Determinate Tomatoes vs. Indeterminate Tomatoes

Most of us look for a name with which we are familiar when shopping for tomato seeds or tomato plants. We look for words we recognize like beefsteak tomatoes or cherry tomatoes. We look for heirloom tomatoes or hybrid tomatoes. However, few of us --- especially those of us who may be relatively new to gardening --- check to see if we are buying determinate tomatoes or indeterminate tomatoes, whether we are selecting seeds or plants.

I bring this up only because a neighbor purchased some lovely, healthy tomato plants last year only to be terribly disappointed with the yield. Actually, his plants produced a good crop of tomatoes. They just did not produce tomatoes throughout the summer and into the fall. There was one large bounty and the plants were done. The neighbor had purchase determinate tomato plants. As a note, most plants in the local retail stores are indeterminate, at least locally. It just so happened that this particular neighbor saw the picture of the tomatoes on the card attached to the plant and thought the tomatoes were just right for him.

Luckily, most of the little cards attached to the plants or the description on the seed packet will say something like "produces tomatoes throughout the season." Those may not be the exact words, but it leads one to believe the tomato plant will continue to bear fruit until fall. In some cases the plant description or the seed description will actually use the words determinate or indeterminate.

Let's make the difference clear. Determinate tomatoes are tomato plants that will bear all the fruit during a couple of weeks and then the plant will begin to die. Indeterminate tomatoes will begin producing fruit early and continue to produce the fruit throughout the entire growing season, a few tomatoes a day. Chances are if you are a home gardener, the best choice is an indeterminate variety. There are plenty from which to choose. Determinate tomatoes are probably best left to the tomato farmer --- large scale or truck farmer --- who wants to harvest all his tomatoes within a two or three week period.

Indeterminate Tomato Recommendations: