Tomatoes for the Desert: Best Varieties for Arizona
When growing tomatoes in Arizona, choosing the right variety is key. With our blazing summers and short growing season, it’s crucial to pick tomatoes that mature quickly—typically in 60 to 90 days. Smaller to medium-sized fruits tend to handle the heat best.
Here are some of my top picks for tomato varieties in Arizona, along with why they’re great and where you can find seeds:
Table of contents
10 Best Tomatoes for Arizona Gardens
Punta Banda: This tough little tomato from Mexico handles the heat like a champ, producing small, flavorful red fruits. Thicker skins mean they don’t split as easily. A meaty tomato that preserves well.
Cherokee Purple: With its deep, complex flavor and unique purple-red color, it is a must-try. It produces medium to large fruits that are great for slicing.
Find Cherokee Purple Seeds Here
Roma: Known for its meaty, oblong fruits with a rich, slightly sweet flavor. They are perfect for sauces and canning. Maturing in about 75 days, they perform well in Arizona’s heat, providing a reliable harvest of flavorful tomatoes.
Black Krim: With its deep, smoky flavor, Black Krim is a standout. These medium-to-large tomatoes have a unique dark red color with green shoulders.
Celebrity: A reliable hybrid resistant to disease, Celebrity tomatoes are medium-sized fruits with that classic tomato taste we all love.
Best Cherry Tomatoes for Arizona:
Chocolate Cherry: These small, deep red-brown fruits have a rich, sweet flavor. Perfect for snacking or salads, they mature in about 70 days and thrive in Arizona’s heat, offering a steady harvest throughout the season.
Find Chocolate Cherry seeds here
Sungold: These tiny orange cherry tomatoes are a favorite for their unbeatable sweetness. They’re perfect for popping right off the vine.
Juliet: Juliet tomatoes produce clusters of sweet, juicy, elongated fruits with a rich flavor, perfect for snacking, salads, or roasting. Maturing in about 60 days, they’re ideal for Arizona’s short growing season and are a prolific producer.
Sweet 100: Known for producing tons of small, sweet tomatoes, Sweet 100 is an excellent choice for Arizona’s hot climate.
Yellow Pear: These prolific, pear-shaped yellow tomatoes have a mild, sweet flavor.
Bonus varieties:
Jolene: Hybrid tomatoes bred to perform well in the heat. A compact, determinate tomato that does well in Arizona because it stays manageable in cages, sets a big flush of fruit together, and can handle heat better than many larger slicers. It’s typically around 70–75 days from transplant to harvest, so it fits nicely into our spring and fall windows before extreme heat or cold hits.
These determinate tomatoes fit perfectly in the Garden in Minutes cages.
Early Girl: An early, dependable slicer that does well in Arizona because it sets fruit quickly in our spring and fall “shoulder seasons” before extreme heat or cold shut things down. It’s usually listed at about 55 days from transplant to first harvest, so you get ripe tomatoes sooner than with big beefsteaks.
Share Your Favorites!
Have you had success growing tomatoes in Arizona? I’d love to hear about the varieties that worked best for you. Share your tips and experiences in the comments below.
More Tomato Growing Resources on My Blog:
- How to Grow Tomatoes in Arizona: 10 Tips for Success
- How to Plant Tomatoes: A Step-by-Step Guide
- Prevent Blossom End Rot: Tips for Healthy Tomatoes
- Turning Green Tomatoes Red: 4 Ways to Ripen Green Tomatoes
- How to Revive and Prune Over-Summered Tomatoes in Arizona
Read the complete guide to pruning peppers, tomatoes, and eggplants after winter here.
If this post about the best tomatoes for Arizona was helpful, please share it.
Wickenburg-Prescott, Estiva, and Giant Crimson all performed well for me this year in Zone 8b in the Chihuahuan Desert. W-P, developed in AZ, is very prolific!
Thanks for sharing! I’ll have to give those a try. Appreciate it.
Kellogs breakfast, black trim, Arkansas traveler and black cherry all do well and taste great in Phoenix. one can grow early girl, better boy and super sweet 100 and have a ton of nice maters. I grew 1000 sweet 100 cherry tomatoes on one plant a few years back, so you can really succeed in Phoenix once you know the ropes
Wow that’s a lot of tomatoes. Great choices, thanks for sharing.
Replying from Tucson. I’ve taken the approach of using short season varieties rather than nursing along later maturing ones in the heat. I plant them as early as my conscience allows and hopefully get production before things do get hot. I’m always experimenting, but my go-to varieties are Scotia, Summer Frolic, Fourth of July and, of course, Early Girl if there is room among the plants on trial.
Smart. I agree you’ll have more consistent success with shorter days to harvest. Thanks for commenting.
I live in SE Arizona and about 5 years ago I planted Yellow Pear Tomatoes. I have not had to plant them again as volunteers come up all over the place. This year I had one come up next to the house on the north side that never got any water all summer and it is producing more fruit than the ones that are growing in my flower bed and got watered.
Definitely grows well here. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Angela,
I planted three early girl tomato plants and one Roma tomato plant, they are big and full of tomatoes, but all have blossom end rot? I water when the top of soil is dry at least 3 inches, I’ve mulched and even did a soil test. The test says my calcium is a little above average and the ph. is good. I have used fish emulsion and fertilizer early on and a couple of days ago I added Calcium Nitrate. I have thrown away at least thirty or more tomatoes, I am at a loss. Have you had any issues with this problem in Mesa?
Thank you,
I’m so sorry that you’re having this problem. Blossom end rot is often a watering issue. This article may help: https://growinginthegarden.com/how-to-identify-prevent-blossom-end-rot/
Best slicer -” Bella Rosa” — I have grown this tomato for more than twenty years here in Tucson. Best for taste ,Production, and heat tolerant. 10-12 oz. Many seed Co. incl. Tomato Growers. Ken
Thanks for sharing. I’ll have to give that one a try.
Angela, I’m here in Mesa, AZ. I have been planting Brad’s Atomic Grape tomatoes for several years now. They are really tasty and I have had great yields well into the summer. I really love the wild colors of these tomatoes. If you haven’t tried them, you should definitely give them a shot. Punta Banda and Nichol’s Heirloom from Native Seeds have also done really well in my garden.
Thanks for sharing. I’ve seed the seeds for Brad’s Atomic Grape tomatoes, but haven’t tried them yet, thanks for all of the suggestions!
I have one surviving Reisentraube tomato plant still in great shape, blooming a bit and producing some tomatoes. I’m amazed bc this heirloom seed is very old! I rcvd it from a seed-of-the-month club years ago. I’m so thankful for our mild weather so far that’s allowed me to experience over-wintering a tomato.
Thank you for your gardening site and all the awesome advice as I’m a novice!
Oh wow. I haven’t heard of that variety. Be sure to save those seeds! You’re so welcome, I’m glad the site has been helpful.