Growing Roma Tomatoes is the best option if you are someone who loves bigger-sized fruits and like to store them for long. Here are all the details.

Here are the best tips to grow tomatoes in pots 

What are Roma Tomatoes?

It is hard to resist tomatoes, especially if grown at home. They’re rich red, meaty, and egg-shaped tomatoes and can be grown easily with moderate efforts and proper care.

Roma tomatoes are categorized as paste tomatoes (fewer seeds and thick skin). Ideal for canning and conservation, perfect for processing and preparing delicious sauce, pastes, and salad toppings.

Check out the best ways to propagate tomatoes here

Best Types of Roma Tomatoes

There are six amazing types of Roma tomatoes that you’ll definitely love to plant in your garden or lawn. They’re listed below:

Plum Regal

Plum Regal are meaty, flavorful, and dark red Roma tomatoes with good immunity towards early and late blight diseases. They’re easy to grow and require highly fertile soil rich in phosphorus and moderate in nitrogen content.

Granadero

Granadero is a bright red and oval-shaped Roma tomato variety. It has effective pest resistance and features impressive growth in open grounds with fertile soil and moderately cool temperatures.

Sunrise Sauce

Sunrise Sauce variety of Roma tomatoes tastes sweet and is ideal for preparing delicious tomato sauces and pastes. They’re easy to grow and maintain with soil requirements, the same as every Roma tomato species.

Heinz

Heinz is a superior Roma tomato variety that nurtures large, plumy, flavorful and nutrition-filled tomatoes. It is also rich in lycopene, an effective antioxidant that nourishes the body with several health benefits.

Kindly ensure to grow them in organic-rich and well-drained soil accompanied by watering regularly.

Martino’s Roma Tomato

Martino’s tomatoes are delicious, pear-shaped, and slightly dark red tomatoes with good yield and early blight disease resistance. Its growing requirements are similar to other varieties of Roma tomatoes.

San Marzano Tomato

San Marzano is used in seasoning, sauce preparation, and exotic salad toppings. They’re bright red long fruits with rich taste and thrive well in fertile, well-drained, organic soil.

How to Grow Roma Tomatoes?

Roma tomatoes grow up to 2-3 feet tall and are a suitable choice for gardeners with limited space. They can be grown in garden beds as well as in containers.

Growing Roma tomatoes is not much different than cultivating other varieties. They may differ in shape and size, but the growing process and requirements are similar.

You just have to ensure they get enough sunlight, water, fertile organic matter-rich soil, and care against pests and diseases. You can also grow Roma tomatoes in your garden bed.

Learn how to grow tomatoes from tomato slices here

Best Container Size for Growing Roma Tomatoes

 

A 14-16 inches deep and wide pot is best suitable for growing Roma tomatoes.

Also, provide extra depth so the plants can easily absorb and transport water. It also helps them to get nutrients from the soil, helping them to achieve the optimum height.

Requirements for Growing Roma Tomatoes

Position

For best fruiting, it needs minimum sunlight of 5-6 hours. If you live in the tropics, protect the plant from the scorching afternoon sun. It is safe to say that a good amount of sun is the main component of a productive and successful harvest.

Soil

Roma Tomatoes thrive well in organic-rich, loamy, well-drained, and light soil with warm temperatures. It can easily tolerate slightly acidic soil conditions (pH range between 6 – 6.5).

Make sure to add sand and organic matter if your soil is too heavy and soggy, as it may hinder the aeration.

Watering

Water your plants regularly. Growing Roma tomatoes require plenty of water. In colder climates, take care of watering, especially if grown in a partially shaded spot.

The tomato plant requires more water at the time of fruiting. Lack of water can cause split tomatoes.

Pruning

Roma tomatoes are determinate (stop growing and producing fruit after reaching a certain height) in nature and belong to the bush variety of tomatoes. So they don’t require pruning.

Here’s the best secret to producing sweeter tomatoes

Roma Tomato Care

Fertilizer

You can fertilize the plant with liquid fish fertilizer once a week if grown in a container during the growing season, moreover when the plant is setting fruits.

Also, add balanced slow-release fertilizer during planting. The application of manure or compost from time to time is also recommended.

