Determinate or indeterminate?

Sat Jul 07, 2012 11:57 am

Hi, I grew some tomatoes from seeds I found in a hamburger. I was wondering if it was a determinate or indeterminate variety, but I was having trouble deciding whether the final leaf stem was the third in between the two flower clusters or not.

What do you think?

Thanks.

Sat Jul 07, 2012 7:59 pm

I'm not sure it's possible to tell yet. If it sets fruit from now till frost it's an indeterminate. If it sets fruit all at once then dies off, it's a determinate. If it sets a bunch of fruit initially, then a few more later in the season after fertilization, it's most likely a semi-determinate.

Sat Jul 07, 2012 8:50 pm

MaryDel wrote:I'm not sure it's possible to tell yet. If it sets fruit from now till frost it's an indeterminate. If it sets fruit all at once then dies off, it's a determinate. If it sets a bunch of fruit initially, then a few more later in the season after fertilization, it's most likely a semi-determinate.

Semi-determinate. I've never heard of those until now. Interesting and yet confusing.

I was wondering whether or not to sucker them, but I noticed today they are setting flowers on the suckers already, so I'll leave them on.

Tue Jul 31, 2012 3:38 pm

Semi determinates set almost all of their fruit at one time like determinates, but will set a second crop if they are fertilized after the main crop is harvested. Celebrity is one, I think Rutgers is also, at least in my experience with them.

Judging from the flowers on the clusters being pretty close to the same development stage, I'd say they were determinates or semi determinates.

Tue Jul 31, 2012 4:37 pm

Either type can have many flowers set at once. Come look at my garden, well after the heat wave that is. :lol:

Not too many flowers setting now, they don't produce much after around 90 or so degrees.

But I do agree on the determinate as well based mainly on the fact that they were from a hamburger. Now I am assuming this a restaurant hamburger. So give me some space here. :wink:

If it is fast food I would almost guarantee it is determinate but you never know. Those places get the majority of tomatoes from places that more than likely grow determinate. Most if not all of there fruit ripen at once which makes picking and therefore shipping and therefore making money faster easier. If you have to wait around for fruit to ripen that time is money.

It will be interesting to see what comes of this, please keep us informed.

Dono

Lots of "if's" here, so it is hard to say this early in the game.

Good luck. :flower:

Thu Aug 02, 2012 2:04 pm

The tomatoes are coming on very strong. They just keep producing flowers while some fruit have already started to set. Because the branches are very vine like, I think they've turned out to be indeterminate.
I read on another post that my 10 liter (2.5 gallon) buckets will probably be too small and I might get dwarf fruit, but that's a lesson I can learn for next year.
I'll try to post some good pics, but for now, here's my yearly video of my balcony (the tomatoes are near the end). The ones in the smaller pots are a variety of cherry tomatoes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-qMhYQlh8E

Sat Aug 11, 2012 2:08 am

Ok, here is an update from today. It's the 11th of August and I would think there is (at most) about 4 more weeks until the weather starts to get too cold for summer plants here near the Arctic circle. So, I was wondering if I should do nothing to my plants, or cut the ones back to the point they have set fruit which could maybe help with my fruit finishing? Well, that's my theory. What do you think?

The fruit here is the most developed on the plants. There are quite a lot that are half set at other patds of the plant.
Hamburger (probably beefeater) toms: http://i.imgur.com/uibRn.jpg
Cherry toms (from supermarket fruit): http://i.imgur.com/DBY1h.jpg

Current state of the tops of both vines (mixed flowers in this pic): http://i.imgur.com/7D1aL.jpg

Things I've learned this year...
I should probably hunt out early varieties for my type of climate. I was thinking of Siberia and Siberian varieties would be a better choice for next year.

Sat Aug 11, 2012 2:49 am

For a short growing season, along with the siberian varieties, start your seeds early indoors under lights. I start mine mid to late Feb to get planted out early to mid April...

Sat Aug 11, 2012 3:01 am

rainbowgardener wrote:For a short growing season, along with the siberian varieties, start your seeds early indoors under lights. I start mine mid to late Feb to get planted out early to mid April...

Yep, I stated mine around the end of March under lights. I thought that would have been early enough, but turns out it wasn't.