Tomato varieties for the tropical garden – is it possible to grow tomatoes all year round in an environment of extremes? The seed packets say no, however, I’m willing to give it a shot! The world of tomatoes is huge, with over 10,000 varieties found in the world and at least 700 (reported) in Australia alone. There has to be a handful that can survive the hot dry and then the hot humid and maybe even get through the monsoon season.
Tomatoes offer broad spectrums of qualities, acid to sweet flavours, colours from white to black, sizes from 10 grams to over 1 kilogram, and shapes from round to flat to lumpy. With all these characteristics, we can start trying to experiment and narrow down ones that might just survive our climate and produce tasty treats for us.
I have a slightly zany urge to collect things, which compliments my desire to grow things, therefore, I have amassed my own delicious collection of unusual heirlooms that I have trialled or am set to trial in my tropical garden. I find that information on growing tomatoes in the tropics outside of winter is very limited, so I aim to try as many as I can to put together a database to refer back to. Eventually, I hope to hone down my own collection to a set of tried and true varieties. I can plant those year after year and rest assured that the variety will suit my climate. Until that distant point in the future, I collect and try everything!
Criteria for Selection
I keep these points in mind when I’m selecting varieties for my stash. Tomatoes that I grow year after year for my permanent collection must suit the following criteria:
- be tasty – no growing a massive chonker of a fruit, but then find it’s hollow and tasteless. This is the key point. I will keep fighting the dreaded stinkbug if the tomato is super tasty.
- be prolific – no massive vine or bush that takes forever to grow and only sets a handful of fruit before the hot dry kills it off.
- have disease resistance – fusarium or verticillium wilts are present in my raised beds, and those are just soil-borne pathogens – bugs can and will carry disease between plants.
- are they heirlooms/open-pollinated – the range of heirlooms is amazing, and if I can find it on a supermarket shelf, I don’t really want to grow it in my garden. 90%+ of my varietals are heirlooms or open-pollinated.
- preserve well – I don’t just mean taste good in a chutney or pasta sauce either, if the seed doesn’t store well between seasons, then what’s the point? But also, If I can’t pick a tad early to ripen on the bench for a few days, it won’t last in my collection.
- unusual oddities – okay, this last point is characteristic of my humour. If it’s got an interesting colour habit, a funny shape or even just a weird name, it goes straight into my cart. There are a lot of heirlooms with funny names or shapes. This is not a make-or-break point. I won’t, however, make space in my seed containers for something like Tropic when I can pop over to the big green shed or any nursery and grab a punnet of those. Even Grosse Lisse, which I have in the collection, is pushing it.
Do I Break The Rules?
There are exceptions to the rules. I keep a large stash of Roma seeds from 3 to 4 suppliers to vary the genetics, as Romas are one of my preferred rootstocks for grafting as they are both fusarium and verticillium (VF) resistant. (I live for the moment when I can plant a tomato in my raised beds and not have it turn its leaves up when it starts to flower or set fruit.)
Romas are dirt common and, in my opinion, good for cooking only, but that disease resistance makes it attractive to me when I get in the mood for attempting to graft. I’m sure there are Roma fans out there who would beg to differ, but as a slicer or in a salad? I’m just not a fan when there are so many other delicious varieties to try.
Hybridisation and ‘Modern Heirlooms’
I am quite partial to the tomatoes produced by the Dwarf Tomato Project. From what I can tell, these are stabilised hybrids (aka dehybridised) and not F1 crosses like Sungold or Sunny Boy. Explaining what an F1 hybrid is here is beyond the scope of this post. Know that they do not breed true when you save their seed and replant next year.
We think of heirlooms as being around for decades. This is perhaps part nostalgia, growing the same varieties our grandparents grew. Nothing is stopping these stabilised strains from being the heirlooms of the future. Indeed, as yards become smaller and higher-density living becomes necessary, perhaps dwarf tomatoes will become the heirlooms of our descendants. In my yard, I’m able to grow the sprawling indeterminate heirlooms. These are my preferences for filling out my collection. (If you’re not quite sure what an F1 hybrid is, this link goes into a decent discussion about it.)
While we’re at it, I think some dwarf plants would be perfect for any tropical garden that wants tomatoes all year round. With an average of only 75 days to maturity and small, compact forms, the plant doesn’t have to focus on pumping out vines and can put more energy into fruit formation. You can move them around a lot easier than you can a big indeterminate, so you could easily find an attractive spot for them in the garden to protect them from harsh afternoon sunlight or bring them under the patio if it’s looking like 5 inches of rain in a single day.
