Learn about all different kinds of tomatoes and choose the best tomato variety to grow in your vegetable garden this year.
No summer garden is complete without ripe, juicy tomatoes. Fortunately for us, tomatoes are abundant and prolific producers, so there are almost always plenty of tomatoes available for sauces, sandwiches, and salads.
But did you know that some tomatoes are better for certain uses than others?
If you’re trying to decide what kinds of tomatoes you want to grow in your garden this season, you’re in the right place! There are hundreds of different tomato varieties to grow, and it can be pretty overwhelming to narrow down which ones you want to grow.
Even if you were to follow a garden plan or theme like the ones I created here, you’d still have a plethora of tomato varieties to choose from.
This post will break down all the different types of tomatoes you can grow in your garden and explain the best uses for each type of tomato. I will also share some tips for growing the best-tasting tomatoes.
What Kind of Tomatoes to Grow
The first thing to do when choosing what kind of tomatoes to grow is to think about how you’ll grow the tomatoes and how you’ll use them.
- Do you want to prune tomatoes to control their size or let them run wild?
- Do you have a large space to allow tomatoes to grow freely or do you need them to be more compact?
- Are you going to eat all the tomatoes fresh, or do you plan on preserving a lot of the harvest, whether by canning, dehydrating, or freezing?
Take a minute to think about your answers to these questions and then read on keeping your requirements for tomato size, growth habit, and use in mind.
Indeterminate vs. Determinate Tomatoes
All tomatoes, whether cherry or beefsteak, fall under two main categories: indeterminate and determinate.
Indeterminate tomatoes are vining plants that can grow up to 10 feet tall and will continue to produce fruit throughout the entire growing season (as long as they are healthy and happy!). This category of tomato is the one that is known for needing to be pruned, wrecking flimsy tomato cages, and taking over garden beds and pathways with its wild growth habit.
Some of my favorite indeterminate tomatoes include: Sungold Cherry, Italian Heirloom, Kellogg’s Breakfast, and Barry’s Crazy Cherry.
Determinate tomatoes, on the other hand, are smaller and tend to produce one big crop of tomatoes before fizzling out and dying. This type of tomato is often called a “bush tomato” and is mainly used for canning and preserving. It’s also great for small spaces and should not be pruned.
To help you remember the difference, just think “determinate tomatoes” have a “determined” height and number of fruit, while “indeterminate tomatoes” have an “undetermined” height and number of fruit.
You may also run across tomatoes that are labeled as “semi-determinate.” As the name suggests, it’s something in between indeterminate and determinate tomatoes that will produce fruit throughout the growing season but be smaller and more compact than indeterminate tomatoes.
I don’t grow many determinate tomatoes, but some of my favorites are: Roma, Subarctic Plenty, Cherry Falls, and Patio Choice Yellow.
Types of Tomatoes by Use
Tomatoes can be further categorized by use. Typically, these categories are:
- paste,
- slicer, and
- salad.
Paste tomatoes are flavorful, thick-walled tomatoes, with dense flesh, less gel, and few seeds, which helps them cook down into homemade tomato paste (where the name comes from!) or sauce more quickly. Typically, these types of tomatoes have less moisture, which also helps to create a thicker sauce and makes these types of tomatoes great for dehydrating.
Sometimes paste tomatoes are also called plum tomatoes for their shape.
A few of my favorite paste tomatoes are: Italian Heirloom, Roma, and Amish Paste.
Slicer tomatoes, as the name implies, are big, round tomatoes that are meaty, juicy, and rich; they are perfect for making tomato sandwiches or adding to a grilled hamburger. Slicers are known for growing huge fruits, sometimes up to two pounds per fruit!
Slicer tomatoes may also be called slicing tomatoes or beefsteak tomatoes.
A few of my favorite slicer tomatoes include: Kellogg’s Breakfast, Paul Robeson, Climbing Trip-L Crop, and Costoluto Genovese.
Salad tomatoes are small tomatoes with thin skins, typically eaten whole and used for fresh snacking, salads, or skewers. They can be as large as 3 inches in diameter or as small as a currant, as in the case of spoon tomatoes. This category includes the popular cherry tomato, and also grape tomatoes, pear or teardrop tomatoes, and cocktail tomatoes.
I don’t grow many of the larger salad or cocktail tomatoes, but I can recommend Stupice.
I do grow lots of cherry tomatoes like: Sungold, Barry’s Crazy Cherry, Black Cherry, Cherry Falls, Patio Choice Yellow, and Honeydrop.
Cherry tomatoes are my favorite for roasting like in this recipe.
A Rainbow of Tomato Colors
Another way to categorize tomatoes is by color. Yes, tomatoes come in a variety of colors besides red!
