Determinate vs. Indeterminate

**Rick** · 01-08-2014, 09:25 AM

I know many of you are starting your gardens indoors and some are new at the gardening game so I thought I'd offer you a couple of terms you may not be familiar with in regards to tomatoes.

A determinate tomato is also called a bush tomato. They generally grow to about 4 feet and don't have to be staked. The plant stops growing when it fruits from it's top most or terminal bud, it ripens all it's fruit and once and then dies. Why would you want a plant like that? Well, since it harvests at once it's much easier to can tomatoes when the crop is ready at one time. If you have a short growing season this might be a very good choice. These guys should not be suckered (pruning the stems that form in the axil between leaves and main plant) since this will drastically reduce the crop the plant can produce. Some common determinate varieties are: Patio, Heat Wave, Roma, Celebrity and Rutgers.

An indeterminate tomato is sometimes called a vining tomato. They can grow to 10 feet tall but generally achieve about 6 feet. They must be caged or staked and whether you sucker the plant or not is up to you. They grow and produce until frost kills the plant. You will usually have blooms, set fruit and ripe fruit all on the plant at the same time. Why grow these? You can pick tomatoes in smaller numbers throughout the growing season. Dandies for salads, hamburgers are just for eating. Some common varieties are: Early Girl, Champion, Jet Star, Better Boy, Big Boy, Mortgage Lifter and Brandywine. There are far more indeterminate varieties than determinate.

There is also a variety called semi-determinate. There aren't very many varieties. They were bred to have the best of both worlds. They are shorter than indeterminate but grow all year. About the only one I can think of is: Heartland although I'm sure there are others.

Knowing what you want from your tomatoes (bountiful crop all at once or tomatoes throughout the season) and matching your expectations to the proper tomato variety will ensure you have the crop you want.

**natertot** · 01-08-2014, 10:13 AM

Very good info! Thanks Rick.

**Winnie** · 01-08-2014, 05:57 PM

I generally grow a lot of bush and then a few vine tomatoes. The bush fruit are generally all ready together, making it easy to preserve in bulk, whilst the vine tomatoes provide a few at a time for the table.
I won't be starting mine off for another couple of months.

**Rick** · 01-08-2014, 07:34 PM

Here is another bit of information that might help you. Most tomato plants will list any diseases they are resistant to. Unfortunately, the diseases are generally listed as a code. Unless you know that code it's sort of hard to know which plant variety to pick out. Well, here's the list:

V – Verticillium Wilt
F – Fusarium Wilt ( two F’s indicate resistance to both races 1 and 2 )
N – Nematodes
A – Alternaria Stem Canker
T – Tobacco Mosaic Virus
St – Stemphylium ( gray leaf spot )
SWV – Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus
LB – Late Blight

If a particular plant is listed as VFN then it means the plant is resistant to Verticillium Wilt, Fusarium Wilt and Nematodes. Do a little research and find out which diseases are historically a problem in your area then choose a plant that is resistant to those diseases. A good source of information is your County Extension Service.

If a plant has no disease code then it has not be bread to be disease resistant or it is resistant to a less common ailment.

I'll let you research the diseases on your own if you wish.

Just to show you some real life examples here's a link to Gurney's tomato page. You can see one example is Zebra Cherry (VFF) Hybrid Tomato:

http://www.gurneys.com/category/Tomatoes

Here is a link from Cornell University to virtually every variety of tomato as well as any diseases they are resistant to:

http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.corne...matoTable.html

**crashdive123** · 01-08-2014, 08:42 PM

I picked a few tomatoes a couple of days ago before our first hard freeze. Not quite ripe, but fried they'll be just fine.

**Solar Geek** · 01-09-2014, 02:16 AM

Oh Rick you have made me long for warm days. Instead, I am returning to the frozen tundra of WI after being away for the really cold days.
Cannot wait to grow stuff in my new gardens!

**finallyME** · 01-09-2014, 11:39 AM

I thought this was going to be about structures or beams.

Rick, I didn't know any of that...thanks. One thing that has proven difficult for me to grow is tomatoes. I haven't had any luck with them so far.

**Rick** · 01-09-2014, 12:37 PM

If you purchase plants at the Whatever Store choose smaller plants that look healthy. Buying large plants that have smaller roots will ensure the plant spends a lot of time growing roots but not growing vines or producing fruit.

When you plant your tomatoes, plant the all the way to the first set of leaves. The nodules on the stem will produce roots so placing as much of the plant in the ground as possible will give you a strong root base for the plant.

Choose the correct variety (see above) for what and when you want to harvest. Don't sucker the bush variety (determinate) or you won't have any fruit.

Choose a variety that is naturally disease resistant for your location.

Water the tomatoes once a week. Soak the ground not the leaves. About 1 inch of water is fine.

Here's an article I did on blossom end rot last year.

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...hlight=blossom

Following those rules won't guarantee a bounty of maters but it will go a long way in ensuring you have a nice crop.

**finallyME** · 01-10-2014, 01:18 PM

I do your #1 and #2. Will try #3 and #4. I always watered every day. Only once a week?

**Rick** · 01-10-2014, 01:49 PM

Read my link on blossom end rot and why too much water is a bad thing. It's the link in post 8. You only need about 1 inch to 1.5 inches per week. If it rains that week and you received 3/4 inch of rain then you only need to add 1/4 to 3/4 inch by hose or drip system. Mulch, of course, so the water doesn't evaporate through the surface of the soil.

**Tootsiepop254** · 02-10-2014, 11:47 PM

What are the brown spots on the tomatoes called?

Sent from my N861 using Tapatalk

**Rick** · 02-11-2014, 06:48 AM

Outside of blossom rot it could be one of dozens of problems. Cornell University offers a pretty good tomato disease guide.

http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.corne...TomFrtKey.html