Top Tomato Varieties

By Jessica Harden

Summer is still a few months away, but local gardeners, thoughts are turning to those wonderful garden-grown tomatoes and deciding which seedlings to start or purchase this year.

At the recent Washington Gardener Seed Exchange, held at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, VA, on February 4, horticulturist Carrie Engel of Valley View Farms in Cockeysville, MD, gave a presentation about growing the best tomatoes in our region.

Engel specified that when choosing what tomato plant you want to grow, you first have to decide if you want a determinate or indeterminate plant. Determinate plants are shorter and stop growing after blooming, while indeterminate varieties continue to grow— indeterminate plants produce tomatoes faster and longer.

The different shapes and sizes of tomatoes should also be considered when purchasing a tomato plant. Plum tomatoes are great for canning, cherry tomatoes are great for snacking and just to have around, and beefsteak tomatoes are good for sandwiches.

Engel handed out a catalog with the different tomato varieties sold at Valley View Farms that can help customers decide on the perfect tomato plant for their needs. The catalog had columns for each tomato that specified if the variety was an heirloom; open-pollinated; indeterminate/determinate; and disease-resistant against verticillium wilt, fusarium wilt, nematodes, and tobacco mosaic virus. There are also columns that specify the color, shape, weight, harvest time, and flavor or texture of the tomato.

She then shared some of their bestsellers and the plants that she personally recommended for growing in our region.

One of the heirlooms, ‘Cherokee Purple’, is an open-pollinated, indeterminate, purple beefsteak tomato, but it isn’t disease-resistant.

Another purple heirloom tomato relative is the ‘Tomatillo Purple’. It is an open-pollinated, indeterminate globe shape that is noted to be a “salsa staple.”

The ‘Lemon Boy’ is an indeterminate globe tomato with “lemon-colored flesh” that is resistant to verticillium wilt, fusarium wilt, and nematodes.

The ‘Sunrise Bumble Bee’ is an openpollinated, indeterminate, yellow-andorange cherry tomato that has marbled flesh.

The ‘Tomatoberry’ is an indeterminate cherry tomato that is strawberryshaped. This unique plant is also resistant to verticillium wilt, fusarium wilt, and nematodes.

Engel also stated that ‘Celebrity’, a determinate, red globe tomato is a best-seller for them because it is very disease-resistant. o

Jessica Harden is a junior journalism major minoring in law and society, with a concentration in criminal law, at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD. She is an intern this semester with Washington Gardener and is from San Antonio, TX

By Kathy Jentz and Teresa Speight