How do gardeners pick which of the huge numbers of great heirloom and hybrid tomatoes to grow when they have limited space? There's no easy answer, but one method for choosing just a handful of varieties from the hundreds available is this: plant one or two tried-and-true favorites, a cherry tomato, and an early bearer. And then gamble on a new or heirloom tomato you've never tried before.

Here are a few candidates for new varieties and tried-and-true essential that may be worth a gamble. Who knows? You might discover a new favorite!

Tomatoes to Grow from Seed

April is not too late to start tomatoes from seed. In fact, starting them too early can result in leggy seedlings that can be set back due to their cramped quarters as you wait for the right time to plant them. Here are just a few great varieties to consider:

Bliss Hybrid Tomato

Bliss hybrid tomato is described as a joy to behold and to eat! These almond-shaped, lightly sweet 1 oz. tomatoes ripen to a dazzling yellow with unique green stripes. Snackable fruits are irresistible fresh off the vine. Heavily yielding indeterminate plants offer a windfall of tomatoes from the height of summer until frost.

Cherokee Carbon Tomato

You've heard of Cherokee Purple. Try Cherokee Carbon. How could a cross between two tasty heirlooms, Cherokee Purple and Carbon, not be a winner? Tall and productive, this cross yields a bounty of gorgeous 10-12 ounce fruits.

Costoluto Genovese Tomato

Costoluto Genovese is a heavily lobed heirloom with a rich, tangy flavor, favored by generations of chefs in Italy. The strong, indeterminate vines grow tall and heavy with 6-8 ounce fruits by summer's end. Aside from being exceptionally tasty, the fruits' unusual scalloped edges make them an attractive choice for colorful arrangements of sliced tomatoes.

Early Girl Hybrid Tomato

Early Girl hybrid tomato falls into the category of tried-and-true. True to her name, this disease resistant indeterminate variety produces a dependable crop of medium-sized red tomatoes early in the season, and keeps producing through the summer, even where nights are cool and conditions are less than perfect. It's a great choice for growers with a short season.

Galahad Hybrid Tomato

Award-winning Galahad hybrid tomato produces buckets of shiny, crimson, squat, 3 inch, globe-shaped fruit that's juicy, sweet, meaty and crack resistant. The determinate plants are compact enough for containers, and highly resistant to late blight.

Purple Zebra Hybrid Tomato

Purple Zebra hybrid, a 2022 All America Selections winner, is a fun new addition to striped tomatoes, producing dark red, green striped 3 to 4 ounce fruits that are rich with complex flavors. Plants are long vining and indeterminate, and have excellent disease resistance.

Sungold Hybrid Cherry Tomato

Sungold hybrid Cherry Tomato, a taste test favorite year after year, is an essential for every garden. Hearty plants produce beautiful tangerine-colored cherry tomatoes with a rich, fruity taste when left on the vine and picked at optimum ripeness. Provide support for the vigorous vines, which easily reach 6-8 feet.

Tasmanian Chocolate Tomato

Tasmanian Chocolate tomato is a perfect choice for containers. Strong-yielding, short, sturdy vines bear crops of 5 to 12 ounce plump, mahogany red faintly striped tomatoes with delicious, well-balanced flavor. Even though the plants top out at about 3 feet in height, staking is a good idea due to their heavy yields.

Wild Boar Solar Flare Tomato

Wild Boar Solar Flare OP (open pollinated) tomato features beautiful red and gold striped 6-10 ounce fruits with a deliciously sweet flavor profile. Bred at Wild Boar farm, this tall, indeterminate plant is described as a mid-early season workhorse.

Zenzei Hybrid Tomato

Zenzei hybrid is an early-maturing, high-yielding Roma tomato, producing a great yield of fleshy plum tomatoes that are perfect for canning and freezing. Neat and tidy plants produce fruits that are uniformly shaped and are easy to harvest on unique bushy yet indeterminate plants with excellent disease resistance.