Red Vs Yellow Tomatoes: What's The Difference And Which Is Better?

Most people who have spent time gardening (or even just shopping in the produce aisle) already know that there are countless tomato cultivars. In fact, there are more than 10,000 known cultivars, but not every one will be a good fit for your garden and your tastes. While red tomatoes, including 'Juliet' cherry, Beefsteak, and 'Roma' tomatoes, have long ruled the roost on kitchen counters, their lesser-known, golden-hued cousins have the same growing conditions while offering a milder or sweeter taste.

Besides flavor, red and yellow tomatoes differ in their nutritional benefits as well, with red tomatoes having a higher concentration of lycopene and yellow tomatoes having a higher content of essential amino acids, but the differences end there. Every variety of the species Solanum lycopersicum needs full sunlight and soil that is warm and well-draining, although specific growing instructions will vary between cultivars. If you are new to cultivating this crop, read up on basic tomato growing tips for a successful first harvest (for either red or yellow tomatoes) to help you set up your garden for the season.

You may be less familiar with yellow tomatoes than red ones because there are fewer varieties of them. Historically, grocery stores have prioritized selling red tomatoes, like 'Roma' and Beefsteak, that we slice for burgers or turn into sauce, meaning scientists and commercial gardeners prioritized creating red tomato cultivars that could withstand mechanical harvesting and shipping. Still, there are plenty of yellow tomatoes you can grow in your home garden without much difficulty.

Like red tomatoes, yellow tomatoes are available in many shapes and sizes, including large heirloom tomatoes, slicers, or cherry types, such as the hybrid 'Snow White' tomatoes. Yellow cultivars can also differ in how difficult they are to grow, with some being bred to have a better tolerance for things like extreme heat, cold temperatures, drought, and poorer soil. 'Lemon Boy' is a hybrid slicing tomato bred to resist several common diseases including verticillium wilt, fusarium wilt, root knot nematodes, alternaria stem canker, and gray leaf spot.

Many yellow tomatoes are actually heirloom varieties, such as 'Dr. Wyche's Yellow,' Yellow Brandywine, and Yellow Pear tomatoes, which means their seeds have been passed down for several decades. It also means that they can be cross-pollinated with other tomatoes to create a different cultivar. After collecting pollen from an heirloom variety and placing it into the flower of another cultivar, gardeners can save the seeds of the cross-pollinated plant to grow a hybrid plant the next season. Typically, these new cultivars will exhibit traits of both of their parents, which is how we get tomatoes like the 'Amethyst Cream' cherry tomato: a light yellow cherry with purple shoulders.