Tomatomania!: Where to buy unique tomato seedlings in SoCal

Tomato lovers, rejoice. Tomatomania! is back

Feb. 15, 2022 7 AM PT

Have your winter salads of greens and more greens gotten so dull that you’ve stooped to buying tasteless hot-house tomatoes just to add a little color to your plate?

Help is on the way. Tomatomania! is gearing up for 2022 with 200-plus varieties of tomatoes and nearly 100 types of peppers, on sale starting Feb. 25 at Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar.

This annual traveling show will visit nine SoCal locations this year between San Diego and Santa Barbara counties, with many varieties continuing to be available at the venues through May.

February can be chilly for planting tomatoes in inland parts of Southern California, says Tomatomania! owner Scott Daigre, but not for the more temperate coastal regions, where frost is rarely a concern.

Tomatoes are a warm-season crop, which like peppers and basil, need soil temperatures above 60 degrees Fahrenheit to really start growing with gusto. But if you’re aching to get going on your summer bounty, Daigre says your seedlings will be just fine in their 4-inch pots for a few weeks, until the soil warms up. Just keep them watered in a warm, sunny spot.

A wooden bowl filled with red, green and yellow tomatoes.

If you’re growing tomatoes in containers, you can get a head start, because the soil gets warmer much quicker in pots. Just be sure to choose a large container for each plant, preferably at least 24 inches deep, so the roots have plenty of room to grow, and keep the pot in a location that gets at least six to eight hours of sun a day.

The biggest challenge with Tomatomania! is deciding which varieties to choose. And boy, does Daigre have varieties to offer, in a rainbow of colors such as:

Bronze Torch, an elongated cherry variety and the 2022 tomato of the year
Saucy Mary, a stripy, lime-green early producer
Paul Robeson, a blackish-red heirloom beefsteak variety
Pinocchio, a deep-orange heirloom Roma variety with a long, pointy end
Momotaro, a flavorful pinkish-red Japanese hybrid

Bronze Torch, a hybrid named for its brick-red color striped in green and bronze, does well in the ground or containers, Daigre said, and produces yummy fruit in just 65 days.

“I traveled with little bundles of this tomato last year, asking people what they thought, and jaws dropped.”

— Scott Daigre, Tomatomania! owner

That’s some of the criteria needed to be chosen tomato of the year, he said. “We want to see good, solid production and flavor, and this one tastes amazing. I traveled with little bundles of this tomato last year, asking people what they thought, and jaws dropped and eyes opened wide because this cherry [tomato] was so different and so good.”

Another bonus: Bronze Torch will start producing in early spring and continue into the fall. “It kept going in my garden [in Ojai] forever,” Daigre said. “I’ve made everything with them. ... I roasted them and made salsas and salads. Technically, it’s a cherry tomato, but it doesn’t have the sugar level that a Sungold has, so the flavor is more complex. It’s very unique.”

Roger’s Gardens has made choosing a little easier by listing many Tomatomania! varieties on its website. Orders must be picked up at its Corona del Mar store, but if that’s too far, you can at least get an idea of what’s coming to a venue near you, Daigre said.

Where to buy Tomatomania!’s unique varieties

Here are the upcoming sales dates, listed by county. Note that most venues (except Fig Earth Supply) will have extended sales after their initial weekends, with fewer choices but still a large selection of plants.

That was a big lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic, Daigre said. Tomatomania!’s sales used to be crowded events with workshops and long lines. Tomato lovers still wanted the choice but not the crowds during the pandemic, he said, so Tomatomania! adapted by creating opening-weekend sales with 200-plus varieties and then offering a more limited selection for several weeks after.