Is there a place for F1 hybrids in my tropical garden?
While heirloom and open-pollinated are my preferred varieties, I do have a handful of F1 hybrids that have made it into my collection. When I finish the packet of these kinds of seeds, unfortunately, I have to buy it again. Generally, there is no seed saving from these varieties – not unless I’m prepared to grow something different from the parent that might be much less tasty. I must be prepared to lose these varieties if the seed becomes unavailable for whatever reason in the future.
So I will buy a handful of varieties that have either amazing performance in extreme conditions or satisfy my first criterion for selection: be tasty. Some seedlings I’ve purchased on a whim I’ve later found out are F1 hybrids by Googling them. Always after I’ve come home from the big green shed though.
One major advantage of F1 hybrids I hear in forums a lot is that they can be more disease-resistant and give higher yields than heirlooms. I’m not sold on their disease resistance, as I’ve seen them succumb to the VF in my garden beds just as fast as heirlooms do. I know that stinkbugs don’t discriminate: they settle on heirlooms and hybrids universally.
I do honestly prefer heirlooms and open-pollinated as they jive with our self-sufficient ethos, but the way the Dwarf Tomato Project (DTP) supports the Open Sourced Seed Initiative (OSSI) also jives with our ethos. I am here to grow, eat, seed-save and regrow these varieties year after year. Eventually, the ‘strain’ I produce from my garden will be perfect for my environment. Many of my seed suppliers are in much colder climates. I can’t think of a single major one based in Queensland. I assume that their suppliers all live in more temperate climates than this sweaty armpit as well.
The Future of the Heirlooms
There are some varieties that I notice have been around for quite a few years but have not reached ‘heirloom’ status. Depending on whose definition you read, an heirloom must have been around for between 50-100 years before it achieves this lofty label.
Yet there are many open-pollinated varieties that have had their genetics stabilised, and you can save the seeds from these year after year, confident that the seed you plant will have the same characteristics as the parent plant it came from. I’ve heard them called ‘modern heirlooms’ – basically, these delicious tomatoes are popular enough to stick around for the long term and will become the heirlooms of the future, possibly becoming the backbones of someone else’s collection.
I am far away from honing my collection down to a fine point. That’s a problem for future Tash, not today. So I happily collect seeds from everywhere and anywhere and try out a few varieties every year. Most sources say that when stored properly, tomato seeds will last up to five years. This (excuse) allows me to fill my cart, knowing that as I plant all year round, I’ll eventually try everything in my collection and try them out at different points in the year.
My Stockpile So Far
I have listed the supplier I purchased the seed from. It doesn’t mean they are exclusive to that supplier. Some varieties are found at multiple suppliers, other varieties may only be found at the supplier where I purchased.
I very rarely buy punnets of seedlings unless it’s something new and novel that I really want to try, as I have enough to experiment with! Tomatoes are simple to grow from seed, so that’s what I focus on.
The information below is collected from seed suppliers and a variety of sources around the internet both local and international.
Items marked with an asterisk * are considered to be “modern heirlooms”.
Abbreviations: VF = verticillium and fusarium, RKN = root knot nematode, DTP = Dwarf Tomato Project.
