🍅 Quick take: Mini San Marzano is a miniature plum/spray tomato known for producing heavy clusters of up to 20 bite-sized, 1 oz (30 g) elongated fruits. Vines grow with a wispy, slender habit, frequently topping out around 4 feet (1.2 m) in open ground. Renowned for its high sugar content and tough skins that never split during whole-fruit canning, it circulates both as a commercial F1 hybrid and as stabilized open-pollinated collector lines. Full summary ↓
Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA Zones 4-7 Experience)
Cluster-style truss tomato, setting up to 20 fruits per spray, weighing up to 1 oz (30 g) each. The plant has a rather wispy, slender habit and stays mid-height in open ground. The stems are thin and bendy. Can be grown both outdoors and in the greenhouse tied to sturdy stakes, mid-season maturity. Incredibly sweet.
Edited November 21, 2015 by Drosera
Is this an open-pollinated variety or an F1 hybrid? Seems like different vendors list it differently.
Is this an open-pollinated variety or an F1 hybrid? Seems like different vendors list it differently.
My seeds came from a collector in the Czech Republic, saved from his own garden. He stated it was an open-pollinated variety.
Mine was labeled as Mini San Marzano F1. I wouldn’t call it a true indeterminate, it naturally topped out right at 4 feet (1.2 m) in open ground, but it cranked out fruit like crazy. I was hesitant to save seed since it was marked F1, which I kick myself for now 🥺 I have two seeds left from the packet, so I’ll plant them next season, save the seed, and see what happens with the next generation.
Mine was labeled as Mini San Marzano F1. I wouldn’t call it a true indeterminate, it naturally topped out right at 4 feet (1.2 m) in open ground, but it cranked out fruit like crazy…
Tanya, how many stems do you recommend letting it run outdoors?
Irina, hey stranger, haven’t seen you around here lately! 😉
I let mine run with four full stems because I was late pinching out suckers. By September I ended up pulling the whole plant up roots and all with the green fruit still hanging on. Picked off a big batch and let them finish on the counter, ripened up beautifully indoors.
In canning jars, they are an absolute dream, not a single split skin in the batch. Loved this tomato. If I could only know for sure whether the seeds would breed true! 🥺
Full Summary: Plant Habit, Yield and Canning Performance
- 🌿 Plant Habit & Genetics: Circulates both as commercial F1 lines and as stabilized open-pollinated (OP) selections (such as strains distributed by Czech heirloom growers). Growth habit is semi-determinate to indeterminate with slender, wispy stems, typically terminating around 4 feet (1.2 m) outdoors. Tolerates being trained to 3-4 stems without sacrificing fruit set.
- 📈 Yield: Exceptionally high producer. Loads up long, uniform clusters bearing up to 20 small, elongated plum tomatoes weighing around 1 oz (30 g) each.
- 👅 Flavor Profile: Very sweet with concentrated sugars, far sweeter than standard full-sized paste tomatoes.
- 🥫 Canning & Storage: Outstanding whole-pack canning tomato. The durable skins do not crack or split when immersed in hot brine. Green fruits pulled at season’s end counter-ripen evenly indoors without flavor degradation.
- 🌎 Who Reviewed It: Svetlana (Lana_s_Kavkaza) in the warm Caucasus foothills (USDA Zone 7), Nina (sel4anka) in cold continental Bashkiria (USDA Zone 4), along with long-time growers tanja and irina58.
