Are Your Tomatoes Determinate or Indeterminate? Knowing Dictates How You Grow Them As Explained Here. Should You Sideshoot Or Not? Read The Answers Below In a guest Post From Mags Mills.
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A little information about tomato plants growing habits. Cordon or bush is not the growers preference, but is to do with where the plant produces its flower/fruit trusses, amongst other traits, differently. Read this guest post on Determinate or Indeterminate Tomatoes.
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The main difference is if the varieties are indeterminate/cordon (sometimes call vine tomatoes, especially in the US) or determinate/bush varieties.
The word “determinate” literally means to stop. Determinate tomatoes grow their fruit at the end of a shoot, which then stops growing (terminate) and other shoots then grow and terminate in a truss, so leave the shoots alone on determinant/bush varieties. They spread out further and may require some support of a cage type, especially larger fruited varieties. They produce all their fruit over a relatively short period and then die.
Indeterminate varieties produce trusses along the stem(s) and keep on growing. In commercial glasshouse production they can be producing fruit for up to a year and reach 5m. A method called “Laying” is used to keep the productive part of the plant at a workable height. They require support by regularly tying to a cane or suspended twine. It is best to remove side shoots from indeterminate/cordon varieties or they can become an impenetrable jungle that prevents air flow, picking and the spread of disease by contact between foliage. They will produce over a long period, only stopping when the temperature gets too cold for them.
Occasionally you may come across Semi Determinate varieties, that finish growing at 1.5m to 2m, about the same height as home grown indeterminate varieties. They are usually grown in the same way as indeterminate varieties with all or most side shoots removed.
A single main stem is not the only way that indeterminate tomatoes can be grown. Allowing one or two side shoots to grow early on to produce more than one main stem is sometimes done in commercial glasshouse production. I have read that this method is usually used with smaller fruited varieties. But growing in pots or growbags, it may not make a big difference in the amount of fruit you get. An experiment for another summer perhaps ❤️🍅❤️
Guest Post
Thanks to Mags Mills for contributing this Determinate or Indeterminate Tomatoes guest post.
