Better Boy

Better Boy sets a heavy crop of large, smooth-skinned fruit on its indeterminate vines, with individual tomatoes reaching about twelve ounces. The flesh delivers classic tomato flavor, striking a balance between acid and sugar rather than leaning sharply to either side.

Better Boy is grown primarily as a slicing tomato, its size and texture suited to eating fresh off the vine.

Better Boy typically ripens in around 72 days and grows as a vigorous indeterminate vine, reaching 8 to 10 feet under good conditions. Its vines carry resistance to verticillium wilt, fusarium wilt, and nematodes. Because the plant sets such a heavy fruit load, sturdy staking or caging is recommended from the start, since delaying support can lead to root damage and fruit cracking. Rather than bearing in one concentrated flush, it produces steadily through the season, so gardeners do not need to plan succession plantings to keep a supply coming.

Better Boy originated as a hybrid cross between the heirloom Teddy Jones tomato and an unnamed red variety, a pairing developed by plant breeder John Peto.