Growing Roma Tomato | Care and How to Grow Roma Tomatoes

Growing Roma Tomatoes is similar to planting other tomato varieties. It is suitable for canning and grows easily in pots too!

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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