What different types are there to grow?
There are loads of different types and varieties of tomatoes ranging from tiny cherry or grape tomatoes right up to giant beefsteak tomatoes, and everything in between!
Before we start picking seeds though the most important thing to think about is:
What do you want your tomatoes for?
Below we’ve listed a few uses and paired them with a few great tomatoes for that purpose.
Tomatoes for salads
Small size cherry tomatoes like Gardeners Delight (one of the easiest tomatoes to grow), Tumbling Toms (grow in hanging baskets) or my favourite Black Russian F1 Cherry (for variety and colour) are all perfect to add to your salads
Medium and larger size tomatoes such as… are great sliced for things like a salad caprice (tomato, mozzarella, basil and balsamic dressing) perfect in the summer, we might even get to eat it outside! (I live in the UK we don’t get much sunshine!)
Tomatoes for Sauces
Sometimes called “paste” varieties. Tomatoes used for sauce are generally speaking usually plum shaped fleshy tomatoes with little seed. Although you can use any tomatoes to make a sauce these characteristics lend themselves perfectly.
The king of tomatoes for making sauces in my eyes and many others are the San Marzano. I’ve only started growing them over the last couple of years, but slow going, but gardening is always a learning curve!
Tomatoes for sandwiches and burgers
Beefsteak varieties of tomatoes such as Marmande are great for slicing for sandwiches, they can also be griddled for breakfast, grilled or bbq’d!
Tomatoes for chutneys
Crisp crunchy and sometimes green is best, look for things like..
The difference between determinate and indeterminate tomato plants
Another important consideration when choosing which tomato to grow is the type of plant.
All tomato plants and seeds (if bought from a shop) will indicate whether they are determinate or indeterminate growers.
This basically means grows to a fixed height (determinate) or grows to no fixed length (indeterminate). More on determinate vs indeterminate and understanding the differences here
What are Heirloom tomatoes ?
Heirloom tomatoes are basically any tomato that hasn’t been hybridised. (Hasn’t been crossbred with anything)
These tomatoes are normally very old variety’s
Pros
Huge varieties available and if you’re looking for unique and exotic tomato treats to add to the dinner table look no further!
Cons
Less resistant to pests and diseases