Determinate or Indeterminate?!

[Biscombe]

To stake or not to stake!?

I've just put a double row of canes in for my cordon tomatoes and in a row next to that I've made a row for determinates, today I planted Hungarian Italian Paste thinking they were determinate (no room for canes! trees in the way!!) DOH!!! I thought I'd better check the other tomatoes just to make sure! I have tried to research but I got nowhere! conflicting views! so I'll ask the experts here!!

Do these need staking, and how tall do they grow?

Tomato Amish Paste
Tomato Hungarian Italian Paste
Tomato Principe Borghese
Tomato Rio Grande
Tomato Roma VF
Tomato San Marzano
Tomato Black Plum

Thanks for any help

[feldon30]

Amish Paste: 4 ~ 6 ft (1.2 ~ 1.8m) indeterminate
Hungarian Italian (paste): 4 ~ 8 ft (1.2 ~ 2.8m) indeterminate
Principe Borghese: 3 ft (1m) determinate
Black Plum: 4 ~ 6 ft (1.2 ~ 1.8m) indeterminate

Dave's Garden

[Biscombe]

Thanks Feldon, life saver!!!

[Rena]

Black plum is a monster!

[Big_Red]

Amish Paste - Under the right conditions these can get to over 8 feet. Those are Amish Paste, my favorite all-around tomato, in my avatar. ☺

[montanamato]

Hungarian/Italian has never gone over 4 ft. for me, but I cage it as it breaks down from the volume of tomatoes it produces...

Jeanne

[pooklette]

I second what Big Red said about Amish Paste tomatoes. My AP plants get massive. I'm guessing ours get about 8' tall. Last year, they were grown next to the 6' fence that separates our yard from the neighbor's. They grew up and over the fence, finally stopping halfway down the other side when frost ended the season.

[Fusion_power]

Rio Grande - determinate but makes a large plant about 4 feet tall.
Roma - determinate as are almost all the Roma derived lines.
San Marzano - is a variety of Roma but a bit larger plants at 4 feet tall.

I like San Marzano and Rio Grande. Roma is just so-so. Rio Grande has a genetic trait derived from one of the wild tomato species that causes some of the fruit to have a green line down one side of the fruit. San Marzano will never win an award for fresh eating. But it is an outstanding tomato for making paste and sauce.

Fusion

[Suze]

Originally Posted by Fusion_power

San Marzano will never win an award for fresh eating. But it is an outstanding tomato for making paste and sauce.

Fusion, which San Marzano do you like? Source and year? Reason I ask is there seem to be a few out there.

I've grown two. One is a hybrid from Johnny's (packed for '04, I believe), and while rather bland fresh, made wonderful dried tomatoes. The other one was San Marzano Redorta, and I had pretty much the same experience with it, although the fruits were larger.