If you want to grow tomatoes specifically for canning-- whether as whole tomatoes, sauces, salsa, or paste-- there are a few qualities to look out for. To start, look for paste tomatoes (or 'plum' tomatoes), which tend to be less watery and more acidic. Space-friendly determinate varieties are preferable for container gardening, while indeterminate varieties will give you a constant harvest. Do you want an early-maturing variety to suit your short growing season? What about a disease-resistant variety? And of course, there's flavor to consider; there are sweeter tomatoes, more acidic tomatoes, and everything in between to choose from.
This guide covers six of the best tomatoes for canning, what makes them stand out, and what to look for in a good canning tomato.
Skip Ahead: What to look for in a canning tomato • Overall best varieties • San Marzano • Roma • Amish Paste • Blue Beech • Paisano • Tiren
What to look for in a canning tomato
All tomatoes lend themselves to some form of preserving, whether that's canning, oil packing, or even freezing. But tomatoes that are suited to canning are flavorful, prolific, and produce generally small and dense fruits.
Dense tomato varieties are good for canning because they offer more meat and less water content, resulting in more usable sauce (or salsa) per plant and more flavor.
Here are a few more things to look for in a good canning tomato:
- Paste or plum varieties: Paste tomatoes make the best canning tomatoes, whether they're old heirloom varieties or hybrids bred to mature quickly or resist diseases. While you can certainly can cherry tomatoes or beefsteak tomatoes, the process of removing their skins would be more cumbersome and the results less flavorful.
- Few seeds: A smaller seed cavity means more room for 'meat.' Ultimately, this will mean more hearty tomato paste or sauce and less water content. This is one reason that beefsteak or slicing tomatoes aren't well suited to canning.
- Acidity: The acidity level of paste tomatoes varies widely, with sweeter varieties like Blue Beech that make for tasty fresh eating tomatoes and Romas on the other end of the spectrum, which are best suited to rich sauces. This comes down to preference; there's no right or wrong answer here.
- Determinate varieties: Determinate varieties set all of their fruit at once, providing a glut of tomatoes to be canned in one session. If you're aiming to can months' worth of tomatoes, this may be your preference. Determinate varieties are also lower maintenance, requiring little pruning and growing in a compact habit that's ideal for small gardens and containers. Roma tomatoes are a determinate variety, and some hybrid San Marzano types are bred to be determinate.
- Indeterminate varieties: Indeterminate varieties provide a steady supply of tomatoes throughout the season. If you're using a water bath canner, you would likely need to grow two to four indeterminate tomato plants in order to harvest enough ripe tomatoes to fill the canner every few weeks.
Read More: When and How to Prune Tomato Plants
The overall best canning tomatoes
All of the tomatoes on this list are paste tomatoes, but there is some variation in growth habit, time to maturity, yields, size, and flavor.
San Marzano and Tiren are indeterminate varieties; you might need multiple plants to be able to harvest enough tomatoes at once to warrant firing up the canner. On the other hand, Roma, Amish Paste, Blue Beech, and Paisano are determinate varieties that will give you one large tomato harvest all at once.
If you want to save your own seeds, opt for San Marzano, Roma, Amish Paste, or Blue Beech, which are all heirloom varieties.
For disease resistance, consider Tiren. For a space-friendly San Marzano type, consider Paisano.
1. San Marzano
San Marzano tomatoes are the classic Italian paste tomato used for Neapolitan pizza sauces and pasta sauces. Traditionally, they're grown in the volcanic soil near Mount Vesuvius, which gives them the unique terroir and quality that have merited official "protected designation of origin" status. You can find canned San Marzano tomatoes marked "D.O.P." at the grocery, although American-grown San Marzanos are also available for a lower price.
While using your own home-grown San Marzano tomatoes might not elevate your homemade sauces to the level of Neapolitan, it is a delicious alternative to more common Roma tomatoes. Compared to Romas, San Marzano tomatoes have fewer seeds, grow longer and in a pointier shape, and have a slightly dialed back acidity that makes for a sweeter flavor.
San Marzanos are indeterminate types, meaning they supply fruits throughout the season as opposed to all at once. They're also an heirloom variety, which means you can save your own seed at the end of the year.
Order: San Marzano tomato seeds
2. Roma
Romas are a determinate variety of paste tomato. These are the plum tomato you'll typically find in grocery stores-- though Romas grown at home or locally are much more flavorful. They're great for canning, making sauces or paste, and even slicing up for a salad, thanks to their meaty interiors and relative lack of seeds.
Roma tomatoes grow in a bushy habit, require minimal pruning, and are well suited to growing in pots. As determinate tomatoes, they also set all of their fruit at once, providing a glut that can all be canned in one go. If you have a small space and want to can tomatoes, Romas would be an excellent choice.
Like San Marzanos, Romas are an heirloom variety that you can grow from self-saved seed season after season.
Order: Roma tomato seeds
3. Amish Paste
Amish Paste tomatoes are another popular heirloom tomato variety for canning thanks to their meaty texture, few seeds, and sweet flavor. They grow larger than Roma and San Marzano tomatoes, but they also have the least acidic, sweetest flavor of the three. This makes them a bright addition to salads, but it does make for a slightly less robust sauce flavor. Still, it's all to taste, and this variety can provide a prolific output throughout the summer.
Amish Paste tomatoes are a determinate variety ideal for small spaces, container gardening, and regular harvesting. Like other determinate tomatoes, they don't need regularly pruning and their fruits will ripen all summer long.
Order: Amish Paste tomato seeds
4. Blue Beech
Another heirloom variety, Blue Beech are determinate paste tomatoes that are adapted to growing in northern climates. They grow to 8 to 10 ounces, making them about the same size as Amish Paste tomatoes, if not slightly smaller.
Blue Beech tomatoes are known for their size and meatiness; these are sweet, rich tomatoes with an incredibly small seed cavity. They're also bred to grow well in cooler climates, resist disease, and be less susceptible to blossom end rot-- and they're heirlooms! The only downside: these tomatoes are less prolific than Romas or San Marzanos.
Blue Beech would be great to grow in pots for gardeners who want a relatively modest harvest for canning. Otherwise, plan to grow a few extra plants if you're looking for the kind of output you might expect from other paste varieties.
Order: Blue Beech tomato seeds
5. Paisano F1
Paisano F1 tomatoes are a type of San Marzano bred as a determinate variety. This makes them a great alternative to heirloom San Marzanos for gardeners with limited space, and it's also more convenient for canning.
Paisano F1s are faster maturing than traditional San Marzanos, making them well suited to shorter growing seasons. The only downside: these are hybrid plants, so if you save their seeds for next year, their offspring won't reliably have the same qualities.
Order: Paisano F1 tomato seeds
6. Tiren F1
Tiren is another hybrid San Marzano type tomato, but this one is bred for disease resistance: it's less likely to suffer from Fusarium wilt, tomato mosaic virus, and Verticillium wilt. It's also an indeterminate variety, so it will produce ripe fruit all season, will require regular pruning, and needs a bit more space-- anywhere from 18" to 4', depending on how you prune.
If you're looking for a prolific paste tomato with that classic San Marzano flavor but specifically struggle with diseases taking over your tomatoes, Tiren might be your best option.
Order: Tiren tomato seeds