Tomatoes … Determinate or Indeterminate?
Figure out what you want from your tomato crop. The answer will determine which type of tomato (determinate or indeterminate) you want to grow. Do you want all your tomatoes ripe at once for canning/freezing, (determine) or off and on throughout season right up until the killer frost gets them (indeterminate).
Determinate tomatoes are great for canning or freezing. The fruit matures almost simultaneously. They reach a certain height and do not grow any taller. Their fruit ripens at the same time, then they are pretty much done. Don’t pinch these plants back because you will lose fruit. Their vines end in a terminal flower cluster. If you pinch them back, you will pinch off the potential fruit. Determinate tomatoes should be caged or staked and tied. The earliest tomato cultivars are usually determinate plants.
Indeterminate tomatoes will grow continuously and will produce flowers right up to the killer frost. Each vine ends with a growing point. Use very sturdy, tall supports of 5 feet. Indeterminate tomatoes grow so tall they can tip in a breeze if not staked well. Be sure to put these stakes deep into the ground.
Remember to wait until after Memorial Day to plant your tomatoes as the ground needs to be warm, and all danger of frost is past.
Cultivars that produce good in northern Minnesota are: summer girl, early girl, fourth of July, celebrity, better boy, big beef, big boy; and cherry tomato varieties include sweet 100, Juliet, iris candy, cherry punch, power pops and tomatoberry.
Janice Hasselius, originally from Aitkin, has been a University of Minnesota Master Gardener since 2000. She regularly volunteers for writing, teaching classes, and demonstrations on gardening subjects through the University of Minnesota Extension Service.
Source: messagemedia.co
