Hi, I plan on growing these 2 tomatoes this year and they are listed as being determinate.
I have found drastically different info on the plant height for these types. One site might say 6 ft, and another might say 3 ft. For those who have grown these, how tall are they?
Celebrity
Marglobe
In my soil they would be about 30" but have seen them get very large in other peoples garden beyond 3 feet. These are bearing age roma at my house which are 24" - 30"
Left unpruned, Celebrity grew 5 ft high by 8 ft wide at my home in Rancho Peñasquitos CA in 2005.
Richard, how do the branches hold up the weight of the tomatoes when the plant is 8 ft wide?
I’ve only grown indeterminate in the past
They don’t! As the season wears on, the plant resembles a pile of vines more than a shrub.
This is how it is supposed to work with Determinate vs Indeterminate tomatoes
" Determinate vs Indeterminate
Determinate or bush types bear a full crop all at once and top off at a specific height. They are often good choices for container growing. determinate types are preferred by commercial growers who wish to harvest a whole field at one time, or home growers interested in canning. Determinate varieties require little or no staking of the plant.
Indeterminate varieties develop into vines that never top off and continue producing until killed by frost. They are preferred by home growers and local-market farmers who want ripe fruit throughout the season. Many, if not all, heirloom tomatoes are indeterminate."
The reason i posted photos of roma above is they are determinate. No staking etc. are needed.
“Roma tomatoes come in both indeterminate and determinate varieties. The harvest window of determinate plants is narrower, which is helpful for making sauce and canning because. Indeterminate varieties, on the other hand, keep growing their vines with fruit and ripening over a longer period of time up until late summer or early fall depending on the climate.”
Back to your plants technically celebrity is sometimes considered a semi-determinate not a true determinate.
Marglobe though determinate has a different growth habit similar to indeterminate.
Thanks Clark, although I might of had some experience with tomatoes by then.
Sometimes i think i should just say it all up front. I really dont think i like determinate tomatoes but i must im always drawn to them. That fast big harvest lures me in like june bearing strawberries but then leaves me dissapointed later.
Thanks, guys. I was trying to figure out in which location to plant them so that they get full sun. I didn’t want to block the sun with the indeterminate ones…
Not sure if its talked about much…but i read somewhere that the depth that you plant them…has some determination of how big they become?
There is also the horizontal planting method.
Someone recently posted about the sideways planting method. My buddy always says to plant them deep, but I will be interpreting “deep” as the primary root ball underground along with a good amount of stem in the soil. I’m almost considering a mound type of thing to encourage lots of roots.
I plant them like a fruit tree.
We plant ours sideways to acquire more roots at shallow depths; this increases fruit production by increasing the root mass to plant mass ratio. It also helps to keep roots near the surface where mulching with compost provides more feeding nutrients and the soil is slightly warmer.
Easy to do this experiment! Just plant one plant deep as you normally do and then nearby plant one sideways by stripping off the lower 2/3 limbs and burying the plant sideways in a shallow trench leaving only 2-3 limbs and the tip of the plant above ground. Then you can see the difference in production as the latter outgrows the deep one!
Dennis
Kent, Wa
It will still grow upright, correct?
Yes you can lift the tip out of the soil and place a stone under it to prop it vertical. It will grow much faster than the others because it will have much more roots to feed it! I taught my nephew this trick and he uses it exclusively, his vines fruit earlier and ripen faster than his mothers do!
DennisD it seems like the plants would need to be over 1 ft tall in order to be able to plant more of it sideways compared to vertical. I guess it depends on how deep your soil is tilled
If you let them grow about 1’ tall that is about the right height to plant sideways leaving the top 3” above soil
