Tomato Seeds – One Rabbit Riot

In the final installment for my series highlighting the garden seeds we ordered for our 2026 garden, I’m going over tomatoes. I think we ordered more tomato varieties than any other vegetable. Below, I am including links to the previous installments of the series. Plus, here’s a post that showcases all of the seeds we ordered.

Links to Other Seeds:

Tomatoes

We’re changing up nearly all of our tomatoes from 2025. We had pretty good success with most of them, but we wanted to experience new varieties. In fact, the only variety that isn’t new is the Roma seeds we ordered. In choosing our tomato seeds, we wanted a large range of tomatoes, including multiple cherry tomatoes, paste tomatoes, and slicing tomatoes. One thing we didn’t want was tomatoes of unique or uncommon colors. Last year, we grew yellow pear tomatoes and found it difficult to see the ripe ones in the midst of the leaves. So this year, we’re only growing red tomatoes. I love tomatoes and want to grow as many as we can. I loved being able to make fresh pasta sauce last year and want to take that further this year by being able to can some.

Tomato Seeds — Our tomato seeds for our 2026 garden.

Aichi First

A Japanese heirloom that originated in 1938 in the Aichi Prefecture, the Aichi First variety is a midseason that I would categorize as a slicing or salad tomato with fruits of around a half-pound. This tomato grows on indeterminate plants that mature in 80-90 days. Our seeds came from Baker Creek.

Early Cherry

This cherry tomato variety is one of the earliest ones to ripen in the garden. Its fruit grow in clusters of five on determinate plants. The flavor is described as “robust” and “full.” Successfully grows even in cool weather. These seeds were bought from Territorial.

Heinz

Yes, this tomato’s name is connected to the H.J. Heinz Co. This specific strand, the 1350 VF, was developed by the company in 1963. It’s a paste tomato with excellent processing attributes, making it great for canning and cooking into sauce. Grows on determinate plants, which produce 4-to-6-ounce round fruits, unlike the plum shape of Romas. These tomatoes come from Southern Exposure.

Korean Long

A Korean heirloom that is categorized as a paste tomato, the Korean Long tomato has a unique shape that is elongated (like a plum tomato) with a curved tail that comes to a point. Even though it’s a paste tomato, it has an excellent flavor when eaten fresh. A very meaty tomato that can weigh up to one pound each. Grows on indeterminate plants. These seeds came from Baker Creek.

Large Red

This is an old American heirloom that dates back to the pre-Civil War days, when it was listed in the 1843 Shaker seed company, which was based in their village in New Lebanon, New York. It quickly became one of the most popular varieties sold in the country. The indeterminate plants produce large 2×4-inch round tomatoes that have heavy ribbing rather than a smooth surface. Like most tomatoes with a storied past, the Large Red has a complex flavor that is sweet and tangy. These seeds come from Southern Exposure. And if you want to learn more about Shakers, their villages, and their businesses, check out this video from Kendra Gaylord.

Little Bing

We were drawn to this cherry tomato variety because of Chandler…Bing! As you can probably guess based on the name, Little Bing is a compact plant that will thrive in containers and top out at 24 inches tall. It produces lots of red cherry-sized tomatoes that are flavorful. It’s also an early-season variety that matures in 60 to 65 days. Our seeds came from Pinetree Gardens.

Martino’s Roma

When people think about tomatoes for making sauce, I’m confident that two varieties come to mind: San Marzano and Roma. Martino’s Roma is an Italian heirloom that is a perfect paste tomato. It’s a determinate variety, and the plants don’t need cages, just minimal staking. The plants produce 2-to-3-ounce fruits that are dry and meaty with few seeds. It’s a perfect variety for sauces, pastes, and salsas. Our seeds came from Baker Creek.

Mountaineer Pride

Although Mountaineer Pride isn’t an heirloom, it is the descendant of a variety that was developed in 1963 called West Virginia 63. Mountaineer Pride and its predecessor were developed by West Virginia University professor Mannon Gallegly. Mountaineer Pride wasn’t released until 2017, but it was now larger and with better disease resistance than the original variety. It grows on indeterminate vines with medium-sized fruits that have firm skin and store well. These seeds came from Southern Exposure.

Sub Arctic Plenty

This tomato is one of the earliest varieties to reach maturity, doing so in only 60 days. It was developed in Canada, so you can feel confident that it will grow in cool weather and late springs. It’s a determinate plant, and they can be planted close together so that staking isn’t needed. The fruit grow in clusters of two-ounce tomatoes, so bigger than a cherry but smaller than a salad tomato. These seeds came from Pinetree Gardens.

