My fave fruit/vedge thing to grow is toms! I dont even eat them but i love the reward and production of fruit and like all the different varieties they come in. Giving them away for free to people is a bonus to me. Well what i would like to know is....can you have a type of tomato that comes in determinate and in-determinate varieties? I bought some Rio Grande tom seeds the other day and i always look up the general characteristics on the web at home when i get back but i was reading was that this is a determinate variety where as the seed pack says in-determinate on it? Do they offer both types for only some types of tomatoes? Is this a genetically modified process through breeding and changing a plants original type? Do only some types of toms allow this? Is this labeled wrong on the pack? I've never seen in-determinate Roma's sold.....would this be a possibility? thanks for any replies.. G_N
We plant Celebrities, which are a determinate tomato. However, after cutting the vines back by a half to a third in summer after they stop production (heat, you know) and keeping the vines alive, I get another crop in October. This would be a case of a tomato variety having the characteristics of both determinate and indeterminate. I don't know if a variety comes in both types, so the gardener can choose which he/she wants.
wow i didnt know that determinate toms could ever have multiple crops....i wonder how that happens? Wondering if its your variety or can any determinate do this. Maybe its something to do with the stress of a plant? I might try this with a Roma this season and see what happens.. Also i guess i will see when i grow my pack of Rio Grande's how they actually grow without messing with them too much and see if they are determinate or in-determinate. Will be interesting for me to see.. Thanks for the reply...
A true "determinate" tomato makes one good big set of fruit and is then pretty much shot. This is why mechanical harvesters like tomato with determinate traits. The however, for true determinate tomatoes, simply most aren't that yummy. Most commercial growers are growing a hybrid (often with Roma's for example, a stable hybrid) What should more properly be called a 'reduced internode length semi determinate' tomato. Some of the Roma. traveler, mobil, rutgers might be what you're seeking. The first fruit set will be the biggest (which makes mechanical harveters happy), and there are progresively smaller fruit sets, that let the plant size stay closer to what a tomato cage will hold. And as a result some home gardeners be happy too. FWIW there are smaller indeteminate tomato plants that just don't grow that big which may do for cage training home gardeners. I amvery partial to Tibet Appel for cages. I'm sure your county extension can suggest more.
