I will be detailing each tomato that I have as my favorite to grow and why I grow them, whether that be for top producer, flavor, color, texture, size, presentation, or any other contributing factor. I have been growing tomatoes for decades and each year try new varieties to find the best tomatoes to grow.
See my link to the Best Tomatoes of 2022 that I grew and recommend based on growing tomatoes in 2022.
The Best Tomatoes to Grow and Eat
Last year I grew 24 tomatoes with 10 different varieties, some of these now have been included on my favorites this year.
Here is a picture of the first tomato harvest of 2022
Big Beef, Bloody Butcher, Sungold, Prairie Fire, and Gladiator Tomatoes.
Best Small cherry varieties
These tomatoes are snacking size approximately the size of a quarter, with shorter harvest times, and full of flavor. They are usually heavy producers so 1-2 plants will feed a family of 3-6 people.
Sungold
This is at the top of my list of favorites and has been for many years. This is deep yellow gold in color thus its name Sun gold. This tomato is a heavy-yielding plant that produces early in the season and continues until frost in the late fall (I had Sungolds that I was picking in November this year in Oregon). This is an indeterminate, hybrid variety with very few disease issues and grows in large clusters. I have chosen it for its great flavor and high yield all summer to snack on right off the vine or to add in salads of all varieties. This is also a great tomato for children to grow and eat. Very Best small tomato
Prairie Fire
This is a new tomato to my favorite list. Last year was my first year to grow this variety and it was a winner with everyone in my family, it may move to the top of my list of small tomatoes after another year of testing. This is an elongated small tomato shaped like a grape that is red with yellow/orange stripes. It is also a heavy producer that produces tomatoes early and throughout the summer and early fall. I have chosen this tomato to add to my favorites for its outstanding flavor which is super sweet and its great visual appeal. It can be eaten right out of the garden or added in salads of all varieties. This is a great tomato for children to grow and eat. Best small tomato
Cherry
These are an intermediate variety type of tomato, there are many different Cherry variety types. These tomatoes can vary in size from very small up to 1 1/2″. The common theme with all of these is red in color very sweet in flavor and high-yielding tomatoes. They are early and will produce until late fall when the first frost hits. These tomatoes are great to snack on right out of the garden or to add to a salad. Kids love them as well and are easy for them to grow. Very good tomato
Best Intermediate-size tomatoes
These tomatoes are between the cherry size tomatoes and the larger tomato varieties 2-2 1/2″ that usually produce fruit in a shorter period of time making it a favorite of most gardeners. They are similar to the cherry type in that they have clusters of tomatoes with lots of flavors.
Bloody Butcher
This is one of my favorites for its size, flavor and is one of the earliest for harvesting. This is a great tomato to have early in the year with only 55 days to maturity, and the flavor and its juicy characteristics cannot be beaten for an intermediate-size tomato. It is an intermediate variety that has clusters of tomatoes similar to a cherry type of cluster. This tomato usually is a high-yielding tomato in early summer and again in late summer, I usually will plant a second plant about 3 weeks after the 1st one to keep them producing in mid-summer. It is also an easy one to grow for getting children started and since it produces fruit in 55-60 days they can be rewarded for their efforts earlier than other larger tomatoes. Very Best Intermediate-size tomato
Yellow Boy
These tomatoes are an heirloom variety a little larger than bloody butcher around 6 oz or 2-4″ but I have categorized them in the same group as the bloody butcher tomato. They are deep yellow in color very flavorful and juicy but not acidic. They need 70 days to mature to harvest and are high-yielding plants that will produce all summer and early fall. I have enjoyed these tomatoes not only for their outstanding yellow color but also for their flavor and constant production. Very Best Intermediate-size tomato
Best Large slicing tomato
Pineapple
The two top tomatoes are Big Zach tomatoes which are very large and the bottom row is my largest Pineapple tomato or for that matter largest tomato I have ever grown. You can see a size comparison between a large Cosmic Apple and the two largest Big Zach tomatoes.
This Pineapple Tomato is nearly 6 inches across and nearly 3 inches tall.
This is not only my favorite tomato for flavor but also in appearance. It is a larger tomato 3-5″ that can weigh over 2lbs, the flavor is very sweet and tangy but not acidic and its coloring is yellow-orange with stripes of red, when you slice it the appearance is that of pineapple with red-orange streaks bursting out from the center of the tomato. This tomato takes 75-90 days to reach maturity for harvesting but is worth the wait. I have found them to not be a high-producing plant so I will usually plant several of them to to be well-stocked. Very Best Large Slicing tomato
Celebrity
This is a semi-determinate hybrid tomato that is disease-resistant. I have selected this tomato for its high-producing plant throughout the season which gives you a juicy medium size slicer that will keep you well-supplied throughout the summer. Typically they say 60-70 days to maturity but I find in the Northwest it is 70-80 days. this is a tomato that reaches 3-4″ and is full of flavor.
My Celebrity Tomato has over 70 tomatoes on the plant at the beginning of August, and it is still setting on more tomatoes.
Best large slicer tomato
Siletz
Siletz is one of the earliest slicers available with 55-65 days maturity. This is a determinate tomato that is full of flavor and is 2-4″ so it is great for the first BLT (bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich) of the season. This tomato is a good tomato that is disease resistant and high producer that will produce throughout the summer. Best large slicer tomato
Genuwine
This is an indeterminate hybrid that has been cross-bred between a Brandywine and Costoluto Genovese tomato, producing a delicious squatty tomato that is mature earlier than either parent. I added this tomato to my list this year after growing it for the first time last year, it produced a large number of tomatoes throughout the summer. Very good slicer tomato
Very Best giant tomatoes
Big Zach
I grew this tomato for the first time last year and absolutely loved it for its size, high production, and amazing flavor. I was skeptical about the size they professed but it actually produced tomatoes 3-5 pounds each and was full of flavor. The plant is huge so you will need to provide a large cage to support it since it produces a very high volume of fruit. The only negative comment I had for this fruit is they tend to crack if it rains very heavily. Very best giant tomato
Big Beef
This is a great beefsteak variety indeterminate disease resistant that is very large high yielding tomato. Not only is this a large to giant size tomato but also very juicy, sweet, and flavorful. You will need a large and strong tomato cage to support the large plant and the high volume of tomatoes it produces throughout the summer. This is another great tomato for making a BLT. Very best giant tomato
New test tomatoes for this year’s crop
Black Krim
See my other articles on Tomatoes to help you grow tomatoes
