Italian Roma is a classic determinate paste tomato that forms compact 3–4½ ft bushes and delivers a heavy, concentrated harvest of bright red, blocky-oval plum fruits 2½–3½ inches long and weighing 2–4 oz each. Inside, the flesh is remarkably thick-walled, dense, and meaty with very few seeds and little juice—perfect for sauce and paste. When vine-ripened, it offers a rich, robust flavor with gentle acidity and honest sweetness that far outshines most modern hybrids. Ready in 70–78 days from transplant, Italian Roma remains the gold standard for canning, sun-drying, roasting, or any recipe that demands deep tomato flavor and luxurious texture.

HISTORY: Italian Roma traces back to traditional plum tomato landraces grown for generations in Italy (particularly Campania and Lazio) for making passata and conserva. Seed was brought to the United States by Italian immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The strain that became widely known as “Roma” in American seed catalogs was stabilized and popularized after World War II, with the USDA accession PI 271667 (collected in Italy in 1961) being one of the closest documented matches to the classic open-pollinated type still sold today by many heirloom vendors.
 
If you’re buying seed and the packet says “Roma VF,” “VFNP,” or mentions Fusarium/Very resistant, you’re getting the later American hybrid, not the original Italian Roma heirloom.
 
Sold as a single plant in a 3.5" pot.