After a lovely winter break, I returned to the office with a stack of seed catalogs begging me to order more seeds. I already have hundreds of different seed packets that I have accumulated over the years. Many of the seeds are old enough that they likely are not viable anymore, but I just have trouble throwing them away. Fortunately, seeds are relatively inexpensive which makes them easy to add to my collection. 

The bulk of my seed library are tomato seeds. As a quintessential garden vegetable and the most popular garden crop grown in America, I order tomato seeds yearly. My family also enjoys eating tomatoes! But what do I look for when selecting my tomato seed for the upcoming growing season? Well, my process has evolved over the years, and it will likely change again, but there are some important lessons I’ve learned over time that might help others thumbing through seed catalogs. 

Favorite Type of Tomato

Perhaps the most important consideration when growing your own tomatoes is which type of tomato you use most often. In my household, we use more cherry tomatoes than any other type making these a mainstay in the garden. I love a slice of tomato on a sandwich, so we also look for one or two types of slicing tomatoes. However, I have no desire to make my own tomato sauce so we skip on the fleshy Romas and other sauce-tomatoes. While I did go through my phase of novel colors or massive beefsteak tomatoes, I’ve been disappointed too much by some of these over the years. However, there are some gems in this category.

Flavor – Acidity vs. Sweetness

You could grow the most beautiful tomato, but if the flavor is disappointing, most people will not grow it again. There is a lot going on when it comes to tomato flavor and there are things we do to enhance the tomatoeyness of a tomato such as cooking it on the stove to reduce water content or pairing it with basil. 

Perhaps the most popular way to pick your preferred flavor is to consider the acid-to-sugar ratio. Some people need to avoid acidic tomatoes due to gastrointestinal issues, but for many, it is about preference. So what tomatoes have more sugar? Which are more acidic? And what is most balanced? In this case, we’re often at the mercy of the seed company giving us this information, but there are ways to indicate (Generally speaking) what a tomato’s sugar-to-acid ratio will be by looking at the color of the fruit.

• Red tomatoes are considered to be fairly balanced when it comes to acid and sweetness and give us the traditional tomato look, flavor, and good dose of lycopene!
• Purple or dark tomatoes often have a salty acidic bite. Acid helps in the preservation of tomatoes allowing high-acid tomatoes to keep better.
• Yellow and orange tomatoes typically are considered sweeter tomatoes and can even win over those who don’t like traditional tomato flavors. These are often a good option for those avoiding acid.

Heirloom vs. Hybrid (and now Bioengineered)

Gardeners may choose heirloom, hybrid, and now bioengineered tomatoes for several reasons. Heirlooms come true from seed and can be saved year after year, often bred for flavor but susceptible to many tomato ailments. Hybrids do not come true from seed, but they often have better disease resistance and improved qualities. In the past, I would say hybrids aren’t the most flavorful, but in recent years breeders have spent a lot of effort on creating hybrid tomatoes that have good flavor along with disease resistance. For the past few growing seasons, I have grown some exceptionally flavored hybrid tomatoes. 

As of the beginning of 2025, there is also one bioengineered tomato on the market available to home gardeners. It is known simply as the Purple Tomato. It is a cherry tomato that had a snapdragon gene inserted to make the fruit purple throughout from outer skin to interior flesh. 

Mature Size (Habit)

There are two categories of growth habits for tomatoes – indeterminate and determinate. In the beginning, I sought heirloom tomatoes packed with flavor and notoriety. These very often were indeterminate tomatoes whose growth is best described as a vine that will continue to grow until the first frost of the fall. Indeterminate tomatoes can be massive, unruly beasts that require trellising and frequent training and pruning. I even picked several hybrids over the years that were also indeterminate. 

After years of fighting jungles of tomato vines, I have switched to focus mainly on selecting determinant tomatoes. Determinant tomatoes have a bush-like growth habit. Once the plant reaches its mature size it will focus growth on flowers and fruit development. The tradeoff is that the harvest window for determinant tomatoes is often more limited. 

There are also dwarf tomatoes. I often see these marketed as patio tomatoes which can be grown in containers on a patio, deck, sidewalk, or any spot where you may have grown a pot of annual flowers in the past. 

Tomato Resistance to Disease and Other Problems

It’s very difficult to grow a tasty tomato if you can’t grow a healthy tomato plant. Over the years farmers and breeders have worked to build resistance to common tomato disease and other maladies like cracking and blossom end rot. Many seed catalog descriptions will list what the tomato has shown resistance to. Resistance to diseases such as verticillium wilt (V), fusarium wilt (F), tomato mosaic virus (T). If you have had issues with splitting tomatoes, catfacing, or blossom end rot there are tomatoes out there that have shown to have these problems less frequently. 

It is important to point out resistance does not equal immunity. Proper plant care is paramount to limit the stress that would cause diseases, pests, and other issues.

Third-Party Recommendations

Most seed company websites have search filters to help you find your preferred tomatoes. These filters include “Most Popular” or “Best Seller” to narrow down some of the best seeds offered by that company. Now this is a biased tool offering seeds for sale by that company, but it can be useful when narrowing down tomatoes for your garden. Unfortunately, there is little independent university trial data on vegetables anymore. 

One objective source is searching the All American Selections (AAS) website. AAS is an independent organization that trials plants all over the country. Fortunately, for us tomato lovers AAS happens to recommend a new tomato variety every year. Scrolling through their online database will yield a bountiful list of tomatoes to grow at home. Most seed companies will also highlight AAS-winning seeds being sold on their websites.

How Much Seed Do You Need?

The reason I have so many extra packets of tomato seed is that these are big plants. Most will require a three-foot spacing in a home garden. Plus, many of us growing in the backyard will not be growing acres of tomatoes, but instead at most a dozen tomatoes. Sprouting extra tomatoes to share or swap seedlings with neighbors and fellow gardeners is a great way to have a diverse selection of tomatoes in your garden that maybe weren’t on your radar when flipping through seed catalogs. It can also help cut down on those excess seeds carried over from year to year.

Good Growing Tip of the Week: To add to the complexity tomato texture and flavor can change depending on where and how the plant is grown.