Let's talk tomatoes... Indeterminate VS. Determinate

What is Indeterminate VS. Determinate mean?

Indeterminate tomatoes grow and make fruit until killed by winter frost. These tomatoes can reach heights of up to 12 ft. although most of the time 6 ft is what you can find. They will bloom, grow new fruit, and ripen its fruit simultaneously throughout the season. Some examples of indeterminate tomatoes are, Heirloom, Beef Steak, SunGold, and Early Girl's.

Determinate tomatoes, or also known as "bush" tomatoes, grow to a more dense height such as 3ft - 4ft. All the tomatoes from the plant ripen usually at the same time, commonly over period of 1- 2 weeks. They need a limited amount of staking, and are suited for your container planting and smaller gardens!

Tips and Tricks to for beautiful tomatoes:

Does the bottom of your tomatoes turn black?

The bottom of your tomatoes turning black is not entirely your fault! We are here to tell you, why.

The two main reasons why this is happening is because 1. the plant is actually insufficient with calcium or 2. the fertilizer contains too high of an amount of nitrogen for the plant. You can start fixing this by adding egg shells to the bottom in the soil of the plant, and secondly finding a fertilizer that has less nitrogen in it.

Cracks on the flesh of the tomatoes when they ripen?

The main reason for this is when you forget to water the plant regularly, and then suddenly over water the plant because you forgot! What this does is causes the pulp inside the fruit to become heavier or "over watered", and that leads to the skin cracking and over stretching. You must pull these cracking tomatoes and eat them as soon as possible, for other wise it can grow mold on the skin.

Why are the stems of my tomatoes not ripening?

This is what we call "yellow shoulders". The truth is, this one is all about mother nature. What we recommend to change the placement of the plant into a more sunny area, since the weather is very important for this.