Question:
Could you explain the difference between Determinate and Indeterminate tomatoes? Each year, I get so confused when I go to buy my tomato plants. In addition when is the ideal time to plant?
Answer:
Tomatoes are classified by their growth habit and are called determinate and indeterminate varieties. Determinate varieties do better in smaller spaces making them ideal for containers such as an EarthBox while the Indeterminate tomatoes are rigorous growers; hence they require staking and/or a tomato cage as they get quite large. Determinate plants are short, bushy and grow to only a height of about four feet. They are often called bush tomatoes. The tomatoes form on the terminals ends of the plants: hence, they are self topping and seldom require support. They stop growing when the fruit sets on the terminal or top bud, ripen all their crop usually over a two week period and then die. Indeterminate varieties continue to grow indefinitely until killed by a frost. I like to refer to them as the Energizer Bunny of tomatoes. The plant is always producing stems and leaves as the lead or terminal buds does not set fruit. The fruit set on the laterals. In addition, the fruit ripens progressively as the vine grows so there are tomatoes in all stages of development at any one time. Cherry tomato varieties along with Early Girl, Brandywine and Big Boy are examples of Indeterminate tomatoes. I think the biggest mistake gardener's make is planting tomatoes too early. The key in growing tomatoes and setting fruit is not the daytime temperatures. Tomatoes are a warm season crop that struggles and/or fails to set fruit with nighttime temperatures below 55 degrees. Once the plants are slowed down, they never recover and fail to meet expectations. Personally, I’d plant tomatoes between April 15 and May 15 after the rainy season has concluded.
Question:
I have a mature Bird of Paradise that I’d like to thin. How would I go about digging it up without destroying it? I’ve tried before but have run into a mass of roots.
Answer:
Once the ground has dried out, you can divide a Bird of Paradise plant quite successfully. Getting it out of the ground is pretty straightforward. With a round nose shovel, you dig around and through the thick mass of fleshy roots, lifting the clump out of the ground. You now have several options. You could move it to a new location or plant it in a container. It could be replanted in the same location after removing the portion left in the ground. The clump could be segmented with an axe, shovel or pruning saw into several sections. This gives you multiple plants to do all of the above. Gardeners get very nervous treating plants in this rough fashion but let me assure you Bird of Paradise can take a lot of abuse from this rough treatment. They not only survive but thrive.
