While store-bought Romas tomatoes can be succulent and flavorful, there’s nothing like homegrown to have your dishes bursting with life. Let’s take a closer look at what the Roma tomato is and how you can grow it yourself!
Whether you’re cooking up some marinara sauce or slicing up a fresh summer salad, Roma tomatoes are some of the most delicious varieties around.
These plum tomatoes are considered paste tomatoes. They have fewer seeds and a lower moisture content than others. They are easy to grow.
Roma tomatoes are egg or pear-shaped tomatoes, bright red in color once ripe. Slim and firm, they are commonly used for canning, sauces, and pastes.
They are determinate tomatoes which means all the tomatoes will be ready to harvest around the same time. There will be one harvest before the plant dies.
These plum tomatoes are able to mature in just a couple of months, with each plant reaching a height of about three feet.
Each Roma tomato plant is able to produce a large number of tomatoes, and every fruit weighs about 70 grams
Roma tomatoes can also be plucked right from the vine and eaten fresh, without any cooking required. They work well in sandwiches and salads or sliced up and spread across some bruschetta, Italian-style, with a drizzle of balsamic reduction.
you can start growing Roma tomato plants inside the home or in another indoor environment, like a greenhouse. It’s recommended to get started about two months after the last frost in your area.
Step 1: You’ll need to gather all the essential supplies before starting off, including your seeds, some starting mix/soil, containers for your seeds and soil, and a simple spray bottle too.
Step 2: Once you’ve all the essentials ready, you can add the soil or starting mix into your seed trays and sow the seeds into the trays. Try to put about three seeds in each tray, as the odds are that some of them won’t germinate.
Step 3: Place the seeds on top of the soil, a little distance away from one another, and then sprinkle over some soil and smooth it down. You can then use the spray bottle to water the seeds gently. Just a few squirts should be enough.
Step 4: You can then move your trays to your “germination station,” which might be a greenhouse or other warm space. If you don’t have a greenhouse, the seeds can be placed under some plastic wrap near a window, helping to provide warmth and humidity.
Step 5: Make sure to regularly water your seedlings and ensure that they get enough light on a daily basis too. You can thin out any of the weaker plants to avoid overcrowding, re-potting once the plants have gotten tall enough.
Step 6: Once the seedlings have gotten about six inches high, you can start getting them ready to move outside. Transplanting Roma seedlings to your garden should usually be done once the conditions are warm enough, with night-time temperatures in excess of 15oC degrees.