A big tomato harvest cooks down to fewer jars than you might expect, and thicker products take the most fruit. Enter the pounds of tomatoes you have and the product you want to make to see how many quarts and pints it yields.
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What Your Result Means: the jars are an approximate yield from your pounds of ripe tomatoes. Thicker products like sauce and paste cook down more and give fewer jars. Paste is reported in half-pints, the only jar size tested for it. For safe shelf storage, always follow a tested canning recipe for that exact product.
How Many Jars from My Tomato Harvest?
It depends on the product. Whole and crushed tomatoes take about 3 pounds a quart, thin sauce about 5 pounds, and thick sauce about 6.5 pounds. Paste is canned only in half-pint jars. Enter your pounds and product, and the tool returns the quarts and pints (or half-pints for paste) you can expect.
- Weigh Your Tomatoes, the ripe fruit you plan to can.
- Pick the Product, whole, crushed, juice, sauce, or paste.
- Read the Yield, in quarts and pints, then follow a tested recipe.
What Each Result Means
| Result | What It Tells You |
|---|---|
| Quarts | Approximate quart jars from your fruit |
| Pints | The same yield as pint jars |
| Pounds per quart | The rate used for that product |
| Half-pints and citric acid | For paste only: jars and the batch acid in the tested recipe |
Pounds per Quart
Roughly how many pounds of fresh tomatoes each quart takes, from National Center for Home Food Preservation (NCHFP) figures. Thicker products need more.
| Product | Pounds per Quart | Per Canner Load (7 qt) |
|---|---|---|
| Whole or halved | about 3 lb | about 21 lb |
| Crushed | about 3.1 lb (bushel average 2¾ lb) | about 22 lb |
| Juice | about 3.25 lb | about 23 lb |
| Thin sauce | about 5 lb | about 35 lb |
| Thick sauce | about 6.5 lb | about 46 lb |
| Paste | about 14 lb for 8 to 9 half-pints (half-pint jars only) | not canned in quarts |
How Does the Yield Math Work?
Each product has a pounds-per-quart rate based on how much it cooks down. The tool divides your pounds by that rate to get quarts, then doubles it for pints. Paste is the exception: the tested recipe turns 14 pounds into about 8 to 9 half-pints, so the tool reports half-pints and the citric acid for the batch instead.
Pints = quarts x 2
Pounds per quart: whole 3, crushed 3.1, juice 3.25, thin sauce 5, thick sauce 6.5
Paste half-pints = pounds divided by 14, x 8.5
Paste citric acid = pounds divided by 14, in teaspoons, stirred into the sieved pulp
A canner load is 7 quarts or 9 pints
Whole and crushed pack close to fresh weight, while sauce and paste lose most of their water to cooking, which is why they take several times as much fruit.
Worked Example
Say you picked 21 pounds of tomatoes for crushed canning. At about 3.1 pounds per quart, that is roughly 6.8 quarts, or about 14 pints, just under a 7-quart canner load. The same 21 pounds made into thin sauce would yield only about 4.2 quarts, and about 3.2 quarts as thick sauce.
Factors That Change the Yield
- How thick you cook it: a thicker sauce or paste reduces more and yields fewer jars.
- Variety: meaty paste tomatoes have less water and give more product per pound.
- Peeling and coring: removing skins, cores, and bad spots lowers the usable weight.
- Seeding and straining: straining for a smooth product removes weight and reduces yield.
- Jar size and headspace: packing and headspace shift the exact jar count slightly.
Understanding Your Outputs
| Output | Meaning | Best Used For |
|---|---|---|
| Quarts | Quart jars from your fruit | Planning a canner batch |
| Pints | Same yield as pints | Choosing jar sizes |
| Pounds per quart | Product rate | Comparing products |
When to Use It
Use it on a canning day to plan jars and lids, or when deciding which product to make from a big pick. Pair it with the sauce calculator to work backward from a target, and the measurement converter.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Underbuying jars: know your yield before you start so you have enough jars and lids.
- Treating sauce like crushed: sauce needs far more fruit per jar than crushed or whole.
