A quick guide to get you going growing your own San Marzano tomatoes. I share my experiences growing them. I don't claim this to be full comprehensive guide but some info and tips to get you started growing one of my favorite tomato varieties.
Tomatoes are one of the most popular things to grow in one's vegetable garden. It's because freshly picked blow away what you get at the grocery store. And although I am not a fan of raw tomatoes, I still make room for tomatoes for the purposing of making sauce. I have tried so many types to like raw tomatoes but there is just something about them that my tongue doesn't like. But when heat is applied to them, it's another story.
Jump to:
Why Grow San Marzano Tomatoes?
They are one of the best tomatoes out there for tomato sauce. Probably the best, I just can't claim I have made sauce with every single tomato in the world! They are a meaty tomato, so when you make sauce you end up with more of it. If you do that with the beefsteak style tomatoes you end up having to boil off a lot of liquid leaving you with less volume of sauce in the end.
Here are some basics for you on the San Marzano.
| Origin: Napes of Italy. Italy is where they became famous by the legend goes that they got their first seeds from the king of Peru. This happened in 1770, so this definitely qualifies San Marzano has an heirloom variety. |
| Vine Type: Indeterminate |
| Days to Maturity: 85 days |
| Shape: Plum |
The flavor of the tomato is sweet and lower acid than other red tomatoes, which I love.
How I start growing with San Marzano was the fact that most of the canned tomatoes aren't labeled by variety, so seeing a tomato that is market in a can by it's variety, makes me think that these may be some pretty good sauce tomatoes. Also the high sticker price on the cans, makes me really think these have to be good tomatoes or the public is having the wool pulled over their eyes. The former for sure turned out to be the truth.
When shopping one year I saw some San Marzano start plants at my local nursey. They are pretty common variety to find at nurseys so you should not have trouble locating them at all.
The best San Marzano tomatoes are grown in a certain region of Italy. I am not expecting my tomatoes to ever be of the quality of those but they are still pretty remarkable. To to be certified that San Marzano are from the right region of Italy, they have to have a certification on them. Check out my post on How to Source Legit San Marzano Tomatoes as well as my post on Trader Joe's San Marzano Tomatoes.
My Experiences
I have found these tomatoes to be pretty easy to grow. I first grew them back in 2010 when I was very early into my gardening days, which means they are a perfect choice for the beginning gardener. That year I had a plant that produced enough tomatoes to make sauce for several pizzas.
I am from Michigan and the tomatoes did well there right into September up to the first frost in October. I saw the most production in September which was fantastic as by then the temperatures begin to cool so you are out there sweating when your harvesting the bulk of the crop. The tomatoes tend to produce in bunches which makes for easy picking. The tomatoes ripen from the bottom up.
Some tips for planting:
- Give your tomatoes enough space. When you first plant them they are going to look small but trust me you will be surprised how quickly the space will be filled up. I feel like I never get this right.
- Tomato cages aren't the best. Yes you can use them and I have used them but really they are only good for a while. The plants will eventually grow too big for the cages unless you spring for really expensive sturdy and tall ones. The cheap ones never cut it long term. I have had the cages fall over making it difficult then to harvest the tomatoes or I ended up having tomatoes still growing but touching the ground. What I liked to do is using single pole I tied up the tomato plant as it grew taller. This seems to work better.
- Don't be afraid to cut off some branches. You need air to be able to flow throughout the plant. If it gets too bushy you can welcome in diseases and it makes it harder to pick. I cut off the branches near the bottom of the plant and ones that grow out of the joint in the plant, these are called suckers as they just suck away the energy of the plant producing more leaves and less fruit.
- Don't be shy at the end of the season either to cut off some branches so the plant can focus it's energy into ripening the last tomatoes and not growing more leaves, this is especially true when you think you are a week or so away from a frost.
One last piece of wisdom, it's best to never just rely on one variety. If something goes wrong with one variety then you are at the farmers market buying tomatoes to make your tomato sauce for the winter. I like to grow a few different varieties alongside the San Marzano for my tomato sauce, those have included:
- Roma
- Striped Roman
- Orange Icicle (from Baker Creek)
- Amish Paste
- Oxheart
Having different varieties is fun too because you can make sauce with all San Marzanos or mixing in some other varieties to find what you like best. That's the beauty of growing your own food.
How to Make the Tomato Sauce
I am a firm believer that the Instant Pot is the best tool for making your own tomato sauce. The issue with doing it on the stove top is that it's very easy to burn the tomato sauce if you are not careful. I do love the idea of a big pot of sauce simmering on the stove all day so all those flavorful have time to develop. But most of us that's not going to work, we are just too busy.
My process is pretty simple:
- Slice the tomatoes in half. Salt the tomatoes.
- Pressure cook the tomatoes for 30 mintues on high pressure. I put ¼ to ⅓ cup of water at the bottom just to avoid a burn notice.
- Allow for natural release.
- Use an immersion blender to blend up the skins or take the tomatoes out and run them through a food mill before putting them back in the pot.
- Then I hit the sauté button and cook the tomatoes until the texture is what I want.
If you skip this step you will have more of a soup than a sauce. You know the sauce is at the right texture when it starts to splatter all over the counter. I have made tomato sauce in our camper and I always do it outside so that I don't make a mess inside when I reach that sauté step.
Note - If I am using fresh herbs I add them at the very end. If I am using dried herbs, I put them in at the beginning. I love to grow fresh basil right near my tomato plants. The scent of the basil can help deter pests from your tomatoes. Nothing usually eats my basil! Make sure to trim your basil when it starts to grow flowers so that it grows more bushy. This will help the basil not get overshadowed by the basil.
Other Blog Posts to Read
If you enjoy this post, I suggest you check out these posts as well that hit on similar topics.
Leave a Reply