Paste Tomatoes

The best varieties for sauce, passata and a pantry full of bottled tomatoes

Paste tomatoes are the workhorses of the kitchen garden. They are bred to be meaty and low in moisture with few seeds, so they cook down fast into a thick, rich sauce rather than a thin, watery one. If your goal is a shelf of bottled tomatoes and jars of passata to see you through the year, this is the family of tomatoes you want.

This guide covers why paste tomatoes are different, which varieties to choose for sauce, how to grow them for a big batch that ripens together, and how to dodge the few problems that catch growers out. Use the variety picker below to find the right paste tomato for your patch.

Paste Tomato Variety Picker

Tell the tool what matters most to you and it will suggest a proven paste variety to grow. Every option below is a real tomato sold in Australia as seed or seedlings.

For a calendar tuned to your exact spot, use Find My Region or open the Planting Season app and pick your variety from the dropdown.

Why Grow Paste Tomatoes

The difference between a paste tomato and a salad tomato is all in the flesh. Paste types are bred to be meaty and dense, with thick walls, very little juice and few seeds. That low moisture content is the whole point. When you cook a paste tomato down, there is far less water to drive off, so it reduces quickly into a thick, sweet, rich sauce.

Try the same thing with a watery salad or slicing tomato and you will be simmering for hours to get the same body, ending up with a thinner, seedier result and a fraction of the yield. That is why paste tomatoes are the traditional choice for passata, bottling, sauce, paste and slow-roasting. They are the right tool for the preserving job.

Determinate vs Indeterminate for Sauce

How a paste tomato grows changes how you harvest and preserve it, so it pays to know the habit before you plant.

Roma and Roma VF are determinate. They grow as compact bushes that set most of their fruit at once and ripen it in a concentrated flush over a couple of weeks. This is exactly what you want for a single bottling day, when you process a big batch in one go rather than dribs and drabs.

San Marzano, Amish Paste and Speckled Roman are indeterminate. They grow as taller vines that keep flowering and fruiting over a long season, giving you a staggered pick rather than one flush. That suits smaller, more frequent batches and brings extra flavour to the table, but it means the harvest is spread out rather than landing all at once.

Growing for a Big Batch

If your aim is a pantry full of sauce, plan for it at planting time. Grow several bush plants of a determinate variety like Roma together so they ripen at the same time and you can bottle in one or two big sessions instead of saving up small handfuls.

• Full sun: give them at least 6 to 8 hours of direct sun a day for a heavy, even crop.
• Rich soil: dig in plenty of compost and aged manure before planting. Paste tomatoes are hungry.
• Even water: keep soil moisture steady to avoid blossom end rot and to set fruit reliably.
• Mulch: a thick straw or sugar cane mulch keeps roots cool and buffers soil moisture.
• Support: stake or cage even determinate bushes, as a heavy crop of paste fruit will pull them over.
• Plant together: group several of the same variety so they flush as one for an easy bottling day.

Watering and Feeding

Even, consistent watering is the most important thing you can do for a paste tomato. Irregular watering is the main cause of blossom end rot, and while paste types crack far less than big slicers, steady moisture still gives you cleaner, more even fruit. Water deeply at the base of the plant, keep the soil evenly moist, and let mulch do the buffering between waterings.

Feed with compost and aged manure at planting for early growth, then switch to a potassium-rich tomato fertiliser once the first flowers appear, feeding every one to two weeks through fruiting. Ease off the nitrogen once flowering starts, or you will grow a leafy green bush and few tomatoes.

Common Problems

Blossom end rot

A dark, sunken patch on the base of the fruit, caused by a calcium shortage in the developing tomato that is almost always triggered by uneven watering rather than a lack of calcium in the soil. Paste types can be prone to it. Water deeply and regularly, mulch to hold steady moisture, and it usually clears up on later fruit.

Cracking

Splits in the skin after rain or a heavy soak following a dry spell. This is far less of an issue in paste tomatoes than in big slicers, because the dense, thick-walled fruit swells more slowly. Even watering and a good mulch keep it to a minimum.

Fruit fly

In Southeast Queensland and Northern New South Wales, Queensland fruit fly can sting ripening tomatoes and ruin the crop. Net plants, use traps and baits, pick fruit promptly as it colours, and never leave fallen or affected fruit lying around. See our pest and disease guide for control options.

Best Paste Tomato Varieties

These are the proven paste and sauce tomatoes for an Australian garden. All are real, widely grown varieties.

Region and Season Notes

Paste tomatoes are frost-tender, so plant them out after the last frost has passed and the soil has warmed. Your window depends on your climate.

• Cool temperate (Melbourne, Hobart, Canberra): plant out from October to November once frost is gone. Start seed indoors in late winter to get a head start.
• Temperate (Sydney, Adelaide, Perth): plant out from September to November for a summer crop and a late-summer bottling.
• Subtropical (Brisbane, Northern NSW): a long planting window from late winter through spring. Aim to have fruit ripening before the wettest, most humid months.
• Tropical (Darwin, Far North QLD): grow through the dry season, roughly April to August, when humidity and disease pressure are lower.

For a planting calendar tuned to your exact location, see our full tomato growing guide or use Find My Region.

Plan Your Varieties in the App

This guide helps you choose the right paste tomato. The Planting Season app helps you grow it. When you add a tomato to your garden you can choose Roma, San Marzano, Amish Paste, Speckled Roman or Roma VF from the in-app variety dropdown, and the app tracks each one from sowing through to harvest with reminders tuned to your region. Pair a paste type for the kitchen with a cherry tomato for snacking and keep them all on one plan.

Frequently Asked Questions

See also: How to Grow Tomatoes, Passata and Bottling and Tomato in the Plant Library