The 5 Best Tomato Varieties To Grow In Your Garden This Year

With over 10,000 different tomato varieties available, it can be hard to know which ones are right to grow in your garden, so that’s why I’ve put together a list of what I consider to be the 5 best tomato varieties.

Tomatoes come in all sorts of different shapes, sizes, colors, and flavors. Some are better for slicing, some are perfect for turning into thick tomato sauces, and some are great for snacking.

I’ve grown a lot of different types of tomatoes over the years during my gardening journey. However, we only have so much space in our garden to dedicate to tomatoes each year. This means I have to be a bit picky about what varieties I include.

When the time comes for me to choose my tomato seeds to start indoors, I always make sure to get my top favorites, all with different features and aspects that make them special to our family. There’s one for snacking, one for topping those summertime BLT sandwiches, one for turning into rich pasta sauce, and more!

Some of the tomatoes are my favorites because of their outstanding flavor and texture. Others are must-haves because of the plant’s ability to resist diseases while producing constantly successful harvests. Others I grow simply because they are fun and the fruit is great for snacking. All-in-all, these are my top 5 best tomato varieties.

The 5 Best Tomato Varieties – According To Me Anyway!

#1: Brandywine Tomatoes

If I could only pick one slicing tomato to grow each year, hands down it would be a brandywine of some sort. I’ve grown both Pink and Red Brandywine tomatoes and love each one. (So I usually grow a few plants of each!)

Brandywines are heirloom tomato plants, which means I am able to save the seeds from year to year. This helps me save money in addition to knowing I can always have this variety on hand to grow each year. (You can learn more about the different types of tomatoes here, “Choosing The Right Tomato Varieties For Your Garden And Harvest”.)

Brandywine tomatoes are huge, meaty, beefsteak-type of fruit. The fruit can grow anywhere between 9 to 16 ounces when fully ripe and be larger than your hand! While they take a bit longer to grow and ripen compared to smaller varieties, the wait is definitely worth it!

You just can’t match the flavor and texture of a ripe Brandywine tomato. It is packed full of low-acidic flavor and tons of juice. It’s by far my favorite for adding to BLT sandwiches and for eating on its own with a little Redmond’s salt. (Product Link: Redmond Real Salt Ancient Fine Sea Salt)

We also like to add in a few Brandywine tomatoes when we are canning tomato sauces, salsas, and other products due to the amazing flavor of the fruit. The more varieties added to those types of canned products, the better!

#2: San Marzano Tomatoes – The 5 Best Tomato Varieties

When it comes to sauce tomatoes (also called plum, roma, or paste tomatoes), San Marzano is easily my favorite. The plants push out loads of 3 to 5-ounce, tear-drop-shaped tomatoes with pointy ends.

Some consider this plant to be semi-determinate, but the plants I grow continually produce fruit all growing season long and up until the first frost. However, since it sets loads of fruit at once, it is great for use with canning and processing. In fact, that’s where this variety reigns.

The fruit itself has plenty of meaty flesh and little liquid or seeds, making it perfect for adding body to sauces and other dishes that need a bit more substance. The fruit features a sweet flavor with some acidity that also makes it good for eating raw and snacking.

Besides using them for canning purposes, we often use San Marzano tomatoes when making our Six Ingredient Guacamole or our Tomato, Cucumber, and Onion Salad during the summer months. Typically, two to four plants are plenty to provide our family with what we need.

#3: Chadwick Cherry Tomatoes

If you are looking for the perfect cherry tomato, then Chadwick Cherry is the one to get! It is another heavy-producing plant that pushes out perfectly sized, 1-ounce fruit up until the first frost.

The tomatoes are great for eating fresh and adding to salads and other fresh recipes. However, we also like to add cherry tomatoes when making tomato sauce. It’s a great way to use up a lot of fruit while enhancing the flavor and texture of your tomato sauces.

Another reason why we love the Chadwick Cherry is because the plant itself is extremely disease-resistant. And while it is an indeterminate plant, it doesn’t grow as out of control as another one on my list. (See Spoon tomatoes below!)

Due to its high output, we usually only plant one Chadwick Cherry, and it’s plenty to provide us with enough cherry tomatoes to harvest all summer long.

#4: Bonny Best Tomatoes – The 5 Best Tomato Varieties

Bonny Best is a classic canning tomato that has been around since the early 1900s. It was the “go-to” when it came time for processing sauces, juice, ketchup, and anything else that would need to become shelf-stable.

It has a rich, acidic flavor with few seeds and liquid. Besides canning, it’s also great for eating fresh and slicing on burgers or BLTs.

Each fruit can grow between 3 to 10 ounces (averaging around 5 ounces each) and features a smooth, globe-like shape. It has that iconic “tomato” flavor that you would normally associate with a classic tomato.

As another indeterminate tomato, it will continue to produce fruit up until the first frost. It’s just a great all-around tomato to have on hand if you are limited on the varieties you can grow in your garden space.

#5: Spoon Tomatoes

This is one tomato variety that I actually have a love-hate relationship with. Yet I feel it still deserves a spot in our garden and in my top 5 best tomato varieties list.

This plant is a hardy grower and one of the best producers out there. However, the tomatoes it produces are teeny tiny! You can literally fit multiple tomatoes on a single spoon – hence their name.

The Spoon tomato is an indeterminate variety, which means it continues to produce fruit up until our first frost. The plants actually grow so well that they can become rather unruly and overgrown in no time at all. That’s part of my “hate” reasoning (and why we only usually grow one plant each year.)

In addition, due to their fruit being so small, harvesting is no simple task. I have found that it’s best to wait until most of the fruit on each truss turns red and then harvest the entire piece. Otherwise, you can spend forever trying to pick off the small, individual fruit.

It’s Worth It!

The hard work is worth it though! These tiny tomatoes have an amazing pop of bright flavor and can be eaten like candy! My daughter will often snack on them while we are working in the garden.

Another reason why they are one of my favorites is because these tiny tomatoes freeze and thaw out amazingly well. Most tomatoes become soft and mushy once they thaw.

But since the Spoon tomatoes are so small, we just grab what we need, allow them to thaw out a little bit, and then throw them on our salads. It’s a fresh, welcoming burst of flavor that we can enjoy even in the dead of winter!

Well, there you have it, my top 5 best tomato varieties that we always try to include in our garden each year! I’d love to hear about some of your favorite varieties!

Until next time, thanks for stopping by!
– Chelsea

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