Roadster Tomato Seed

Why Grow Roadster Tomato?

Delicious, Jumbo Tomatoes Roadster is a hybrid, determinate tomato variety that produces delicious jumbo tomatoes earlier than most varieties. We like to plant this variety alongside Red Snapper to provide a nice succession of production throughout our tomato-growing season. Roadster always gives us the first tomatoes of the year.

High Yields on Vigorous Plants Roadster is a high-yielding variety with great plant vigor, even in hot and humid climates. It has a solid disease-resistance package including resistance to Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus. The taste on these tomatoes is great and the color at peak ripeness is a sight to see!

Roadster Tomato Growing Tips

• When to Plant Tomatoes

Tomatoes are a "warm season" vegetable that should be transplanted in the garden once the risk of frost has passed in the early spring months. Start the seeds in a greenhouse or seed starting room approximately 6 weeks before your intended in-ground planting date. Give each of these plants approximately 4' or more of space in your garden.

Timely planting is important for those in southern climates, as hot summer weather can be rough on tomato plants. Gardeners in warmer climates should aim to get their plants in the ground as soon as possible in early spring. Gardeners in areas with milder summers have the advantage of a longer tomato season, and don't have to be as timely with planting.

Roadster is a determinate tomato variety, which means the plants are relatively compact and have a finite life span. Determinate tomato varieties produce loads of tomatoes in a shorter time frame, which is a great option for canning or preserving lots of tomatoes at a time. Because the compact plants get so loaded, you will need a strong support system. We prefer to use the Florida Weave trellising system for determinate tomatoes, but sturdy cages will work as well.

• How to Fertilize Tomatoes

It's always a good idea to apply some pre-plant fertilizer to the soil when planting tomatoes. We like to add a handful Coop Gro organic fertilizer in the planting hole for each tomato plant. This ensures the plants have the right nutrients to put down roots in their new soil.

Fruiting vegetables like tomatoes will benefit from something called "spoon feeding." This process involves frequent fertilizations at lower concentrations, as compared to fertilizing them heavily once.

Once your tomato plants start to grow after transplanting, feed them every 2-3 weeks with a relatively balanced fertilizer. We like to sprinkle Coop Gro around the plants or make a liquid solution of AgroThrive Fruit & Flower and pour that alongside the plants. Tomato plants will also benefit from "hilling" when they grow to approximately 12-18" tall.

*To learn more about how to hill tomatoes, watch this video.

• Harvesting Tomatoes

While there is much hype about the quality and flavor of "vine ripe" tomatoes, allowing tomatoes to ripen on the vine can be a risky proposition. As they ripen, they become susceptible to attacks from birds or pests like tomato hornworms.

As a result, we prefer to harvest our tomatoes when they start to turn pink. We then set them inside on a counter so they can continue to ripen. This does not compromise the flavor, but it does save our tomatoes from being eaten by pests. If you have minimal pest pressure, feel free to let your tomatoes ripen on the vine.