Every spring, Yolo Master Gardeners sell tomato seedlings the first two Saturday mornings in April. This year, the sale features thirty-five varieties, fifteen of which are new to the sale.

With rapid climate change, summers are getting hotter and heat waves longer. To get a satisfying tomato harvest, a good strategy is to choose your varieties based on how you will use them. If you have space for only three plants, you can hedge your bets by including an all-purpose variety, a cherry, and a luscious beefsteak. 

All-purpose tomatoes can be used fresh or cooked. A great-tasting tomato always enhances whatever it's eaten with, but in this context, the tomato plays a supporting role as an ingredient or a condiment. Lively colors can make a salad more exciting. I like to grow a range of colors and shapes, as well as some productive perfect-looking red tomatoes. Productivity and shelf life, as well as flavor, are hallmarks of a good all-purpose tomato. 

Featured this year are three resilient varieties that are especially reliable and disease-resistant. These workhorse varieties have produced well in less-than-ideal situations and difficult conditions.

Lemon Boy Plus F1, a medium size yellow tomato, has been touted by several area gardeners as a reliable tomato year after year. It has multiple disease resistances, including fusarium, verticillium, and nematodes.

Bush Early Girl F1, a larger and sweeter version of the popular red Early Girl F1 tomato, tops out at eighteen inches, and it is suitable for growing on a patio in a container as well as in the ground. In a trial a couple years ago, it outproduced, by far, several other red hybrids. It also has several disease resistances, including fusarium, verticillium, and nematodes.

Jersey Breeze, a red slicer, came from a “Jersey tomato” breeding program some years ago, and it breezed through last year's heat waves. Growers around the country have noted that it produces well in difficult climates. As an open-pollinated variety, it has not been tested for disease resistance, but in my garden last year it performed better than all the other varieties around it and produced a steady supply of perfect red orbs. 

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Several other all-purpose tomatoes will also be available at the seedling sale. 

Atta Girl, a new red tomato by the Rawal-Peters team that developed last year's California Sungold, boasts a flavor similar to Early Girl F1. It is a small plant that can be planted in the ground or in containers. 

Raya Rey is a red tomato with a little more pizzazz, in the form of green striping. It's a vigorous slicer developed by Fred Hempel that produces tasty tomatoes with a good shelf life.

Talvez F1 is a red tomato with subtle yellow stripes with good shelf life, bred by Hempel. One of our volunteers recommended it to us after tasting it at the Woodland Farmers Market. 

Every garden should Include at least one cherry tomato. Hardworking gardeners (and their helpers) appreciate these excellent plein-air snacks, and bowls of cherry tomatoes indoors in a rainbow of colors are also appealing. In a pinch, cherry tomatoes can be pressed into service for early-season tomato sandwiches, and of course they can be used in salads and salsas as well, or for cooking. Most cherry tomatoes are prolific and adaptable, producing a crop even during heat waves and in shadier locations. Four varieties are new this year. 

Brandywine Cherry, a new Rawal-Peters release, is a pink cherry tomato said to taste just like its larger namesake. 

Blush, a yellow striped julienne or elongated cherry tomato bred by Hempel, won a taste test in the East Bay last fall.

Pink Tiger, a pink striped julienne tomato also bred by Hempel, won the Woodland tomato tasting last year.

Chocolate Sprinkles F1, an interesting and beautiful large striped cherry tomato with an alluring name, produces bumper crops and resists nematodes. It's firm and slightly crunchy. 

Bloodstone, a new release from Karen Olivier, is a burgundy beefsteak with intense, sweet flavor. Olivier bred Polaris, one of my all-time favorites, and I've grown several others she bred as well, all of them winners. 

Chocolate Silk, a new release from Rawal and Peters, has dark-tomato flavor and a deliciously silky texture. 

Estler's Mortgage Lifter, a pink heirloom originating in West Virginia over a hundred years ago, is considered the best-tasting of all the varieties of Mortgage Lifter (fifteen at last count!).

Indian Stripe is an heirloom from Arkansas. It resembles Cherokee Purple but is reputed to be tastier and more productive. Its flavor has been described as memorable, compelling, and exquisite. 

Click the Tomato Seedling Summary pdf link below for a list of the tomato seedlings that will be offered at the Spring 2025 Master Gardener Plant Sale. Descriptions of each variety will be posted on the UC Master Gardeners of Yolo County website at least a couple weeks before the sale. 

All photos by Tanya Kucak.