Tomato Varieties

A frequent question we get is what varieties do well in Texas? To my mind, this is not a question that can be answered easily by simply providing a list.

We have found that timely planting is every bit as important as variety selection, and a common mistake new tomato growers in Texas make is to plant too late. Even a couple of weeks can make a major difference in getting a decent harvest from any variety before the heat kicks in, even from some of the “heatsetter” types – which frequently don’t taste very good. Plant early! Protect plants if necessary. In Central and South Texas, a good target plant out date is usually the first to second week of March. This also means you will need to get your seeds started before Jan 15. Planting out in late March or early April is usually too late.

Also, different people define tomato success in various ways. I primarily grow for taste, and have a large garden with plenty of plants, so the productivity of any one plant or variety is not a major concern of mine. If a tomato is not very good to great tasting to me, I probably won’t grow it again no matter how productive the variety was.

Others may only have room for just a few plants and so productivity is likely going to be a major concern. A superb tasting variety that only gives a gardener 5-6 tomatoes per plant may not be considered so much of a “success” if they’ve only got ten tomato plants total in the garden and a large family who loves to eat plenty of tomatoes.

We come across a lot of blanket statements out there like “heirloom tomatoes don’t do well in Texas” and “it is better to grow hybrids”. However, we’ve found that almost any tomato variety can be grown here when planted at the right time and properly cared for. It is true that some varieties are noticeably more productive than others, but this is no reason to exclude heirloom varieties from your garden in favor of hybrids, because some heirloom or open pollinated varieties can be plenty productive too. A wise gardener grows a variety of different tomatoes to find which do the best for him or her in terms of productivity, flavor, and other factors.

We encourage people to grow different varieties and try new things, but here is a short list of some fairly reliable and productive tomatoes that we also like the taste of:

• Jet Star — F1 hybrid medium fruited red variety developed in 1948 by Harris Seed Co.; widely available in seed packets and plants have been spotted at major retailers and some nurseries
• Arkansas Traveler — An excellent dark pink medium fruited tomato developed and released by the University of Arkansas in 1971; 4-6 ft tall plant; plants are available almost universally at better nurseries
• Gregori’s Altai — Heirloom Russian variety; large pink beefsteaks on a 4-6 ft tall plant; exceptionally early
• Break O’Day — 7-8 oz uniform red globes with very good flavor and productivity on compact 4 ft plants
• Momotaro — F1 hybrid pink, tennis ball sized globes with great flavor and productivity on 4-6 ft tall plants
• Sun Gold — F1 hybrid goldish-yellow cherry tomato; extremely productive on a very large plant — 8-12 feet
• Black Cherry — Dusky purplish-dark cherry tomato; very productive on a large plant — 6-8 ft tall; developed by the late Vince Sapp of Tomato Growers Supply

Jet Star	Arkansas Traveler
Gregori’s Altai	Break O’Day
Momotaro	Sun Gold
Black Cherry

Here is a short list of some of our top favorites on taste alone. We usually get at least 8 good tomatoes minimum per plant from all the varieties listed by planting early, sometimes a lot more:

• Brandywine (sometimes referred to as Pink Brandywine)
• Prue
• Cherokee Purple (or Indian Stripe, similar)
• Earl’s Faux
• Stump of the World
• Wes
• Aunt Gertie’s Gold

Note: Varieties recommended above are just a few we like and are by no means an inclusive list of our favorites. Also, we’ve primarily listed varieties that have at least fair commercial availability for the seed at this time.