10 varieties of early tomatoes you must plant in your garden!

Tomatoes are one of the most popular vegetables, thanks in particular to their refreshing, dietary and tasty qualities. If you want to grow tomatoes in your vegetable garden, here are a few early varieties that you absolutely must sow to enjoy an earlier harvest!

10 early tomatoes for your vegetable garden

The earliness of tomatoes is an essential indication in cool-climate regions, where summer ends relatively early. In fact, certain tomato varieties are better suited to the Mediterranean climate or to growing in greenhouses. In colder regions, opting for early varieties is therefore essential if you hope to enjoy a good harvest.

To harvest this type of variety, you can count on at least two months after planting; add another 6 weeks from sowing. If you buy them commercially, these plants sometimes already have fruit or flowers forming, but they are rare to find, which is why many gardeners make their own seedlings.

So here are a few early tomato varieties:

1. Red cherry tomato: known for being juicy, melting and tasty. A little sweet and tangy, it's great as an aperitif and in a salad;
2. Moskwich : This is a beautiful tomato, round and smooth, medium-sized, fleshy and juicy;
3. Tomate Rose de Berne: This variety with large fruits and raspberry highlights, produces early and is best eaten in salads;
4. Gregori Altai: it produces 240-300g fruit with a much appreciated flavour. It is easily cut into very thin slices because of its very dense core;
5. Marmande : it comes from the Marmande region in Lot-et-Garonne with large, tasty fruit and ranks among the ideal tomatoes for beginner gardeners;
6. Cœur d'Albenga: good, pronounced tomato flavour with very ribbed pear-shaped fruit, originating in Italy;
7. Délice d'Or: offers yellow-orange fruits weighing 90 to 120 g with few seeds and fairly firm skin;
8. Chinese Red: red tomatoes in the shape of a pointed chilli pepper and very long hanging leaves;
9. Bistro : this is a very small tomato, but sweet and firm-skinned;
10. Flamed yellow : it offers clusters of 8 to 12 orange fruits the size of an apricot.

Tricks for planting and harvesting your early tomatoes well

When sowing your early tomatoes, you need to take into account the seasonal realities of your region. Early varieties produce fruit more quickly in your vegetable garden. You can therefore sow them around mid-February in a mini greenhouse heater or in a simple terrine behind a south-facing window in your house in March.

• Tomatoes, courgettes,... can you plant before the Ice Saints?

After emergence, i.e. when the first two true leaves (not cotyledons) appear, you can gently move on to transplanting into cups. Place the young plants on a warm layer in a greenhouse, for example, away from frost. Allow 6 weeks after sowing to plant your tomato plants. In general, they should be placed in the greenhouse around mid-April (watch out for frost!) or outdoors around mid-May. Don't hesitate to check out this article to find out more about growing tomatoes.