Running Variety Trials When I first started farming, I use to do a lot of trials using many different varieties of a certain vegetables. I have grown around three hundred different varieties of heirloom tomatoes, to come to find the best dozen, for our specific situation growing for the restaurant. When you are first starting out, you should make a point of growing several varieties at once to see how they respond to your specific climate, soil type, pest and disease issues. Some varieties that other people rave about, have not done well here, and vise versa.