If you haven’t had the pleasure of cooking with Super Fantastic Tomatoes, you’ll want to—especially after learning about all its benefits.
The juicy and tasty Super Fantastic Tomato is a fan-favorite fruit and a common ingredient used in salads, sandwiches, salsas, and more! Easily recognizable by its hefty size and bold color, this tomato type adds brightness and freshness to all kinds of meals and snacks.
Keep reading to learn all about the Super Fantastic Tomato, and find out why you should incorporate this must-have fruit into your meals.
Characteristics of the Super Fantastic Tomato
Super Fantastic Tomatoes are immensely popular in the U.S. Here’s more about its standout traits.
Appearance
Super Fantastic Tomatoes are large and solid, beefsteak-type tomatoes. They are mid-sized and average 10 ounces each—which is more than a couple of mouthfuls! This tomato is recognized by its bright red color, oblong body, and smooth skin.
Taste
The flavor of this tomato strikes a perfect balance between sweet and acidic.
Cookingwith Super Fantastic Tomatoes
The Super Fantastic Tomato is a versatile tomato that you can prepare and enjoy in a myriad of ways. Because there are so many ways to use these tomatoes, they’re family-friendly and kid-friendly crowdpleasers!
Slicing
Slice these tomatoes, sprinkle them with salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil, and enjoy! Add fresh mozzarella and basil leaves to make aCaprese salad, or dice the tomatoes to make salsa orbruschetta.
You can also slice the tomatoes and add them to salads, sandwiches, and meat dishes, likebaked chicken Caprese.
Canning
Canning is another popular way to enjoy Super Fantastic Tomatoes.
Use these tomatoes to make canned whole tomatoes (with skin or skinless), as well as crushed, diced, stewed, and pureed canned tomatoes. You can also make homemade tomato sauce, tomato paste, and ketchup using a tomato press. Check out our post,7 Picks for the Best Tomato Press, for suggestions on the best tomato press.
Making your own tomato sauce at home, in particular, allows you to control the ingredients you add to it, like olive oil, cream, and garlic, as well as salt content.
Drying
You can also use Super Fantastic Tomatoes to make sun-dried tomatoes. Instead of letting them dry the old-fashioned way, you can achieve the same effect by using a dehydrator at home.
Freezing
Another great thing about tomatoes is that you can freeze them later. To learn how to freeze tomatoes properly, check out our post,How to Freeze Tomatoes: 2 Easy Methods for Freezing Tomatoes.
Juicing
There are many benefits of drinking tomato juice, which certainly makes it another pro of keeping Super Fantastic Tomatoes handy in your kitchen. Truly vitamin-packed and super healthy, learn about all the health benefits of drinking tomato juice in our post,5 Health Benefits of Tomato Juice.
Health Benefits of Tomatoes
Tomatoes are low-calorie, water-dense fruits packed with nutrients like protein, fiber, and Vitamin C, among others.
Red tomatoes, like Super Fantastic Tomatoes, contain lycopene, a natural compound found in foods. Lycopene is responsible for giving tomatoes their red color, and it’s also believed to contribute to the overall health of our skin.
Learn more about the vast health benefits of tomatoes in our post,5 Amazing Tomato Health Benefits.
Growing Super Fantastic Tomatoes
For novice and advanced gardeners, Super Fantastic Tomatoes are great to grow at home.
These tomatoes are very hardy compared to others. In the U.S., Super Fantastics are grown outdoors in U.S. Hardiness zones 9-11, from California to Florida, and parts of Illinois, Pennsylvania, and even Alaska.
Indeterminate
The Super Fantastic Tomato is an indeterminate plant, meaning that it grows long vines. The vines require additional caging or staking and tend to produce more fruit than bush-form, determinate tomatoes. Our post,All About Indeterminate Tomatoes, covers more on how to grow and care for indeterminate tomatoes.
Growing habits
These tomato plants grow an average of six to nine feet tall and 24 to 36 inches wide. To ensure they have enough room to grow, plants must be spaced 18 to 24 inches apart. Super Fantastic Tomatoes require moist, well-drained soil and full sun exposure.
Our post,How to Grow Tomatoes at Home: The Complete Guide, covers all you need to know about growing your own tomatoes at home.
Harvesting
Super Fantastic Tomatoes bloom in the spring and summer months. They require 70 to 85 days to mature, and plants generally produce a high fruit yield until the first frost. Learn how to determine whether your tomato fruit is ready from our post,How Long Does It Take Tomatoes to Ripen?
Companion Plants for Super Fantastic Tomatoes
Not only do tomatoes offer health benefits when we eat them, but they can even be good for the plants growing near them.
Tomatoes work well in companion plant gardening. Companion plants can grow alongside each other because they have a mutually beneficial relationship that helps one, or both, thrive.
When herbs like chives, cilantro, mint, oregano, and parsley are grown near tomatoes, they help to prevent pests from eating the fruit. Basil is one of the best plants to grow near tomatoes because it keeps pests away and may increase yield.
Other good companion plants for tomatoes include black-eyed peas, bush beans, clovers, collard greens, culinary dandelions, dill, garlic, mustard greens, sweet alyssum, and varieties of thyme, among others.
Plants To Avoid Growing Near Tomatoes.
There are also plants that negatively affect tomato plants when they are grown close by. For example, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, and kale compete with tomatoes for the same nutrients. Without ample nutrients, tomato plants may not produce fruit.
Corn, on the other hand, attracts the same pests and fungal infections as tomatoes. When corn and tomatoes are planted close to each other, the attraction doubles!
If you plant tomatoes in a garden or close to other plants, double-check the interaction of these plants to ensure a “fruitful” outcome.
Vulnerability to Pests and Diseases
As with any plant you grow at home, you may encounter issues when growing Super Fantastic Tomatoes at home—or any tomatoes, for that matter. One of the issues may include susceptibility to pests and diseases. Learn more about these pests and how to prevent them in our blog, The 15 Most Common Tomato Pests.
Fortunately, Super Fantastic Tomatoes are hardy plants with a strong resistance to nematodes, verticillium wilt, and fusarium wilt. These tomatoes are susceptible to blossom end rot and late blight, however. Learn more about the diseases that affect tomato plants in our post, The 7 Most Common Tomato Plant Diseases.
Where to Buy Seeds
The Super Fantastic Tomato is a hybrid that’s the new and improved Fantastic Tomato. Because it’s a hybrid, the seeds from Super Fantastic Tomato fruits can’t be saved to grow new plants.
To grow these tomatoes at home, you’ll need to purchase seeds from your local hardware store or online. We highly recommend theSuper Fantastic seedssold online by one of our favorite retailers for seeds, True Leaf Market.
The Fan-Favorite Tomato That’s Great for Cooking
Not only are Super Fantastic Tomatoes delicious, but they’re easy to integrate into all sorts of recipes that call for tomatoes. Use these tomatoes to complement other ingredients in favorite recipes or feature them as the star ingredient. However you serve Super Fantastics, they’re sure to please!
To learn even more about how to plant, grow, and harvest tomatoes, head over to theTomato Plantspage on our website. There, you’ll find blog posts on over 70 different varieties, plus lots of helpful growing and care guides for your best tomato season ever!
