- Heirloom
- Paste
- 85 (estimated) days to maturity (from transplant)
- Indeterminate
- Red
Jersey Devil
Heirloom paste from USA. Long tapering paste tomato, nearly seedless and dense enough to barely need reducing. Ready in about 85 days from transplant.
Single source · Updated Sep 9, 2026 · Values marked like this (estimated) are estimates.
At a glance
- Fruit type
- Paste 5–7 oz (140–200 g) · Elongated (estimated)
- Leaf type
- Regular leaf
- Days to harvest
- 85 days (estimated) from transplant · Mid-late
- Plant height
- 6–8 ft (180–240 cm) (estimated) Tall
- Spacing
- 24 × 35 in (60 × 90 cm) (estimated)
- Sunlight
- Full sun
- Position
- Handles open positions
- Growing sites
- Greenhouse · Polytunnel · Open ground
- Container growing
- Not suited to pots
- Difficulty
- Challenging (estimated) 4/5
- Skin
-
- Red
- Interior
-
- Red
Plant size and habit
Tall · Indeterminate
6–8 ft (180–240 cm) (estimated) · Regular leaf
Jersey Devil is an indeterminate plant that keeps growing and setting fruit until frost; it needs a stake, cage, or trellis for the whole season. Expect a plant of 6–8 ft (180–240 cm).
Flavor
“Long tapering paste tomato, nearly seedless and dense enough to barely need reducing.”
Growing calendar
85 (estimated) days from transplant Mid-late
Timing shown for temperate climates; sow indoors 6–8 (estimated) weeks before your last frost date. Look up your last frost date by ZIP code →
Disease resistance
No documented disease resistances — protect this variety with good airflow and crop rotation.
Uses & tags
- Slicing
- Sauce & paste
- Canning
- Drying
- Roasting
- Sauce workhorse
- Heirloom classic
- High flavor
Origin
Jersey Devil is an old American variety (Seed Savers Exchange listing #1530). It produces long, tapering, banana-shaped fruit with almost no seed cavity and flesh dense enough that it cooks down with very little reduction. The shape is distinctive enough that it is usually recognisable in a photograph without a label.
Sources
Where to buy seeds
Prices rechecked dailyAll photos
Questions
How do you grow a Jersey Devil plant?
A Jersey Devil plant grows 6–8 ft (180–240 cm) tall (estimated). Space plants 24 in (60 cm) apart in rows 35 in (90 cm) apart (estimated). Start seed indoors 6–8 weeks before your last frost (estimated); it germinates in 7–14 days (estimated). It needs full sun.
How long does Jersey Devil take to mature?
Jersey Devil is ready in about 85 days from transplant.
Does Jersey Devil need staking?
Jersey Devil is an indeterminate plant that keeps growing and setting fruit until frost; it needs a stake, cage, or trellis for the whole season. Expect a plant of 6–8 ft (180–240 cm).
Can Jersey Devil be grown in a container?
Jersey Devil is better suited to open ground or a greenhouse bed than a container.
Is Jersey Devil resistant to disease?
No disease resistance is documented for Jersey Devil.
