Top 10 Best Tomato Seeds Online
Some questions I’m often asked when meeting with gardeners are, “What are your best tomato seeds?” or “What are your top 10 tomato seed favorites?” and I always find these difficult to answer. In my 25 years at Territorial Seed Company, I have tried a whole heck of a lot of tomatoes. When you try as many as I have your top 10 tomato list starts to expand into “Top 10 beefsteak tomatoes”, “Top 10 cherry tomatoes”, “Top 10 hybrid tomatoes”, “Top 10 organic tomatoes”, etc. very quickly! But for this article I will attempt to confine my list to the absolute best, top 10 tomatoes, regardless of their category.
A couple of notes before getting into the list. I do not consider myself a tomato expert, merely an enthusiastic gardener who likes to try a lot of different things. As all gardeners know, individual results may vary, and a specific variety of tomato may taste sweet and tangy in one garden, but savory and salty in another. As an example, for many years we have offered a yellow slicer tomato named Taxi. It produces 4-5 inch yellow tomatoes with a good flavor, but in most of the taste tests, something like Brandywine or Pineapple would win out. However, one year a customer submitted Taxi in our “Great Northwest Tomato Taste-Off” contest and won 2nd place. Something about his specific combination of soil, climate, watering pattern, and overall growing technique really made the flavor of Taxi shine through. All that said, many tomato varieties are known for their excellent flavor, no matter what conditions they are grown in.
Not all these tomato seed varieties are ranked on flavor; other attributes include disease resistance, growing habit, yield, color, and more. Every tomato seed on this list has something that bumps it to the top for me. I am sure that some of selections will be controversial since we all rank our tomatoes a bit differently. I would love to hear your feedback, and your selections of favorites!
1. Brandywine Heirloom Tomato
The heirloom tomato by which all other tomatoes are compared. Rich with true tomato flavor, this variety is on almost every top 10 tomato seed list, and in every tomato enthusiast’s garden. At 7 inches across this is a real beefsteak tomato. The variety from our organic farm has been selected for over 10 years to ensure its health and vigor.
Along with Gold Nugget Cherry Tomato, Brandywine is one of the tomatoes I grew in my first garden. While I will always have a place in my heart for this traditional beefsteak heirloom tomato, it produces fewer overall fruit than some other similar varieties like Cherokee Purple Tomato, Momotaro Tomato, or even Pineapple Tomato, so it does not always have a place in my organic garden.
2. Cherokee Purple Heirloom Tomato
Well known and sought after, Cherokee Purple Tomato stuns in the garden with its deep purple color, and rich tomato flavor. Shoulders will remain green when ripe. One of the best-producing heirloom tomatoes we grow that is available as organic tomato seed.
I have to confess that I have never actually grown Cherokee Purple tomato in my garden, though I have always intended to! One of the many benefits of being a part of the Territorial Seed Company team is that even if a variety you love is not in your garden, chances are you can snag a few from the farm, which I have done many times over the years to enjoy this excellent and productive tomato seed variety.
3. San Marzano Paste Tomato
This roma paste tomato is the chef’s choice when it comes to sauce making! Rosy-red fruit with thick walls and the quintessential tomato flavor make this heirloom tomato a perfect choice for your tomato garden. This variety from our farm has been grown organically, so make sure to add our strain on your organic tomato seed list.
Though this is classified as a sauce or paste tomato seed, San Marzano is flavorful enough to be used in any way a tomato can be used. I have used it for salsa, sliced on sandwiches, and eaten plain with just a dash of salt. If I was only able to plant one tomato in my organic vegetable garden, this one might be it!
4. Gold Nugget Cherry Tomato
Many people remember Yellow Pear tomato as a staple of the garden. Gold Nugget improves on that! Not the same shape as a Yellow Pear tomato, it has a more rounded cherry tomato shape. It’s yellow/golden color makes it really stand out in the vegetable garden. A very early producer, this is often one of the first cherry tomatoes to ripen. Available as organic seed.
