Varieties to grow indoors

The best indoor tomato varieties are small-fruited plants, such as cherry or plum tomatoes. Small-fruited plants produce a large number of tomatoes. Because small fruit have less skin to ripen than large tomatoes, they ripen faster. Small size and quick ripening are helpful indoors where there may be limited light.

If possible, choose indeterminate tomatoes to grow indoors. Indeterminates never set terminal flower clusters, but only lateral ones, and continue to produce fruit all season long, well into spring. Determinates, on the other hand, produce fruit for a couple of weeks. Then production fades out.

Nevertheless, gardeners have had success growing the varieties listed here indoors, even though some are determinates. That’s because many are compact determinate tomato varieties and take less space indoors.

Indoor tomato varieties: heirlooms

Baxter's Early Bush
Heirloom, determinate, 70-72 days, cherry red, (1 ½” round)
Ripens early

Pink Ping Pong
Heirloom, indeterminate, 75 days, cherry-pink colored (1 ¼” round)
Fruit is the size of ping pong balls, hence the name.

Siberia
Heirloom, determinate, 50 days, bright red, small-fruited (up to 5 ounces)
Excellent cool weather variety that can set fruit at low temperatures, so is ideal for homes with low winter thermostat settings. Tomato lore has it that Siberia was smuggled out of Russia in 1975.

Silvery Fir Tree
Heirloom, determinate, 55-60 days, orange/red, small-fruited (up to 3” across)
Fern-like foliage gives this heirloom from Russia the ability to be grown even as an ornamental

Tommy Toe
Heirloom, indeterminate, 70 days, bright red, cherry
Tommy Toe is said to have originated in the Ozark Mountains and carries a strong disease resistance.

Yellow Pear
Heirloom, indeterminate, 71 days, bright yellow, pear-shaped cherry (1 ½” round)

Indoor tomato varieties: hybrids

Micro Tom
Hybrid, determinate, 85-88 days, red, super dwarf (tomatoes are about the size of croutons)
The average 6” Micro Tom produces a couple of dozen tomatoes.

Orange Pixie Tomato
Hybrid, determinate, 52 days, yellow-orange, large cherry (1 ¾” round)

Patio
Hybrid, determinate, 70 days, red, cherry (2” round)

Red Robin
Hybrid, determinate, 55 days, red, cherry (about 1 ¼” round)

Small Fry
Hybrid, determinate, 65 days, red, cherry (1” round), resistance: VFN

Tiny Tim
Hybrid, determinate, 60 days, bright red, cherry (½ - ¾” round)

Totem
Hybrid, determinate, 70 days, crimson red, cherry (1” round)