In this video I will go over Best Tomato to Grow in YOUR Zone! I will break down each growing zone and let you know which Hybrid and Heirloom tomatoes will work best for you. Taking in to account heat, humidity, disease and more.
Aspirin Video: https://youtu.be/hzzizV1LFds
Complete Tomato Growing Guide: https://youtu.be/9w-7RoH_uic
46 Comments
I live in Salem , oregon …….. I grow early girls , but would like to plant yellows as the reds are really acidic for mee….
We live in California's Mojave Desert. Haven't had much luck with tomato's in the last few years. Will try some of the suggestions you gave for hot dry areas.
Zone 8a, Fort Worth, Texas – a GREAT cherry tomato for us is Sungold. It's yellow/gold/orange and sweet. Very prolific. Celebrity and Early Girl have both worked well in our garden. I'm now trying to figure out the best roma type variety to grow for our area so we can can tomato sauce and salsas. Very informative video. Thank you.
I live in NJ. Warm/hot, humid, a good 3-ish months of growing. Grape cherry tomatoes do well, also Whopper and Heatmaster. Beefsteak/Barandywine seem very susceptible to fungus or bugs. I grow organically. I lost an early round of San Mariano, but they rallied and did pretty well last summer. I wasn’t thrilled with Black Krim. What types of tomatoes do you recommend? Celebrity grows ok, but doesn’t have much taste. Same for Mortgage Lifter.
I live in the north east and after trying various variets, the gest one is big beef.
Northwestern Kansas – Zone 5b. Beefsteak and romas did good in the years before. Last summer no one tomatoes did well here. Hoping for a better year 2023. Thank you for all this great information.
Bellingham, WA: Small, red cherry tomatoes and Roma's seem to do well here. What do you think?
Very good video. I tried aspirin spray and neem oil spray that you recommended. Plants didn't have any issues!! No disease! Few bugs! And I grew multiple varieties, even heirlooms. All produced well up until the first unexpectedly early frost hit here in Ks.
I will be using your methods and products you recommend this year also. Thank you for the time you take to help us struggling gardeners. Your advice has been so helpful to me and I've been gardening about 35 years. I learn something new everyday. God Bless you and your family!
I can add another tomato that grows well in the deep south humidity/heat. Chocolate Cherry. I grew it for the first time this past season. We hit 100F by May, then June-Sept. This little cherry tomato continued to bloom and produce tomatoes right through those hellish months, while all the rest of my tomato plants (even my peppers) were struggling just to stay alive. Chocolate Cherry will forever have a place in my garden.
Zone 8b, South Mississippi, hot/humid, sometimes too wet, sometimes too dry, mostly grown in 18 gallon totes, and not exactly full sun— Still looking for the best large tomatoes for me. What has grown well: Black Krim, Glacier, Pink Boar, Yellow Pear, Chadwick Cherry, Black Cherry, Tropical Sunset, Sungold, Chocolate Stripes (beauty), Garden Peach, Black Prince, San Marzano, Indigo Blue Beauty, Black from Tula, Roma, Amana, Blondkopfchen, Persimmon, Tigerella, Yellow Plum, and Orange Currant. Beefsteak has done fairly well. All have terrific flavor except Tigerella, not the best. Roma is plain. Blue Bumblebee had to be the prettiest, most flavorless tomato I ever ate. Orange currant might be too tiny for some. I have high hopes this year trying Homestead.
This could be my year! I was able to get some Sungold to fruit here in Central coast California (Capitola) 9b . Maybe some Manitoba this year? Thanks Brian. This is so helpful.
Zone 6a Romas do great for me, Rutgers not so much!
Zone 9b, central valley California: Yellow pear. Sets fruit in heat compared to many heirlooms. Slows way down in the heat, like all tomatoes, but produces well in late spring and again in fall if it doesn't succumb to blight.
SC here Celebrities 😁
❤️ Brian, thank you for opening the forum to share varieties!!! ❤️ I garden in the Northwest zone 4/5. The cherry varieties do real well. We love the yellow pear, sungold, and currant tomatoes. The non-cherry varieties that do well here are early girl, Burpee long keeper, and Sans Manzano (paste), Stupice, …. there's another that was bred in Oregon but don't recall the name right now.🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅
Zone 10a , Sweet100 grows like weed in my garden.
I am in MN, and "gardening" entirely in containers. Over the last few years, I have tried about 8 kinds of tomatoes. My favorite so far, are Sun Gold, and lemon drop, and I will be growing them again this year. All I have tried,grew well, but my Roma's didn't have much of any flavor.
