Tomato Selector Guide

There are four main types of tomatoes, each with their own culinary uses as explained below:

Cherry tomatoes

• The smallest and often sweetest tomatoes, from grape size to 25g fruits
• Cherry tomatoes are ideal for adding to salads, pasta dishes or for roasting whole

Medium Tomatoes

• Also known as 'salad' tomatoes
• These are good all-round tomatoes in the kitchen

Beefsteak Tomatoes

• The biggest tomatoes, often weighing 200g or more!
• Beefsteak tomatoes have a meaty texture, ideal for grilling, stuffing and adding to sandwiches

Plum Tomatoes

• Available in 'cherry' size or larger, plum tomatoes have an oval shape
• They are very fleshy, generally having fewer seeds, making them ideal for sauces, soups or sun drying

Cordon and bush tomatoes explained

Cordon/Indeterminate tomatoes
These varieties of tomato plant are the most common and are grown as cordons (single stemmed plants with side shoots removed). They will grow very tall - sometimes taller than 2.5m in very warm conditions.

Bush/Determinate
These varieties stop growing sooner than indeterminate varieties with the stem ending in a fruit truss. They are referred to as 'bush' and 'dwarf' types (suitable as hanging basket tomatoes) and don't require any pruning.

Semi-determinate
These are similar to indeterminate varieties (grown as cordons) only they produce shorter plants.

Now you've chosen which type of tomato you'd like to grow you can narrow your choice down further by choosing whether it's suitable for indoor or outdoor cultivation, whether it can be grown in a container or hanging basket and whether it has blight resistance. For more information on tomato blight, read our dedicated guide.

All tomato plants can be grown in the ground, grow bags or in patio containers; however the shortest varieties are the most suitable for containers as they don't require staking. View our guides below to help you select the right tomato for you. You can either scroll down the page to browse or click on the tomato types above to view all varieties for that type; then simply click on the variety name for more information on that variety.