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There are two tomato moments every gardener knows, and they are not the same moment at all. One is standing in the garden in August, popping a warm cherry tomato straight off the vine before it ever sees the kitchen. The other is a pot of sauce simmering down on the stove, thick and brick red, from tomatoes that were never meant to be eaten raw. Grow the wrong type for the job and you get the lesser version of both: cherries that turn to water in the pot, paste tomatoes that taste like damp cardboard in a salad. This roundup covers both jobs, three varieties each, all in stock at Botanical Interests.
Six picks below cover the whole cherry-and-paste question: the sweetest cherry money can buy, the heirloom cherry with the highest rating here, the early budget cherry that fills a bowl by the handful, the famous sauce tomato with an honest caveat, the ribbed Italian that slices as well as it simmers, and the paste tomato that does double duty on the cutting board. Every pick below is in stock at Botanical Interests, with the price and rating shown as listed.
Our growing guide covers support, water, and harvest for both types, and the cherry-versus-paste comparison settles which type your garden actually needs. If you are still deciding among tomato types more broadly, our short-season tomato roundup covers the varieties that ripen fastest, and our tomato seed-starting guide covers timing, heat, and hardening off.
Best Overall: Sun Gold
Sun Gold wins the top spot on flavor alone, and it is not close. The fruits are plump and tangerine colored, very sweet and juicy, and rare enough in grocery stores that most gardeners meet them for the first time in their own garden. Gardeners rate it 4.7 from 106 reviews, the largest review base of any variety here, and the theme running through those reviews is snacking: people eat them standing in the garden, straight off the vine, before the bowl ever makes it inside. The vines are vigorous and easily reach 6 feet or more, so give them a tall stake or cage, and pick a bit early and ripen indoors at room temperature if the birds find them first. It is a low-acid tomato, and it is disease resistant.
The honest trade-off is the price. At $5.99 a packet, Sun Gold costs more than twice every other variety in this roundup. It is the one packet here where the premium is real money rather than a rounding error, and if you are planting a whole row of cherries, the cost adds up. But for a single plant or two by the back door, nothing else here tastes like it, and the reviews back that up.
Pros: the sweetest cherry here by a clear margin; 4.7 from 106 reviews; disease resistant; low-acid.
Cons: $5.99 a packet, more than double the others; vigorous 6-foot vines need tall support.
Sun Gold Pole Cherry Tomato Seeds
The sweetest cherry here, with the biggest review base — worth the premium for a plant or two by the back door.
Runner-Up: Gardener’s Delight
Gardener’s Delight is the cherry to plant if Sun Gold’s price makes you wince, because it gives up almost nothing on flavor for less than half the money. It is a 1950s German heirloom that reviewers have called the best cherry tomato, extra sweet and packed with flavor, and it carries the highest rating in this roundup at 4.9 from 19 reviews. It produces many clusters of 6 to 12 tomatoes all summer until frost, on vigorous vines that easily reach 6 feet long, so it needs a sturdy trellis the same way Sun Gold does.
What holds it back from the top spot is simply that Sun Gold’s sweetness is the thing people write home about, while Gardener’s Delight is the cherry people quietly replant every year. One reviewer in zone 7 reported eating them by the handfuls in the garden, with production running into October. That is the whole case for it: a proven, prolific, sweet cherry at $2.69.
Pros: highest rating here at 4.9 from 19 reviews; $2.69; clusters of 6 to 12, producing until frost.
Cons: vines reach 6 feet and need a sturdy trellis; smaller review base than Sun Gold.
Gardener’s Delight Pole Cherry Tomato Seeds
The highest-rated cherry here, a 1950s German heirloom that produces clusters of 6 to 12 until frost.
Best Budget Cherry: Sweetie
Sweetie is the cherry for the gardener who wants a bowlful, not a tasting note. It lives up to its name with a hearty, sweet flavor and an early harvest, producing large numbers of 3/4-inch to 1-inch cherry tomatoes in grape-like clusters. The vines are vigorous and easily reach 6 feet long, and like Sun Gold it is a low-acid tomato. Gardeners rate it 4.6 from 14 reviews, and the recurring theme is abundance: one reviewer planted four plants and fed a family of three plus four close friends, with plenty left over.
It earns the budget label honestly. At $2.69 it costs the same as Gardener’s Delight, and it is the earliest harvest of the three cherries here, which matters in a short season. The trade-off is that it is a workhorse rather than a showpiece: sweet and prolific, but not the variety people write sonnets about. Plant two and you will not run out.
Pros: early harvest; very prolific, with grape-like clusters; $2.69; low-acid.
Cons: 6-foot vines need tall support; flavor is sweet and hearty rather than extraordinary.
Sweetie Pole Cherry Tomato Seeds
An early, prolific cherry at $2.69 — plant two and the bowl never empties.
Best Paste Tomato: San Marzano
San Marzano is the famous one, and fame is exactly why it needs an honest paragraph. It is widely held to be the parent of almost all the paste tomatoes bred in the United States since the 1920s, and Italians have cherished this large paste tomato for generations as the very best for sauce and canning. The vines are vigorous and reach 6 feet or more. At $2.69 it is one of the cheapest packets in this roundup, and with 61 reviews it has by far the largest review base of any paste tomato here.
