Identifying Tomato Types: Fruit Shapes

You can't really pick out a tomato variety by looks. You do have standard leaf, potato leaf, and small leaf. Tomatoes also come in shapes. Here are some basic fruit shapes.

*taken by my new camera*

Click the photos to enlarge them. You can click them 2x's.

This is my 'Polish Linguisa' variety. It is a large paste/roma type tomato shape.  This was also my damaged tomato stem plant. It is doing just fine. These tomatoes are often elongated and have very thick meaty cores. They have less seeds and water inside. The thick walls make great paste. Seeds aren't wanted for sauces because they can be bitter. These fruits will get a little bit bigger before turning red.



Paste/Roma Shape (large size)



This is a 'Black Plum' variety. It is a cherry type plant that will have masses of grape shaped tomatoes. The picture of the lower tomato is about the mature size of the fruit.



Plum Grape Shape



This variety is 'Silvery Fir'. You can't tell but the leaves are standard type but much smaller. The tomato shape is a picture of what many heirloom tomatoes will look like. They haven't been bred to be perfectly round. You can see the variation in lobe shapes and the many wrinkles. I haven't grown this before but I bought it to be cold tolerant and a early fruiter. So far so good.  It also got Septoria/Leaf Spot. It survived fine with some pruning and spray.

General Heirloom Shape

'Oregon Spring' variety, again a plant for cold tolerance and early fruit. Though not perfectly round, a standard 6-8 oz tomato.



Standard 6-8 oz Round Fruit



This is a cherry tomato, 'Baxter Bush' variety.  Cherry tomatoes can range in size. This is a mid size cherry. You can see the clusters of fruit in various sizes.

Cherry Shape

I don't have pictures of three other types. I am growing 'Jersey Devil' which is a elongated tomato much like a banana pepper. I have a currant type tomato which is the 'Sarah's Galapagos'. They are very tiny and you can get 6 to 10 in your hand. The other variety are the beefsteaks or 12-24 oz. The big ones. They just aren't ready yet.