The short version: The right tomato depends on what you want from it. San Marzano and other paste types are built for sauce and bottling, with dense flesh that cooks down thick; beefsteaks are the big juicy slicers, and heirloom mixes trade a little uniformity for flavour and the chance to save your own seed. For most gardens, a small mix of all three is the happiest choice. If you bottle any crop, use a tested recipe and add the acid it specifies.
Standing in front of a rack of tomato seeds is a cheerful kind of overwhelm. San Marzano, beefsteak, an heirloom mix in colours you did not know tomatoes came in. They are all tomatoes, and yet they are not quite the same in shape, texture or kitchen use.
The trick is to choose by what you will do with the fruit, rather than by the prettiest packet. Sort that out, and the rest falls into place.
San Marzano and the paste tomatoes: born for sauce
If sauce, passata or bottling is your goal, a paste tomato such as San Marzano is the one to grow. These are elongated, meaty tomatoes with dense flesh, few seeds and low moisture, which is exactly why a pot of them cooks down to a thick, glossy sauce while a juicy slicing tomato just turns watery. San Marzano has a long Italian reputation behind the name, and that slim, thick-walled shape is the reason for it.
San Marzano is a tall, indeterminate vine that can crop well over a long season, so give it a stake or frame and room to climb; other paste types vary, so check the packet before you build the bed. If you do bottle the crop, follow a tested preserving recipe and add the exact acid it specifies, such as bottled lemon juice or citric acid, in the set amount per jar, since tomatoes are borderline for safe water-bath bottling and skipping the acid or the processing time risks botulism. The Food Safety Information Council explains safe home bottling.
Beefsteaks: the big, generous slicers
Beefsteak tomatoes are the ones you grow for a thick slice on a sandwich or a plate of summer salad. The fruit is large and heavy, meaty and juicy, with a tomato presence a cherry type cannot quite match. One good slice can cover a piece of bread.
The trade-off is patience and support. Big fruit takes a little longer to ripen, and a plant loaded with beefsteaks needs a sturdy stake or frame to hold it up. In a warm garden with a long season, they can make the wait well worthwhile.
Heirloom mixes: flavour, colour and saved seed
An heirloom mix is the choice for flavour, curiosity and a bit of colour on the bench. Heirlooms are open-pollinated, which means that, unlike F1 hybrids, you can usually save your own seed and grow a very similar tomato again next year. Tomatoes mostly self-pollinate, so seed usually comes true, though some heirlooms, especially potato-leaf and currant types, have flowers that bees can cross more easily, so a little separation helps if you want pure seed. They come in reds, yellows, oranges, purples and stripes, and many are prized for a depth of flavour that uniform shop types can lack.
The honest trade-off is consistency. Heirlooms can be more variable in size, yield and disease resistance than modern hybrids, and that is part of their charm as much as a fault. For the gardener who likes to taste their way through a season and save a few seeds, they are hard to beat.
So which should you actually choose?
The kitchen is the best judge. Picture the meal you keep meaning to make, and the right packet usually puts its hand up.
- For sauce, passata and bottling: a paste tomato such as San Marzano.
- For sandwiches, burgers and big salad slices: a beefsteak.
- For flavour, colour and saving your own seed: an heirloom mix.
- For snacking, kids and a steady trickle: add a cherry type alongside any of the above.
Most of these are tall, vining plants, so plan for a stake or frame and a sunny spot before you sow.
Space, season and your zone
Your garden has a say too, mostly through how long and warm your season runs. Large beefsteaks and many heirlooms take their time, so they shine where summer is long, while a paste tomato is often a practical saucing choice across a wider range.
- Tropical (Darwin, Cairns, Townsville): grow through the dry season, when lower humidity helps keep fungal disease in check.
- Subtropical (Brisbane, Sunshine Coast): a long warm season suits all three; in subtropical highland gardens like Toowoomba, cooler nights favour quicker types.
