For the 2025 vegetable garden year, I decided to go big. Really big. I sowed all the tomatoes I found interesting and even received extra seedlings as a gift from a few generous gardening neighbors. The result? About 18 different tomato varieties, and even multiple plants of some. In short: a real tomato bonanza. By mid-season, my garden looked more like a tomato museum than a vegetable garden. It was fantastic!
In this article, I'll take you along on my tomato adventures and discuss "my" 18 tomato varieties of 2025, including my favorites, doubtful cases, and varieties I've lovingly waved goodbye to.
Duttingold: A beautiful yellow cocktail tomato, about 4 to 4.5 cm tall. The yield was enormous, and the plant smelled wonderful. The flavor starts deep and then levels off: not too sour and perfect in salads. It's worth trying.
Tumbling Tiger: An extremely productive plant with red-brown-green, striped cherry tomatoes in a slightly egg-shaped shape. The flavor is strong, fresh, and full.
Rose Quartz: Oh. Wow. What cuties! Tiny cherry tomatoes (max. 2 cm), in enormous clusters, which makes harvesting… challenging. Fresh, fruity, and juicy, with a beautiful pinkish-red color that almost seems to glow. Fantastic to have. If you'd like some seeds, let me know. They're truly adorable.
Gardeners Delight: A classic cherry tomato (approx. 2.5 cm) with a bountiful harvest. Full of flavor, but a bit too tart for me. The plant grows enormously and produces mountains of tomatoes. Very tasty, although it was just beaten by another variety (spoiler alert).
Bartelly: And here it is: my favorite cherry tomato. Similar to Gardener's Delight, but rounder, slightly less deep red, and above all: a perfect balance of sweet and tart. Easy to harvest, easy to grow, enormous yield. This one will definitely be back in the garden.
Bolstar Baloe: If you compare Bartelly, Gardeners Delight, and Bolstar Baloe side by side, you'll be completely lost. Bolstar Baloe is slightly larger and more elongated than Bartelly, bright red, and above all, much fuller-flavored than Gardeners Delight. This cherry plum tomato is definitely a keeper this year.
Green Zebra: Last year, this one had a large harvest, this year a little less. Fresh, juicy, slightly tart, and always green with an orange glow when ripe. I've had it in the garden for two years, and that's enough for me.
Purple Calabash: What a beauty! Purple shoulders that fade into green-reddish brown with a hint of purple, and a beautiful ribbed shape. Fresh, slightly spicy, and a good yield. I'm still unsure if this one will come back. I still have some seeds left for anyone interested.
Chocolate Stripes: Brownish with green and black stripes and an intense, juicy flavor. Delicious on its own, but for salads, I always found myself reaching for other varieties. So, no repeats.
San Marzano: The ultimate sauce tomato. Elongated, bright red with a pointed tip, thin-skinned, and incredibly meaty. Sweet with a hint of acidity, and incredibly easy to peel. Perfect for hot dishes. If I have room, I'll definitely be making this one again.
Costoluto Fiorentino: A beautiful, deeply ribbed beefsteak tomato that hung beautifully on the vine. It looked like little presents hanging from the branches. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed with the flavor: fresh, but less rich than I'd hoped. Very easy to confuse with the Costoluto Genovese.
Costoluto Genovese: Larger than the Fiorentino, just as ribbed. The flavor was intense and rich, but a bit too sour for me.
SGT Peppers: A beautiful, heart-shaped beefsteak tomato with dark purple shoulders and a deep pink to red color. Very meaty and full of flavor. It's fun to have grown it once, but it's debatable for this year.
White beefsteak tomato: A real beauty: dark purple shoulders and an almost white underside. The yield was low (about six tomatoes per plant) and growth was slow. The flavor is unique: at first you think "meh," but then suddenly a spicy aftertaste emerges. Very special.
Carol Chycko's Big Paste: An orange-brown, fleshy beefsteak tomato with a full flavor. They're not beautiful to look at, but the taste is very good. Yields are limited, but they are very large tomatoes.
Marsha's Starfighter: An extremely productive beefsteak tomato with a full, spicy flavor. Each tomato had a different shape: heart-shaped, oblong—they all came together. The color was bizarrely beautiful: brownish-red with occasional bluish edges and greenish stripes. Very special. I think this one will definitely make a comeback in the garden.
Pineapple: Gigantic beefsteak tomatoes in yellow and orange. Fruity flavors—one even tasted like orange! The yield per plant isn't high, but the tomatoes are enormous. I harvested too late twice... and unfortunately, that ended in mold. Lesson learned.
Beefsteak: My all-time favorite beefsteak tomato. Large, meaty, and incredibly delicious on bread with just salt and pepper. The yield per plant is modest, but that's easily solved: just plant more. Highly recommended!
What have I learned?
It was fantastic to grow and taste so many different tomatoes, but halfway through the season it became… rather overwhelming. I'd clearly gotten a little too excited.
My conclusion for next year: Fewer plants. For cherry tomatoes, it will definitely be Bartelly and Bolstar Baloe. For beefsteak tomatoes, it's definitely Beefsteak. I'll think about the other varieties some more. But there will definitely be fewer... And the best part about fewer tomatoes? More space for a new experiment. I can't wait!
