Tomato Varieties

Tomato Varieties

150 150 jcharlow

TOMATO VARIETIES

Early Girl – It’s hard to find tasty, full-sized fruits like this extra-early in the season! Meaty, ripe, red fruits, 4 to 6 oz., are slightly flattened and bright crimson throughout. Very appealing, with firm texture and blemish-resistant skin. Seed is defuzzed. Dependable large harvests of flavorful, solid fruit. Good disease resistance contributes to its excellent performance in almost any climate. A proven variety for delicious, early tomatoes. Indeterminate. 52 days.

Celebrity – All American Selections Award Winner. Absolutely incredible set of exceptionally flavorful, firm 8 to 12 oz. fruit on strong vines with good cover and outstanding disease resistance. Large clusters of consistently large, beautiful tomatoes. Determinate. 70 days.

Bush Early Girl – This “determinate sister” to popular Early Girl delivers the same desirable qualities in a compact, patio-sized variety: an extreme earliness and huge yields of firm, meaty, flavorful fruits that are larger than Early Girl – a full 4″ in diameter. 6 to 7 oz. fruit is larger than that of Early Girl and has a good flavor. Even more disease resistance than Early Girl. Compact determinate. 54 days.

Bush Celebrity – Abundant, large, flavorful fruits on plants just 15″ tall mature a few days earlier than Celebrity with that famous Celebrity flavor that balances sugars and acids. Even stronger disease resistance, and an ability to set fruits under many growing conditions. The 8 to 9-ounce tomatoes of Bush Celebrity ripen from the inside out with no green shoulders. Determinate. 67 days.

Sunmaster – Good flavor. Produces maximum yield when daytime temperatures reach 90-96 degrees. The perfect variety for those hot Southwestern gardens. Attractive fruits average 7 oz., are uniformly red, firm, smooth, and plentiful. Good disease resistance. Heat-tolerant variety that produces delicious tomatoes with a good balance of sugar and acid, resulting in full flavor. Sets best when days are 87 to 96 degrees, and nights are between 73 and 82 degrees. Determinate. 72 days.

Supersweet 100 – Staked hybrid plants produce long strands of 100 or more super-sweet cherry tomatoes, weighing about 1 oz. each. Plants bear throughout the season. Requires staking or caging. Huge, multiple-branched clusters of 1/2 to 1 inch very sweet fruit with high vitamin C content. Mouth-watering flavor. Vigorous vines bear abundantly until frost. Indeterminate. 65 days.

Yellow Pear – Vigorous vines produce high yields of 2″, yellow-skinned, pear-shaped fruits with few seeds. Slightly later than Red Pear, but with the same prolific yields and dependable performance. They are delightfully sweet, considered by many as “garden candy.” Baskets of Yellow Pear are as pretty as can be. Tall plants bear large and continuous harvests. Indeterminate. 78 days.

Red Cherry – An excellent salad tomato, with clusters of 5 on spreading, hardy vines, with dark green foliage. Full-season, high yields of deep scarlet, round, 1 to 1-1/4″ diameter, flavorful fruits. Green fruits may be pickled, while ripe ones are used fresh or for preserves. Vigorous vines produce all season long and are prolific bearers. Indeterminate. 75 days.

Roma – Roma is considered to be the most well-known paste-type tomato. Great for sauces, pastes, ketchup, and canning. Its heavy crops of bright red, pear-shaped fruits are nice and meaty, with very few seeds. Compact vines yield large harvests of 3 inch long fruit. Determinate. 78 days.

Husky Red – The unlimited production potential of an indeterminate and the controlled growth of a determinate combine for season-long production! Compact plants are only 4 to 4-1/2 ft., with dark green, rough and wrinkled foliage and strong, thick, central stems. Attractive bright red fruits typically weigh 5 to 7 oz. and are ideal for small spaces, patios, planters and even larger pots. Although the plants grow only 4 feet tall, fruit continues to appear in surprising numbers throughout the growing season. Dwarf indeterminate. 68 days.

Husky Cherry Red – Season-long production of outstanding fruits, 1″ in size, and featuring excellent flavor. A member of the Husky “ISI” Series, whose dwarf indeterminate habit and quality production makes it perfect for small spaces and containers. What makes this variety so special is the plant grows only 50” tall, giving the gardener more fruit in less space. Small enough to grow in a container with support. Dwarf indeterminate. 65 days.

Golden Jubilee – Large golden-orange fruit with mild flavor. Nice firm texture. Mild flavor and low acidity make this one of the best varieties for tomato juice. Bright, golden-orange fruits, 2-1/2 to 3″ in diameter average 6 to 7 oz. apiece and have meaty, thick walls. Fruits are solid, with few seeds. Medium-sized plants need staking, and produce high yields, making them ideal for home garden or fresh market. Delicious taste and solid, smooth substance. Adds bright color to salads. Indeterminate. 80 days.

Determinate: Varieties of this type are often called bush tomatoes. This is because the terminal (top and end) buds end in a flower cluster that produces fruit. The plant stops growing when the terminal flowers develop. The fruit develops and ripens over a short period of time. These varieties are usually early-maturing and produce small plants with generally smaller fruit. Because of their small size, this type of tomato is seldom pruned or staked.

Indeterminate: These varieties are favored by many homeowners because they often produce high-quality, flavorful, desirable fruit, even though they are generally later-maturing varieties. The growth habit of the plant is indeterminate, meaning that it continues to grow and flower until a killing frost. These are tall plants that require staking for best results. They also require pruning for optimum quality. Flowering and fruiting occur over a longer time period.

Semi-Indeterminate: As the name implies, these varieties have characteristics intermediate between the above-mentioned ones. They are basically indeterminate in nature. Staking and pruning will improve quality, but is not essential. These varieties are also very popular with the homeowner, because they can provide a fairly early and good quality yield.

4 Comments
  • When will you be getting nice tomato plants and when do we plant at 3200 foot level?
    Max

  • Hello Max,
    We are currently discussing when to bring in tomatoes. It will be sometime this February. Do you have a favorite variety? We could see if it is available for you.
    Planting time on tomatoes is tricky, because you want to wait until after the danger of frost (mid-March), but you want to get them fruiting before the heat. Most people hedge their bets on the frost and like to plant in mid to late-February, but there is always the chance of getting another freezing night.

    Thank you,
    Cara

  • HI,
    We are new to Tucson and are living in Marana . We live in the springs at continental ranch and have a nice size patio. We are wanting to grow some nice tomatoes on the patio since this is zone 9 and so easy to grow tomatoes in an area with this climate. I don’t want to start with seeds I would rather have some specific type of tomato plant that I can purchase locally already started to grow on the patio. We can set up grow lights in case of a little colder weather and bring them in but if you have plants that would be for this purpose already growing that you can sell us we would appreciate you letting us know. Please advise? Michael Pepper

  • Hi there,
    Some people have great success with fall tomatoes, and we sell a few in the fall (September). But it can be tricky to get a crop in before our first freeze. Our big tomato season starts in February and ends in May. We usually get our starts mid-February, and this is when we recommend planting (mid-Feb thru mid-March). We stock mostly varieties that have short maturity time, so you get a crop before the heat. Most tomatoes stop producing when we get hot in June. We carry a great book for gardening in Tucson by the Pima County Master Gardeners called The Tucson Garden Handbook. This book gives a great overview of all types of gardening in Tucson.

    Thank you,
    Cara

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