Which tomatoes?

By Dolly Dearner

There are hundreds of tomatoes to choose from – different colors, varieties, and flavors. No one can plant them all, so where does a bewildered gardener start? A good starting place is the basic division between determinate and indeterminate tomatoes.

Determinate tomatoes produce all their fruit in a short time. Most are no taller than a yardstick and work well for small spaces or containers.  Determinate plants are more disease resistant and, with their shorter production life, require less water.

Indeterminate tomatoes produce as long as weather permits. They grow quite large, and will overwhelm a standard tomato cage and wrestle it to the ground. But indeterminates offer more variety, and with luck you might still have tomatoes in October.

Determinate plants give you more tomatoes all at once; indeterminates give you tomatoes for a longer time. Such a hard choice – why choose at all?  For maximum tomatoes, plant some of each.