Planting the best tomato sandwich
Selecting top garden tomato varieties for Georgia's tastiest summer sandwich
Whether nestled between bacon and lettuce, perched atop a smear of cottage cheese, or simply sprinkled with salt and fresh-cracked pepper, there’s nothing quite like a homegrown sandwich tomato.
Long before the first sandwich can be assembled, and even before gardeners begin planting, setting up trellises and fighting pests, home gardeners must select which tomato types to add to their planting list.
To make the choice easier, we asked University of Georgia Cooperative Extension agents and Georgia Master Gardener Extension Volunteers to rank their top sandwich tomato cultivars based on what they’d most likely recommend to home gardeners across the state. Bob Westerfield, UGA Extension consumer horticulturalist in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, made the initial list.
“I’d say 90 out of 100 vegetable-related calls I get in the summer are about tomatoes.”
Choosing determinate vs. indeterminate tomato varieties
While determinate tomato cultivars grow like a compact bush and produce a larger harvest all at once — perfect for those looking to can tomatoes or make sauces — tomato sandwich seekers are often better off selecting an indeterminate plant for a steady stream of tomatoes all season long.
These tomatoes grow on long, vining stems and produce fruit until the first frost as long as gardeners keep harvesting them.
Want to know more?
Check out Westerfield's "Georgia Homegrown Tomatoes." This UGA Extension resource covers how to grow great tomatoes and avoid problems that gardeners often encounter.
Sandwich slicer showdown: Top sandwich tomatoes for Georgia
No. 1: 'Beefmaster' VFN hybrid
This indeterminate cultivar is the top choice for the solid, meaty, flavorful red fruit that weighs up to two pounds each. Gardeners can expect to harvest crops in 80 days.
No. 2: 'Big Beef' VFFNTA hybrid
Still going strong after being selected the 1994 All-America Selections winner, this cultivar is one of the finest indeterminate hybrids for home gardeners. Crops reach maturity in 73 days.
No. 3: 'Goliath' hybrid
True to their name, these indeterminate plants produce large, light-red fruit with few seeds and mature 65 to 85 days after planting.
No. 4: 'Bodacious' hybrid
Each dark-red, flavorful fruit weighs up to 12 ounces and grows on compact vines 6- to 8-feet-tall. This indeterminate hybrid reaches maturity in 80 to 85 days.
Honorable mentions
While the four heavy-hitting hybrids above reigned supreme, UGA Extension agents and Master Gardeners recommended several additional cultivars for Georgia’s home gardeners to consider. They include:
🍅 Determinate varieties: 'Celebrity', 'Hossinator' and 'Roma'.
🍅 Indeterminate varieties: 'Early Girl', 'Better Boy', 'Parks Whopper', 'Carbon', 'Cherokee Purple', 'Beefsteak', 'Pink Brandywine', 'Mortgage Lifter' and 'Oxheart'.
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A note on our research methodology:
A brief survey was sent to UGA Extension agents and Georgia Master Gardener Extension Volunteers through Extension program development coordinators. The 38 survey respondents were from a variety of counties across Georgia, including Clarke, Columbia, Dougherty, Fannin, Gilmer, Glynn, Hall, Hart, Houston, Jackson, Lee, Oconee, Oglethorpe, Peach, Pickens, Putnam, Terrell and Twiggs.
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