| Variety | Year Last Grown | Source | Heirloom/Open Pollinated/F1 Hybrid | Growth Habit | Notable Characteristics |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atomic Grape | new to me | Seeds of Plenty | Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Crack resistant, aka ‘Brad’s Atomic Grape’, cherry, bicolour green/purple. |
| Azoychka | new to me | Seeds of Plenty | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Early maturing, medium-sized yellow fruit. One mention of being VF resistant. |
| Beefsteak | new to me | The Seed Collection | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Very large red fruit. |
| Big Rainbow | 2024 | Happy Valley Seeds | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Large beefsteak, bicolour red/yellow fruit. Noted as verticillium resistant. Quite tasty and very juicy. |
| Black Beauty | new to me | Seeds of Plenty | Heirloom*/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Medium fruit blue/black fruit. Noted as resistant to disease. |
| Black Cherry | 2024 | The Seed Collection | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Cherry, dark purple/black fruit resistant to cracking, heat tolerant. Noted as disease-resistant/resistant to disorders. Excellent flavour. |
| Black Krim | new to me | The Seed Collection | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Medium purple fruit, heat tolerant, but prone to cracking. Noted resistance to disorders. |
| Blue Cream Berries | 2023 | Seeds of Plenty | Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Cherry, yellow/purple fruit. |
| Blue Gold Berries | 2023 | Seeds of Plenty | Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Cherry, yellow/purple fruit, crack resistant. |
| Brandywine Red | 2024 | The Seed Collection | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Large red fruit, noted as resistant to early blight and anthracnose. |
| Bundaberg Rumball | 2024 | Seeds of Plenty | Open Pollinated | Dwarf (DTP) | Small, red/brown fruit. |
| Burnley Sure Crop | new to me | The Seed Collection | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Semi-Determinate | Medium red fruits, resistant to cracking and sunburn. Resistant to VF. |
| Cherokee Purple | 2024 | The Seed Collection | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Large beefsteak, purple/red/green fruit, resistant to VF, RKN, tomato spotted wilt virus, black speck. Delicious! Stinkbugs avoid this one. |
| Cherry Fox | new to me | Happy Valley Seeds | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Large red cherry, noted as disease resistant, aka ‘Fox Cherry’. |
| College Challenger | new to me | Happy Valley Seeds | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Medium/large red fruit, heat tolerant. |
| Costoluto Florentino | 2024 | The Seed Collection | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Large red/orange ‘fluted’ fruit, heat tolerant, noted as resistant to bacterial leaf spot, tobacco mosaic virus. |
| Daydream | 2024 | The Seed Collection | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Medium/large red fruit. |
| Early Cascade | new to me | Seeds of Plenty | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Cherry, red fruit, noted as resistant to blights and VF. |
| ES 58 | new to me | Happy Valley Seeds | Open Pollinated | Determinate | Medium red fruits, resistant to cracking, sunburn. Resistant to VF. |
| Floralou | new to me | The Seed Collection | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Semi-Determinate | Medium-large red fruits, resistant to cracking. |
| Garden Delight | new to me | The Seed Collection | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Cherry, red fruit, heavy cropper, resistant to ‘adverse conditions and disease’. |
| Gold Nugget | 2023 | The Seed Collection | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Determinate | Cherry, yellow fruit, resistant to cracking, produced during Dec-Feb. More acidic than sweet I find. |
| Golden Jubilee | new to me | Happy Valley Seeds | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Large, yellow fruit, resistant to Alternaria stem canker. |
| Gondwana Lava | new to me | Seeds of Plenty | Open Pollinated | Dwarf (DTP) | Small purple/black fruit with green striping. |
| Gondwana Rose | new to me | Seeds of Plenty | Open Pollinated | Dwarf (DTP) | Small purple/black fruit. |
| Green Zebra | new to me | The Seed Collection | Heirloom*/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Medium green/yellow striped fruit, crack resistant, resistant to VF, late blight and septoria. |
| Grosse Lisse | 2024 | The Seed Collection | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Medium red fruit, very heavy yielding. |
| Ice | new to me | Happy Valley Seeds | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Cherry, white-cream/yellow fruit. |
| Indigo Rose | 2024 | The Lost Seed | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Medium, deep purple/black fruit, resistant to early/late blights, powdery mildew. Very tasty. |
| Jaune Flamme | new to me | The Seed Collection | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Small orange fruit, crack resistant, resistant to disease. |
| Kangaroo Paw Brown | new to me | Seeds of Plenty | Open Pollinated | Dwarf (DTP) | Small brown/red fruit. |
| Kookaburra Cackle | new to me | Seeds of Plenty | Open Pollinated | Dwarf (DTP) | Small red fruit. |
| KY1/Scoresby Dwarf | new to me | Happy Valley Seeds | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Determinate | Medium red fruit, noted disease-resistant. |
| Little Red Riding Hood | new to me | Seeds of Plenty | Open Pollinated | Micro | Small red cherry, growth caps at about 45cm tall. I grew it in a 100mm pot. |
| Metallica | 2024 | Seeds of Plenty | Open Pollinated | Dwarf (DTP) | Small-medium red/green fruit. Succumbed to wilt. |
