Best tomato seeds UK: which packet fits the job
Updated: October 2026
"Best" is empty until you name the job. A greenhouse cordon, a patio pot, a sauce tomato and a packet you might save are four different purchases, even in the same amazon.co.uk basket between £2.49 and £7.95. This shortlist is for the best tomato seeds UK shoppers can pick from the eleven packets we kept. Star order is not job order. The price table is the [tomato seeds comparison](/hub/herb-seeds/tomato-seeds). Listings were read on 15 October 2026. There is no laboratory trial.
"Best" is empty until you name the job. A greenhouse cordon, a patio pot, a sauce tomato and a packet you might save are four different purchases, even in the same amazon.co.uk basket between £2.49 and £7.95.
"Best" is empty until you name the job. A greenhouse cordon, a patio pot, a sauce tomato and a packet you might save are four different purchases, even in the same amazon.co.uk basket between £2.49 and £7.95. This shortlist is for the best tomato seeds UK shoppers can pick from the eleven packets we kept. Star order is not job order. The price table is the tomato seeds comparison. Listings were read on 15 October 2026. There is no laboratory trial.
Our top picks
| Badge | Product | Habit | Fruit | Stated seeds | Note | Price | Offer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best overall |  Just Seed Just Seed Sungold F1 tomato seeds | Not stated | Orange cherry | 10 | 9.5 | about £3.65 | View offer |
| Best value |  Just Seed JustSeed Moneymaker tomato seeds | Not stated | Red tomato | 100 | 9.3 | about £2.75 | View offer |
| Alternative |  Meldon Seeds Meldon Moneymaker tomato seeds | Indeterminate | Medium red | 18 | 9.3 | about £2.95 | View offer |
On this page
Stars are not a job
Sort by stars and Montserrat ties Sungold at 4.5. Montserrat's 10 ratings have no written reviews in the file. Sungold's 111 reviews include near-complete germination and one buyer who said the fruit was not the Sungold they knew. Black Krim's 160 reviews, at 4.2, talk about flavour, splitting and rot outdoors. A bigger sample tells you more about that packet. It does not turn a beefsteak into a cherry. The RHS lists 'Sungold' as an Award of Garden Merit cordon, which is a variety note, not a trial of this packet. Listings that contradict themselves are on the tomato seeds buying guide.
A greenhouse cordon you will train
If you will pinch side-shoots, start with packets that say indeterminate. Meldon's Moneymaker states 18 seeds at £2.95, a single stem, support and about 1.5 metres, sown at 0.5 cm and 18–21°C. It allows a greenhouse, a polytunnel, a grow-bag or a sheltered spot. It is 4.4 from 31 reviews, and only two review texts are in the file. Eighteen seeds leave little spare if a tray fails.
JustSeed's Moneymaker is 100 seeds at £2.75, also 4.4, and it never states the habit. Choose it for the count, and leave it if the page must tell you to train a single stem. Meldon's Ailsa Craig is the same kind of page: 30 seeds at £2.99 and 4.4 from 47 reviews, including a complete miss. Where the plants will stand is on greenhouse or outdoor tomatoes.
The fruit you actually eat
Buy Just Seed Sungold F1, 10 seeds at £3.65, when you want the orange cherry and you will buy seed again. The listing does not say cordon, and the height attribute says 65 cm. Saved seed will not come true. Saving seed is on F1 or open-pollinated tomato seeds.
Buy Black Krim, 20 seeds at £2.49, when you want a dark beefsteak and can live with thin skins. Splitting and outdoor rot are the limit. Leave SeedsAlp's San Marzano, £2.99, if you wanted a clean sauce packet. The title says 50 seeds and the unit fields say 1. The bullets say a red plum, the colour attribute says yellow, and the height says 20 inches.
A pot, and the kit
The Seeds & Spice kit is the only mix: £7.95, with bullets naming Red Robin, Mini Bell, Black Zebra and Golden Nugget, 10 seeds of each. One line says Black Cherry instead of Black Zebra. The title says dwarf or small patio tomatoes and gives no height. A review says two of the four were not dwarf. It is 3.8 from 26 reviews, with uneven germination. Buy it for several small pot trials.
Mar Azul, 10 seeds at £3.45, says both indeterminate and compact. Montserrat does say indeterminate, but its 4.5 comes from 10 silent ratings, which is why it does not lead this page.
Who should leave a packet
Leave the Generic Black Cherry listing if you need one supplier and one count: the title says 40, the unit count says 50, and a review counted 34 seeds plus a husk. Leave Gardener's Delight if you need one brand. The title says Johnsons, the brand field says Mr Fothergill's, and the unit count is 20 grams. Gardeners' World discusses that name as a bush or cordon cherry, which is about the name, not this file.
Leave the whole set if you came for blight resistance. The RHS names 'Crimson Crush' and 'Mountain Magic' from Wisley in 2021. Those names are not here.
Common questions
Which packet is the best tomato seed in this set?
There is no single best seed for every UK garden in this file. For a cordon with instructions on the page, Meldon Moneymaker or Ailsa Craig is the clearer buy. For an orange cherry and a large review sample, Sungold F1 leads if you will not save seed. For the most seed per pound, JustSeed Moneymaker states 100 seeds and never states the habit.
I only have a patio pot. What should I avoid?
Avoid treating a 65 cm attribute as a bush. That figure is on JustSeed Moneymaker and on Sungold, and neither listing states the habit. Avoid Mar Azul if you bought it because one bullet says compact while another says indeterminate. The kit's title says dwarf, and a reviewer found that only two of the four names stayed that way.
I want to save seed next year. Why not Sungold?
Sungold F1 is a first-generation hybrid. Gardeners' World states that F1 varieties will not come true from home-collected seed. The heritage titles, including Meldon's Ailsa Craig and Moneymaker, are sold without an F1 mark. Coming true still depends on how the flowers were pollinated, which this file does not measure.
Black Krim has 160 reviews. Does that make it the safest buy?
It makes the themes easier to see, not the plant safer. At 4.2 from 160, buyers praise the flavour and also report thin skins, splitting and rot outdoors. Habit is unstated, and the organic wording was not checked. It is a reasonable beefsteak if you accept that fruit, and a weak choice for a wet outdoor bed.
Why is a 4.5 from 10 ratings not above a 4.5 from 111?
Both lines scale to the same score. Ten silent ratings cannot show germination or flavour. Sungold's 111 reviews are simply a larger file. Volume does not prove the packet. It does stop a tiny sample from outranking a large one.
Related pages
Sources
Public UK sources named for this comparison. Listings read on 15 October 2026.
- RHS, How to grow tomatoes (retrieved October 2026)
- RHS, Tomato blight (retrieved October 2026)
- Gardeners' World, How to grow tomatoes (23 May 2025) (retrieved October 2026)
- Seed Marketing Regulations 2011, Schedule 3 (retrieved October 2026)
- GOV.UK, Plant breeders' rights (retrieved October 2026)
- amazon.co.uk listings for the eleven packets, read 15 October 2026 (retrieved 15 October 2026)