What is a determinate tomato variety, general description and cultivation features

Tomatoes are a vegetable crop that can safely be considered one of the top five garden plants. Tomato fruits are not only very tasty, but also healthy. The number of modern tomato varieties is in the hundreds. Tomatoes differ not only in shape, size, color, ripening time, but also in the shape of the bush.

There are plants with long shoots that resemble small trees, and there are short ones with compact bushes. It turns out that if the growth of shoots does not stop and is not limited to the formation of a flower cluster, then such varieties of tomatoes are called indeterminate. If the shoots are of moderate length and their growth is limited, then we have a determinate tomato variety.

Content:

• General description of determinate varieties of tomatoes
• Benefits of tomatoes with limited shoot growth
• Features of growing determinate tomatoes

General description of determinate varieties of tomatoes

When studying a bag of tomato seeds and seeing the term determinate variety, you should know that as soon as a flower cluster forms at the top of the shoot, the growth of the shoot in height stops. Then the growth of the strongest shoot, the stepson, begins, until an apical brush appears on it. It is important to know! That there are varieties with unlimited growth whose total shoot length is quite modest.Already at an early stage of development, you can notice a difference in the appearance of tomato seedlings with limited growth.

At the beginning of growth, already on the third - fourth day, when the first two cotyledon leaves straighten, the height of the stem from the ground to the leaves rarely exceeds 3 cm, whereas in plants with unlimited growth this distance reaches 5 - 6 cm.

As soon as the sixth true leaf, sometimes the seventh, appears on the plant, the first flower cluster begins to form. Sometimes this happens even before the fifth leaf appears. In addition, a tomato with limited growth always has less than three leaves between adjacent clusters. Among the varieties with limited growth, several groups can be roughly distinguished:

• determinant, brushes strictly through three leaves, shoot growth ends after 6 brushes
• semi-determinate, average number of leaves between racemes 2 - 2.5, growth stops after 12 racemes
• superdeterminate, characterized by early ripening, clusters after 1 - 2 leaves, growth stops after the fifth cluster
• super-super-determinate, varieties are both super-dwarf and super-early, form clusters in a row, without skipping leaves, usually there are 3 such clusters, the first cluster after the fifth leaf, following through the leaf, growth stops after 3 - 4 flower clusters, they manage to yield the harvest before the onset of unfavorable conditions. Such limited shoot growth has both advantages and disadvantages.

Benefits of tomatoes with limited shoot growth

On the one hand, it may seem that tomatoes with unlimited growth have more advantages than those with limited growth. At first glance, the longer the shoots, the more harvest they produce. This is true. But such growth requires more time.Consequently, the establishment and ripening of the crop on such a plant will occur later.

In addition, these varieties of tomatoes cannot be grown without being mounted on a trellis. If you leave shoots of unlimited growth without garter, it is unlikely that you will get a full harvest. However, when grown in greenhouses, in a limited area, tall varieties with unlimited growth exhibit all their best qualities. Therefore, determinate tomatoes are sometimes preferable for open ground.

The undoubted advantages of determinate varieties are:

• precocity
• early stages of laying flower clusters
• It takes less time for the first fruits to ripen
• good volumes of the first harvest
• simultaneous placement of several brushes
• friendly harvest return
• growing without trellises

However, these tomatoes also have minor disadvantages:

• sometimes inferior in overall yield
• the number of clusters requires high fertility and fertilization
• Regular removal required stepchildren
• due to the load on the ovaries, tolerance to diseases decreases

To minimize the disadvantages of tomatoes with limited growth and allow their advantages to fully manifest themselves, you need to master some techniques when growing them.

Features of growing determinate tomatoes

The agricultural technology for growing determinate tomatoes is not particularly complicated. After planting seedlings in the ground, it is important to organize feeding of plants with complex fertilizers containing phosphorus and potassium. The first feeding is carried out 14 days after planting.

It is possible to grow tomatoes with limited growth without special zeal to remove stepsons. However, moving the growing point to a side shoot prolongs the fruiting period.On the issue of the formation of bushes, opinions among gardeners differ; it has been noted that when formed into one stem, tomatoes with limited growth produce an early but small harvest. When growing bushes without any formation procedure at all, the crop ripens three to four weeks later, but the abundance differs.

Therefore, it is optimal to grow the plant in two trunks with moderate bush shaping. Otherwise, cultivation and care are usual:

• weeding
• hilling
• loosening
• rare but abundant watering

If the choice is made in favor of a tomato with limited shoot growth, then you may want to consider the following varieties:

1. Eternal Call - distinguished by very large fruits, shoot height 0.7 m, early.
2. Siberian Troika - medium ripening period, bush height 0.6 m, elongated, fleshy fruits.
3. Askold - the variety does not need to remove stepsons and grows without forming a bush, the fruits are slightly flattened, ribbed, weight 65 g.
4. Vnuchenka is a standard variety, determinate, early, small-fruited, fruit weight 20 g.
5. Summit - powerful bushes, height 0.8 m, medium term with pink fruits.

To master all the intricacies of growing tomatoes and draw the right conclusions about their merits, it’s worth plant into areas of the variety with both limited and unlimited shoot growth.

Video about determinate tomatoes: