Article by Tanya Kucak -
The typical tomato leaf is called a regular leaf shape. Some tomato growers favor potato-leaf varieties, opining that the larger leaves of these varieties result in better flavors and offer the tomatoes more protection from the sun. The leaf margins are smooth rather than toothed, somewhat reminiscent of the leaves of potato plants. 'Brandywine' is the most popular potato-leaf tomato. Other potato-leaf varieties include 'African Queen', 'Polaris', and 'Rosedale'. Since the potato-leaf gene is recessive, these plants are far less common than regular-leaf varieties.
Rugose potato-leaf foliage is another variant. Dwarf tomato plants, such as 'Dwarf Golden Tipsy', have deeply creased, or rugose leaves.
The smaller regular leaves of a plant such as 'Fire Plum F1', however, can be just as effective at protecting fruits from the sun. Although the plant has an airy appearance, its leaves are layered.
Tomato plants that don’t provide enough leaf cover can make their fruits more susceptible to sunscald. At the height of summer, sunscald looks like a bleached-out, somewhat wrinkly patch on the tomato. If you can cut away this damaged area before it starts to rot, you can still use the rest of the tomato. If you see ripening tomatoes exposed to the sun from the south and west, a quick fix is to clip a sheet of newspaper to the cage or plant (not touching the fruit) until you are ready to pick it. During heat waves, you may want to shade the whole plant if several fruits are ripening at once. By the way, especially if a heat wave is coming, it’s also a good idea to pick tomatoes as soon as they start to show color and let them ripen indoors. With excessive heat, the tomatoes may ripen and go bad before you have a chance to harvest.
'Celebrity Plus F1', 'Bush Early Girl F1', and 'Brandywine Cherry' are especially susceptible to sunscald. If possible, plan your garden so that other plants will shade them from the south and west. Keep an eye on them as fruits form and ripen so that you can shade any fruits that are exposed. In late summer last year, most of the fruits on a 'Brandywine Cherry' plant were unusable because it got planted at an exposed southwest corner of a garden bed! Another plant, shaded by a taller variety, did much better.
2026 Spring Plant Sale Information -
This spring’s sale will be on April 4th and 11th, between 9am and 1pm.
For a list of the California natives, drought-tolerant perennials, and pollinator-friendly annuals that will be available, click Spring 2026 Ornamental Plant Sale List.
For a list of the tomato varieties that will be availabl,e click Spring 2026 Tomato Varieties Plant Sale List.
Tanya Kucak has written another article, Eleven New Varieties in Tomato Seedling Sale, along with a Tomato Chart by Color and Size, which will also help you decide which tomatoes you would like to try in your garden this year.