Near Vancouver, Environment and Climate Change Canada’s 1981-2010 normals put the mean last spring frost at March 18 and the mean first fall frost at November 10, an average window of about 237 days. That figure is a midpoint, not a guarantee, so treat it as the center of a range rather than a safe date on the calendar. The working answer is that anything up to about 78 days from transplant, set out in early April, ripens with real margin to spare. Check the days-to-maturity printed on the packet against that transplant window before you order seed.
What this comes down to in British Columbia
Near Vancouver, the mean last spring frost falls on March 18 and the mean first fall frost on November 10, both figures from Environment and Climate Change Canada’s 1981-2010 climate normals for the Vancouver Int’l A station. That gives an average frost-free stretch of about 237 days, but it’s a mean date, not a probability band: in roughly half of all years the last frost lands later than March 18, which is why gardeners across the province wait several weeks past that date before setting out transplants. Because tomatoes go into the ground as started plants rather than direct-sown seed, the real question is not how many frost-free days exist on paper, but which cultivar finishes with enough margin to absorb a slow spring or a wet, cool August. Every variety named below, set out in early April, finishes well inside that window even allowing for a late frost or a sluggish summer, though the margin narrows fast as days-to-maturity climbs past 70.
Sakura
Sakura is a cherry tomato at about 55 days from transplant, small, round and borne heavily on an indeterminate vine. Set out in early April, it typically gives its first ripe fruit in late May, leaving roughly 168 days of margin before the mean November 10 frost at Vancouver. It resists nematodes, tomato mosaic virus and two races of fusarium wilt, a useful combination in a bed that has carried tomatoes before.
Sun Gold
Sun Gold is a gold-orange cherry tomato, glossy and sweet, ready in about 57 days from transplant. Following the same early-April transplant timing, it ripens its first fruit in late May with about 166 days of margin before frost. It carries resistance to tobacco mosaic virus and one race of fusarium wilt, and the indeterminate vine keeps setting fruit until the fall weather finally shuts it down.
Juliet
Juliet is a grape tomato, oblong and deep red, produced in long hanging clusters, at about 60 days from transplant. An early-April transplant ripens by late May, with about 163 days of margin before the November frost. It carries intermediate resistance to both late blight and early blight, worth having in a coastal climate where damp weeks late in the season favor both diseases.
Amalfi
Amalfi is a paste tomato on a compact, bushy determinate plant, red and blocky, at about 68 days from transplant. Set out in early April, it ripens in early June with about 155 days of margin before frost. Its intermediate resistance to late blight, early blight and nematodes makes it a solid choice for canning tomatoes grown in a bed with a history of soil-borne trouble.
Cherokee Purple
Cherokee Purple is a large heirloom slicer, dusky pink-purple with darker shoulders, at about 72 days from transplant. An early-April transplant ripens by mid-June, leaving about 151 days before the mean fall frost, comfortable margin even for a variety with no listed disease resistance. Because it carries none, bed rotation and airflow around the plant matter more here than they do with the hybrids on this list.
Big Beef Plus
Big Beef Plus is a large red beefsteak slicer on a tall indeterminate vine, at about 72 days from transplant. It ripens in mid-June from an early-April start, with about 151 days of margin before frost, and adds resistance to nematodes, gray leaf spot and tomato mosaic virus that Cherokee Purple lacks.
Tiren
Tiren is a red plum-type paste tomato on a tall indeterminate vine, at about 75 days from transplant. Set out in early April, it ripens in mid-June with about 148 days of margin before frost, and resists verticillium wilt, tomato mosaic virus and one race of fusarium wilt.
San Marzano II
San Marzano II is a long, narrow paste tomato on a tall indeterminate vine, the longest season on this list at about 78 days from transplant. It still ripens by mid-June from an early-April transplant, with about 145 days of margin before the mean November 10 frost, but that margin is the thinnest of any variety here, which makes it the first one to reconsider if your garden sits in a cold pocket that runs frost weeks behind Vancouver.
| Variety | Days from transplant | Plant type | First ripe (early-April transplant) | Margin before Vancouver’s mean frost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sakura | 55 | Indeterminate | Late May | ~168 days |
| Sun Gold | 57 | Indeterminate | Late May | ~166 days |
| Juliet | 60 | Indeterminate | Late May | ~163 days |
| Amalfi | 68 | Determinate | Early June | ~155 days |
| Cherokee Purple | 72 | Indeterminate | Mid-June | ~151 days |
| Big Beef Plus | 72 | Indeterminate | Mid-June | ~151 days |
| Tiren | 75 | Indeterminate | Mid-June | ~148 days |
| San Marzano II | 78 | Indeterminate | Mid-June | ~145 days |
Working it out for your own garden
The arithmetic behind every date above is simple, but it only holds if you start from the right frost figure for your own garden. Environment and Climate Change Canada’s 1981-2010 normals put the mean last spring frost at Vancouver at March 18, and because that’s a mean rather than a safe cutoff, growers there commonly wait past it before setting tomato transplants out, since seedlings die at temperatures well above freezing. Add the catalogue days-to-maturity to that transplant window and you get a ripening range, never a single day: early April plus 55 to 60 days gives late May, not a specific date in that range.
