Q. I found a tomato variety that’s doing great in my
garden called Heatmaster. I can tell it’s a determinate type because it’s
loaded with tomatoes right now, pretty much all at the same time. I’ve read
determinate types die after the tomatoes ripen. Is that true? Can I root it from
a branch and plant it next month for a second crop even though it’s a
determinate type?
A. Yes, Heatmaster is a determinate type regarding
how the plant grows and produces tomatoes. But be careful. You can root this
tomato from suckers but creating new plants from suckers is difficult to do in
this climate. Try it and see how you do but it can be done.
Determinateand indeterminate tomatoes have their pluses and minuses. (FYI…there are indeterminate Bush tomatoes.) You can usually tell
if its determinate from where the fruit is produced. Determinate tomatoes
produce their fruit at the ends of stems while indeterminate types
typically produce along its stems. Most of what I heard about heat tolerant tomatoes like Heatmaster is regarding their taste.
Determinate
types of tomatoes usually do not die after they set fruit. Tomato plants are
tropical perennials. Death is typically from disease or problems associated
with high temperatures. A determinate type tomato is good to have in the garden,
but indeterminate types work as well. Just handle them differently.
So-called
heat tolerant tomatoes like Heatmaster, Phoenix (also
determinate) and others were bred for warm southern climates and not for the
hot desert. They might set fruit at temperatures a few degrees warmer than normal
but not when the air temperature gets into the 100s we sometimes see.
Collection of tomatoes grown in Las Vegas in 2005 including Sweet 100 Cherry tomato, Snow White cherry tomato, yellow pear, Ivory Egg heirloom and Black from Tula heirloom.
If you
have cool weather during fruit set then any tomato will set fruit including
heirlooms like Mortgage Lifter and Brandywines. That’s why you may have good
luck with hard-to-set tomatoes some years. Some of it is the “luck of the draw”
as far as weather goes but a favorable garden environment that limits wind and
wide temperature swings helps. Be careful about relying on one year of good
production to make future buying decisions.
Plant
several types of tomatoes rather than focus on one variety. Cherry, grape and
pear tomatoes are the easiest to grow and set fruit the easiest. Most of these
are indeterminate types. Probably the next easiest are the plum type tomatoes
like San Marzano and Roma. For some reason disease prone Early Girl
(indeterminate), hybrid Celebrity (bushy but indeterminate) and even Burpee’s
70-year-old Big Boy (indeterminate) are good performers in our finicky desert
climate.
Make
sure there aren’t other reasons for a lack of fruit set such as low humidity
and a lack of pollinators. Plant herbs to attract pollinators like rosemary,
basil, thyme, mint, and fennel. Put out water in flat trays and clean it often.
Bees visit many of the flowering herbs and clean water they can haul back to
their hives when tomatoes start flowering.