Umpqua Beauty

The images of these tomatoes in the Territorial seed catalog and on their website show one of the most beautiful tomatoes I’ve ever seen. They’re perfectly round with smooth, vibrant red skin and pink flesh with few cavities. The Umpqua Beauty comes from the Umpqua River Valley in southern Oregon, and both were named for the Umpqua Native American tribe that has lived there for more than a thousand years. The tomato is a determinate variety with fruit that can grow up to two pounds and are versatile. It is great as a slicing tomato on sandwiches and salads and also makes a great paste tomato due to the low number of seed cavities it has. I’m very excited to grow these.

And there you have it: Our 2026 collection of seeds. Were there any that stood out? Are you growing any of the same varieties or are there any that you think we should grow?

Heat Wave

We had one of the coolest and wettest springs that I can remember this year. If you’re a regular reader of our blog, you know that this delayed our planting and slowed growth. That pattern broke as the official start of summer arrived with a four-day heat wave that has brought temperatures in the 90s, humidity, and a UV index above 10. There was no gradual transition between seasons this year. While it’s not my preferred weather, I’m very thankful that the ground can start drying out and plants can begin to take off.

The extreme heat can make working in the garden less fun, but it’s a reminder to take breaks, stay hydrated, and get as much work done outside the hottest part of the day. I failed at the last part of that this past weekend by working in the middle of the day, which is a mistake I won’t make again during this heat wave.

Lots of Growth

Even though the recent weather pattern hasn’t been ideal, it is allowing our plants to take off. With ample moisture in the ground, all that the plants needed was warmth and sunshine, and now that they have it, the plants have shown measurable growth in recent days. I want to highlight a few plants where this has been most evident.

Corn: Our corn is now about 15 inches tall and on pace to meet the “knee-high by the 4th of July” saying that I heard growing up. The base of the stalks looks strong, and the leaves are a beautiful green with that lovely waxy and silky texture. I continue to side dress them with blood meal every couple of weeks.

Beans and Peas: Our beans have exhibited consistent growth since germinating in mid-May. All the beans, except for the red bush beans that I started in early June, are about 8 inches tall. Our snow peas are also at this height, which led me to build a trellis for them this past week.

Eggplant & Spaghetti Squash: We transplanted a couple of eggplant starts a few weekends ago, and they are doing exceptionally well. They have been consistently producing flowers, and I even felt the start of a fruit on Sunday. We planted a lot of squash and melons this year, and the spaghetti squash start we bought in early May is doing wonderful. It’s spreading outward from the main stem and is starting to show where the flowers and fruit will grow.

Tomatoes & Peppers: Our tomato and pepper plants have started to flower, and one of the yellow pear tomato plants has fruit on it. This hot weather should help produce more fruit and help that first tomato ripen.

One small downside to the weather we’ve had is that weeds and grass have continued to grow at a fast pace. Managing the grass that’s inside our garden fences has been difficult from the beginning. We have a plus sign-shaped walkway between our garden beds. I’m able to tackle that with the mower, but the grass within the garden beds is a different story. We’ve been using hedge-trimming shears to cut down all the grass, which has been surprisingly effective. Hopefully, the hot weather will lead to the grass growing a bit slower moving forward.

Seed of the Week – Queen Aliquippa Tomatoes

This is the first installment of a new section I’m calling Seed of the Week. Each week, I’ll go over a seed we’ve grown and are particularly fond of. I won’t go in-depth with the seed’s history in this weekly post (I’m saving that for a standalone series), but I may briefly highlight the seed’s name inspiration. I will also go over our experience with the seed, including how it is to grow, and what the fruit should look like when it’s ripe. I considered many options for the first Seed of the Week section, but I am going with the Queen Aliquippa tomato, which I briefly highlighted when I wrote about the seeds we bought for this year’s garden.

Tomato Seeds, Seed Packet, Gardening — Queen Aliquippa tomato packet

We bought our Queen Aliquippa seeds from Sow True Seeds, which is located in Asheville, North Carolina. The seeds are named for Queen Aliquippa, a Seneca tribe leader from the 18th century who lived in Central and Western Pennsylvania, which is where Magz and I are from. Queen Aliquippa is a well-known name where we live, so we had to try seeds named in her honor. We’ve never grown these seeds or even seen the tomatoes in person, but the tomatoes are categorized as slicing, so they’re likely larger than pear tomatoes but smaller than a beefsteak. They stay green when ripe but are supposed to be incredibly sweet.

Our experience with growing these seeds has been positive. They were some of the earliest seeds I started, and they were easy to germinate. Unfortunately, not having a strong enough grow light prevented them from growing as big as I would have liked before transplanting them, but we did finally get them outside in late May. We started with two plants going outside when they were about 4 inches tall, and they’ve done remarkably well in spite of the poor weather. As of yesterday, they were over a foot tall. The leaves are beautiful, and we haven’t experienced any leaf curl, which is common with a lot of tomato plants.

Tag: Tomato Seeds

Our 2026 Garden Seeds: Tomatoes