Dependds on the type of tomatoes, determinate or indeterminate. Determinate will only produce once then no more. Indeterminate keeps growing and producing.

Thanks for pointing this out to me. I had never heard of this. So assuming I select indeterminate types, do you use the veg lights and nutrients until the plants are a reasonable size, then switch to the flowering/fruiting light/nutrient levels and you stay with that forever?

Assuming you do everything right, how long will the plant live? A year? 10 years?

thanks

brian

Now I have had determinate tomato plants in my green house all winter and they never have stopped producing. I just moved them outside and they are full of flowers and a few tomatoes on them. As far as the question at hand, keep them on the same light and nute schedule and they will keep producing.

I was disappointed to see that roma tomatoes were deterministic. Maybe I should try to grow them anyway and see what happens? I guess worst case is I could just replace the plant. Thanks for the info.

brian

From my understanding determinate versus indeterminate firstly refers to growth, shape and size and only then to production. In other words growth stops at a genetically pre-determined hight and structure achievement (although there is a clear correlation between both features, ). Generally speaking, determinate tomatoes grow more bushy and less high and should be more productive for a single, (hopefully) larger harvest. That doesn't mean they wouldn't make a few more lateral shots and produce more when kept longer under good conditions. If the behavior of a so called determinate is clearly indeterminate, - it's most likely that it simply is falsely called determinate ;-)