| Midnight Snack F1 | 2024 | Bunnings Seedling | F1 Hybrid | Indeterminate | Cherry, red/black fruit. Noted as fruit fly resistant. First to set fruit this season. |
| Money Maker | 2024 | The Seed Collection | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Medium red fruit, performs well in hot and humid weather, resistant to VF, RKN, tobacco mosaic virus |
| Mortgage Lifter | 2024 | The Seed Collection | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Medium red fruit, performs well in hot and humid weather, resistant to VF, RKN. |
| Oxheart Red | new to me | The Seed Collection | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Medium red fruit, elongated shape. |
| Pineapple | 2024 | Seeds of Plenty | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Large beefsteak yellow/red fruit. Very tasty, sweet. |
| Potato Leaf | 2023 | Happy Valley Seeds | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Small red fruit, noted as good in hot climates. |
| Prosperity | new to me | Happy Valley Seeds | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Small red fruit. |
| Red & Black | 2024 | The Diggers Club | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Medium fruit, red with black shoulders. Stinkbugs prefer this over all my other varieties. Set impressive trusses. |
| Red Cherry | 2024 | ? | ? | Indeterminate | Cherry, red fruit. No data on the source of this one. |
| Red Cloud | new to me | Happy Valley Seeds | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Small red fruit. |
| Red Currant | new to me | Happy Valley Seeds | Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Small cherry, red fruit. |
| Reisetomate | new to me | The Seed Collection | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Lumpy, segmented red fruits. |
| Roma | 2024 | The Seed Collection | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Determinate | Oval red fruits, good for cooking, super disease-resistant to Alternaria stem canker, VF, blights, RKN. |
| Roma VF | 2024 | Mr Fothergills | no data | Determinate | Oval red fruits, good for cooking, VF resistant. No other disease resistance specified. |
| Rouge de Marmande | new to me | The Seed Collection | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Large, flat fruit with deep ribbing, noted as disease resistant, no diseases specified. One notation of pest resistance. |
| San Marzano | 2022 | The Seed Collection | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Oval red fruits, good for cooking. Disease-resistant to VF, tomato mosaic virus, RKN. |
| Saturn | new to me | Seeds of Plenty | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Medium red fruit. Possible VF resistance. |
| Sneaky Sauce | new to me | Seeds of Plenty | Open Pollinated | Dwarf (DTP) | Oval red fruits, good for cooking. |
| Sugar Lump | 2024 | The Seed Collection | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Resistant to cracking, small red cherry fruits. Tasty and sweet. |
| Sungold F1 | 2024 | Mr Fothergills | F1 Hybrid | Indeterminate | Yellow/orange cherry, extremely sweet. Resistant to VF and tobacco mosaic virus. Extremely tasty. Prolific cropper. |
| Sunny Boy F1 | 2024 | ? | F1 Hybrid | Determinate | Medium yellow fruit, disease resistant, diseases not specified. It died in my VF infected bed as soon as it formed its first flowers. |
| Sunrise Bumblebee | 2024 | The Lost Seed | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Cherry, red/yellow marbling. |
| Sweet 100 F1 | 2024 | Mr Fothergills | F1 Hybrid | Indeterminate | Small cherry, red fruit. Disease resistant. Insanely prolific. |
| Sweet Marbles | 2023 | Happy Valley Seeds | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Small cherry, red fruit. |
| Tigerella | 2024 | The Seed Collection | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Small red/orange striped fruit, prolific fruiter, noted as disease resistant but diseases not specified. |
| Tommy Toe | 2024 | The Seed Collection | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Large cherry, red fruit, good pest and disease resistance. |
| Totem | new to me | The Seed Collection | Open Pollinated | Determinate | Cherry, red fruit. Conflicting info as to whether it is an F1 hybrid. |
| Tristar | new to me | The Seed Collection | Open Pollinated | Determinate | Medium red fruit, heat tolerant, crack resistant, resistant to fusarium. |
| Urbana | new to me | Happy Valley Seeds | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Determinate | Medium red fruit, resistant to fusarium. |
| Valiant | new to me | The Seed Collection | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Medium red fruit. Noted as disease-resistant. |
| White Cherry | new to me | Seeds of Plenty | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Cherry, white/cream fruit. |
| Wild Sweetie | 2023 | Happy Valley Seeds | Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Small cherry, red fruit. Possible good rootstock variety. |
| Yellow Cherry Honey Bee | new to me | Happy Valley Seeds | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Cherry, yellow fruit. Noted as disease-resistant. |
| Yellow Tommy Toe | 2024 | The Seed Collection | Heirloom/Open Pollinated | Indeterminate | Cherry, yellow fruit, noted as disease resistant. Prolific cropper. Stinkbugs like it. |
Thoughts on Collecting
This is not an exhaustive list of tomatoes found in Australia. There are many more varieties, and I aim to collect as many as I can and update the table frequently. Because tomato seed stores for an extended period of time, I am confident that I can rotate through my collection. I have ramped up my collecting in 2024, simply because I discovered some amazing new suppliers and have developed a taste for fresh tomatoes.
