Maybe you never induce around to get semen early like you wanted to , or all your Lycopersicon esculentum seedlings buckle under todamping offor got use up by mysterious critters . Maybe this fountain has been a lot cold-blooded than it commonly is or maybe — like me — you exist in a realm with a very short growing season .

Here in Central Oregon , I ’m prosperous to get 60 Clarence Day of icing - gratis weather in a good year … but it ’s normally more like 30 , as it ’s not uncommon to dip below freezing in July !

Read next : These are thebest times to engraft , found on your first and last freeze engagement

Raised garden bed with several large tomato plants growing up a red tomato trellis and inside square tomato cages

Without a heated up greenhouse , I ’ve given up on grow luscious , farsighted - season tomato that call for multiple months to mature . ButI also reap around 25 Ezra Loomis Pound of vine - ripened tomatoes from each of my indeterminate plants every year , as I ’m all about light - time of year tomatoes .

These fast - turn varieties produce big harvests before the first rime and do n’t mind our chilly temps , and they ’re perfect for multitude who do n’t have three month of fond summertime weather to wait around .

Another benefit : Tomatoes that ripen betimes are also less prone tocatfacing , a deformity that takes place when the nights are nerveless and days are hot .

Green unripe tomatoes growing inside a red tomato cage with sheep wool mulch on the soil

So if you ’re procrastinate onstarting seedsor consider about skip tomato this year because you ’re tired of pick light-green , unripe tomatoes , there ’s no need to endure through another unsatisfying season .

Here are 83 short - season , dusty - climate tomato plant mixture to hear in your garden . you could purchase seeds to start now , or look for these varieties of starter plants at your local greenhouse or garden center .

( And to maximize your crop , be sure to come mybest tomato - growing tipshere ! )

Cluster of ripe red tomatoes growing on tomato vines

Disclosure : If you shop from my clause or make a purchase through one of my links , I may receive commissions on some of the product I recommend .

What is the fastest-growing tomato?

That honour is a necktie between Quedlinburger Frühe Liebe ( an undetermined type that matures in 40 mean solar day ) and Sub - Arctic Plenty ( sometimes commercialise as Chilly Willie , a determinate type that matures in 42 days ) .

These are two of the world ’s early tomatoes , and when you consider the fact that thebest time to harvest tomatoesis actually when they ’re still partly gullible , that mean you could potentially harvest these varieties in just 30 to 35 days andbring them inside to finish ripening .

Quedlinburger Frühe Liebe

to begin with grow for cool showery nights , Quedlinburger Frühe Liebe ( or as I care to say , QFL ) is a German heirloom tomato variety that ’s ready for harvest in just 40 Clarence Day aftertransplanting ( ! ! ! ) and keep produce until kill by a freezing .

This makes it quite an awesome all - season works and a real keeper in the garden if you ’re prone to dusty snap bean .

QFL is sweet-flavored and flavorful with low , juicy red fruits that are perfect for salad or purloin into your mouth as you do your garden chores .

The name means “ early lovemaking of Quedlinburg”—Quedlinburg being a German town situated just north of the Hartz tidy sum .

Where to buy

Quedlinburger Frühe Liebe seeds

Sub-Arctic Plenty (Chilly Willie)

Although it ’s often reported ( mistakenly ) that this variety was developed in the 1940s by the US war machine to provide new tomatoes to Air Force military personnel in Greenland , Sub - Arctic Plenty was actually bred in Alberta , Canada , in the seventies .

An heirloom tomato variety , Sub - Arctic Plenty has a alone power to correct fruit under dusty weather ( not surprising , considering it necessitate to subsist Canada ’s prairie clime ) and produces hundreds of pocket-sized red yield , about 1 to 2 inches wide , on a compendious bush flora that need no staking . It ’s even been grown successfully in the southern Yukon , which borders Alaska !

But this tomato is n’t just for people in northern mood — it ’s also great for gardener in the South who want to get a craw in before the serious heat of summer set in .

( In case you ’re wondering why it is n’t good to have too much heat for tomato plant , temperature that are consistently above 85 ° F can really stress plants . A heating plant wave may put down pollen , do blossom drop , and significantlyslow down the ripen process . )

link : How towater your plants and keep them healthy during a heat wave

In milder wintertime regions that do n’t freeze , you may also set forth seeds for Quedlinburger Frühe Liebe or Sub - Arctic Plenty tomatoes in belated fall and harvest in winter ( as long as your plants get enough sun ) .

Sub-Arctic Plenty tomato seeds

What is the most cold-tolerant tomato?

love apple plants , in general , can last temperatures down to 32 ° F for short menses of time . But sustained temperature below 50 ° F can cause slowed growth , spartan damage to foliation and fruit , and at last , dying .

What make all the tomato varieties ( listed below ) cold-blooded - tolerant is not how much cold they can take at nighttime , but how well they ’re able-bodied to lay out yield in cooler conditions .

If you live in a spot like San Francisco , whose summers are typically fuzzy and average 68 ° farad during the twenty-four hours ( but shake off down to 50 at Nox ) , you need a tomato variety that will still bloom and ripen in chilly , plastered and windy weather .

Some tomato plant , like those spawn by Oregon State University , are parthenocarpic — they’re nearly seedless and do n’t need to be pollinate to coiffure fruit , so they can start producing earlier .

Of all the tomato types below , Coldset is a prolific producer with superscript stale tolerance . It germinates in blue temperatures than normal , can be straight seed into a cool garden , and will maturate as long as the soil temperature is at least 65 ° F . Coldset is also say to be able to withstand very light frost .

pertain : How soil temperature influence germinationand root growth

The best short-season tomatoes for cool climates

Here ’s a trick for choosing tomato that ’ll do well in nerveless summer : Look in the names or descriptions for those that point Siberia , Russia , or other cold locations .

As you ’ll notice in the list below , some of them are very appropriately named … I intend , Glacier ? Oregon Spring ? San Francisco Fog ? Can you just feel the chill ? !

In addition , Oregon State University ’s vegetable breeding program has developed several tomato varieties that have become anchor in many Pacific Northwest gardens .

For the past several decades , the OSU nurture program has focused on modernise seedless tomatoes that do particularly well in the realm ’s cooler springs , and determinate tomato that flower earlier and set fruit under nerveless condition . ( I ’ve noted the OSU - develop varieties below . )

What you ultimately want is a short - time of year tomato that ripens in 70 days or less . Smaller varieties ( like cherry tree or salad Lycopersicon esculentum ) and determinate varieties ( shaggy-haired plant that determine all their fruits in a concentrated flow of time ) also have a better hazard of ripen before hoarfrost .

learn more : Frost coming ? These are the4 fastest ways to ripen tomatoes in the garden

The most authoritative thing to remember is that the time to ripen ( also known as days to maturity or 24-hour interval to harvest ) is convey as number of years after transplanting outdoors . ( This weird standard is explained more fully in my postal service aboutinterpreting days to maturityfor your particular climate . )

So even though Black Princeshouldripen in 70 mean solar day ( give or take a few ) , it could take up to 84 days or even longer , depending on day length and weather in your orbit . Your well bet is to mistake on the side of being “ too early ” if you ’re trying to beat the clock on harvest before frost .

figure denoted with an asterisk ( * ) are varieties I ’ve in person farm and advocate .

If you ’re take care to progress up your unforesightful - season tomato accumulation , an excellent reservoir for most of these seeds isTomatoFest .

Determinate tomato varieties

Semi-determinate tomato varieties

Indeterminate tomato varieties

More love apple grow posts to explore :