nosta
Senior Member
Posts: 149
Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2011 7:46 am
Location: Upstate South Carolina

Better Bush variety

I am limited to a raised bed this year. Has anyone grown the Better Boy Bush tomato? Need input on size of plant and yields. I assume size of tomato is smaller than normal, right?

imafan26
Mod
Posts: 13961
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Better boy bush is a slicing tomato in the 8-10 oz range. I don't get tomatoes as large with my shorter day of any variety. I have come close but have yet to get a tomato over a pound. Bush tomatoes have short internodes so they only get about 5 ft or so. The biggest difference between a bush an indeterminate is the yield over time. Bush varieties will put out most of the tomatoes at the same time but once the fruit sets on the terminal bud, there won't be any more. It can yield a lot of tomatoes over a couple of months. While it is a bush variety and stockier, it still benefits from a cage or stake to support it. I prefer cages because it is just easier for me to keep the tomato inside the cage. People say that they can get over a hundred tomatoes, but I must be a poor tomato grower, and the birds get a lot of my tomatoes so I only get about 50-80 tomatoes.

https://bonnieplants.com/product/better-bush-tomato/

nosta
Senior Member
Posts: 149
Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2011 7:46 am
Location: Upstate South Carolina

imafan26 wrote:Better boy bush is a slicing tomato in the 8-10 oz range. I don't get tomatoes as large with my shorter day of any variety. I have come close but have yet to get a tomato over a pound. Bush tomatoes have short internodes so they only get about 5 ft or so. The biggest difference between a bush an indeterminate is the yield over time. Bush varieties will put out most of the tomatoes at the same time but once the fruit sets on the terminal bud, there won't be any more. It can yield a lot of tomatoes over a couple of months. While it is a bush variety and stockier, it still benefits from a cage or stake to support it. I prefer cages because it is just easier for me to keep the tomato inside the cage. People say that they can get over a hundred tomatoes, but I must be a poor tomato grower, and the birds get a lot of my tomatoes so I only get about 50-80 tomatoes.

https://bonnieplants.com/product/better-bush-tomato/
Thank you. This helped a lot!

UTtomatoman
Newly Registered
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Apr 22, 2021 3:37 pm

Nosta, You might want to check out some of the dwarf tomato project cultivars. They're perfect for raised beds. Most varieties are generally between 3-4 feet tall at full maturity and there are some very, very tasty varieties.

Here's a place to start, but a google search of "dwarf tomato" will also give you tons of great choices https://www.dwarftomatoproject.net/

In 2019, I helped a friend who has an online seed business and between our gardens we planted over 700 varieties, about 100 wee dwarf tomato varieties. I'm hooked on these tomatoes and encourage people with limited space to try some out. Who knows you might get hooked also.



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