"Determinate" varieties questions...

[Duh_Vinci]

Hello all!

This is my first time growing tomatoes, most of them are indeterminate heirlooms I grew from seeds. Next year I would like to grow few determinate varieties as well in the isolated area, so I have few questions:

Best tasting determinate tomatoes for early, mid and late season you could recommend? Semideterminates would be ok too, but looking for height under 6'

Pruning determinates, same way as indeterminate varieties (limiting the number of stems, pinching the suckers), or is it different?

Many thanks in advance!

Regards,
D
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2009 Garden Album... Garden Blog

[TZ -OH6]

Because the flower clusters on determinants teminate growth on the branches you do not ever want to prune them. Any pruning you do reduces production. another way to say it is that a determinate might be geneticaly programmed to produce a maximum of 50 fruit on ten branches. If you prune it down to two stems you will only get ten fruit no matter how long you let the plant grow.

What are you going to be using them for? Most people grow determinants for canning/sauce, which is a very different flavor than for a fresh eating tomato. There are also some yellow and green varieties.

[Duh_Vinci]

Thank you very much for the explanation on pruning, much appreciated, makes perfect sense!

Why am I considering few determinate plants? Some for canning and fresh made sauce indeed, such as Cream Sausage and Grushovka.

At the same time, I want to have some smaller size plants on my back deck that gets good 11 hours of sun per day. Just really trying to avoid 8 footers there, looking for tasty compact productive plants instead.

This is what I have considered for eating crops for the deck so far, here is what I have considered:

**Southern Night (black determinate Ukranian tomato), said to do well in hot climate...
**Orange Russian Persimmon (4' tall plant I can definitely deal with)
**Belii Nalive (short indeterminate Russian heirloom)
**Amber Colored (Russian yellow/orange heirloom)

So please, please, if you are familiar with any of these varieties, share your experience!

Regards,
D
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2009 Garden Album... Garden Blog