Why Taste Matters to the Collection
Up until about 5 years ago, I never ate them fresh. As a toddler, I apparently ate tomatoes like one would an apple. A visit to a poorly skilled dentist abraded my tongue, and I ate a supermarket tomato fresh from the fridge. The acid burned, and I refused fresh tomato from then on. I would later try supermarket tomatoes and found the flavour poor and the flesh floury, which led me to believe they were gross. I never understood why people would want to make their sandwich soggy with this insipid excuse for a salad item.
As a neurospicy individual, food texture is something I have to work around. I can’t do ‘floury’ or ‘mealy’. I don’t want to swallow it. I’ll spit it out if I find it in my burger. (One reason why I prefer to make my own burgers.)
It was growing tomatoes for the Man of the House that eventually led me to try them and find both flavour and texture palatable – and the variety that sold me on homegrown tomatoes was Black Cherry! The meaty, juicy texture and deep, rich flavour had me looking for more to pair with balsamic vinegar and Danish feta. It led me to expand my horizons, trying all sorts of varieties that I had grown and looking for more. This drive to find the best flavours is behind why I collect and grow so many varieties.
Final Thoughts on the Collection
Frustrations
While collecting data for this table, I became very frustrated at the very little information found about disease resistance. Tomatoes have diseases galore, and it’s not simply enough to specify ‘disease resistance’ as a catch-all.
Viral diseases are different to bacterial diseases, and those are both different to nematodes, plus there are fungal diseases. Then finally, you have bugs, resistance to which were mentioned maybe two or three times out of all these varieties I’ve listed! Which disease vector is it? Which am I supposed to be preventing or managing? I can chuck marigolds in as a companion plant to discourage nematodes. I can spray with potassium bicarbonate for fungal diseases, but that’s not going to do squat for viruses like mosaic viruses.
Wilts are present in my raised beds and I make significant efforts to avoid cross-contamination from those beds to my solanaceous plants like my tomatoes. VF wilts are about the only thing that suppliers were confidently stating resistance to, but even then, I had to go hunting for some info as ‘disease resistance’ only sometimes meant ‘VF resistant’ if I dug deep enough. Punching in “disease resistance of xxx tomato” led to both local and international suppliers stating exactly the same things, almost word for word in some cases.
What about the scientists?
I honestly don’t think there’s a DPI or university program looking at diseases in tomatoes apart from some isolated trials, which is disappointing. Trials tend to focus on modern commercial varieties unavailable to the home grower, and they certainly aren’t heirlooms. The USA has a couple of university extensions looking at tomato diseases, but most varieties they focus on are not ones we get here in Australia, which is a shame because some sound delicious!
It’s basically down to citizen science to identify what diseases affect their home gardens and post about it. This is going to be anecdotal evidence at best, and sometimes a potshot guess at what a disease is, as identifying individual diseases can be difficult if you’re not familiar with what diseases tomatoes can get.
Limitations of ‘citizen science’
Wilts are generally verticillium or fusarium, and I can take a guess at either one of those affecting my plants, but I would not be able to tell you which ‘race’ it is. Septoria leaf spot can be readily identified. So can early and late blights depending on the stage the plant is in its life cycle. Mosaic viruses are easily identifiable, but you mightn’t be able to tell which one you have. Root knot nematode is positively identified when you rip up the roots and have a good look at them. This of course kills the plant. Grafting heirlooms to disease-resistant rootstock helps, but isn’t a cure-all.
I am limited by the tools, equipment and knowledge I have at my hands. I can avoid some diseases by carefully selecting varieties for the conditions I face in my tropical garden. This shouldn’t be a discouragement. Part of the ethos we live by is to try and try again. Keeping our collection diverse ensures we have something that will grow, no matter what. If that means I have to graft, then I graft. If it means having a carefully selected F1 hybrid, then I have that in the collection. And make my own attempts at stabilising its genetics if I really like it.
Future Updates
I look forward to constantly updating this table with more new varieties and will also be adding links to each variety as I grow them and post about my experiences growing them in my garden, creating a large, robust database of tomato varieties and their notable characteristics that will hopefully be a reference for tropical gardens and other climate zones alike – much of this information about disease and plant form is universal to all climate zones local and international.
My quest to find my perfect collection will be an ongoing project into the future as new varieties are released every year, and I don’t want to miss something unusual and tasty that might just be that unicorn variety I am looking for.
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