The Tomato Guide: Find a Tomato for Your Garden Zone | Rockin W Homestead (2024)

Use the tomato guide to find terrific varieties to fit your specific garden zone. Everyone can grow tomatoes.

Almost everyone loves tomatoes and even if they don’t like them fresh they like them processed into something good like salsa, sauce, or ketchup. The key is to choose varieties that are right for your climate.

Did you know that there are two types of tomatoes – determinate and indeterminate? Determinate tomato plants are often compact, will grow to a specified height and produce all if it’s fruit at one time. Grow these for large batch preserving. Indeterminate tomatoes keep growing tall and producing all season long. Trellising or heavy staking will be required.

Why heirloom tomatoes

Many people are not aware of how many varieties of tomatoes there actually are available to grow. You might be surprised to learn that, according to The U.S. Department of Agriculture, thereare 25,000 tomato varieties. Other sources cap the number of types of tomatoes at 10,000, but either way, that’s a lot of tomatoes that could be gracing your table.

The truth is, we only have access to a dozen or so of those varieties when we buy from the grocery store. If you want to experience any part of the other 9,975 tomato varieties that are available in the big,wide world, you’ll have to grow them yourself.

Days to Maturity

The terms days to maturity and days to harvest are used interchangeably and many tomato plants have been bred to mature early for those of us who garden in short season climates.

A simple definition of the term ‘Days to maturity’ could be the time needed for the plant to reach maturity. That seems simple enough, but it is not quite that straightforward.The word maturity is the sticking point. This term is not well defined in plant circles, but in the case of tomatoes, it usually refers to a point in plant growth where you can pick your first ripe tomato.

Most traditional tomato varieties take 70 to 85 days from the time that plants are placed in the ground to the time that fruits are ready to harvest. In the case of mid-season tomatoes, you can expect your plants to begin producing fruit 50 to 55 days after planting them in the ground. Once tomatoes appear on the vine they will take another 20 to 30 days to reach maturity.

When do you start measuring this time period?

The answer depends on how you start the seed. Because tomato seeds are usually started indoors and then planted in the garden, the time of maturity is the time from setting out seedlings in the garden, or when transplanted into their final growing pot, to the harvest of the first tomato. Learn more about days to maturity at Garden Fundamentals.

How to grow tomatoes

General Growing Requirements

Start indoors/outdoors: 6 to 8 weeks before your last frost date. Tomatoes are not planted directly in the garden from seed.
Soil temp: 70F to 90F
Seed planting depth: ¼ inch
Seed spacing: 1 inch
Seed life: 3 years
Days to germination: 6 to 14 days
Days to maturity: 50 to 90 depending on the variety
Plant Height: 3 to 6 feet depending on the variety
Plant Spacing: 24 inches
Water requirements: water to a depth of an inch when the soil is dry, especially when the fruit is forming. Do not water overhead, this causes temperature stress and opens the door for a fungus to grow.
Fertilizer requirements: Heavy feeders. Add plenty of aged compost and manure into the planting hole. Monthly with 5-10-5.Stay away from urea or fresh manure, the plant will produce plenty of leaves but little fruit.

Master list of tomato varieties by days to harvest

Early and cold weather crops (65 days and below)

Because tomatoes are naturally heat-loving plants,you’ll need to plan on giving them some extra protection if you want to raise them in zones 5 and below. These varieties will work best for you if you have a growing season of fewer than 65 days. See the supplier key below.

Mid Season Tomatoes (65 to 80 days)

Mid-season tomatoes will mature from 65 to 80 days after you transplant them into your garden. They are best suited for zones 5 to 8. If you can provide some light frost protection, the indeterminate varieties will produce for you all season long.

Late Season Tomatoes (80 days or more)

Late season tomatoes are best grown by people living in garden zones 8 to 11. They require an extended period of warmth to mature. If you live in the north, you can push the limits of yourgrowing time by using a greenhouse.

Key to tomato seed companies

T= Territorial Seed Company

J= John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds

BI= Botanical Interests Seed Company

S- Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

N= Natural Gardening Company

R= Baker Creek Rare Seeds

SS= Seeds N Such

ST= Sow True Seed

B= Burpee

P= Pinetree Garden Seeds

ChoosingHeirloom, Hybrid, and Open PollinatedSeed

When shopping for seeds at your local garden center or seed catalog, you may notice some are marked ‘heirloom,” while others are labeled “hybrid.” Have you ever wondered what these terms mean and if one is better for you than the other?

These terms seem to create a lot of confusion among novice and experienced gardeners alike. There are those who swear that heirloom seeds are the only way to go because they think hybrids plants are inferior­­­­. On the other hand, many hybrid seed fans are convinced these are a better all-around choice because they tend to be more vigorous producers and are less susceptible to disease and pests.

In reality, there may be room in every garden for both types of plants. To better understand the distinction between heirloom and hybrid seed varieties, it helps to look at how they came to be. it comes down to open-pollination vs careful manipulation.

Read the article Heirloom -vs- Hybris, Which is Best to learn more.

This is only a small sampling of the tomato varieties that are available by garden zone. No matter which you choose to grow this year, there is always room to try another tomato variety in the next!