Garden Tips: New tomatoes to try growing

May I have a drum roll as I announce some of the newest 2017 tomato varieties on the garden market?

The two All American Selection tomato winners for this year are yellow varieties: Patio Choice Yellow F1 and Chef’s Choice Yellow F1. Ta-da!

Patio Choice Yellow is a compact patio tomato with determinant growth. This means it grows to its mature height of a modest 18 inches, flowers and produces tomatoes that ripen at about the same time. Each compact plant produces about 100 golden yellow round cherry tomatoes that weigh in at only a half-ounce each. All American Selection says the fruit “are mildly sweet with a touch of acid.” Patio Choice Yellow is perfect for container or hanging basket growing. It is resistant to diseases Fusarium and Verticillium wilt, as well as Tobacco Mosaic Virus. (Seed can be purchased from totallytomato.com, jungseed.com and others.)

Chef’s Choice Yellow, a 2017 All American Selection that performed best in the southeast region, produces much larger yellow tomatoes on indeterminate vines that grow to a height of 4 to 5 feet. Each plant produces 30 or more 9-to 10-ounce beefsteak type fruit with a flattened-globe shape. The fruit have a “sweet, citrus-like flavor.” It is TMV, F, V and crack resistant. (Seed available from jungseed.com.)

Of course, seed purveyors are also introducing their own new varieties. New may mean it is a variety that they have discovered or developed themselves, but may also just mean it is new to their catalog. Let’s look at some of this year’s other “new” tomatoes.

Burpee (burpee.com) is offering three new tomatoes. The one that has caught my interest is Gladiator Hybrid. This indeterminate tomato produces Roma-type sauce tomatoes that are above the norm in size, weighing in at 8 ounces per fruit. Burpee said that these large fruit have “dense, tangy” flesh and are great for making sauces and pastes that have a “rich, robust flavor.” I like making and freezing sauce made with my garden tomatoes, so I might just give Gladiator Hybrid a try.

Totally Tomatoes (totallytomato.com) is a favorite seed company of many tomato enthusiasts because of its focus on tomato and pepper varieties. If you do not want to start your own plants from seed, the company also offers plants and grafted plants of some varieties. One of the new tomato offerings is Grandma’s Little Girl Tomato. This hybrid heritage variety is V, F and root-knot nematode resistant, indeterminate and produces red 5 to 7-ounce beefsteak-type fruit in clusters. The tomatoes have “great tomato flavor” and are good slicing and salad tomatoes. It is an open pollinated hybrid.

Territorial Seed Company (territorialseed.com) is a family-owned company in Cottage Grove, Ore. It offers many tomato varieties, including heirloom, hybrid heirloom, storage and rootstock varieties. I often order from them because they also offer a variety of tomato plants. New to their catalog this year is a hybrid heirloom from the trademarked Heirloom Marriage series. Cherokee Carbon is a hybrid that combines the best of two heirlooms, Cherokee Purple and Carbon. The result is a tomato with “rich, delicious flavored” fruit. Cherokee Carbon is indeterminate and produces 10- to 12-ounce reddish-purple beefsteak fruit.

There are so many great tomato varieties. Now is the time to check out the new ones, review the old ones and decide which ones you want to grow. Spring cannot be far away, so order your seed soon.

This story was originally published January 22, 2017 at 8:03 AM with the headline "Garden Tips: New tomatoes to try growing."