Early Girl vs Better Boy
Early harvest or bigger fruit? The classic home-garden trade-off.
| Early Girl | Better Boy | |
|---|---|---|
| Breeding | F1 hybrid | F1 hybrid |
| Growth habit | Indeterminate | Indeterminate |
| Days to maturity | 57-60 | 70-75 |
| Fruit color | red | red |
| Fruit size class | medium | large |
| Typical weight | 4-6 oz | 10-16 oz |
| Primary uses | slicing | slicing |
| Introduced | - | - |
| Documented resistances | 2 | 3 |
| Saves true from seed | No (F1) | No (F1) |
Disease resistance
Early Girl
Verticillium WiltV · resistant
Fusarium Wilt of TomatoFF · resistant
Better Boy
Verticillium WiltV · resistant
Fusarium Wilt of TomatoF · resistant
Root-Knot NematodeN · resistant
Traits
Both: F1 Hybrid, Indeterminate, Red, Medium Slicer, Slicing
Only Early Girl
- Early Season
Only Better Boy
- Mid Season
Origins
Early Girl
The early-season standard since the 1970s, introduced to America through Burpee. Famous twice over: as the first ripe tomato in millions of gardens, and as the dry-farmed signature crop of Northern California market farms.
Better Boy
The best-selling garden tomato in America for decades: the successor to Big Boy with a full VFN resistance package, from the Petoseed breeding lineage. A Guinness record for single-plant yield was set with it.
More: all comparisons · every tomato variety · filter the full database
Sources & References
Evidence: 4 sources, including 2 independent references.
- Burpee catalog · W. Atlee Burpee & Co., Seed Catalog
- Tomato Growers Supply catalog · Tomato Growers Supply Company, Seed Catalog
- Vegetable Varieties for Gardeners · Cornell University Cooperative Extension, University or Government
- Vegetable MD Online · Cornell University, Plant Pathology, University or Government