Choosing your varieties

Start with Brandywine if you want one large, pink, deeply flavoured beefsteak tomato per truss. It is indeterminate, so it climbs, and each fruit weighs 300–500 g. Black Krim is smaller, dark red-brown, and earlier — around 80 days — with a savoury, almost umami flavour. Costoluto Fiorentino is the ribbed Italian heirloom for slicing, firm and tangy, ideal for panzanella. Green Zebra stays lime-striped, tart and fruity, perfect for salads where you want acid and colour.

San Marzano Lungo 2 is the classic paste type — long, pointed, with dense flesh and almost no juice. Grow it if you make passata or want authentic pomodoro sauce. Roma VF is shorter, stubbier, determinate, and more forgiving in cooler summers. San Marzano Lampadina is a bulbous variant, sweeter and more versatile for fresh eating as well as cooking. Datterino is a small, oval paste tomato, almost like a date, with intense sweetness — it roasts beautifully whole.

Indeterminate varieties (Brandywine, Black Krim, San Marzano Lungo) keep growing and fruiting until frost. They need tall stakes or canes, at least 180 cm. Determinate types (Roma) grow to a set height, fruit in one flush, then stop. They suit smaller pots and need less fiddling. Match the variety to the space and time you have.