Roma Tomato | Seeds

Days to Maturity: 76 from transplant

Determinate

Also known as plum or paste tomatoes, Roma is a small, thick-walled, flavorful tomato just right for crushing into savory sauces that hold spice beautifully and yield a rich, authentic, meaty tomato tang.

You can expect dozens of 2- to 3-ounce, pear-shaped bright red fruits on very heavy-bearing plants. Roma is a determinate plant, meaning that it sets its crop all at once, which makes harvesting and canning these tomatoes much simpler. Instead of picking newly ripened fruit all summer long, with Roma you can get it all out of the way at once?or, if your growing season permits, make 2 or 3 plantings so that you have multiple harvest dates throughout the summer and fall.

These bright red, thick-walled, heavy tomatoes are simply superb for pastes and sauces. They have very few seeds, which also speeds up the canning and saucing process, and their interiors are a perfect blend of gels and solids. For concentrated flavor, Roma simply cannot be improved upon.

Start seeds indoors 5 to 6 weeks. Set plants 2 to 2? feet apart, and stake them to hold up their generous crops.