Southeast Texas, zone 8b on the fringe of 9a. Very hot and humid. Indeterminates don't do well here, and it took me quite a few years of frustration after moving here from Nebraska to finally figure it out.
I now grow Homestead, Floridade, Bella Rosa, Rio Grande, Red Snapper, and this year I am trying 4 or 5 dwarf tomatoes from the Dwarf Tomato Project.
I'm also growing tomatillos, which are indeterminate, so we will see how they do.
Zone 5b dry hot summer days w cool nights. Most tomatoes work provided they’re not over 90 days. Anything past that and it’s very risky and likely to freeze before ripening any fruit. Even 90 days should be somewhat limited.
On the hybrid front my best performer is easily Burpee’s Steakhouse. That thing is my most reliable producer with large, very tasty fruit, that is also usually one of my earliest tomatoes. It’s a champ every year no matter what conditions we get that year. Sweet 100 is also always a champ.
Heirlooms are Black Prince, Pineapple, Black Cherry, and japanese Black Trifele. Only grown once, so far, but Opalka, Jersey Devil and Thorburn’s Lemon Blush, also look to be champs as well. Lemon Blush in particular was my best producer of very tasty tomatoes in a very terrible tomato year.
I’m in Hawaii but not the typical hot humid weather that everyone expects. I am at 3000 foot elevation and receive about 60 inches of rain per year. I have had great luck with a Burpee variety call CLOUDY DAY. This year I’m also trying a variety called Oregon Spring.
Thanks Brian! I'm just a little north of Seattle 8b. I tried the Sub Arctic and the Siberia and wasn't happy with the taste. SunGold, Tommy Toe and Mexican Midget did really well for me. (Cherry & Indeterminate). I was gifted a Ruby Crush Grape (determinate I think) from my neighbor and it did really well, too. Those all tasted really good. Tried a Watermelon Beefsteak and gifted neighbor with a plant. They brought me back a whopper and I enjoyed it. However, we had a really wonky summer last year with a rainy & cold June and some really hot days later on. Powdery mildew got a few of my plants. But 2023 is a new year!
Here in Mesa, Arizona 9b, I have much success with Early Girl, Better Boy, Sweet 100s , San Marzano and Sun Sugar which is a yellow cherry tomato that taste like candy! Not great results with Brandywine and Beefsteak. Thank you for all the suggestions, Brian. Just set up a seed starting station in my house, a bit too late for tomatoes and peppers to get a good start, but will be ready next year to try the other desert suggestions you gave.
I'm in 8b in Washington state. The Siletz tomato was developed to be able to grow on the Oregon coast which rarely gets over 70°. It's a great early slicer variety coming in at around 60 days if I'm remembering correctly.
We are in a hot/dry area and Sun Gold did best for us last year. They are cherry tomatoes and were delicious!
I live in the low desert of AZ zone 9b.. I grew cherry Sun Gold Indeterminate tomatoes. They grew very well in the summer and had really sweet yellow tomatoes. I will be growing them again from seed.
I live here in central Washington, with very hot summers, as we live in the desert. I have grown super sweet 100, Husky cherry reds, mortgage, lifter, yellow pear, and tiny Tim. those are the ones so far that I have grown, and all the tomatoes I have growing have produced well.
I want to know the tomatoes that will do well northern Arizona 5,700 feet. Lots of wind, big swing between daytime and night time temps, 132 growing days.
West central coast of Florida. Zone 9A. Good video. Unfortunately I did not buy any of those type of seeds. Will pick some up though. Thank you for the information.
In Melbourne Australia, different varieties here, this year's been wet cold or hot humid boucing, usually dry heat here as it is now. Been an interesting season.
Gatineau, Quebec, Canada – zone 4a: sweet millions, Roma, and beefsteak. 🍅
South Central Washington State….. Sweet 1000s for cherry….Early girl,and beef steak! I think we are in zone 6….but could be 7! Love your posts.! 😊
Hello I live on the high desert of Southern California. I grow open pollinated tomatoes. In the past I've grown San Marzano, Cherokee Purple, Dr Whyces, Brandywine, and Big Rainbow. My zone is 8B.
