Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

growing my first crop of tomatoes. It's a determinate variety called Amelia. Should I trim off suckers or not. I've read three different articles, and some say yes, some say no? Figured I would ask the experts. They've been in the GB's about 3 weeks and are a few feet tall, looking good, and starting to see some blooms. Trying to not to make mistakes like I did my strawberries(leaving all suckers and still not having any blooms a month later). Has anyone compared GB to DWC for tomatoes. My GB look good, but they have a 2 week head start on my DWC plant- which is rapidly gaining. I see a potential issue with the tomato in the DWC bed...the roots are taking over. They're already over 3 feet long and I'm worried my lettuce won't have anything left? legit concern or no?

I always understood that picking suckers will produce fewer and bigger tomatoes. If you want more/smaller tomatoes leave the suckers. You can also pinch the suckers and bury them in the GB. I took a sucker from a very productive grape tomato and put it in the GB. It is doing very well and giving me tomatoes when the mother died off. From my short AP experience tomatoes will take over and clog everything. I pulled all the big determinates and stuck with smaller indeterminates.

Thanks RD, I'll watch them, and maybe be careful in the DWC.

My understanding is that basically it depends on how you want the plant to grow. Ive got a mix of determinate and inderterminate tomatoes this season, both varieties if left to grow without training will grow thick and bushy and Ive found that isnt so desirable because it takes up valuable space and things like early blight and fungal issues can arise.

I plant determinate in the vegie garden and just let them go wild but I plant inderterminate in my GB's so I can train and control the growth. You can do the same with determinate but they dont seem to train as well as the indertimanate varieties.

Ryan from Chatterson farms plants tomatoes in DWC but Im not sure how he tackled the large root masses.

Thanks Charlie. I didn't know that the variety I bought seeds for was determinate or indeterminate...or what the difference in the two where.lol No w, I know and I think your advice makes perfect sense. I will see how these do, and then will try and find some indeterminate varieties to plant next after these produce. Any suggestions? I'm a complete newbie at veggie varieties. Ask me about ornamentals, palms, and grasses...I'm the man. Unfortunately, my knowledge in those areas seem to be pretty much useless in this AP world. I could grow some very good flower towers like Nate Story at Agrotech does. But you can't eat petunias...at least I don't think so. back to the football game guys.

Mantis is the tomato guru, Ive really only learnt what I know in the last few years growing and on the web. Theres a lot of good youtube videos on cropping and training tomato's. I only plant heirloom varieties nowadays because Ive found they give you so much more in flavour, size and variety.

The term determinate is used because the plant will grow to a determined height/size, indeterminate is for the opposite of course, and can be trained and grown quite long and controlled.

If you google the variety it will tell you whether it is one or the other and then you can decide where and how your going to grow it.

This year Ive gone with tigerella, tommie toe, principe borgese, green zebra, grosse lisse and yellow pear. There are numerous other fantastic varieties too. Below is a mortgage lifter I grew last year..

Charlie...it looks like a freaking pumpkin! A friend of mine who grows in earth boxes told me the same thing about heirlooms...they taste much better. I'll try and find some heirloom seeds