Cherry or beefsteak tomatoes: match the meal first

You have a midweek sauce in mind and a cherry packet in the basket, or a lunchbox to fill and a plum you will never eat raw. Cherry or beefsteak tomatoes are different meals before they are different plants. The shape on the title decides whether you are buying a bite, a slice, or a pan of cooked fruit.

Gardeners' World puts the kitchen test in two sentences. Do not grow cherries if you want sauce, or plums if you want them raw. The same guide says most varieties can be cooked, and that large plum and beefsteak fruit are especially good for sauce. A cherry can go in a pan. It is still the wrong default if the sauce is the reason you sowed.

The tomato seeds comparison holds eleven amazon.co.uk packets, priced in GBP and read for this set in October 2026. Prices move. Decide the meal first, then check whether the listing agrees with itself. A star line does not tell you the fruit will match the plate. A qualifying purchase through that comparison can earn us a commission, at no extra cost to you. Products Compared has not grown these varieties in a lab.

In short

Match the meal, then the listing. Cherries in this set are Sungold F1, Black Cherry and the Gardener's Delight name. The plum people mean for sauce is San Marzano, and that page contradicts itself on count, colour and height. Beefsteaks here are Black Krim, Mar Azul and Montserrat, and Black Krim's reviews talk about thin skins that split. Moneymaker and Ailsa Craig sit in the salad middle. Fruit type does not tell you cordon or bush.

Three shapes, three meals

The RHS groups tomato fruit as cherry, plum, salad and beefsteak, and it notes the colour range as well. A cherry is a mouthful, a plum is the elongated fruit people cook, a salad tomato is the medium round fruit, and a beefsteak is the wide slice. Colour is a separate choice. A dark beefsteak and a red beefsteak can share a shape and still look different on the board.

For sauce, Gardeners' World tells you to skip a cherry and singles out a large plum or beefsteak. For eating raw, that guide tells you to skip a plum. A salad tomato can still be cooked, and it is a weaker buy when you already want a plum.

If you are ordering a wider sowing at the same time, the vegetable seeds comparison sits next to this tomato set. It will not choose the tomato shape for you. You still start with the plate.

Cherries in this set

Just Seed Sungold F1 is the orange cherry, and it is the top pick in this comparison because 4.5 stars from 111 amazon.co.uk reviews is a much larger sample than the other 4.5 in the set. The title states 10 seeds at £3.65. Review notes include near-complete germination, and one buyer who said the fruit was not the Sungold they knew. UK reviews also mention sweetness. That pile of comments is not a tasting panel.

The RHS lists 'Sungold' as an Award of Garden Merit cherry cordon. That is a note on the variety name, not a trial of this packet. The listing does not say cordon. The height attribute says 65 cm and the bloom attribute says winter, which does not make it a stated bush. The title says F1, so seed you scrape from the fruit will not come true. Who else that packet suits is on which tomato seeds fit you.

Black Cherry, £2.99, is the small dark fruit. The bullets say indeterminate and 250 cm, so the cherry can still be a tall plant. The title says 40 seeds and the unit count says 50. One review counted 34 seeds plus a husk. The brand field says Generic and the manufacturer line says Nika seeds. The indoor question on the page is unanswered, while an attribute says outdoor. You cannot average 40 and 50 into a count you trust.

Gardener's Delight is £3.45. The title says Johnsons and the brand field says Mr Fothergill's, both in the same file. The listing does not state a seed count. The unit count is 20 grams, and one review says 20 seeds were planted. Seven reviews sit at 4.2 stars. Gardeners' World discusses that variety name as a bush or a cordon cherry. This packet states neither. If you need one supplier and a count before you pay, this is the cherry page to leave.

Plums, and the San Marzano clash

San Marzano is the plum name people buy for sauce. SeedsAlp's listing is £2.99 and it does not give you one consistent fruit. The title says a pack of 50. The unit, piece and item counts say 1. The bullets describe a red plum of 8–10 cm and call the plant indeterminate. The colour attribute says yellow. The height attribute says 20 inches, beside that indeterminate bullet. Across 19 amazon.co.uk reviews the line is 3.8 stars.

The care line says sow 1 inch deep and 6 inches apart. One inch is much deeper than the 0.5 cm printed on the Meldon packets in the same set. Follow the packet in your hand. Do not blend the two figures into a compromise depth that neither seller printed.

Gardeners' World can still be right that a large plum is especially good for sauce. This listing has to describe one fruit before that advice attaches to the envelope. No second plum in these eleven packets repairs the clash.

Beefsteaks and thin skin

Black Krim is the beefsteak with the review volume. HENSITA lists 20 seeds at £2.49, and 160 amazon.co.uk reviews sit at 4.2 stars, the largest sample in the set. Reviewers praise the flavour and also describe thin skins that split, with some fruit rotting outdoors. The title says a certified French organic grower and the material line says Organic. That wording was not checked as a certificate for this comparison. Habit and sowing depth are absent. The piece count says 20 while the unit count says 1.

Splitting after rain, in those reviews, is a reason to think about shelter. It is a comment on Black Krim, not blossom end rot, and not a rule for every beefsteak. Flavour is still why many people accept the skin.

Montserrat is the ribbed beefsteak that ties Sungold on the scaled score and loses the top pick on sample size. PRIMERASEMILLAS lists 10 seeds at £3.45, indeterminate, with a printed germination range of 20–28°C over 5–10 days. The star line is 4.5 from 10 ratings, and the file has no review text. There is no height. Ten silent ratings are a thin signal beside Sungold's 111 reviews.

Mar Azul is the other dark beefsteak, also 10 seeds at £3.45. The bullets describe dark violet or blue skin and a red centre, while the colour attribute says purple. The habit line says both indeterminate and a small compact plant. Twelve reviews sit at 3.6 stars, the lowest star line in the set. A compact word on a beefsteak is how a patio pot gets a plant that still wants a stake. Ten seeds at this price leave little room for a failed tray.

Salad types that are neither

Moneymaker and Ailsa Craig are the medium salad tomatoes, the fruit you slice for a sandwich. Buy that shape when the raw plate is the usual meal and sauce is the extra.

JustSeed Moneymaker is the best value in this set on price per stated seed: 100 seeds at £2.75. The listing does not state a habit, and it claims organic registration AP23164, which was not checked on a register. Meldon's Moneymaker is the same variety name from another seller, 18 seeds at £2.95, indeterminate, medium red fruit, sown at 0.5 cm and 18–21°C. Same name, two packets, and only one of them tells you the plant is indeterminate.

Meldon's Ailsa Craig is 30 seeds at £2.99. The listing calls it a greenback heirloom introduced in 1925, indeterminate, with medium fruit that ripens early. Greenback stays that packet's word. The sowing line matches Meldon's Moneymaker: 0.5 cm at 18–21°C. The height attribute says 1 metre. Across 47 reviews the line is 4.4 stars, including a complete miss and 12 germinated from 40 sown. None of these packets prints a germination percentage you can treat as a promise.