Best Tomatoes to Grow in Marin County | Marin Tomato Tips & Advice
Wondering which are the best tomatoes to grow in Marin County? Given that my article about planting tomatoes in Marin from 2016 is still one of the top non-real estate blog articles on my site, I would say there are many tomato gardeners out there. And why not? Our climate lends itself well to growing healthy, organic tomatoes with a minimum of fuss. I thought it might be helpful for me to report out on what I consider some of the best tomatoes to grow based on my ten or so seasons of growing tomatoes in Marin County.
Each spring I go to San Rafael’s West End Nursery to purchase my soil amendments and plan my crop for the year. Well “planning” might be a bit of an overstatement. I try to remember favorites from years past — it is amazing how quickly I forget the winners — and always try two or three new varieties I have never grown before. I normally plant 15-25 plants depending on how ambitious I am feeling.
This year I skipped over some of prior year’s failures, including Mortgage Lifter (love the name but my plants never took off) and Green Zebra (I found the fruit to be a bit mushy for my taste and not as tangy as I prefer.) I also reduced the number of yellow tomato plants to one, Persimmon, and so far it’s been struggling with blossom end rot while the plants around it thrive. I will update this article if Persimmon responds well to my calcium spray and TLC, but if not I will return to Yellow Brandywine next year.
The Best Tomatoes to Grow in Marin
NUMBER ONE: CHEROKEE PURPLE
Every year the heirloom Cherokee Purple is at the top of my list. While it is not as prolific as others, and not as early as Early Girl (below), it makes up for that with amazing flavor. It looks great when sliced on a plate with colors of deep red and purple. The flavor is tangy and sharp, acidic in a good way. Read more about the fascinating history of this tomato here.
NUMBER TWO: CELEBRITY
Celebrity was one of the new (to me) varieties I tried this year in the “large beefsteak” category, and this tomato does not disappoint. In prior years I selected “Big Beef” but never really grew a large flavorful tomato until Celebrity came along. As you can see from the above photo, it’s an enormous beefsteak tomato, and reminds me of some of the tomatoes I saw growing up in Alabama. I would describe the flavor as balanced nicely between sweet and acidic, great for slicing and putting on sandwiches. Celebrity is sometimes considered a semi-determinate tomato plant, because it grows to 3 or feet and then focuses its energy on producing fruit until frost.
NUMBER THREE: BLACK PRINCE
Black Prince is another tomato I tried for the first time this year in my garden. Originally from Siberia, this plant is touted as baring fruit earlier in the season than others. It is also advertised as a “very productive heirloom” and while I would not classify it as an early tomato in my tomato garden here in Marin, definitely it seems to be very productive. Fruit are slightly pear-shaped and medium sized, smaller than Cherokee Purple but larger than cherry tomatoes. I find the flavor to be intense and a bit sweeter than Cherokee Purple. A winner that will return to my garden next year!
NUMBER FOUR: LEGEND
The Legend tomato is sometimes marketed as an heirloom, but it was developed at Oregon State in 2008. Legend is reportedly resistant to late-blight, so should produce in my garden after my other tomato plants have succumbed to the inevitable tomato diseases of fall. Legend produces medium-sized red fruit, though advertisements claim fruit reaches up to five inches in diameter. It is a sweet tomato and flavorful for slicing and sandwiches. It is thriving here in Marin County.
NUMBER FIVE: EARLY GIRL
I always feel a little guilty when I am purchasing my Early Girl tomato plants, like I am somehow cheating by purchasing a plant that will bear fruit before the others. Will it be as good since it grows much faster, I ask myself. However this humble fruit which reportedly traces its roots to France is one of the top performers in my garden each year. Even Alice Waters is a fan, though she reportedly prefers Early Girls grown with “dry farming” where the seedlings are purposely starved for water to encourage root growth and flavor. Perhaps I am not watering mine enough and I have been “dry farming” without even knowing it, but my Early Girls are consistently flavorful with just the right about of tanginess. And yes, they are among the first tomatoes to ripen here in Marin County.
