Roma Tomato

Solanum lycopersicum 'Roma'

vegetable

Roma is the classic determinate paste tomato found in markets and gardens everywhere, valued for egg-shaped, meaty, low-moisture fruit with few seeds and thick walls that cook down into rich sauce, paste, and canned tomatoes. Each fruit runs about 2 to 3 ounces, and the compact bushy plants set nearly their whole crop in one concentrated flush rather than spreading it across the season. That habit is the whole point: it gives the cook a large batch of nearly identical fruit ready at the same time for a single big canning or sauce day. The plants are widely adapted and carry good resistance to verticillium and fusarium wilts.

✅ Plant alongside

Good neighbors that attract beneficial insects or deter pests

• Basil — Repels thrips and whiteflies and may improve flavor
• Borage — Attracts pollinators and the parasitic wasps that prey on hornworms
• French Marigold — Suppresses root-knot nematodes in the soil
• Carrots — Different root depth uses bed space efficiently

❌ Keep away from

🛡️ Pest & disease prevention

Proactive ways to stop trouble before it starts — tap a name with an arrow for its full guide

• Tomato hornworm →

  Interplant dill, borage, or basil to draw parasitic wasps; handpick at dusk; rotate nightshades yearly

• Blossom-end rot →

  Keep soil moisture even and calcium adequate; mulch to buffer the soil

• Early blight →

  Mulch to stop soil splash, prune lower leaves for airflow, avoid overhead watering

🌾 Harvest & storage

The determinate crop ripens together about 75 days from transplant, which is what makes Roma ideal for a single large canning or sauce batch rather than a steady trickle. Pick the fruit when it is deep red and firm, and plan to harvest most of it within a week or two once the flush turns. The dense, meaty flesh cooks down with little draining and freezes or cans well. Store at room temperature and never refrigerate ripe fruit, and use a second, later sowing if you want a second flush for preserving.

🥗 Nutrition & benefits

Roma packs concentrated lycopene along with vitamins C and K and potassium into dense, low-water flesh, which is why it makes such full-bodied sauce. Because lycopene is absorbed far better from cooked tomatoes eaten with a little fat, the Roma is arguably most nutritious in its intended form as a simmered sauce or paste rather than raw.

⚠️ Toxicity & safety

Eat the ripe fruit only. Tomato leaves and stems (and large amounts of very unripe green fruit) contain solanine-type compounds and are not for eating.