3 Ways to Choose the Right Tomato

Give these three main factors consideration when choosing which tomato varieties you will grow:

Vegetative Growth Habit

The primary consideration when choosing your tomato varieties is the growth habit of the plants you want to grow.

Indeterminate, or vining types, continue to grow new leaves, shoots, and flowers for an indefinite time period (until frost or some other factor causes them to die).

• Indeterminate growth habit requires more elaborate trellising methods to support the larger plant, and more labor to sucker and prune throughout the growing season.
• As a direct result of the indeterminates' higher ratio of leaves to fruit cluster (>3:1), they tend to have better flavor than bush (determinate) types (<2:1).

Determinate, or bush-type tomatoes, grow to a certain size and then divert their major energy stores away from vegetative growth toward fruit-ripening.

• Determinate types have a better ratio of labor to production potential:
• They are easier to contain because vegetative growth is less sprawling and concentrated to a shorter time period.
• Fruits of determinate tomatoes ripen during a limited period of time, allowing for one or two main harvests.

The next consideration is where your plants will be grown — outside in the field or within an enclosed environment, such as a greenhouse or hoophouse.

• If you are growing tomatoes in any type of structure, it is worthwhile to choose from varieties bred specifically for that purpose. The warmth and humidity that promote rapid plant growth in a heated greenhouse can also be favorable to fungi, bacteria, and other plant pathogens.
  
• If you are growing in the field, you will want to choose varieties that are resistant to the disease pressures known to affect tomatoes to your area.
  
• While browsing Johnny's tomato varieties, check for symbols that designate growth habit and other key information. Be sure to review the information tabs at the base of the product page for disease resistance, germination guides, cultivation and harvesting information, processing notes, and more.