I always plant indeterminate but this year with the early tomatoes from what I read the determinate will get bigger faster for the early! I have 4 early ones to plant.
Best Boy 70 days det. Oregon Spring 58 days det. Independence Day det 55 days! Early Pick hy indet 62 days. My late Heirloom Crimson Cushion 90 days ind. Any advice?
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applestar
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What kind of advice? What did you want to know?
If you are short on growing space, planting early determinates in between will create room for the late indeterminates when the earlies fruit and die off. Or plant a bed of early determinates and you'll have a bed opening up for planting a fall crop.
In the title you mention "Indeterminate early" -- the extra earlies -- they will need heavy feeding to keep on going, may need to rest during the hot summer (they tend to be cool setting) but will come back with more growth once the cooler weather comes back.
If you are short on growing space, planting early determinates in between will create room for the late indeterminates when the earlies fruit and die off. Or plant a bed of early determinates and you'll have a bed opening up for planting a fall crop.
In the title you mention "Indeterminate early" -- the extra earlies -- they will need heavy feeding to keep on going, may need to rest during the hot summer (they tend to be cool setting) but will come back with more growth once the cooler weather comes back.
Well first off, what you are growing are actually "reduced internode semi-determinate" tomatoes. They will tend to have a first and largest flush of fruit that mostly ripens at the same time. with a second and occasionally third much smaller flushs in the following weeks. This sort of a crop was breed for canneries and mechanical picking.Bobberman wrote:What is the time line on determinate! Will it produce for a month or all at once? How about the effect of blight on determinate?
The truck farmer takes the whole plant at the first crop.
Some times home canners grow them for cooked product.
You might also enjoy storage (Long Keeper), or pantry (Pienollo del Vesuvio) tomatoes. If yo have the space to handle them to their needs.
I was biased against determinates but now I don't think it was a reasonable way of thinking.
This area is challenging for tomatoes mostly because of a cool spring and continuing cool summer nights. Summer days can be plenty warm. Because of this weather, I don't grow 80 days-to-maturity varieties. They are all mid- or early-season varieties.
Gold Nugget, a determinate cherry tomato, is blazingly early! Then ... that's it. If I leave the plants, they will die in late summer. I've wondered if I could direct-sow the seeds and get ripe cherries rather than set out transplants. Bet I can ... but it would still be just one quick harvest.
Most paste tomatoes are determinates. In decades of growing tomatoes, I've had a paste variety exactly twice. Surplus tomatoes are cooked down for sauce in the fall. Often, they are the ones harvested green just before frost. Last year was one of those 2 years growing a paste. Sauce from those was delicious!
I've had a determinate beefsteak, Legend, in my garden for several years. Late blight isn't usually a problem here but Legend is supposed to be resistant. I believe it's a 70-day tomato, which is good for my garden. The temperatures will be cooling by the time the first Legend begins to ripen. It will have about a 3 week season, not really much shorter than something like a Big Beef. The first frost will put an end to their season. Legend can have lots of tomatoes on small plants. They are not with my favorites for flavor, however.
Steve
This area is challenging for tomatoes mostly because of a cool spring and continuing cool summer nights. Summer days can be plenty warm. Because of this weather, I don't grow 80 days-to-maturity varieties. They are all mid- or early-season varieties.
Gold Nugget, a determinate cherry tomato, is blazingly early! Then ... that's it. If I leave the plants, they will die in late summer. I've wondered if I could direct-sow the seeds and get ripe cherries rather than set out transplants. Bet I can ... but it would still be just one quick harvest.
Most paste tomatoes are determinates. In decades of growing tomatoes, I've had a paste variety exactly twice. Surplus tomatoes are cooked down for sauce in the fall. Often, they are the ones harvested green just before frost. Last year was one of those 2 years growing a paste. Sauce from those was delicious!
I've had a determinate beefsteak, Legend, in my garden for several years. Late blight isn't usually a problem here but Legend is supposed to be resistant. I believe it's a 70-day tomato, which is good for my garden. The temperatures will be cooling by the time the first Legend begins to ripen. It will have about a 3 week season, not really much shorter than something like a Big Beef. The first frost will put an end to their season. Legend can have lots of tomatoes on small plants. They are not with my favorites for flavor, however.
Steve