Crops › Tomato (Plum)
How to grow Tomato (Plum)
in the UK
Sow March to April, plant out May to June, harvest July to October. About 75 days from seed to plate.
Plum tomatoes are a cracking choice if you're wanting to make your own sauces or get into preserving. They're much less watery than your bog-standard types, so they cook down beautifully and keep their flavour proper well. You'll find they do best in a greenhouse, giving you a proper good crop.
Sowing
You'll want to get your plum tomato seeds started indoors, usually around March or April up here in the North. Pop them in trays or small pots, about 5mm deep, in some good quality seed compost. They need warmth to get going, so a heated propagator or a warm windowsill with a heat mat is ideal, and grow lights will really help stop them getting leggy. Once they've germinated, make sure they get plenty of light, otherwise they'll stretch for it and be weak.
Growing on
When your little seedlings have their first proper set of true leaves, it's time to prick them out into individual pots, say 9cm ones. Give them a good bit of space. Before planting out, you need to harden them off gradually over a week or two, you know, get them used to the outside world. Don't even think about putting them outside until all danger of frost has well and truly passed, usually mid to late May for us. In the greenhouse, give them about 60cm between plants, and they'll definitely need good support as they grow.
Looking after it
Tomatoes are thirsty things, especially once they start fruiting, so water regularly and consistently to avoid problems like blossom end rot. Feed them with a high potash tomato feed once the first truss of fruit sets. For indeterminate types, pinch out side shoots regularly to direct energy into fruit. A good mulch can help keep moisture in and weeds down, like I say.
What goes wrong
Two common nuisances are blight and whitefly. Blight, that's a nasty one, especially if the weather's damp and warm; it can wipe out your crop. Keep an eye out for it and remove affected leaves quickly. For whitefly, try yellow sticky traps in the greenhouse, they're surprisingly effective. Good airflow helps with both, to be honest, so keep that greenhouse door open on warm days.
Harvest
You're looking at about 75 days from sowing until you're picking your first ripe plum tomatoes, usually from July right through to October. Pick them when they're fully coloured and feel a bit soft to the touch. They're perfect for canning, making sauces, or even drying out for winter. If you've got a proper glut, cracking, you'll be chuffed you grew them.
I always grow a few plum tomatoes in large pots outside the greenhouse door too, just to catch that extra bit of sun if the greenhouse is packed, they do alright.
Dates for your plot
Type the first half of your postcode and the plant-out advice shifts to your area's typical frost dates.
Varieties, and whether the club would grow them again
| Variety | Club verdict |
|---|---|
| San Marzano This is a classic Italian paste tomato, known for its sweet flavour and low moisture content. It's spot on for making rich, thick sauces and for canning. | No club votes yet |
| Roma VF A reliable, disease-resistant paste tomato with lovely meaty flesh. A good all-rounder if you're worried about common tomato woes. | No club votes yet |
| Olivade F1 A cracking small plum type that's just excellent for drying. Get these strung up in a sunny spot or in a dehydrator. | No club votes yet |
| Principe Borghese This is a proper Italian drying tomato, producing loads of small, flavourful fruits. It's a traditional choice for sun-drying or oven-drying. | No club votes yet |
| Incas F1 An elongated plum tomato that offers good disease resistance, making it a reliable choice. You'll get plenty of fruit for all your cooking needs. | No club votes yet |
| Santonio F1 A large plum type specifically bred for growing in a greenhouse, perfect for big batches of sauce. Expect good, hefty fruits from this one. | No club votes yet |
| Opalka This Polish heritage paste tomato has an unusual banana shape and fantastic flavour. It's a bit different and brilliant for sauces. | No club votes yet |
| Amish Paste A popular American heirloom paste tomato, known for its rich flavour and good, solid texture. Great for all your preserving projects. | No club votes yet |
| Jersey Devil A heritage variety that produces long, pointed paste tomatoes, giving you a good amount of flesh. It's a proper workhorse for sauces. | No club votes yet |
| Sausage As the name suggests, this heritage variety gives you very elongated, sausage-shaped paste tomatoes. Ideal for thick, rich sauces. | No club votes yet |
| La Roma This is a determinate plum variety, meaning it grows to a set size, and it's a really heavy cropper. You'll get loads of fruit all at once, which is grand for processing. | No club votes yet |
| Plum Regal F1 A cracking F1 hybrid that produces large, oval plum tomatoes with a good, meaty texture. It's a reliable choice for sauces and canning. | No club votes yet |
