On Wed, 11 May 2011 16:11:44 -0700, Sue wrote:

I am really late getting my garden in this year and finally have the
ground prepared. Whatever tomatoes I planted last year just didn't do
well for canning purposes. I'm not starting from seeds and get my
plants at Lowe's or Home Depot. Any suggestion on a good variety to can
(that I would find at either of those two stores)? My garden is *very*
small so I can't put in too many plants. Sue in the San Joaquin Valley
of Calif.

This is an unconventional answer because it's a cherry tomato, but the Sun
Gold makes incredible sauce. The Sun Gold is terrific eating tomato, the
sweetest of any tomato that I've eaten. It's also an extremely prolific
plant, they start producing early and they continue to produce for months
so you'll have more tomatoes that you'll know what to do with. I made
about 5 gallons of sauce from them last year which I'm still eating. I
freeze my sauce, I don't can so I'm not sure how well it will work for
that, but for frozen sauce they're great.

As an aside, don't buy your plants from a big box store, buy them from a
local nursery. The big box stores don't carry interesting varieties, a
good nursery will have many more choices including heirlooms, and the
plants will be better adapted to local conditions. The plants will also be
healthier, the big box stores wiped out the entire New England tomato crop
a couple of years ago by selling plants that were infected with late
blight.