Tomatoes Worth Growing: Velvet Red

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I think you know I can’t resist a weird tomato. Crazy colouration, misshapen fruit, variegated foliage… the freakier, the better. One of the first tomato anomalies I tried were varieties with fuzzy foliage, and peach-like fruit. There’s a bunch out there: ‘Garden Peach’, ‘Wapsipinicon Peach’, ‘Elberta Peach’… I think you get the idea. All of them have turned out to be stunning, eye-catching plants, but many have fallen flat in terms of flavour — more of a novelty grow than something you crave in the middle of winter.

And then there was ‘Velvet Red’.


This year (2018) I am selling ‘Velvet Red’ tomato seed through my seed shop.

By the time the seeds landed in my hands I’d about given up on the fuzzy tomatoes. However, tomato or not, I love soft, silvery foliage in the garden, so I gave it a shot and popped the plant into a place of prominence where I could, at the very least, enjoy those luxuriously woolly, silvery blue-green leaves. When harvest time came I was shocked — shocked I tell you — to discover that I’d hit upon a variety that had looks AND flavour. When fully ripe, the red, cherry-sized fruits really pack a punch. They are gorgeously sweet and juicy, the sort of tomato that explode in your mouth and spill down your chin. My dog Molly, who loves tomatoes but is picky about them, is also a fan.

This is a big plant that produces a lot of fruit. I’ve grown it several times since and have found that it will keep climbing and bearing pendulous clusters of 1″-sized jewels until the hard frost. This makes it a great candidate if (as I do) you hope to glean a few bowls of unripe, green cherries for end-of-the-season canning.

The details:

  • 75-85 days. Super productive
  • Tall, indeterminate vines
  • Fuzzy, red, cherry-sized fruit
  • Open-pollinated
  • Ripens: Mid-season and keeps producing until frost.
  • Container Growing: You’ll need a really big pot, 16?+ deep.
  • Further Notes: This plant can go and go. I suggest pruning and staking well.
Gayla Trail
Gayla is a writer, photographer, and former graphic designer with a background in the Fine Arts, cultural criticism, and ecology. She is the author, photographer, and designer of best-selling books on gardening, cooking, and preserving.

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3 thoughts on “Tomatoes Worth Growing: Velvet Red”

  1. Thank you for this suggestion – I only have limited space for vegetables and even though I want two tomato plants, it’s almost too much. So, I might give this a try. I also have to figure out a better way to stake my tomato plant. Last year was a rambling disaster.

  2. Thanks for sharing this. I have always wanted to grow tomatoes and this post inspired me even more.

  3. I have struggled with tomatoes in the past. I wish I could grow tomatoes like you, but my luck is nearly always no good. Thanks for sharing this, I will try Velvet Red again soon.

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