What Are Determinate and Indeterminate Tomatoes?

Indeterminate tomato varieties continue to grow and set fruit until frost, while determinate (or bush) tomatoes reach their mature height, set all their fruit at once, and stop growing at a predetermined size.

All tomato plants are vines, but indeterminate tomatoes grow much longer than determinate varieties. There are pros and cons to each type. Indeterminate tomatoes produce more fruit but require more maintenance. Determinate tomatoes produce less fruit but are low-maintenance.

Indeterminate Tomatoes

Indeterminate tomatoes continue growing, flowering, and producing fruit throughout the growing season until the first fall frost kills the plant.

Providing Support

Indeterminate tomatoes can reach heights of up to 12 feet, although six feet is typical. They need large, sturdy stakes or caging for support, but some varieties are so robust that ordinary or smaller tomato cages can't hold them.

Look for large cages at least four feet tall, and reinforce them with wood or bamboo stakes. Other good support materials include wooden or metal rebar stakes with additional twine or twist ties for support.

Pruning

Prune suckers on indeterminate tomatoes to prevent unmanageable growth. Never pinch out a sucker directly below a blossom, because this causes uneven growth and reduces your harvest.

Trim back tomato plants with an abundance of leaves, so the fruit can get enough sun to ripen.

How to Harvest Indeterminate Tomatoes

Indeterminate tomatoes give you a slow and steady supply of fruit but ripen a little later in the season than determinate varieties, because they spend more time growing tall.

Your plants may keep producing fruit late into the season, so watch the nightly temperatures. If there's any danger of frost, pick your tomatoes, even the green ones. You can always set them on a sunny windowsill or place them inside brown paper bags to ripen off the vine.

Determinate Tomatoes

Determinate tomatoes ripen at the same time, and once they're all picked, more fruits will not follow. These tomatoes grow to about four feet tall, so they take up less garden space and make great container plants. Dwarf and compact varieties exist as well.

Most sauce tomato varieties are determinate. The entire crop ripens at once, so you can make sauce in large batches.

Providing Support

Determinate tomatoes still need to be staked for support, especially to protect them from summer thunderstorms. The difference between these tomatoes and indeterminate tomatoes is that you constantly have to update the support of ever-growing indeterminate vines, while your initial determinate tomato stakes should get the job done.

The plants can also become heavy with ripe fruit, which can cause them to fall over or branches to break off, if the plant isn't staked or supported.

Pruning

You don't need to prune and remove suckers, because determinate tomatoes stop growing on their own. In fact, pruning suckers is a mistake; these plants will ultimately provide less fruit if you remove their suckers.

How to Harvest Determinate Tomatoes

Determinate tomato plants ripen all their fruit in a short period (usually about two weeks). Once the fruit has ripened, the plant will begin to diminish in vigor and will set little to no new fruit.

Which Tomato Type Should I Plant?

Both determinate and indeterminate tomato varieties have positives and negatives. Choose the type of tomato you want to grow based on how you'll use the tomatoes and the length of your growing season.

For example, grow determinate tomatoes if you plan to make sauces, because these fruits have fewer seeds and more meat. They are also great for short growing seasons that span a couple of months.

Grow indeterminate tomatoes if you want to enjoy fresh fruits all season long. They are great if you have a longer growing season, but there are also some short-season indeterminate types.

Recommended Varieties

Consider these determinate and indeterminate tomatoes to grow in your garden.

Determinate Varieties

• Celebrity: This semi-determinate hybrid globe tomato grows 3 to 4 feet tall. It produces fruit about 8 to 10 ounces in size 70 days from planting until frost.
• San Marzano Nano: Unlike other San Marzano tomatoes, this plant stays at a manageable size. The Roma-style heirloom plum tomato is a juicy, flavorful cooking tomato.
• Amish Paste: This medium-sized pear tomato is a sweet-tasting heirloom that weighs 8 to 12 ounces. It's excellent for cooking, canning, and slicing. Gather seeds after harvest for replanting the following season.
• Marglobe: This heirloom ripens at 75 days with firm flesh that resists bruising and cracking.
• Rutgers: Though this is a determinate tomato, the plant produces a large early crop of flavorful, disease-resistant fruit, followed by several more flushes during the season.

Indeterminate Varieties

Most tomato varieties available in the garden trade are indeterminate, including heirloom, cherry, and dwarf tomato varieties. Some of the most popular indeterminate tomatoes, include 'Beefsteak', 'Big Boy', 'Brandywine', 'Sungold', and 'Sweet Million'.

Early producing varieties, such as 'Early Girl', are also indeterminate. This type matures and dies back earlier and is sometimes called semi-determinate.

Here are more indeterminate hybrids to consider growing:

• Better Boy: This beefsteak tomato produces fruit 10 to 16 ounces in size about 75 days from planting.
• Big Beef: This is another beefsteak tomato that produces fruit 10 to 12 ounces in size about 73 days from planting.
• Big Boy: This tomato produces fruit 10 to 16 ounces in size about 78 days after planting.
• Juliet: An elongated cherry tomato, this hybrid produces 1-ounce fruit about 60 days after planting.
• Sun Sugar: This cherry tomato produces 1-ounce yellow-orange fruit about 62 days after planting.