Tomatoes · warm season
Roma / paste tomato
Solanum lycopersicum
Meatier fruit with less water—built for sauce, salsa, and canning. A single Ohio planting can fill the pantry.
- When to plant in Ohio
- Start indoors mid-March; transplant mid-May
- Harvest window
- Late July through September
- Days to maturity
- 75–90 from transplant
- Spacing
- 20–28 in.; most are determinate
- Light
- Full sun
How to grow it
Prefer determinate paste types (Roma, San Marzano, Amish Paste) so the crop ripens together for a canning weekend. Keep water even while fruit swell to limit blossom-end rot. Strip some foliage in late August so remaining fruit ripen before October frost.
Related tomatoes
Slicing tomato 70–85 from transplant
Cherry tomato 55–70 from transplant
Heirloom tomato 80–100 from transplant