| Viva Italia If you're worried about late blight, this one's a good bet as it shows resistance. It's a proper paste tomato with good flavour. | No club votes yet |
| Bellstar F1 A heavy-fruiting Roma type that lives up to its 'high-yield' tag, giving you plenty of fruit. A great choice if you want a big harvest for sauces. | No club votes yet |
| Orange Roma This heritage variety gives you lovely orange paste tomatoes with a surprisingly sweet flavour. Adds a bit of colour to your sauces, too. | No club votes yet |
| Yellow Perfection A beautiful golden yellow plum tomato, offering a sweet and mild flavour. It's a heritage variety that stands out on the plate and in sauces. | No club votes yet |
| Black Plum This heritage plum tomato ripens to a unique purple-brown colour with a rich, complex flavour. It's a bit different and well worth a try. | No club votes yet |
| Speckled Roman A stunning heritage paste tomato with red and yellow stripes, making it a looker as well as a great cooker. Its meaty flesh is ideal for thick sauces. | No club votes yet |
| Pompeii A proper Italian San Marzano type, known for its excellent flavour and solid flesh, ideal for cooking. You can't go wrong with this for authentic sauces. | No club votes yet |
| Howard German This heritage variety produces large, beautiful bicolor plum tomatoes, showing off pink and yellow hues. It's got a lovely sweet flavour, too. | No club votes yet |
| Super Marzano F1 An improved San Marzano hybrid, giving you all the great qualities of the original but with potentially better yields. It's a reliable choice for top-notch sauces. | No club votes yet |
| Martino's Roma A dependable determinate paste tomato that's great for gardeners who prefer a plant that grows to a manageable size. Produces a good crop of meaty fruits. | No club votes yet |
| Ropreco Paste A Canadian heritage paste tomato, well-regarded for its meaty texture and good flavour for cooking. It's a solid choice for all your sauce needs. | No club votes yet |
| Polish Linguisa Another cracking sausage-shaped Polish variety, known for its substantial fruits and excellent paste qualities. You'll get a good yield for your preserving efforts. | No club votes yet |
Votes are members rating varieties in their Seed Tin, one vote per gardener. Tap a variety for the full page and where to buy.
Buy Tomato (Plum) seeds
Partner retailers. If you buy through these links we may earn a small commission. It never costs you more.
Cook the harvest
Spiced lamb köfte nestle into a deeply flavoured plum tomato sauce, finished with a dollop of garlicky yoghurt and a drizzle of chilli butter. This is a weeknight bake that eats like something you have been slow-cooking all day — the plum tomatoes collapse into a rich, brick-red sauce that is the backbone of the whole dish.
40 min · easyA proper, uncooked Mexican salsa where ripe plum tomatoes are the whole point. Everything is chopped by hand rather than blitzed — you want texture, not purée — and the result is bright, fresh and fiery in a way that a jar from the supermarket never gets close to. Ready in under 20 minutes and endlessly useful, this works as a dip, a taco topping or spooned over grilled chicken.
15 min · easyHeavily charred sourdough carries a punchy mixture of raw plum tomatoes crushed with spicy nduja and a little olive oil, piled onto clouds of whipped ricotta. This is the kind of thing you make when you have a glut of ripe plum tomatoes and want something that tastes more than the sum of its parts. It works as a starter, a light lunch, or a very good snack.
23 min · easyA proper shakshuka needs tomatoes that actually taste of something — plum tomatoes in August are exactly right. This is the version you make on a weeknight when you want something satisfying in under half an hour: a deep, smoky, slightly spiced sauce with eggs poached directly in it, eaten straight from the pan with a heap of crusty bread. It is unapologetically simple and completely delicious.
28 min · easyWatch for, and grow alongside
Companions: basil, marigold
Questions people ask
When do you sow Tomato (Plum) in the UK?
Sow Tomato (Plum) from March to April. Plant out May to June, after the last frost.
How long does Tomato (Plum) take from sowing to harvest?
Roughly 75 days, with the harvest July to October.
Which Tomato (Plum) varieties do gardeners grow again?
Club members rate every variety they grow. This page shows the grow-again votes for San Marzano, Roma VF, Olivade F1, Principe Borghese and more.
Track your Tomato (Plum) from packet to plate
Sowing reminders and harvest forecasts for your own frost dates, the Seed Tin, Scan Centre for any label or packet, and the Potty Mouth Garden Club. Free to start.
Allotment keeper in the North East of England, the voice behind the Tony C Smith YouTube channel, and the gardener who built GrowMore CookMore. Club numbers on this page update as members log their plots. Last updated 3 September 2026.