How Many Tomato Plants for a Year of Sauce
A quart of canned tomato sauce takes about 5 lb of tomatoes. At about 8 lb per paste tomato plant, here is how many plants to grow for 12, 26, or 52 quart...
Published by ThriveThyme
tomatoes canning planning plate to plot
How Many Tomato Plants for a Year of Sauce
Start from the jar, not the seed packet. The National Center for Home Food Preservation says a canner load of 7 quarts of thin tomato sauce takes about 35 lb of tomatoes, or about 5 lb per quart. Thick sauce takes about 46 lb per 7 quarts, closer to 6.5 lb per quart.
University of Maine Extension puts tomato yield at about 8 lb per plant. Paste types such as Roma give more sauce per pound because they have less water. Yields vary a lot with variety, weather, and disease, so treat 8 lb as a planning number.
Plants for Thin Sauce
These counts add 15 percent for split, cracked, and pest damaged fruit.
| Sauce per year | How often you open a jar | Tomatoes needed | Paste tomato plants |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 quarts | One canner load | 40 lb | 6 |
| 12 quarts | Monthly | 69 lb | 9 |
| 26 quarts | Every 2 weeks | 150 lb | 19 |
| 52 quarts | Weekly | 299 lb | 38 |
For thick sauce, add about one third more plants.
Space
Caged or staked paste tomatoes need about 4 sq ft each at 2 ft spacing. A 4 by 8 ft bed holds 8 plants, so 9 plants is one bed plus a corner of another. Nineteen plants is about two and a half beds.
Tips
- Grow paste types for sauce. Slicers work, but you will cook down far more water.
- Plant all at once for canning. Determinate paste varieties ripen in a few weeks, which suits canning day. Indeterminates spread the harvest out.
- Freeze while you wait. Whole tomatoes freeze well. Bag them until you have a full canner load.
- Use a tested recipe. Add bottled lemon juice or citric acid to every jar as the tested recipe says.
Plan the Rest of the Pot
Sauce also needs onions, garlic, and basil. The Plate to Plot tool adds those up for you. Start from the canned tomato sauce page or the weeknight marinara page, set your household size, and it gives plants, bed space, and planting dates for your zone.