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Ct

I ordered some seeds from totallytomatoes. In browsing through the catalogue, at the end of every tomato description it says either "Determinate" or "Indeterminate". What does that mean??

3/4/2010 10:59:33 AM

Cincinnati,OH

Determinate plants will set alot of fruit at once and quit vining.
Indeterminate will keep setting fruit and new vines season long

3/4/2010 7:22:03 PM

Sacramento, Ca

Determinate=plants fruits once then nada. Indeterminate= plant fruits until first frost.

3/4/2010 7:23:33 PM

Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

Determinant=plant grows medium size, 'squats', sets fruit, and all of it ripens in 4-6 weeks, pretty much all at once. When it's done with that, it's done. Best to cage these... Roma do this. After the harvest, clean out the plant; they won't do much more.

Semi-determinant=will give you a longer season, easing into it with some teasers, one main blurp of fruit, and a few to finish off. Taller plant, may need trellis or staking.

Indeterminant=starts producing and keeps producing until frost. Plants can get very big and usually need staking. Usually come in mid to late July and keep going to frost. Usually starts lower fruit setting and moves up the plant.
A lot of cherry tomato types are like this.

Delicious and some of the big beefsteaks grow like this but are determinant.

3/4/2010 8:22:49 PM

Ct

Great thanks for clearing that up for me!

3/5/2010 3:59:01 PM

Ct

totally tomatoes certainly has a huge variety of seeds. I didn't know so many varieties even existed. Peppers too. I got some big zac seeds and a variety called "homesweet" that looked pretty good. They also sent me a free pack of seeds "red alert". I'm curious to see how these lesser known varieties hold up to diseases.

3/5/2010 4:01:25 PM