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All About The Popular Jet Star Tomato

There are lots of various qualities you might look for in the perfect tomato. One of the high appeals of the Jet Star Tomato is how many boxes it ticks to make it an ideal tomato for canning, eating raw, growing at home, and more.

Read on to learn all about this beloved hybrid tomato variety and why you should add it to your garden this year!

large red tomatoes similar to the jet star tomato

Characteristics of Jet Star Tomatoes

At just a glance, the Jet Star Tomato sets itself apart as almost a quintessential tomato variety. It looks just about exactly how you’d imagine a classic tomato should!

These Tomatoes are on the medium to large scale, weighing in at around 8 ounces when fully ripe. This places them just below the size of a Beef Steak variety, one of the larger tomatoes you can grow. They grow in a globular shape with smooth, bright red skin.

The texture of a Jet Star Tomato is firm and meaty, so it holds up well to slicing, cubing, and other raw enjoyment. You will find the taste profile of this tomato to be sweet and low in acidity, which is another of its prime appeal for many consumers.

This variety is also popular among growers due to their resistance to cracking and scarring. The plants are also heat tolerant, even over 90 degrees, which can be rare with many tomato varieties and makes them ideal for growing in warmer regions.

These tomatoes are also less susceptible to diseases such as Fusarium wilt and Verticillium wilt, which often plague their contemporaries. Best of all, they can thrive in a variety of soil types.

For all these reasons and more, this is a wildly popular tomato variety; in fact, one research study noted them as the best-performing tomatoes out of all varieties they tested! There truly isn’t another tomato that stands out in so many categories.


More About the Jet Star Tomato

There are plenty of things you can do with the Jet Star Tomato. Here is some more information about this amazing tomato.


Eating Them

A bowl of home made tomato sauce.

Due to its appearance, size, shape, and texture, the Jet Star Tomato truly makes an ideal slicer tomato. It can be enjoyed raw on sandwiches, burgers, or cubed on salads. Its mild flavor can entice even reluctant tomato fans to try it as a base of tomato juice or in certain beverages.

You can also dice these tomatoes for salsa, fruit and veggie trays, and other delicious raw dishes.

Some debate has raged about the versatility of Jet Star Tomatoes when it comes to canning. Some find them a perfect canned tomato, while others argue their flavor is too low in acidity and too mild to hold up well to the canning process.

There are a couple of ways to skirt this problem and enjoy your canned Jet Star Tomatoes. One is to allow them to ripen longer before harvesting and canning, to let the body of flavor fully round out. The other is to can with a bit of lemon juice in the mix to raise the acidity levels.


Health Benefits

There are plenty of health benefits to consuming Jet Star Tomatoes regularly! This bright red tomato is just bursting with levels of lycopene, an antioxidant compound that does wonders for the body.

Lycopene can help reduce inflammation throughout your body, boost your immune system, and balance your cholesterol levels. Other vitamins and nutrients in Jet Star Tomatoes help with the overall health of your eyesight, heart, lungs, teeth, and skin.


Growing At Home

Ripening Tomatoes

Due to all the characteristics, we’ve covered and many more, the Jet Star Tomato has lunged up the ladder in home gardening popularity over recent years. It’s perfect for growing at home, no matter how experienced you are with tomato horticulture.

In addition to its resistance and tolerance traits, the Jet Star Tomato is also a highly prolific grower, producing bumper crops up to a week earlier than many of its contemporaries. This makes it beloved among gardeners looking for an early and long-lasting seasonal crop.

Preparing and Planting

Jet Star Tomato plants will thrive their absolute best in direct sunlight for a minimum of 6 hours a day. You may want to invest in a stake, trellis, or tomato cage to help support them to their full potential. Be sure to wait for the final threat of frost to pass in your area before you start growing your tomatoes!

This variety can do well in many types of soil, but to maximize fruit growth, you will want to compost with organic matter. You can use well-rotted cow manure, or make a compost blend, including crushed eggshells, to help boost your plant’s growth.

As with many tomato varieties, you can start your Jet Star Tomato seeds indoors early in order to capitalize on the growing season. Once you estimate the final frost threat in your area, plan to begin your seeds indoors about 4 to 6 weeks prior.

Once the soil temperature in your area has reached a steady 60 degrees or above, it’s time to transplant your Jet Star plants! You will want to sow them about ¼ to ½ inch deep, spaced roughly 24 to 36 inches apart, in your composted soil.

Caring and Maintaining

Keep your Jet Star Tomato plants watered but not oversaturated. Often they do fine with just regular rain, but in especially hot or dry conditions, supplementing may be necessary.

You can measure the dampness of the soil by pushing a finger into the ground up to between the first and second knuckle. If the soil is dry at the tip of your finger, it’s time to water!

Jet Star Tomato plants reach maturity within 72 days and will produce a vigorous, bumper crop when well cared for. If you are planning to can your harvest, be sure to leave the fruits on the vine a bit longer than you would for raw consumption, letting them ripen as much as possible.

Giving your tomatoes this extra time on the vine will fully round out the milder flavor of these particular fruits, ensuring their taste is optimized for being canned.


Where To Buy Jet Star Tomato Seeds

How to Harvest Tomato Seeds

Jet Star Tomato seeds are becoming more accessible all the time as their popularity continues to skyrocket. For sourcing your seeds online, we recommend True Leaf Market’s reliable seeds.


Wrapping Up the Jet Star Tomato

It’s hard not to get excited about the amazing qualities of the Jet Star Tomato, isn’t it? Before you jump into growing this amazing variety, be sure to check out our Tomato Plants page! This resource will equip you with all the knowledge you need to care for your plants well and help them thrive!