This is one of the first tomatoes I ever grew, and they have a place in my organic garden every season. I often pair it with Sweet Million tomato, and with these two extremely prolific cherry tomatoes, I have enough fruit to share with the whole neighborhood.
5. Legend Slicer Tomato
If late blight has been a problem in your garden, you should try growing Legend. Legend has shown some tolerance of late blight fungi US8 and US11, so even in the most virulent areas, gardeners have a chance of harvesting ripe tomatoes. Legend not only demonstrates tolerance of late blight, but it’s also one of the earliest maturing slicing tomatoes we know of. Legend produces amazingly sweet tomatoes with just the right amount of acidity. Produced at our farm so it’s also available as organic seed.
Home Gardeners in the Pacific Northwest and throughout the country know of the tomato growing struggles that are caused by late blight. When we first released this variety, we heard from customers that had their first successful tomato harvest in years due to Legend’s blight resistance. This is a must have for anyone with late blight issues in your area.
6. Ruby Crush Grape Tomato
We’ve been searching for a sweet, flavorful, determinate grape tomato for years, and finally found it! These compact plants are high yielding, producing bright scarlet fruit. The firm grape tomatoes hold well on the plant. An excellent option for small gardens and container growing. This hybrid tomato shows excellent disease resistance.
Grape tomatoes are one of my favorites to grow. I love the firm flesh that they tend to have, the balance of sweet and sour halfway between a cherry tomato, and a slicer.
7. Sungold Cherry Tomato
Sungold’s fruity or tropical flavor is a big hit with everyone who tastes it. A vigorous and highly productive cherry tomato, almost every vegetable garden should grow this organic tomato variety. It is also very disease resistant, which is helpful for vegetable enthusiasts who struggle with disease issues.
Like Brandywine tomato, Sungold is the cherry tomato by which all others are compared. SUPER sweet, with a flavor unlike most other cherry tomatoes. I know many gardeners that require at least one Sungold in their home garden every year.
8. Momotaro Beefsteak Tomato
Momotaro is one of the most popular tomato varieties in Japanese markets and for good reason. Its flavor is an intricate and harmonious combination of sweet and tangy that has won Momotaro several tomato tasting contests. The radiant pink slicers weigh 6–7 ounces. Momotaro is durable, heat tolerant, and crack resistant with good storability.
This tomato variety is included on my list not from personal experience, but because it is so often recommended to me, and because it is very popular among our customers. It is on my list to be planted in my person tomato garden this year!
9. Indigo™ Cherry Drops Cherry Tomato
Perfectly packaged for healthy snacking, these single-bite cherry tomatoes are mouthwateringly delicious and loaded with the high antioxidant At 1–1 ¼ inches across, Indigo™ Cherry Drops are deep, rosy-red with a black-purple cast that is bursting with sweet flavor.
We recently sent some plants of Indigo™ Cherry Drops to our friends at Bloom & Grow Radio, and they did a taste test comparing these to some other popular cherry tomato varieties. While the results showed that all the varieties they tried were delicious they mentioned due to the complex flavor and unique color, Indigo™ Cherry Drops would have a continuing place in their garden.
10. Heartbreakers Dora Red Container Tomato
This dwarf tomato is perfect for container gardening, or even indoor growing. Adorable and prolific, Dora will win you over with sturdy, upright, very compact plants that are draped with heavy trusses of tasty tomatoes. The heart-shaped fruit line up on long bunches and turn from light green to bright red. Hybrid tomato variety.
This is a new introduction this year and really impressed us with their ability to not only grow, but to thrive in small containers and low light settings. While they may not produce as much as your tomato seeds in the garden, they can help create a little garden space indoors!
Conclusion
Unfortunately, there are some outstanding tomato seed varieties that will not make it on the list. Some of my other personal favorite tomato seed varieties are: Pineapple heirloom tomato, Stupice heirloom tomato, Blush cherry tomato, Japanese Trifele Black heirloom tomato, and more. There may be a part two of the Top 10 Best Tomato Seeds Online! As I mentioned before, some of these tomato variety selections will be controversial, since this is my personal list. I would love to hear what is on your top 10 tomato seed list!
Author: Tim R
