You Say Tomato, I Say Better Boy, Early Girl and Super Sweet 100

While I’m usually pretty decisive about most things, facing the endless variety of tomatoes in the garden stores can leave me in a quandary. Yes, it’s time to decide which tomato plants will take up valuable and limited space in my garden this year.

I think my dilemma stems from the fact that we Southern gardeners have such different needs from gardeners across the rest of the country. Our plants must be able to withstand and thrive through scorching heat, the most intense humidity and a never-ending proliferation of pests and diseases.

Here’s a short list of the top three best performing tomato plants that I’ve grown in my garden over the years:

1.  Better Boy-My all-time favorite for reliable prolific fruit. This one seems to thrive in the worst conditions and keeps on producing. Last year I had tomatoes until October from my Better Boy plants! Definitely planting at least three of these.

2.   Early Girl-Another favorite and prolific grower. However, this one needs to be pruned constantly or most of the plant’s energy will go into generating more vines. If you keep removing the suckers, the fruits will grow larger and sweeter and can even keep producing into the fall.

3.   Super Sweet 100–I love to pop a bite-sized scarlet cherry tomato fresh from the vine as I work in the garden. Super Sweet 100 is the best cherry tomato that I’ve had success with over the years. It produces long clusters of fruit and not only tastes great but looks great too.

I do continue to try other varieties and encourage you to do the same, but these three are my tried-and-true plants of choice for this year and probably will be for years to come.   

Now it’s your turn.

Please chime in and let me know which variety of tomatoes that you recommend and which ones grow well in your garden.