NUMBER SIX: BLACK CHERRY
A few years back, I drove all the nurseries in Marin County crazy by calling them and asking if they had the “Purple Cherokee Cherry Tomato” in stock yet. I was convinced I had grown it the year before alongside my treasured Cherokee Purple tomatoes, and wanted to grow them again. Finally one of the knowledgeable employees told me there’s no such thing as a “Purple Cherokee Cherry Tomato” tomato and suggested that I was probably looking for Black Cherry. She was correct, I was chagrined, and Black Cherry has been a staple in my garden ever since. The flavor is akin to Cherokee Purple, hence my confusion, and the plants produce early and often. In fact, they produce so much that I make sauce out of the extra as the season wears on.
(Note: In the photo above they look very red, but normally the Black Cherry looks more like a Cherokee Purple, with more green and brown mixed in.)
The tomato experts at the University of Oregon have written an excellent article on purple tomatoes including how and why they are different from black tomatoes.
NUMBER SEVEN: YELLOW BRANDYWINE
This year I did not buy Yellow Brandywine and I regret that decision. It is consistently a strong performer and high producer in my garden. It produces a medium to large-sized yellow fruit, which I found is more acidic and tangy in contrast to marketing materials that refer to it as “sweet” and “smooth” which are not characteristics I look for in tomatoes. This one is definitely worth a try in your garden if you like the flavor and appearance of yellow tomatoes.
THE OTHERS
These tomatoes didn’t quite work out this year, probably through no fault of their own. These aren’t necessarily bad tomatoes to grow in Marin — who knows, maybe a gopher was gnawing on their roots or I fertilized them a little less than the Marin tomato superstars above. Whatever the reason, Big Rainbow was not the “huge fruit up to 2 lbs” touted in the seed catalogs, but rather bore flavorless fruit a little larger than a cherry tomato. The aforementioned Persimmon tomato, marketed as “grown by Thomas Jefferson in 1781” succumbed early to blossom-end rot but we will see if it returns to vigor later in the season.
I am not a Marin Master Gardener and probably am making all kinds of mistakes with my very forgiving tomatoes but I thought I would share my own experience. I hope you have found this article useful as you plan your own tomato garden.
I would love to hear from you in the comments section below – what are YOUR favorite tomatoes to grow here in Marin County? Which ones grow best? Perhaps I will try some of your suggestions next year and write another article! Until then, enjoy one of the great joys of summer – home grown tomatoes.
About the Author
Thomas Henthorne is consistently top-ranked, award-winning real estate agent in Marin, helping people buy and sell homes for almost a decade. He writes the #1 real estate blog in Marin County and is a frequent speaker on panels at industry gatherings.
He may be reached at 415-847-5584.
I also like the Cherokee Purple. That history of the Cherokee Purple was interesting. One of my best red tomatoes is called “Ace.”
Pamela I think I grew Ace a few years back… I’ll look for it next spring.
Today is July 22, and even tho I have 5 plants in the ground, I don’t like any very much so today I bought 3 new ones at 70% off at Armstrongs in San Anselmo. We will see how fast these can grow..there are already tomatoes on 2 of the 3. When I am outside, I will pull the tags to let you know the varieties I have not liked. 4 out of 5 are cherry type and the one normal sized, it burns… they get all day hot sun as I live in Santa Venetia.
Sorry to hear your tomatoes haven’t worked out… this is very late in the season to plant new tomatoes but wishing you the best of luck! Thanks for your comment and happy gardening to you!
Always love the look and flavor of the Cherokee Purples and big, juicy Celebrity tomatoes. The smell of a tomato fresh off the vine is one of the best smells.
I agree, Judy! Especially with a little fresh basil. Glad to see there’s another Cherokee Purple fan out there!