- Ignoring waste: peeling, coring, and straining cut the usable weight.
- Improvising a recipe: for shelf storage, follow a tested recipe for safe acidity and processing.
- Skipping acidification: tomatoes need added acid for safe water-bath canning per tested recipes.
Accuracy and Limitations
These are typical yields, not exact figures for your batch.
What It Calculates: approximate quarts and pints from your pounds and product.
What It Does Not Account For: your variety, thickness, waste, and packing. For safety, always follow a tested recipe for the exact product.
Methodology
Method: pounds of tomatoes are divided by a pounds-per-quart rate for the product to give quarts, doubled for pints. Inputs Used: pounds of tomatoes and product type. Rates per quart (NCHFP): whole 3 lb (21 lb per 7 quarts), crushed about 3.1 lb (22 lb per 7 quarts; the NCHFP bushel average is 2¾ lb), juice 3.25 lb (23 lb per 7 quarts), thin sauce 5 lb (35 lb per 7 quarts), thick sauce 6.5 lb (46 lb per 7 quarts). Paste: the tested NCHFP recipe uses 14 pounds of paste tomatoes for about 8 to 9 half-pints, in half-pint jars only, with 1 teaspoon of citric acid stirred into the sieved pulp before cooking down, so the tool reports half-pints and the batch citric acid. Reference: a canner load is 7 quarts or 9 pints. Rounding: quarts and canner loads to one decimal; pints and half-pints to the nearest jar; citric acid to one decimal. Note: yields vary with variety, thickness, and waste; always follow a tested canning recipe.
Sources: National Center for Home Food Preservation – Canning Tomatoes, NCHFP – Standard Tomato Sauce, NCHFP – Tomato Paste, The Old Farmer’s Almanac – Tomatoes, USDA FoodData Central. Last reviewed: September 26, 2026 · Reviewed by Aiza Anwar.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many pounds of tomatoes for a quart of canned tomatoes?
About 3 pounds for whole or crushed, about 3.25 pounds for juice, about 5 pounds for thin sauce, and about 6.5 pounds for thick sauce. Paste is not canned in quarts; the tested recipe uses about 14 pounds for 8 to 9 half-pints.
How many tomatoes for 7 quarts, a canner load?
About 21 pounds for whole, 22 for crushed, 23 for juice, 35 for thin sauce, and 46 for thick sauce. Paste is canned only in half-pints, not in quart canner loads.
How many jars will a bushel of tomatoes make?
A bushel is about 53 pounds, which yields about 15 to 21 quarts of whole tomatoes, 17 to 20 quarts of crushed, 10 to 12 quarts of thin sauce, or 7 to 9 quarts of thick sauce.
How much sauce does 20 pounds of tomatoes make?
About 4 quarts of thin sauce at roughly 5 pounds a quart, or about 3 quarts of thick sauce at 6.5 pounds a quart, a little less if you strain out skins and seeds.
Do I need paste tomatoes for canning?
They help for sauce and paste, since their lower water content means less cooking and more yield. Any ripe, sound tomato works for whole, crushed, and juice.
How many pounds of tomatoes for a pint?
About half the per-quart amount: roughly 1.5 pounds for whole or crushed, about 2.5 pounds for thin sauce, and about 3 pounds for thick sauce.
Can I safely can my own tomato sauce?
Yes, with a tested recipe. Tomatoes need correct acidification and processing time. Follow the National Center for Home Food Preservation guidance for the exact product.
Why does canning take so many tomatoes?
Tomatoes are mostly water. Whole and crushed pack near fresh weight, but sauce and paste lose most of that water to cooking, so they take several times as much fruit per jar.
How do I reduce waste when canning tomatoes?
Use ripe, sound fruit, trim only what you must, and consider crushed or whole packs that keep skins-off waste low. Straining for smooth sauce removes the most weight.
Related Tomato Tools
Start from a Target with the Sauce Calculator
This calculator gives approximate canning yields. Variety, thickness, and waste change the real jar count. For safe shelf storage, always follow a tested recipe for the exact product, including acidification and processing. Spotted an error? Tell us here.