If you are looking for the best tomato to grow for making and preserving salsa, sauces, stewed tomatoes and more – look no further than the San Marzano tomato!
One of the best things about growing your own delicious crop of tomatoes is all of the amazing foods you can create from them. Especially when you can preserve your tomatoes to use the whole year round.
Whether it’s homemade salsa, pizza sauce, marinara, or picante, fresh tomatoes from the garden are the key to it all. But not just any tomatoes. To really make the best canned goods, you need to start with the right kind of tomatoes for canning.
So what makes a tomato good to grow for preserving? For starters it must have great flavor. Without that – nothing else matters! But it’s also important to select a variety that produces plenty of tomatoes on the vine. After all, you are going to need a fair amount of tomatoes to have plenty left over for canning.
What Makes A Tomato The Best Tomato To Grow For Preserving?
Next, the tomato variety needs to be the right consistency for the products you are canning. For a thick, full-bodied tomato sauce, or a tasty, chunky-style salsa, you certainly don’t want a tomato that is watery and thin.
Finally, and just as important, you need to select a tomato that holds up well through the process of preserving. Both for consistency, and for safe canning.
When preserving, and especially when preserving by canning, you want to make sure your tomato has enough acid for safe processing and storage. You also need to know it can handle the high heat of processing, and still retain its flavor.
Now that you know the makeup of a great canning tomato, let’s look at one variety that checks all of the above boxes with flying colors – the San Marzano paste tomato!
First, we’ll take a look at this tomatoes amazing qualities. Then, we will take you through how to plant, maintain and harvest this incredible variety for the biggest and best harvest possible.
The San Marzano – The Best Tomato To Grow For Preserving
When it comes to flavor, meatiness, acidity and high production levels in the garden, the San Marzano is at the head of the list.
The thick, meaty interior of the San Marzano is perfect for creating salsa and sauces. Its thicker skins make it an easy peel tomato, and with an extremely small seed core, the seeds easy to remove for preserving. As for flavor, it is one of the sweetest paste tomatoes around.
Although the San Marzano has plenty of acid for safe canning, it has a smoother taste profile than other paste varieties. But what really makes this tomato plant special is its ability to produce an abundance of tomatoes!
The San Marzano produces large amounts of fruit on a relatively compact, bush-style plant. Growing an average of 3 to 4 feet in height, the plant is easy to support.
Even better, it is an indeterminate variety, meaning it will produce all season long, right up until the first frost. Talk about getting plenty of tomatoes for fresh eating and preserving! Maybe best of all, the San Marzano is easy to grow and maintain.
How To Grow San Marzano – The Best Tomato To Grow For Preserving
To grow an abundance of San Marzano tomatoes, you need three simple things. Sunlight, good soil, and good support.
This variety is a full-sun loving annual. For maximum production locate in an area that receives at least six to eight hours of direct sunlight each day. Eight to ten is even better as the San Marzano converts the sun’s energy to ripen and sweeten its fruit.
Plant in fertile, well-draining soil that is loose for easy growing of its roots. The more extensive the root system can grow, the more power the plant can put into producing blooms and fruit. Plant deep in the soil to promote strong root growth.
When planting, amend the soil with generous amounts of compost. A mix of 50/50 garden soil and compost is best.
Adding in a few tablespoons of crushed egg shells, worm castings and coffee grounds into the planting holes will supply even more nutrients for strong growth.
If planting in a containers or pots, use a high quality potting soil. In a confined space, the soil needs to be as strong and nutrient filled as possible. Again, adding in worm castings, egg shells and coffee grounds to the mix will help greatly. See: How To Plant Tomatoes Right
Give Your Tomatoes Support – The Best Tomato To Grow For Preserving
San Marzano tomato plants need support to handle the heavy fruit loads they produce. With their compact growing habits, they can quite easily gain support from a stake, cage or even a small trellis.
It is always best to provide that support as soon as you plant. This helps to secure tender young transplants, protecting them from strong late spring or early summer storms.
More importantly, putting supports in early eliminates damaging the root structures of maturing plants. If you wait until mid-summer to drive in your supports, it is easy to hit and damage existing roots.
Fertilizing, Watering & Harvesting – The Best Tomato To Grow For Preserving
Proper watering, fertilizing and harvesting habits all help your plants to produce a better harvest.
Once transplants have established in the soil (7 to 10 days after planting), they should be fertilized every three to four weeks during the early portion of the growing season. Use a high quality liquid organic fertilizer or compost tea for best results. Product Link : Espoma Organic Liquid Tomato Fertilizer
Liquid fertilizers take nutrients to the roots and foliage of the plant quickly. Fertilize a total of 3 or 4 times every 3 to 4 weeks. After that, stop fertilizing to allow the plant to concentrate its power on fruit production and ripening.
Too much fertilizer too late in the growing season will cause the plant to produce new foliage, and not more blooms.
As for watering, as with all tomatoes, plants should be receiving around one 1 inch of rainfall or watering per week. If mother nature isn’t providing it, plants should be watered accordingly.
Keep on Picking – The Best Tomato To Grow For Preserving
Finally, whatever you do, keep on harvesting your San Marzano tomato plants to help them to continue to produce.
As an indeterminate variety, the San Marzano will continue to produce new blooms and fruit all season long. However, if the plant becomes overloaded with fruit, it will back off on producing new blooms and fruit.
Here is to growing San Marzano tomatoes this year, and to experiencing for yourself the joys of growing the best preserving tomato around!
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