Siberian Determinate Self topping

[cushman350]

This is my first time growing the Siberian. It's seems to have self topped itself. It has stopped growing the continuation of the main stem and is just growing stem leaves and flower cluster stems. Odd?

Lower down in the last photo is a younger stem still continuing to send out a main stem for more vertical growth.

[dice]

The description says "determinate" here ("det."):
http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Siberian

Most determinates that I have grown stop growing
vertically at some point.

[cushman350]

I have an Early Annie Det. right next to it, at the present is still sending up new growth cycle stems, leaf, node, flower, leaf,node, etc. I keep an eye out but I've grown det and indet and never observed this in the det.'s My Bush Goliaths, 3 years ago were determinates that did level out at about 4-5 feet, but the strange looking flower cluster ending of the stem was not present. These Siberians are odd looking and I've never grown this variety before.

[dice]

There is a lot of variation. I have had plants listed as determinate
grow more like semi-determinates, where they had a
concentrated initial fruit set over a few weeks, but the stems
are still growing at end of season. Would their stems terminate
in a flower cluster eventually, like a classic determinate,
somewhere with a longer growing season? No idea.

Aurora and Sasha's Altai are two cultivars that never get over
3' tall for me, and are quite early to set fruit, yet their stems
do not terminate in flower clusters, and as far as I can see they
are indeterminate, despite their size.

[OneoftheEarls]

Just FYI, my son is an Airman training at Wichita Falls

[cushman350]

Originally Posted by OneoftheEarls

Just FYI, my son is an Airman training at Wichita Falls

There is lots of sky around WFalls.

cushman,

I am growing "Siberian Bushy" from seed I got from Earl. They are interesting little plants. Unlike many other determinates, they seem to stop their growth when still very small in height. They then start pushing bloom buds out the top of the plant. They may continue growing while they are blooming at the top. I don't know since this is my first year to grow any of the Siberian cultivars. I am also growing some of the dwarf project plants and an Al-Kuffa which seem to doing the same thing.

I am also growing some other determinates which in their early growth phase seem to be duplicating the indeterminate growth habits of other plants.

Ted

[cushman350]

That's interesting, because right now they have topped out like that at 24" and the others are going to shade them. Looks like I'm going to be doing some creative training and/or leaf pruning.

Mine are about 24" tall and doing very well. They are almost totally shaded by squash plants. I have been removing squash leaves to allow them to get sunlight when the sun is straight up in the sky at about 2:00 p.m. They are also shaded by tomato cages on both sides with tall tomato plants in them. I think, but I don't know; the Siberian cultivars prefer really cool climates while they are growing and developing. They seem to get that under the squash plants and they seem to like it. I thought they would die from lack of sunlight, but they haven't.

I had planned on giving the Siberian varieties prime real estate to grow in when I was growing them from seed. They were one of the few survivors of a late frost, but they were killed back to a tiny main stem only. I put the plants that still had a main stem that wasn't dead back under the lights and within a couple of weeks, most of them had pushed out new side branches and leaves. By the time they looked good again, I didn't have any prime real estate left. They got the only spots available. They have had a very hard life, but have responded well.

You can't even see them at the back of the bed, below the squash plants in the photo below.



Ted