A worked example, short season and long
Take Sakura first. Its packet lists 55 days from transplant. An early-April transplant near Vancouver puts first ripe fruit in late May, and counting forward to the mean November 10 fall frost leaves about 168 days of slack, enough to absorb a cool August or a transplant date that slips by a week or two.
Now run the same math on San Marzano II, at 78 days from transplant. Even from an early-April start it only pushes first ripe fruit to mid-June, still comfortably inside the window measured at Vancouver, with about 145 days left before frost. The margin is real, but it is the thinnest on this list, and in a garden that sits weeks behind Vancouver’s frost timing, such as a higher-elevation valley or an interior pocket with a shorter frost-free season, that same 78-day variety could push its harvest hard against the first fall frost instead of finishing with weeks to spare. That’s the difference a longer season makes: it doesn’t fail near Vancouver, but it carries far less room for a cold spring or a late transplant than Sakura or Sun Gold do.
For the planting-side version of this math, including how to handle a transplant date that has to move because of a cold snap, see Tomato Planting Dates in British Columbia: Counting Back From Your Frost Window, which works through the transplant date itself rather than the variety choice.
The mistakes this state punishes
The biggest mistake on a varieties page is choosing by flavor alone and skipping the season math. A long-season slicer picked because it tastes better on paper can still lose its last few weeks of ripening to an early fall frost in a cooler part of the province, even though the same variety finishes with margin to spare near Vancouver. Run the days-to-maturity against your own local frost window, not the Vancouver figure used throughout this article, before you order seed.
The second mistake is treating the mean last frost date as a safe planting date. March 18 is Environment and Climate Change Canada’s average for the Vancouver Int’l A station, which means the actual last frost falls later than that in roughly half of all years. Gardeners who set tomatoes out right at the mean, instead of waiting for the soil and the forecast to confirm it, lose seedlings to a frost that arrived exactly on the statistical schedule but late by the calendar they planted from.
The third is ignoring disease resistance in a climate that stays cool and damp into early summer. Coastal spring weather favors both early blight and late blight, and several varieties on this list, including Amalfi and Juliet, carry intermediate resistance to one or both. A variety with no resistance planted into a bed with a history of blight doesn’t show the mistake at transplant time. Watch for these signs starting mid-summer:
- Yellowing on the lowest leaves first, working upward
- Dark spots with concentric rings on older leaves, a sign of early blight
- Water-soaked, greasy-looking lesions on leaves or stems, a sign of late blight
By the time those symptoms show up in August, a plant that should still be loaded with fruit is instead dropping leaves from the bottom up.
Checking this against your county
Every date and margin in this article is anchored to the Vancouver Int’l A weather station, and British Columbia is too large and too mountainous for one station to stand in for the whole province. A garden on Vancouver Island’s south coast, in the Fraser Valley, or up in the Interior can run its frost dates weeks earlier or later than Vancouver’s, which shifts every ripening window worked out above. Confirm your own frost timing and get district-specific guidance through the growing tomatoes in British Columbia guide, and check the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture and Food’s resources at the province’s agriculture and seafood site before locking in a planting plan built on this page’s numbers.
Common questions
What’s the safest short-season tomato if my spring runs late?
Sakura, Edox, Valentine and Glacier all list about 55 days from transplant, the shortest on this catalogue. Even a transplant delayed by a week or two past early April still leaves well over 150 days of margin before the mean November frost at Vancouver.
Is San Marzano II too risky to grow in British Columbia?
Not near Vancouver, where it still finishes by mid-June with about 145 days to spare. In a colder pocket of the province that sits weeks behind Vancouver’s frost timing, it carries less cushion than the shorter-season cultivars on this list, so it’s worth checking your own district’s frost dates before committing a full row to it.
Do I need a disease-resistant variety if I’ve never had tomato problems?
Resistance is insurance, not a requirement. A bed with no history of blight or fusarium can grow Cherokee Purple, which carries none of the resistance codes on this list, without incident for years, but rotating tomato beds and keeping foliage dry still lowers the odds of trouble either way.
Which of these varieties works best in a container on a balcony?
The determinate varieties, Amalfi and Glacier among them, stay more compact than indeterminate vines like San Marzano II or Cherokee Purple, which makes them easier to manage in a large pot. Any of them still need a sizable container and full sun to ripen on the schedule described above.