- Temperate (Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra): all three do well, with beefsteaks and heirlooms wanting the full warm stretch.
- Mediterranean (Perth, southern WA, Adelaide): the long dry summer suits every type, though heatwaves can interrupt fruit set, so keep the water steady and the mulch thick.
- Arid and semi-arid (Alice Springs, Broken Hill, Mildura): deep watering, mulch and a little afternoon shade help fruit set in the heat.
- Cool and alpine (Tasmanian highlands, Orange, Ballarat): a shorter window favours faster paste and cherry types over the biggest beefsteaks.
In frost-prone gardens, plant out after the last frost and once the nights are reliably mild; in the tropics, use the dry season as the cue instead.
The easy answer: grow a small mix
If you have room for three or four plants, the most satisfying garden grows one of each. A San Marzano for the sauce pot, a beefsteak for the sandwiches, and an heirloom or two for flavour and the fun of it. That way the kitchen is covered from the passata jar to the salad bowl, and there is a quiet pleasure in a harvest bowl that holds a slim red San Marzano, a great ribbed beefsteak and a striped heirloom all at once.
It is also how you learn what you love. Grow a small mix this season, notice which ones you reach for and which thrive in your patch, and let next year's list write itself.
Whichever types tempt you, it starts with the seed. You can browse our tomato seeds across paste, slicing and heirloom kinds, and if you are new to raising your own, our twelve tips for beginning seed gardeners is a friendly place to start. Choose by the meal you are dreaming of, and the right tomato tends to choose itself, whether that is for sauce, a sandwich, or something striped and unusual.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best tomato for making sauce or passata?
Paste tomatoes such as San Marzano are the classic saucing choice, because their dense, low-moisture flesh cooks down thick with little effort. If you bottle the result, use a tested recipe and add the acid it specifies, since safe preserving depends on it.
What makes a beefsteak tomato different?
Beefsteaks are large, meaty and juicy, grown for thick slices on sandwiches and in salads. The fruit is bigger and slower to ripen than most types, and the plant needs solid support to carry the weight.
Are heirloom tomatoes worth growing?
For flavour, colour and the chance to save your own seed, many gardeners think so. Heirlooms are open-pollinated, so seed saved from them usually grows very close to type, provided the flowers have not crossed with another variety, while F1 hybrid seed will not reliably come true. The trade-off is a little more variability in size and yield.
Can I save seed from any tomato?
You can save seed from open-pollinated and heirloom tomatoes and expect a very similar plant next year, provided the flowers have not crossed with another variety. Seed saved from an F1 hybrid will not come true, so it may give something quite different. The packet usually tells you which you have.
Do these types need staking?
Many beefsteak, heirloom and San Marzano-type tomatoes are tall, vining plants that want a stake or frame, while some paste and compact varieties are bush types that need less support, so check the packet. Setting up support at planting time keeps the tall ones tidy, healthier and easier to pick, especially once they are heavy with fruit.
How many tomato plants should I grow?
For a small household, a few mixed plants can give you sauce tomatoes, slicers and snacks without turning the bench into a tomato depot. Start modest, see how the season goes, and scale up next year once you know which types you reach for most.
Related growing guides
- The kitchen thermometer test: when your soil is actually ready for tomatoes
- 12 tips for beginning seed gardeners
- Determinate vs Indeterminate Tomatoes: Which Should You Actually Grow?
The three types in our range
All three of the tomatoes this article compares are in stock as seed. San Marzano is the classic paste tomato, dense and low in moisture, and it is an indeterminate vine that will want a tall frame. Beefsteak gives you the big slicers, also indeterminate. Heirloom Mix is the low-risk way to try several at once and find out what you actually like before committing a whole bed to it. If you would rather a determinate for a single sauce-making weekend, Roma (Organic) ripens most of its crop together.
For timing, our what to sow now guide gives the month and zone, and the grow guides cover each crop in detail.
Ready to plant? Browse our Tomato Seeds, or the wider Vegetable Seeds range.