'Blue Beech' Tomato

Solanum lycopersicum

Origin: Italy (via Vermont)

Improvement status: Cultivar

Seeds per packet: ~25

Germination tested 12/2023: 97%

Life cycle: Annual

'Blue Beech' is a beefy "sausage"-type red paste tomato with excellent flavor. The fruit are not juicy, like most tomatoes, but quite meaty. They produce relatively few seeds per fruit — making this a somewhat challenging plant for seed farmers! — but the plants are very high yielding, making up for the dearth of seeds per fruit. The long, delicious tomatoes are relatively late to ripen, but can come on all at once, making them perfect for the sauce-pot — and people absolutely rave about the sauce these tomatoes make. It's said this variety arrived from Italy in Vermont around World War II, and it was grown there for a long time before spreading through the seed trade, so it is very well adapted to northern climes.

GROWING TIPS: Start inside some weeks before last frost. Plant out after all danger of frost has passed. Plants are indeterminate, so will require staking for best results.

Our seed was grown by our friends Clint Freund and Kass McKinnon of Cultivating The Commons in Amery, Wisconsin.