Other than red, tomatoes can be:
- pink
- yellow or orange
- green (when mature; all immature tomatoes start off green!)
- black or purple (may sometimes be named “blue”)
- bi-colored (or striped)
Each color of tomato has a different level of acidity. In general, darker, redder tomatoes have a higher acid level, while the more yellow tomatoes have lower acidity.
This article from Bonnie Plants can help you compare the flavor difference between the colors of tomatoes.
I’ve definitely found this to be true.
The sweetest tomato we’ve grown is the Sungold cherry, which is orange-yellow, while the most acidic has been Black Beauty (a purply black tomato).
The most mild-tasting tomato I’ve grown is a super-pale, almost creamy white color, called the White Tomesol.
I prefer having a balance between acid and sweet for my Italian-style tomato sauces and for sandwiches, but I prefer more acidic tomatoes in my salsa. For snacking and salads, however, the sweeter the tomato, the better!
Which do you prefer?
Heirloom vs. Hybrid Tomatoes
One final distinction I want to mention is heirloom vs. hybrid tomatoes. I wrote a post explaining the difference between heirloom and hybrid seed if you want to know more, but the main takeaway is that heirloom tomatoes typically have a richer flavor, while hybrid tomatoes tend to be more robust plants.
Of course there are exceptions, but in general, you’ll find that most tomato connoisseurs love the flavor of heirloom tomatoes over hybrids, even though the plants may require more special care than hybrid plants.
Whichever type you decide to grow, homegrown tomatoes from your own garden, whether heirloom or hybrid, will taste way better than any tomato you’ll find at the grocery store, especially if you follow the tips I’m about to share below!
Tips for Growing the Best-Tasting Tomatoes
Now, if you want the absolute best-tasting tomatoes of your life, there are a few tricks and tips I can share from my experience.
First of all, you need to choose the right variety. I haven’t tried them all (there are literally hundreds of tomato varieties out there), but the ones I’ve mentioned above I’ve enjoyed the flavor of.
You may need to try a few different kinds before you find the one that appeals most to your palate. Experiment with different kinds of tomatoes and try at least one new variety each year!
Second, healthy tomato plants will grow better tomatoes, but for the best flavor, you’ve got to stress tomato plants a little bit. It’s a funny thing; a little bit of stress makes the tomatoes produce better tasting fruit. Too much stress, however, will cause you to lose fruit.
Here are a few ways to achieve this delicate balance:
- Deeply and consistently water your plants as they grow. But stop watering plants once your tomatoes begin blushing, or turning into their ripe color. The plants will draw the extra water out of the tomatoes to use for itself and concentrate the flavor of the fruits. Continue watering like normal after you’ve harvested the tomatoes.
- Plant tomatoes in a sunny location. The heat from the sun’s rays makes tomatoes taste sweeter and intensifies the flavor. Be careful if you live in a hot climate, however. Too much sun can burn the tomato fruit.
- Feed tomato plants with a higher ratio of phosphorus and potassium (the middle and last numbers on fertilizer labels) once they begin blooming. Fish emulsion like Neptune’s Harvest helps a lot, but it is stinky at first!
Third, you need to pick tomatoes at just the right time.
- Don’t pick and eat tomatoes too early. Tomatoes develop their full flavor right at the peak of ripeness. To check the ripeness of tomatoes (especially green tomatoes which hardly change in appearance from immature to ripe!), squeeze them gently every day once they have changed to their mature color. Once the fruit feels firm yet is a little squishy, it is ripe.
- Do pick tomatoes at the hottest part of the day like in the afternoon. I always pick my tomatoes between 3 and 5pm in the summer. The heat from those extra hours in the sun really makes them taste amazing versus tomatoes that were picked in the morning when they are holding the most water.
I’m still learning about growing flavorful tomatoes, and these are just a few things I’ve done to have really delicious tomatoes. If you have any other tips or tricks, please let me know in the comments!
Seeds to Grow Your Own Tomatoes
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. This means that if you buy through my links, I could earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. I only discuss products that I love and think you’ll love, too. I’m glad you’re here and thanks for reading!
If you’re looking for online seed companies to order seeds for some of the tomato varieties I mentioned above, here are a few of my favorites. Some of these are affiliate links.
- Botanical Interests
- High Mowing Organic Seeds
- Pinetree Garden Seeds
- Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
- Johnny’s Selected Seeds
- Hoss Tools
- Park Seed
Grow Your Best Tomatoes This Year
Thanks for reading this post! I hope this is your year to grow the best tomatoes ever.
Hopefully this post helped you understand the differences between indeterminate and determinate tomatoes, uses for tomatoes, tomato colors, and heirloom vs. hybrid tomatoes.
Who knew a simple tomato could have so much diversity!
Happy gardening!