PlantFiles: Tomato
Lycopersicon lycopersicum 'Roma'

I'm sure I'm doing something terribly wrong, reading all of your positive comments. I have two small Roma plants in a large bucket on my balcony. Our summer has been incredibly hot. They are in full sun 1/2 the day. I water daily.

So, in these conditions, only one tomato has made it! There have been about 4 others and they all turn black while they are tiny.

Does anyone have any idea of what could be wrong?

thanks!
Stephanie

This plant took alot of abuse in my garden and kept growing. My cats trampled it to the ground. I repotted it and within weeks was growing strong again. It has handled both the dry weather and the down pours of rain. The fruit will fall of easily if not careful with picking. It dries fantastic on the vine -if your weather permits- and on the counter. It is an excellent, easy to find and grow paste tomato. These are not as big as other paste tomatoes but they are heavy producers. While they are "nothing fancy", they are reliable. Like they say "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

This is a very manageable variety for a small garden and/or containers. The vines are very productive. The tomatoes are great for cooking and sauces, but I prefer other tomatoes for slicing. I will grow Roma tomatoes again next year!

I planted my Roma's in Miracle Grow planting dirt in a black large container and put them in the sun and kept up on the water, only watering under foliage, and they took off.

I hear alot of people say they don't care for the taste of this tomato but I love them, and they are easy to grow. It leaves me extra time time to tend to more fussy plants :)

I live in BIrch Bay ( Blaine) Wa., one mile from the water, I think they like the salty air :)

Size-wise, Roma’s are 10-to-the-pound. I tried 9 varieties in 2007 (Brandywine, Burpee Delicious, Burpee Longkeeper, Roma, Rutgers, Peron Sprayless, Siberia, Stupice, and Whippersnapper) and compared them side by side. Roma was the lowest yielding variety aside from Whippersnapper (a cherry). Roma seedlings were the most cold-sensitive. Really troublesome. They should be transplanted to the garden in June to avoid frost, not in May as with other varieties. On the good side, Roma is easy to peel if you’re canning. Scald them, slice off one end, squeeze the other end, and the tomato pops out of the skin. The REALLY bad thing was that they fall off the vine. Reach for one ripe tomato and you’re guaranteed to knock 4 others into the dirt. I don’t grow them any more.

It's really hard NOT to grow good Roma tomatoes. This popular cultivar has got to be the easiest, most productive tomato of all time. It's certainly one of the best for sauces and cooking because of low moisture content. Some fruits are almost hollow in dry weather conditions, but still usable in salads. A must for first time tomato growers.

I use 'regular' tomatoes for sauce and salads so it is pointless for me to grow this variety even though I have experimented with them in the past. The production was good but I experienced a lot of BER.

We had wonderful success with this plant in a year when most people in our area had very few tomatoes. We had a tremendous amount of rain this year and cooler weather than normal, so that may have contributed to the lack of a tomato harvest around here. However, our Roma's were planted in a raised bed filled with compost. Rich soil, plenty of rain, very well drained, and no chemicals - and we had Roma tomatoes coming out of our ears! No disease problems that I noticed. This, in spite of the fact that they only get at most around 5 hours full sunlight a day. The rich soil and great drainage helped compensate somewhat for the lack of sunlight, I think. I am a big proponent of raised beds and lots of compost!

First time growing these Roma tomatoes and I'd have to
say I've never grown a tomato plant that gives you so many
tomatoes on one plant, all uniform pear shaped. I am freezing
these for making sauce for the fall. I will also make some salsa down the road. Well worth the growing especially
first time tomato growers and kids will love trying these. They
don't get really tall, no more than 3 to 4 ft. here in southeast
NH USA just water and sun and wow!

I have never grown tomatoes (or much of anything else for that matter) and as I don't have exclusive use of the yard here, I grew them in containers. And they are growing like crazy. Plenty of sunlight and plenty of water seems to make them happy. I have had to stake them to keep them from taking over the deck.

Someone mentioned earlier that they are good for beginners and as a beginner, I have to say they were right!

I wish I could go on and on about how spectacular this tomato was but its Roma - what are you gonna say?

I set out about 112 Roma plants last year in July. And just like clock work they were ready to harvest sometime in early September. It did exactly like it was supposed to do. And that is pretty spectacular in its own right.

Another thing that impresses me about Roma is the absence of phenotypes. Every single plant was identical as was most of the fruit. So many OP and heirloom tomatoes have very unstable genetics it was nice to see some uniformity.

Its ability to set fruit in the august heat is also nothing to scoff at. That is the height of disease and pest season here in AR.

I like the taste of Roma, I am not a paste maker but I found them quite nice for fresh eating. They taste kinda like a grocery store tomato only with a more intense flavor. They are no brandywine but thay arent bad.

These are a good flavored paste tomato. They do tend to get small towards the end of production. I would be happier with them if the were indeterminate.

This variety performs nicely here in the Inland Northwest. It can be very susceptible to blossom-end rot (BER); however, when we switched from overhead watering to a drip irrigation system, the instances of BER were reduced dramatically.

The BEST "mater" for making Salsa, meaty and not much in the pulp department. This is about the only tomato I grow.

I live in Southbridge, New Zealand (South Island). Have on hectare of land dedicated to vegetables and fruit trees.
I have grown Roma tomatoes for the last 3 years, huge croppers and extremely tasty.

The most important aspect of them is that you can freeze them and use for cooking. Just put in plastic bags in freezer as soon as they are picked. They don't go mashy as the normal tomatoes do when freezing. Use them instead of canned tomatoes, just run them under warm water to skin them.

This year will grown them in a tunnel house to lengthen the growing season.

This is the only variety I have been able to find in the stores in winter months that tastes like a homegrown tomato. I grow it in the summer - wish it had a larger variety for BLT sandwiches.

VERY productive, with over 100 tomatoes per plant. Excellent for canning, sauces, and salsa. Plum shaped, but about 1.5 times larger than a plum.

Although this is a bush variety, I would recomend at least a 4 foot tall cage. My 3 foot cages got pulled out of the ground by this vigorous plant!

Another great point: very disease resistant.

If I were to choose one variety for an inexperienced gardener, this would be it. Easy to grow, and LOTS of tasty tomatoes!

Here in the UK, Roma is described as an outdoor bush variety. Medium sized, plum shaped, red fruits on resonably small stocky plants, might need some support during the growing season.

Excellent cooking tomato which is nearly seedless.