How to Get the Earliest Tomatoes: Varieties and Growing Tips

Quick Summary: Smaller tomatoes (cherries, plums) ripen first. Among larger varieties, black tomatoes like Paul Robeson and Carbon are earliest. Bloody Butcher is consistently my earliest red. Soil temperature above 60°F and ambient temps around 75°F speed things up. Read time: 8 min | Experience level: Beginner to intermediate

Jump to: Keys for Earliest Tomatoes | Early Black Tomatoes | Early Orange/Yellow Tomatoes | Early Red Tomatoes | FAQ

When I sell tomato plants at the St. Paul Farmers’ Market each spring, one of the most common questions is which varieties produce first. The answer depends on four factors: the variety you choose, the size of your transplant, soil temperature, and ambient warmth.

Smaller tomatoes ripen first. Black varieties tend to be the earliest large tomatoes. This guide covers my findings from years of testing varieties at HeathGlen Organic Farm in Minnesota.

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What Determines When Tomatoes Ripen?

There are four major criteria that determine whether you will have “relatively” early tomatoes, no matter where you live.

Understanding “Maturity Dates”

Most seed catalogs offer descriptions of  the growth characteristics, including a number signifying the  “days to maturity”.  Don’t treat maturity dates as absolutes. Use them to compare varieties, not predict exact harvest dates.

In my experience, the number is only meaningful on a relative scale, and people tend to treat numbers as absolutes. 

One tomato variety is going to be earlier than another variety, for example, if the number of days to maturity is less, so you can use these numbers to compare different varieties.

Which Tomatoes Ripen First?

The first tomatoes each season are the smaller varieties, like the cherry tomatoes or plum tomatoes. 

I have also had reliable earliness with a small slicer type called Bloody Butcher, a variety of heirloom.

I have tried Manitoba, Oregon Spring, Stupice, and several other early heirloom varieties, which all have great flavor for early tomatoes, but none of these have been as early as Bloody Butcher. 

Bloody Butcher was the earliest of all of my tomatoes (July 10th in Minnesota), and it had none of the typical heirloom imperfections (green shoulders, cracking, etc .), but the flavor was fairly mild.  My taste runs toward the bolder, higher acid tomatoes so this was not one of my favorites for flavor.

The other early tomatoes include the cherry tomatoes, and you can get quite a range of cherry tomato varieties these days. Look for the varieties that mention “crack resistant” or “no cracking” to have the most success when they are ripe and sweetest.

Black Mauri is a dark plum variety that ripens around the same time as the cherries, but has a much deeper flavor profile than a cherry. 

Principe Borghese is the most prolific of all the small tomatoes. It is determinate however, so you will get a lot of tomatoes over a 3-4 week period and then they will stop producing, while indeterminate varieties will produce fewer tomatoes but they will produce until frost.

Principe Borghese is the “go-to’ tomato for drying.  It has that bolder flavor that you would expect with an Italian tomato or a beefsteak tomato and the flavor is concentrated when dried.

Pro Tip: Growing tomatoes in pots can result in earlier tomatoes (but the harvest will not be as prolific)

Early Black Tomato Varieties

Following the first flush of the smaller tomatoes were the “black” tomatoes (they are called black tomatoes and are typically of Russian origin, but they are really a dark purple or dark pink). 

The black tomatoes were the first of the larger, main-season tomatoes to appear, starting with Paul Robeson.  Carbon, Black Krim, Vorlon, were 2-3 days later than Mr. Robeson. 

I love the rich, complex taste of these black tomatoes, and last year I found Carbon to have the deepest flavor.  

Usually the main-season tomatoes develop their unique flavors more as the season goes on, so I will wait until late August-early September to do a true taste test between the black varieties.

Early Orange, Yellow, and Striped Varieties

On the heels of the black tomatoes were the yellow-gold tomatoes and some of the striped tomatoes, including Juane Flammee, Manyel, Limmony, Striped Roman, Tigerella and Gold Medal. 

The larger orange and yellow tomatoes tend to ripen later in the growing season. This would include Persimmon, Kelloggs, Hughs, Hillbilly, Mr. Stripey, and White Queen. 

Remember, “in general” the larger the tomato, the later it ripens.

The Green Zebra variety is a an exception to this rule. It tends to be a late ripening tomato, even though its size is relatively small.

Early Red Varieties

As noted above, the earliest of all of my tomatoes in many years was the Bloody Butcher (a red) and the Raspberry Lyanna (a pink). 

Brandywine is popular but tends to be late with a fairly low yield. I enjoy Caspian Pink as an alternative. Caspian Pink has the same flavor profile as Brandywine, but is earlier and more prolific.

**Note: Test these varieties in your microclimate, as results vary based on local conditions

FAQ

For a detailed guide and journal for growing tomatoes, check out my Tomato Workbook on Amazon for $11.99.