Determinate Tomatoes - when are they done?

landarch 8/28/2012, 11:45 am

triple digit temps in early/ mid August realy shut my tomatoes down, but now new growth and blooms abound with cooler weather. When do you decide to give up on determinate tomatoes to make room in the fall garden? The first frost date in my area is 10/11.

Can someone describe what to do to get the most out of indeterminate tomatoes as fall approaches - I know certain stems need to be pruned to direct nutrients where neded to get the last tomatoes done before frost. How many weeks before first frost should one start to prepare for this?

CapeCoddess 8/28/2012, 1:09 pm

And when do we lop their heads off?

CC

Hoggar 8/28/2012, 1:19 pm

If they have fruit you can start pruning them and top them off to
stunt the growth of the plant. Here is a video that covers it,
it will work for caged toms as well.
I let my Toms grow right up to the first frost then I pull them
and hang the whole plant tomatoes roots and all upside down
in the mud room and let them ripen on the vine. Last year we had
tomatoes into January.
This year I'm starting a batch for the green house, we will see how that goes.

How To Prune Tomatoes

**camprn** 8/28/2012, 1:45 pm

The care and pruning of determinate tomatoes is different than for indeterminate tomatoes.

quiltbea 8/28/2012, 1:48 pm

I know that determinates are supposed to have a flush of harvest and then slow down and stop, but my Oregon Spring toms were harvested in the summer and I forgot to pull out the plants a couple years ago. In October, they were producing another crop of tomatoes. If my season here in Maine were a few weeks longer before frost, I could have had a 2nd harvest.
Determinate Tomatoes - when are they done? 10-02-13

Determinate Tomatoes - when are they done? 10-02-13

The Oregon Springs with new green toms and new blossoms on Oct 2nd.

BeetlesPerSqFt 6/16/2017, 11:39 am

This my first year growing some determinate tomatoes, so I'm going to bump this thread.
Those of you who grow determinate tomatoes: I know it likely varies from year to year with different weather, and different varieties and all, but when is their first flush typically complete? Number weeks after transplanting out would be easiest for me to translate, but any data you have would help. I'm growing New Yorker, Bellestar, and "42 days".

quiltbea 6/16/2017, 2:48 pm

I have Better Bush and Red Pride and both state that they continue to give a productive harvest for 8 weeks.[url=https://servimg.com/view/15016226/2360] Determinate Tomatoes - when are they done? 06-16-10

Determinate Tomatoes - when are they done? 06-16-10

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This year all my tomatoes are in containers due to moving from the country. Above I have Patio, 2 Better Bush and 1 Red Pride in pots. The Patio has blossoms today.
That's my constant companion, my nearly 12-yr old Pembroke Corgi, Penny.

BeetlesPerSqFt 6/16/2017, 5:52 pm

Thanks! So perhaps days to maturity from transplanting plus 56 more days is what I should use. That's about 17 weeks for New Yorker and Bellestar and puts me ... at my last frost date. That would imply that in my area, determinate tomatoes would yield all season, same as indeterminate. That's counter-intuitive. I was growing some determinates hoping to squeeze a few more fall squares in, albeit probably something frost tolerant, but it doesn't look like that will work here without starting much sooner than I managed this year.

I'm glad you can still garden in containers, and that you have such a nice plant-inspecting companion!

BeetlesPerSqFt 6/16/2017, 6:50 pm

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:Thanks! So perhaps days to maturity from transplanting plus 56 more days is what I should use. That's about 17 weeks for New Yorker and Bellestar and puts me ... at my last frost date. That would imply that in my area, determinate tomatoes would yield all season, same as indeterminate. That's counter-intuitive. I was growing some determinates hoping to squeeze a few more fall squares in, albeit probably something frost tolerant, but it doesn't look like that will work here without starting much sooner than I managed this year.

I'm glad you can still garden in containers, and that you have such a nice plant-inspecting companion!

*first frost date, not last! I'm apparently still stuck on thinking about spring plantings.

CitizenKate 6/16/2017, 10:38 pm

I've been growing Celebrities and Bush Early Girls. I usually get the majority of my yields from these plants in mid-late July (here, they go out the last week of April or first week of May). Then there are stragglers that come in during the next few weeks.

When the weather starts to cool again, they start putting out more new foliage and setting a bunch more fruit. I just let them continue, until we reach a point in the season where any fruit that sets will have little chance of reaching maturity before the first frost. After that, I start pinching off any new blossoms, to help encourage the existing fruit to finish up before it gets too cold.

Other than that, I don't much pruning, and no suckering or topping of determinate plants during the season. I trim off a few branches to keep the plant out of the dirt, allow more air circulation, or remove dead or diseased portions.

BeetlesPerSqFt 6/16/2017, 11:07 pm

CitizenKate wrote:I've been growing Celebrities and Bush Early Girls. I usually get the majority of my yields from these plants in mid-late July (here, they go out the last week of April or first week of May). Then there are stragglers that come in during the next few weeks.

When the weather starts to cool again, they start putting out more new foliage and setting a bunch more fruit. I just let them continue, until we reach a point in the season where any fruit that sets will have little chance of reaching maturity before the first frost. After that, I start pinching off any new blossoms, to help encourage the existing fruit to finish up before it gets too cold.

Other than that, I don't much pruning, and no suckering or topping of determinate plants during the season. I trim off a few branches to keep the plant out of the dirt, allow more air circulation, or remove dead or diseased portions.

Thanks, Kate! I have to wait until mid-May to transplant here, and late May is better/safer, unless I use WallOWaters. I have them, but things just didn't work as planned this year, so I've gotten my plants in late and lanky. A lot of locals seem to wait until Memorial Day to transplant their tomatoes.

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