Avoid excessive nitrogen fertilization, as it can affect the fruit quality of Roma tomatoes.

Pests and Diseases

Roma tomatoes are resistant to many pests and diseases. In diseases, they are commonly infected by blossom end rot and fungal diseases if the foliage is kept wet.

Control tomato hornworms by handpicking or applying neem oil solution. You can also try companion planting to prevent them.

Here are the best plants to grow with tomatoes

Harvesting Roma Tomato

Well-grown and ripened tomatoes are more delicious and flavorful than fruits plucked before maturity. So make sure not to harvest tomatoes until they fully ripen. Roma tomatoes take 75-90 days from germination to produce fruits.

Since it is a determinate variety, all tomatoes ripen at about the same time. Harvest Roma tomatoes when they turn red from all sides, and the skin gets slightly soft.

Learn how to grow many tomatoes in a limited space here

  • Dave

  • May 22, 2018 At 2:58 pm

  • I have never grown Roma tomATOES SO I THOUGHT I WOULD TRY THEM, MY WIFE DOES ALOT OF CANING! I AM GOING TO TRY AND CAGE THEM AS THEY DON’T GROW AS TALL AS LARGER TOMATOES, SO WISH ME LUCK.

  • Reply

  • RMCC

  • June 3, 2019 At 6:38 am

  • How was your luck with the Roma? I have a lot of plants to get outside now..

  • Reply

  • Isaac

  • June 15, 2020 At 2:44 am

  • You kinda trailed off there. I’m not sure you meant to use “…”. Normally we just use one punctuation mark.

  • Reply

  • Kyle

  • February 29, 2020 At 7:33 am

  • Dave is a Boomer. Please forgive his wreckless caps lock button.

  • Reply

  • Joy

  • April 13, 2021 At 3:00 am

  • Kyle is an infant. Please excuse his reckless spelling of “reckless”.

  • Reply

  • jack

  • July 8, 2020 At 7:05 pm

  • I dont know where you get that height estimate of 1m from. My Roma Tomatos grown last year reached heights of 6 foot plus.

  • Reply

  • Tamia L Cordrey-Alter

  • July 29, 2020 At 6:05 am

  • Why are our Roma tomatoes turning brown on the end?

  • Reply

  • Hollie

  • August 13, 2020 At 9:40 pm

  • Blossom end rot, try adding crushed Tums or a calcium carbonate powder.

  • Reply

  • Sumasomeone

  • February 8, 2021 At 1:09 am

  • Or just save eggshells over the winter and whizz them in the blender with some water….drop some in the hole while you’re planting out seedlings.

  • Worked a charm for me!

  • Reply

  • Hollie

  • August 13, 2020 At 9:42 pm

  • How did this work out? I’m thinking of using cages as well.

  • Reply

  • Inspector Nash Bridges

  • November 8, 2020 At 9:41 am

  • It’s now November. 2nd week. Roma tomato are blossoming and setting fruit in my yard. I should have a harvest by Hannukah. Seeds are just whatever variety the grocery store sells. I didn’t buy seeds. I bought tomato. I planted the seeds from the tomato I ate. So these will be the offspring of whatever hybrid GMO they grow for mass production. Apparently a very strong strain which is able to grow in cold weather. I don’t do anything special. Cut the tomato. Eat the tomato. Seeds on the plate after a meal get tossed into the yard. No plant food. No special fertilizer. No soil amendment or special soil. Whatever grows – I eat. This time it’s tomato. Actually, tomato have been able to germinate and grow all year around. SUre, during cold weather, they don’t grow as well. But they don’t die off that easily. Seeds from supermarket fruit sprout into tough plants.

  • Reply

  • Hordes head

  • June 20, 2021 At 6:59 am

  • How do you do it correct?.I tried to grow and all that happened was blossom end rot and brown tomatoes

  • Reply

  • Horde

  • June 20, 2021 At 7:06 am

  • Also when the wind blew my fence over 3 months ago,it smooshed the seedling.could that be y? See I live in Alaska and the wind is fierce

  • Reply

  • Michael Henry MOLONEY

  • October 13, 2021 At 6:48 am

  • Grew Big Roma last season in a 20″ pot in a loamy mix with compost and used a two metre heavy wire stand for support – highly successful – supplied my wife and myself with sufficient excellent tomatoes for the rest of the season – used only one plant – it grew to the top of the stand and most fruit was at the top – recommend highly

  • Reply

  • RMCC

  • June 3, 2019 At 6:38 am

  • How was your luck with the Roma? I have a lot of plants to get outside now..

