You're invited to join our public tomato trial and be a citizen scientist! Help gather information by growing trial tomatoes in your garden and reporting the results. By growing the same varieties in home gardens all over the county, we will learn how they perform under a broad range of growing conditions. This valuable data can help gardeners make informed choices about what varieties to plant and identify new varieties to offer at future Spring Garden Fairs.
2025 Trial Varieties
These 2025 trial tomatoes ranked highest in our taste tests last summer. The plants were healthy and productive.
Green Doctors
These green cherry tomatoes have a fabulous, sweet, balanced flavor. They soften and turn slightly golden when ripe. They originated as a chance green variation of the white Dr. Carolyn cherry tomato, found growing in the garden of Dr. Amy Goldman. The name refers to the two doctors, Dr. Goldman and the late Dr. Carolyn Male, two renowned tomato enthusiasts.
Indeterminate. OP. 75 days.
Queen of the Night
These stunningly colored small tomatoes (3–3½ oz) start off with green and purple-black skins, then become streaked with red/orange/yellow as they ripen. The interior is bright red and the flavor is deliciously rich and sweet. A German heirloom from the Rhine region of Germany.
Semi-determinate (5–5½ ft). OP 80 days.
Sart Roloise
This gorgeous beefsteak tomato is golden yellow with purple shoulders and a pale gold interior. The flavor is fruity and complex, low-acid and mellow. It's a cross between White Wonder and Baby Blue tomatoes, bred by Roland Boulanger, Sart Eustache, Belgium. (Pronounced sar-roh-lwaz)
Indeterminate. OP 85–90 days.
How it works
- Buy designated trial tomatoes at our Spring Garden Fair
- Grow them in a garden this summer
- Report results using SeedLinked online or the smartphone app
Examples of data we will be asking for:
- Date you plant the seedlings
- Date of first ripe tomato
- Flavor of tomato
- Health and vigor of plant
- Productivity (according to your opinion; you won't need to count or weigh the harvest)
How to participate
Growing Requirements
Make sure you have the appropriate conditions to successfully grow tomatoes this summer. The growing space should:
- have reliable access to water
- receive at least 8 hours of sun per day
- provide adequate growing space. Tomatoes need about 2 square feet per plant or a container at least 18" to 24" wide and deep per plant.
Join the trial
- We are using the SeedLinked platform to gather the data. Join our SeedLinked trial. (Create a free SeedLinked account if you don't already have one.)
- We are holding a Zoom webinar on Wednesday May 6, 12 noon – 1 pm to demonstrate using SeedLinked and answer questions. We will add a link to the recording here afterwards.
Purchase seedlings at our Spring Garden Fair
- Look for our Tomato Trial booth.
- About 150 of each of the trial tomato varieties will be available on a first-come basis, at the same price as the other tomato seedlings.
- Ideally participants will grow all three trial tomatoes. If you only have room for one or two of them, you are still welcome to join the trial.
Plant the seedlings
- Review Growing Great Tomatoes before planting your seedlings.
- Harden off your seedlings
- Hardening off means gradually acclimating plants to outdoor conditions for 4–7 days before transplanting.
- Start by placing the plants in a sheltered location like a covered patio. Then expose the young plants to an increasing number of hours of outdoor sunlight until they tolerate at least 6 hours of outdoor conditions.
- When you plant your tomatoes, be sure they are clearly labeled. Tip: Punch a hole in the plant tag and hang it on the tomato cage at eye level for easy reference.
Report your progress
- You can log into your SeedLinked account at any time to report results, using either the smartphone app or the Seedlinked website. The app is great for reporting directly from the garden, but it's a bit easier to get familiar with the options by looking at the online version.
- Select this year's Master Gardener Tomato Trial.
- Click the ‘Review’ button to enter planting dates or ratings.
- Enter the planting date: February 28. That's the date all of the seedlings were started.
- Enter the date when you transplant your seedling(s) into your garden or containers.
- Later in the season, enter the date you pick your first ripe tomato.
- Rate your plant and tomatoes on various criteria like blossom end rot or flavor.
- Upload photos and add comments.
- We will send out reminders and updates as the season progresses.
- Participate in the discussion forum. We are here to help you every step of the way.
- At the end of the season, we will prompt everyone to finish their reports and press ‘Submit my Reviews’/’Complete Trial’ to finalize and submit your results.
If your seedlings don't make it (we understand, we have all had plants die), you can click the icon marked 'Report failure' and optionally add a comment to explain what happened (irrigation failure, stem broke, disease, etc.)
2024 Trial Results
Thank you to participants in our 2024 Tomato Trial. Tomato Bronze Torch was highly ranked across the board for flavor, vigor, and productivity. This beautiful and tasty tomato is now part of our Spring Garden Fair tomato line up.
Contact us
Have questions or comments? Email us