Hey guys, it's Brijette with San Diego seed company and today we're going to talk about
tomato varieties. There's so many on the market; how do you choose, what's the different types,
what do you need to know? We're going to cover all that information in our video today,
but first make sure you hit the subscribe button and also hit the notification bell,
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So, let's get into it. Let's talk about tomatoes. Tomatoes are probably the
most popular garden crop and for good reason. They're delicious, they're pretty easy to grow,
and there's thousands of different varieties out there that you can choose to grow from. Now,
if you're a new gardener it might be overwhelming to decide which variety do you start with. And,
there's no one answer but I am going to tell you a little bit about the different types of tomato
plants so you at least can make an educated decision on what you should grow this year.
So, tomato plants are basically broken down into two different types. There's indeterminate
and there's determinant. So, indeterminate tomatoes are tomatoes that set their fruit
in an indeterminate way. Meaning that they're going to set fruit over a long period of time.
Now, they also have a very particular type of growing pattern, they tend to be really long
and viney. Sometimes they're called pole tomatoes. Now, a lot of heirloom varieties of tomatoes are
indeterminate tomatoes that grow very long and lanky and you need a pretty big structure to
keep them happy. A tiny, little, dinky tomato cage is not going to cut it. And, I know that some of
the viewers out there who have grown indeterminate tomatoes have made that mistake of trying to grow
a huge tomato on a tiny little tomato cage. We actually grow ours on cattle panels or
really big trellises to keep them organized and pruned well because they get so out of control.
Now, what's the benefit of growing an indeterminate tomato? Well, it's going to
give you tomatoes all season long and it's going to spread out its fruit set. Meaning that you can
walk outside and pick a few tomatoes, and then in a couple weeks there'll be a few more, in a
couple weeks there'll be a few more. The beauty of that is you have a very long harvest window.
Now, the downside of that is both the plant can grow really crazy and be hard to prune and handle,
and also because you might want a lot of fruit at once. If that is the case then you want to stick
with determinate tomatoes. Now, determinate tomatoes, they give all of their fruit in a
determinate manner, meaning they give them all at once. The most common varieties are ones that
are grown for sauces, and let's think about why that is. Well, if you want to make a really big
pot of sauce, you're going to need all of your tomatoes to be ready at once, right? You can't
harvest a few one week, and a few another week, so things like 'Romas', 'San Marzano's', a lot of
sauce tomatoes are determinate.The other thing to think about with determinate tomatoes is,
they tend to be a little more compact. They tend to grow in, some people refer to them as
bush tomatoes. We have a variety called 'Tasmanian Chocolate' that's fabulous because it grows very
small and bush-like, it's really good in a pot, and it doesn't have these long crazy stems that
that grow on forever, and you get almost all your tomatoes at once,
which is really nice. The other thing to think about is, just how fun some varieties are.
Things like color, texture, size, flavor. 'Black Creme', super popular tomato variety, absolutely
phenomenal flavor. It's a big beefsteak type of tomato that you can slice and put on sandwiches.
But then, there's also really cute small ones like 'Tiny Tin' that will grow in a little tiny pot.
We have varieties like 'Golden Nugget', this will give you tons, and tons, and tons of cherry
tomatoes that you can munch on all summer long. You can toss in your salad, you could also make
these into a sauce. So, there's lots of different varieties out there my recommendation to you as a
new gardener, if you're trying to choose your tomato varieties, is pick a couple of different
things, try them out throughout the years and make sure you keep notes. Because, some varieties will
do much better in your area than others and if you keep a garden journal or a record of what you
planted each year, you'll get better and better and you'll find the perfect tomato for your area.
you