by Sharon Meyer

Created on: March 21, 2009

The home grown tomato is by far the best tasting when compared to those store bought cardboard flavored imitations. There are so many varieties of tomatoes on the market that can be purchased from seed or as seedlings. Sometimes the names alone of the tomato are as tantalizing as the taste.

HYBRID OR HEIRLOOM ?

Tomatoes can be broken down into two basic types, a hybrid or an heirloom. Hybrids are bred to be disease resistant so one can argue that indeed this would be the easiest to grow tomato. Heirlooms are open pollinated plants handed down from generation to generation and are best known for their taste. It is up to the grower to decide which to grow. Are you looking for disease resistant or taste?

DETERMINATE OR INDETERMINATE ?

After the gardener is done deciding whether to grow hybrids or heirlooms they need to decide if they want determinate tomatoes or indeterminate. A determinate tomato is usually compact in growth and sets fruit all at once while an indeterminate plant will grow tall and viney setting fruit in flushes along the way. Once again only the gardener can decide which is easier to grow for their circumstances.

SIZE OF FRUIT :

Unlike other vegetables in the garden , the tomato even has a great variety in the size of fruit they produce. Depending on the variety you choose to grow, the tomato varies in size from tiny cherry sized to plate sized beef tomatoes. As if that wasn't enough of a choice, if one chooses to grow heirlooms then you have every size and even shape imaginable.

Colors :

Most people are quite familiar with the basic red tomato but, did you know tomatoes come in many different colors ? There are white tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, green tomatoes, black tomatoes, purple tomatoes, orange tomatoes and even brown tomatoes. If that's not enough of a color choice then how about striped tomatoes ?

My personal choice for the easiest tomato to grow would be the all purpose cherry tomato. It may be small in size but it is big in taste. Cherry tomato plants are prolific in production and can be used for anything from salads to sandwiches. You just need to cut up a few more than you would with a beefsteak tomato. Cherry tomatoes are also the favorite of children. Who can resist walking by a cherry tomato plant and not plopping a few in your mouth? Here at our house I plant cherry tomatoes of all colors and if we end up with too many I freeze them as a tasty frozen treat for adults and kids alike. Just place them on a flat plate and stick them in the freezer. After they are frozen you can place them in a a large ziploc freezer bag. Freezing them at first individually keeps them from sticking together in the freezer.

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