We are excited to offer this rare strain of the ‘original’ 1.0 Version of the famous San Marzano tomato (we’ll explain).
This excellent paste tomato has brilliant red fruits and the plants are sturdy with dark green leaves. It is easy to grow and very productive. This tomato is a pleasure to have in the garden!
And this strain — which includes “low temperature genetic material” — matures well in short season gardens (keep reading).
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I) A bit of history about the San Marzano tomato:
Since its introduction, the San Marzano tomato has transformed the tomato industry.
The San Marzano tomato traces its history to the late 1880s, when the Italian canning company, Circo, provided the first seeds of ‘San Marzano’ tomatoes to farmers in the Campania region of Italy. The family of Michele Ruggiero, in the town of San Marzano (hence the tomato’s name), was one of the first to grow this tomato. William Alexander explains the tomato’s history in his book ‘Ten Tomatoes that Changed the World’:
“The seeds that Circo had given Michele were of a new type of canning tomato, a cross between three southern varieties: the Fiascone and the re Umberto, both widely grown Campania, and the Fiaschella, a favourite of Puglia…that grew prolifically in large clusters of small fruits…This new canning tomato seemed to have the best qualities of each of its progenitors. Its slim profile, more elongated than pear-shaped, was ideal for canning: it had few seeds, a very small core, a thin skin that could be easily removed, and it held its shape, not collapsing into mush after peeling and processing…But most importantly, the tomato tasted great out of the can, noticeably sweeter and less acidic than its contemporaries.”
San Marzano became the darling of the tomato industry.
That is, until the 1990s, when the San Marzano tomatoes in Italy were hit by a virus, which effectively wiped out the country’s original San Marzano strains. Now, when you see ‘San Marzano 2’ on a seed package, the ‘2’ indicates the newer 2.0 version that was created by Italian agronomists in the 1990s.
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II) A bit of history about our seedstock:
We were fortunate to acquire seedstock for this tomato from the USDA gene bank. In 1957 the USDA acquired their seedstock from the Italian canning company, Stazione Sperimentale per l’industria delle Conserve Alimentari, located in Parma, Italy.
This seedstock is significant for 3 reasons:
(1) This strain is likely (one of) the original strains of San Marzano tomato dating back to its earliest days as a paste tomato in Italy. That is why we are calling it a 1.0 Version of San Marzano (see below for the 2.0 Version). We will point out that there has never been only ‘one’ strain of San Marzano, but the canning industry in Italy has been very selective about which tomatoes can be called San Marzano and which seeds were selected for sowing. The seeds we offer are likely part of the original San Marzano strain(s) that date(s) back to the 1880s.
(2) As mentioned above, in the 1990s a virus swept through the San Marzano tomato population in Italy, effectively wiping out the 1.0 Version of San Marzano in Italy (including strains going back to the 1880s). However, the 1.0 strain we are offering was safely housed in the USDA genebank. Today, the San Marzano tomatoes grown in the D.O.P. region (Designation of Origin) of Italy (Sarnese-Nocerino region in Campania) and the seed sold as San Marzano are the 2.0 Version of San Marzano that were created by Italian agronomists in the 1990s. (See our description of ‘San Marzano Lampadina 2’ in our “Seed Archive” for more details.)
(3) Records included in the USDA genebank note that this strain was “cold tolerant” selected by the researchers Madill and Metcalf at the Smithfield Experimental Station in Trenton, Ontario in the early 1960s. The USDA shared seedstock with the Canadian researchers who in turn shared it back with the USDA. Records from 1963 refer to this strain as “low temperature genetic material”. Which means it was selected to thrive and grow fruit in low temperatures — which is music to your ears if you are a short season gardener.
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III) How is the 1.0 Version different than the 2.0 Version?
We think the 1.0 Version of San Marzano is:
– Earlier. We can start to harvest tomatoes in mid-August, which is unheard of for the 2.0 Version. But this makes sense considering its “cold tolerant” selection by Canadian researchers in the 1960s.
-More compact in size – about 3 feet tall (+ the seedlings and plants are very, very healthy looking)
-The fruit is more blocky in size (50 g to 70 g) rather than elongated
-The plants may be more productive; but both Version 1 and 2 are high yielding varieties.
Taste-wise both versions are excellent. The vibrant red blocky fruits shine when you cook them down in a sauce or slice them on pizza. That is when using a San Marzano tomato makes all the difference.
Although we also like the 2.0 Version, we will focus on offering the 1.0 Version going forward.
Plus we think it is very fun to grow a tomato that is such an important part of the history of food!
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How to Plant: Start seeds indoors 6 weeks before the last frost. Plant seed 5mm (¼ inch) deep. Transplant after the danger of frost has passed/later spring.
