I planted two kinds of tomatoes, the previously mentioned Solar Fire, and Celebrity, a pretty standard early tomato. Then yesterday I was reminded in the Master Gardener colmn in the newspaper that both varieties are determinate. Determinate is a trait developed in tomatoes that makes the bush grow just to a certain size. They tend to produce their whole crop at once, not that I have ever had one big enough to make a difference. Indeterminate tomatoes grow to be giants and will grow all over if not heavily staked. The typical tomato cages and stakes will not hold these monsters. Yet, the indeterminate bushes will keep right on producing until they are killed by frost. Last year I had dozens of green fruit when I pulled out the vines. So what to do? Buy another plant and wrestle with it all summer? Buy another plant and figure out how to do something like I saw when we visited an elderly relative in Missouri a few years ago, involving the wire grid they use in cement foundations, and 2x2 8 foot stakes? Or just go with what I have and enjoy what we get and not worry about it?
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