  • Reply

  • Isaac

  • June 15, 2020 At 2:44 am

  • You kinda trailed off there. I’m not sure you meant to use “…”. Normally we just use one punctuation mark.

  • Reply

I have never grown Roma tomATOES SO I THOUGHT I WOULD TRY THEM, MY WIFE DOES ALOT OF CANING! I AM GOING TO TRY AND CAGE THEM AS THEY DON’T GROW AS TALL AS LARGER TOMATOES, SO WISH ME LUCK.

  • Isaac
  • June 15, 2020 At 2:44 am
  • You kinda trailed off there. I’m not sure you meant to use “…”. Normally we just use one punctuation mark.
  • Reply

How was your luck with the Roma? I have a lot of plants to get outside now..

You kinda trailed off there. I’m not sure you meant to use “…”. Normally we just use one punctuation mark.

  • Joy
  • April 13, 2021 At 3:00 am
  • Kyle is an infant. Please excuse his reckless spelling of “reckless”.
  • Reply

Dave is a Boomer. Please forgive his wreckless caps lock button.

Kyle is an infant. Please excuse his reckless spelling of “reckless”.

I dont know where you get that height estimate of 1m from. My Roma Tomatos grown last year reached heights of 6 foot plus.

  • Hollie
  • August 13, 2020 At 9:40 pm
  • Blossom end rot, try adding crushed Tums or a calcium carbonate powder.
  • Reply
  • Sumasomeone
  • February 8, 2021 At 1:09 am
  • Or just save eggshells over the winter and whizz them in the blender with some water….drop some in the hole while you’re planting out seedlings.
  • Worked a charm for me!
  • Reply

Why are our Roma tomatoes turning brown on the end?

  • Sumasomeone
  • February 8, 2021 At 1:09 am
  • Or just save eggshells over the winter and whizz them in the blender with some water….drop some in the hole while you’re planting out seedlings.
  • Worked a charm for me!
  • Reply

Blossom end rot, try adding crushed Tums or a calcium carbonate powder.

Or just save eggshells over the winter and whizz them in the blender with some water….drop some in the hole while you’re planting out seedlings. Worked a charm for me!

How did this work out? I’m thinking of using cages as well.

It’s now November. 2nd week. Roma tomato are blossoming and setting fruit in my yard. I should have a harvest by Hannukah. Seeds are just whatever variety the grocery store sells. I didn’t buy seeds. I bought tomato. I planted the seeds from the tomato I ate. So these will be the offspring of whatever hybrid GMO they grow for mass production. Apparently a very strong strain which is able to grow in cold weather. I don’t do anything special. Cut the tomato. Eat the tomato. Seeds on the plate after a meal get tossed into the yard. No plant food. No special fertilizer. No soil amendment or special soil. Whatever grows – I eat. This time it’s tomato. Actually, tomato have been able to germinate and grow all year around. SUre, during cold weather, they don’t grow as well. But they don’t die off that easily. Seeds from supermarket fruit sprout into tough plants.

  • Horde
  • June 20, 2021 At 7:06 am
  • Also when the wind blew my fence over 3 months ago,it smooshed the seedling.could that be y? See I live in Alaska and the wind is fierce
  • Reply

How do you do it correct?.I tried to grow and all that happened was blossom end rot and brown tomatoes

Also when the wind blew my fence over 3 months ago,it smooshed the seedling.could that be y? See I live in Alaska and the wind is fierce

Grew Big Roma last season in a 20″ pot in a loamy mix with compost and used a two metre heavy wire stand for support – highly successful – supplied my wife and myself with sufficient excellent tomatoes for the rest of the season – used only one plant – it grew to the top of the stand and most fruit was at the top – recommend highly

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