I Live in Southern Utah. Utah State University developed a tomato especially for Utah. It's name is the Utah Moscow. Determinate tomato
Ok well I'm just outside of St. Louis MO…I haven't figured out if I'm in zone 6A or 6B, I've used two different computer generated sites that use your zip code to determine your zone and I've gotten 2 different answers. Idk if I'm on a boarder of both or what. I was hoping to see someone else from my area , but after scrolling through at least 200 comments not one from Missouri. We love tomatoes in this house so we typically grow A LOT of them. However last year was a non-typical year with our weather having more of a mood disorder than normal. Those that have done well for us in the past are better boy, early girl, Cherokee purple, black prince, black cherry, supersweet 100, sun sugar, and last year our best I think was green zebra, honeycomb, and yellow pear. Although, brandywines, black prince and a variety of cherry tomatoes are my favs, green zebra is now in my top 5. Hoping for better weather this year so all of our plants and can better. Last year was discouraging across the board, I almost decided not to grow this year, but with the rising cost of food and the predicted shortages, I decided to give it another shot. I've been learning all I can since late fall, there's just so many different opinions and different ways of doing things and it depends on where you live and what varieties your growing, it's overwhelming and confusing to say the least. I've been trying to find someone who lives near me that has been successful and doing this much longer than myself so that I could get tips from someone local, but I have het to find anyone.
I'm in the UK and I think I'm zone 8 (average temp 20C – 25C (70F- 80F) during the summer months. Gardeners delight is my favourite cherry tomato but I grow it in the greenhouse to make sure it ripens before the autumn
Chino Valley, AZ We have some success with Cherokee Purple, San Manzano, most cherry toms, Black Kris did well 10 or so years ago. We have had such hot summers lately that they no longer do well.
I find the videos very informative. But today I did not hear of a variety available in Scotland. I am on the west coast on the Clyde, and have had no luck growing outdoors. Indoors, in the conservatory and in the polytunnel things have been better. I have been successful with most varieties I have tried, like marzano, gardeners delight, yellow delight. I have only tried indeterminate varieties, as I do not have much space.
What grows best in Dallas Texas?
CA 9b. Last summer was a scorcher of a summer here! Tip! if a variety that you planted is surviving even in extreme and unusual weather, Let a sucker grow about 18", cut and stick, deep in the soil (I didn't need to place in water to root). I had tomatoes through Oct. in my zone! At least you'll know that this variety is hardy in that particular weather, and you'll have tomatoes to harvest, can, or make powder in hard, unexpected weather. I had "large cherry" for months! I learned that I will only grow one plant of each variety I like, and succession plant their suckers. I mean…Yay! for suckers!!
What grows best in cold far northern wisconsin? 100 day grow season.
Texas and the Celebrity & the Silvery Fir tree tomato grew well for us!!
KY 6b…never had much trouble with whatever tomato I plant. It would be nice to have ripe ones to taste, but the chipmunks get them first. I used to think those critters were cute, but now I hate the evil little things. They seem to love living here, have settled down and are raising a family. Any suggestions o n how to get rid of them without killing them?
I'm near Memphis in 7b. My best ones are sweet 100, cherokee purple, and cour de bue. They're in my garden every year. Better boy and beefsteak do ok. Nothing to write home about, but I do seem to plant a few every year. I probably won't because I have a bunch of new varieties to try this year.
I accidentally had several years of those yellow cherry tomatoes that you get at the grocery store volunteer because one of my kids decided to help me by dumping them in our compost bin. They're tenacious. I was fighting volunteers for years. I think its because of Murphy's Law. No one in my family liked them, so I needed tons.
What didn't do well or not as well as I expected are: San Marzano from Seeds of Change. They were teeny tiny, about the size of cherry tomatoes. San Marzano gigante, and big mamma. Just didn't thrive for some reason. And Brandy wine. They seem to be a late tomato, that couldn't catch up after after summer stall in time to have a significant harvest before first freeze.
Arizona, 9b. Sweet 100s,Punta Banda do great!
I live in Lanai City, Hawaii, Zone 12a. We constantly battle leaf spot and other fungal diseases. I will have to try some of the hybrid tomatoes you talked about for hot, humid weather. I had very little success growing any larger tomatoes until I started spraying weekly with aspirin and hydrogen peroxide spray. Doing that I have had good success with Dr. Wyche Yellow, Abe Lincoln and Pineapple tomatoes. Grape and cherry tomatoes seem to all grow well, especially when I spray them regularly.
This was a great idea for a video. Thank you for the useful information. From Sarasota, zone 9b, 10 fingers of Naples grew well for me, determinate