It is also the lowest-rated pick in this roundup, at 4.2 from 61 reviews, and that is worth saying plainly before you buy. The low marks are not mostly about growing: the one-star review on the page is a complaint about labeling, not about the plant, and one reviewer reports a single plant that survived neglect, grew through the bottom of its container, and kept flowering into November. But a 4.2 is a 4.2, and the other paste tomatoes here score higher. Buy San Marzano for what it is — the classic sauce tomato, proven over generations, at one of the lowest prices here — and know the rating is the weakest of the six.
Pros: the classic sauce and canning tomato; $2.69; largest paste-tomato review base here at 61 reviews.
Cons: lowest rating here at 4.2 from 61 reviews; vigorous vines reach 6 feet or more.
San Marzano Roma Pole Tomato Seeds
The classic sauce tomato at $2.69 — buy it for the generations of proof, with the lowest rating here in mind.
Best Sauce Tomato That Also Slices: Costoluto Genovese
Costoluto Genovese is the Italian heirloom for the gardener who wants one paste tomato to do two jobs. Its deeply ribbed, rich-red fruits run 6 to 8 ounces, with thick walls and a meaty texture that make it ideal for slow cooking — and the same thick, juicy flesh with a balance of sweetness and acidity makes it good sliced fresh for salads. Gardeners rate it 4.8 from 8 reviews, and the recurring theme is that it keeps producing while other varieties give up: one reviewer reported plants still going strong and looking picture-perfect in September, with better pest resistance than the varieties beside it.
The caveat is the size of that review base. Eight reviews is a small sample, and one of them reports very little seed germinating, so treat the 4.8 as promising rather than proven. The ribbed slices are also genuinely pretty on a plate, which is a small thing until you are the one setting the table. At $2.69, it is the most versatile paste tomato in this roundup.
Pros: 6- to 8-ounce ribbed fruit, meaty and thick-walled; sauces and slices equally well; 4.8 from 8 reviews.
Cons: only 8 reviews so far; one reviewer reports poor germination.
Costoluto Genovese Pole Tomato Seeds
A ribbed Italian heirloom that simmers into sauce and slices beautifully fresh — the most versatile paste here.
Best Paste for Slicing Too: Amish Paste
Amish Paste is the paste tomato for the gardener who refuses to choose between the sauce pot and the cutting board. It is an indeterminate variety with 8- to 12-ounce red, acorn-shaped fruits, few seeds, and a meaty texture, so its classic use is rich sauces and flavorful paste — but the same fruit slices cleanly and tastes good fresh. It yields continually all summer long, takes 80 to 85 days from transplanting, and one packet sows about 20 plants when started indoors. Gardeners rate it 5.0, the highest score in this roundup.
That 5.0 rests on just 2 reviews, which is the smallest sample here, so read it as a good sign rather than a verdict. The fruit is also the largest paste tomato in this roundup at 8 to 12 ounces, which means fewer fruits per plant than the smaller varieties, and it needs the same tall support as the rest. At $2.99 it costs a little more than the other paste tomatoes here, and the extra thirty cents buys the most flexible fruit of the three.
Pros: 8- to 12-ounce meaty fruit with few seeds; sauces and slices; 5.0 from 2 reviews; 80 to 85 days.
Cons: only 2 reviews so far; largest fruit here means fewer per plant; $2.99, the priciest paste tomato in the bunch.
Amish Paste Pole Tomato Seeds
An 8- to 12-ounce meaty paste tomato that sauces richly and slices cleanly — the most flexible fruit here.
How the Six Compare
| Variety | Best for | Price | Rating | The one thing to know |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun Gold | Snacking, sweetest cherry | $5.99 | 4.7 from 106 reviews | Tangerine, very sweet and juicy; vines reach 6 feet or more |
| Gardener’s Delight | Sweet cherries all summer | $2.69 | 4.9 from 19 reviews | 1950s German heirloom; clusters of 6 to 12 until frost |
| Sweetie | Early, prolific cherries | $2.69 | 4.6 from 14 reviews | 3/4- to 1-inch fruit in grape-like clusters; early harvest |
| San Marzano | Sauce and canning | $2.69 | 4.2 from 61 reviews | The classic paste tomato; lowest rating here, so buy with eyes open |
| Costoluto Genovese | Sauce and slicing | $2.69 | 4.8 from 8 reviews | 6- to 8-ounce ribbed fruit, thick-walled and meaty |
| Amish Paste | Paste that also slices | $2.99 | 5.0 from 2 reviews | 8- to 12-ounce fruit, 80 to 85 days, about 20 plants per packet |
Bottom Line
Start with Sun Gold if flavor is the point — it is the sweetest cherry here and the one gardeners eat standing up. Pair it with Gardener’s Delight for a second cherry that costs less than half as much and keeps producing until frost, or with Sweetie if you want the earliest bowlful. For the sauce pot, San Marzano is the classic at the lowest price, with the weakest rating of the six as the honest trade-off; Costoluto Genovese is the better pick if you want one paste tomato that also slices, and Amish Paste is the most flexible fruit of the three. For the sowing and growing routine, read our growing guide, and if the cherry-versus-paste question is still open, our comparison settles it.
