Tomatoes are the crop Missoula gardeners most want to succeed with and most often struggle to ripen. Variety choice is a big part of the reason. Many of the famous tomatoes in seed catalogs need a long, hot season we simply do not have, and they get caught by frost still loaded with green fruit. Choose early varieties suited to short, cool seasons, though, and tomatoes become one of the most rewarding things you can grow here.
For the full rundown on planting and care, see our guide on growing tomatoes in Missoula. This post is about which varieties actually ripen in our climate.
Look for Short Days to Maturity
A key number is days to maturity. For tomatoes it is counted from transplanting, not from seeding, and the figure varies by seed company, so use it to compare varieties rather than as a calendar. MSU Extension suggests very early to early mid-season cultivars that ripen fruit in 60 to 70 days, and many short-season choices are listed at 55 to 70 days. Anything needing 80 days or more is a gamble in a cool summer, since our nights stay chilly and slow ripening even in July. A quicker variety gives you a real harvest instead of a race against the first fall frost, which comes in late September in a median year (about September 26) and by mid September in about 1 year in 10. Starting them indoors at the right time helps every variety succeed.
It also helps to choose varieties described as cold-tolerant or able to set fruit in cool conditions, since MSU Extension notes that tomatoes set fruit poorly when the weather is below about 55°F. The varieties below were chosen for short listed maturity times and documented traits, and several are on MSU Extension’s list of recommended tomatoes for Montana.
Reliable Slicing Tomatoes
Early Girl is a popular early slicer and is on MSU Extension’s recommended list for Montana. It ripens early, produces steadily all season, and gives you medium-size, good-flavored slicing tomatoes of about 4 to 6 ounces, with catalogs listing it at around 60 days from transplant. If you grow just one tomato, it is a sensible place to start.
Stupice is an heirloom that Territorial Seed lists as cold-tolerant, at about 60 to 65 days, and it is on MSU’s recommended list. It produces loads of small, roughly 2-inch tomatoes over a long season, and catalogs praise its flavor. Glacier is an early Swedish variety listed as cold tolerant and ripens in about 55 days, and Sub Arctic Plenty was developed in Canada and is on MSU’s very early to early list. Both are determinate, and their short maturity gives them a good chance of ripening even in a cool year. Oregon Spring and Legend both came out of Oregon State University and are parthenocarpic, meaning they can set fruit without pollination, which helps when cool nights hold back fruit set. Oregon Spring is on MSU’s list and is listed with verticillium wilt resistance, and Legend is a larger slicer listed with some tolerance of late blight.
Cherry Tomatoes That Keep Producing
Cherry tomatoes are usually an easier bet in our climate, since their small fruit ripens earlier and more reliably than full-size types. Sungold, on MSU Extension’s recommended list, is a golden-orange cherry widely loved for its almost candy-like sweetness, and it produces heavily all season, though the fruit tends to split. Sun Sugar is similar and is bred to resist cracking while keeping a thin skin.
For red cherries, many varieties do well here, and Juliet, a small grape-type tomato, is on MSU’s list of very early small-fruited tomatoes. A single plant can keep a household in snacking tomatoes from midsummer until frost. If you have had bad luck with larger tomatoes, start with cherries to build confidence. They rarely disappoint.
Heirlooms and Paste Tomatoes
If you love heirloom flavor, choose the shorter-season ones. Black Krim and Cherokee Purple are rich, dark-fleshed heirlooms that can ripen here in a good year, especially with a warm, sheltered spot and an early start. Stupice, mentioned above, is an heirloom that combines great flavor with genuine earliness, which makes it a strong heirloom choice for Missoula.
For sauce and canning, paste tomatoes like the Roma types work, but look for earlier-maturing paste varieties since some of the big sauce tomatoes are slow. Determinate paste tomatoes, which set most of their fruit at once, can be handy if you want a concentrated harvest for putting up a batch of sauce before the season ends.
Determinate or Indeterminate
One last thing worth understanding is the difference between determinate and indeterminate tomatoes. Determinate types grow to a set size and ripen most of their fruit in a short window, which can be useful in a short season and for canning. Indeterminate types keep growing and producing until frost, giving you a steady supply over a longer period. Each named variety has one fixed habit. Early Girl, Stupice, and Sungold are indeterminate, while Glacier, Oregon Spring, Legend, and Sub Arctic Plenty are determinate (Bush Early Girl is a separate, determinate variety). Check the packet or catalog listing and pick based on whether you want a big batch at once or a steady trickle through the season.
Where to find the seed: Botanical Interests is the seed company we use ourselves, and it carries several of the varieties above, including Glacier, Sungold (listed as Sun Gold), and the heirloom Black Krim. For Stupice and Early Girl, which Botanical Interests does not carry, try True Leaf Market. These are affiliate links, so if you buy through them, Garden City Plant Care may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Get the variety right, give your tomatoes a warm, sunny, sheltered spot with warm soil, and you have a good chance of picking ripe tomatoes well before frost. If frost comes first, see What to Do With Green Tomatoes Before First Frost.
Sources
- Montana State University Extension, Growing Tomatoes in Montana
- Montana State University Extension, Successful Home Vegetable Gardening
- NOAA NCEI, U.S. Climate Normals 1991 to 2020 (Missoula International Airport)