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Napoli is a determinate Italian paste tomato that delivers heavy yields of deep red, pear-shaped fruit in 70-75 days from transplant (some sources report 60-69 days). Each tomato weighs around 3 ounces, making them perfectly sized for sauces, purees, and canning. This open-pollinated variety combines the reliability of a classic Italian heirloom with impressive disease resistance, thriving in gardens, raised beds, and containers alike.
Full Sun
Moderate
2-11
60in H x ?in W
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High
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The real draw here is the combination of productivity and purpose. Napoli produces abundantly with minimal fuss, and its thick, meaty flesh and low seed count make it exceptionally efficient for cooking down into rich sauces and purees. The deep red color signals full ripeness and flavor development. Its determinate habit means you'll get a concentrated harvest window rather than fruit trickling in all season, which is exactly what home canners and sauce makers want.
Napoli excels as a sauce and paste tomato. The thick, meaty flesh with relatively few seeds makes it ideal for reducing down into concentrated pasta sauces, marinara, and passata. It's equally valuable for canning and preserving, whether as whole peeled tomatoes, purees, or concentrated tomato paste. The determinate growth habit and simultaneous ripening make it efficient for large-scale home processing, though a few plants will supply more than enough fruit for a household's annual sauce needs.
No timeline data available yet for this variety.
Start seeds indoors 6-8 weeks before your last spring frost. Sow seeds 1/4 inch deep in seed-starting mix, keep soil consistently moist and warm (70-75°F), and provide bright light once seedlings emerge. Napoli typically reaches transplant size (2-3 true leaves) in 4-6 weeks.
Transplant seedlings outdoors after the last frost date when soil has warmed to at least 60°F, ideally 65-70°F. Harden off seedlings over 7-10 days by gradually exposing them to outdoor light and wind. Space plants 24 inches apart in rows 36 inches apart. Bury the stem deeper than it grew in its pot to encourage additional root development.
Harvest Napoli tomatoes 70-75 days after transplanting when they reach their full deep red color and yield slightly to gentle thumb pressure. For sauce and paste production, you can harvest at the peak of ripeness or even when fully red but still slightly firm, depending on your processing timeline. The concentrated ripening period typical of determinate varieties means most fruit will mature within 1-2 weeks, allowing efficient harvesting and processing.
As a determinate variety, Napoli grows to a defined final height (48-60 inches) and doesn't require aggressive pruning. However, removing lower leaves once the plant is established improves air circulation and reduces fungal disease pressure. Pinch out suckers (the shoots that form between main stems and branches) early in the season if you want to encourage a more compact shape, though this is optional for determinate types.
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“Napoli carries the lineage of Italian paste tomato traditions, where generations of growers across southern Italy selected for plants that produced reliable yields of dense, flavorful fruit suited to processing. As an open-pollinated variety, it represents the kind of tomato that home gardeners and small farmers have saved and replanted for decades, preserving the genetic diversity that commercial breeding often abandons. Its arrival in seed catalogs reflects the growing movement to restore heirloom and heritage varieties to home gardens.”