

Early Tomato Varieties

Early Girl matures in 52 days and is ideal for areas with short summers, or for gardeners who want tomatoes early in the season. In areas with longer summers or year-round warm climates, early tomatoes can be planted along with more slowly maturing tomatoes for a longer season of cultivation.

Tomatoes of Color

While red is the color most commonly associated with tomatoes, there are a wide variety of colors that can add vibrant color to table settings, salads and sandwiches. Lemon Boy is a yellow tomato, and Carolina Gold is a brilliant gold tomato. Jubilee is orange and Cherokee Purple is a deep purple color throughout.

Heirloom Tomatoes

Heirloom is a term for tomatoes that can be reproduced from their own seeds. Not all tomatoes are easily propagated from the seeds of the fruit itself, because many are hybrids, and are therefore sterile. For gardeners who love color, heirlooms also produce the widest display of color varieties. Some of the best heirlooms are the African Queen for a wine-like flavor, McClintock's Big Pink for a rich, robust tomato flavor, Yellow Peach, White Beauty for delicate flavor and color, and the Antique Roman for pastes.

Indoor Growing

Select tomato varieties that hold their flavor in the artificial light settings of a greenhouse if you need to grow completely indoors. The best tomato varieties for indoor growing are Better Boy, Celebrity and First Lady.

References

• University of Illinois Extension: Is a Tomato a Fruit or a Vegetable?
• University of Missouri Extension: Growing Home Garden Tomatoes
• Mother Earth News: Best-Tasting Tomatoes: 56 Heirloom Tomatoes Rated Excellent for Flavor
• University of Kentucky: Greenhouse Tomato Production Practices
• Washington State University: Tomato Varieties
• KDHNews.com: Selecting Tomato Varieties