I put in a bed of determinate tomatoes to cover with low tunnel later in fall. I plant them on 6/25. I don't grow other determinates generally but put in tomatoes for low tunnel in late April and normal season planting around 5/20 for 3 total plantings per year.

i plant a lot of determinate tomatoes. i do an early planting inside and then a little later one outside. the inside ones don't really stop producing but they do slow down. i plant a few different varieties to help stagger the harvest.

I started planting multiple plantings of determinate tomatoes instead of relying on one planting of indeterminate tomatoes. I noticed a big jump in sales, especially as others vendors tomatoes were getting smaller and I still had large slicers available.

My first planting will be planted in the high tunnel around the 3/26 to 4/1
Second planting, outside, will go in 4/28 to 5/3 (under row cover if needed)
Third planting, outside will go in 5/24-5/30
Fourth planting will go in one of our movable tunnels around 6/15
and the last planting (don't always do this one) will be 6/25 to 7/1. For me, any tomato planted after 7/4 is not going to produce enough during the market season to make it worthwhile.

Last year we had big slicing tomatoes from mid June until December. I could have pushed it longer, but they don't sell as well late in the season, so I put my efforts into crops that over winter better and sell better in the late fall and winter.

I step my plantings down each time. This year I am starting at 400, then 300, then 200, then 80 to 100, and finally a small planting of 50 plants.

We will have planted about 900 plants before we even pick the first tomato. I plant out 6 to 8 week old seedlings.

All these pics were taken about the same time in early July.

The first planting, there are a few indeterminates in there too.

Here is my 2 and 3rd plantings last year.

The 4th and final planting last year

Jay

They look great Jay, you obviously stay more up to date on your string weaving than I managed this year.

Anybody got any favourite determinate varieties? I tried Burpees Quarter Century this year (almost total flop) and Principe Borghese (very hardy and I could sell them as cherry toms so good price).

I think next year I want to try some hybrids or something with more disease resistance bred in.

try some BHN varieties. for me they produce a ton of tomatoes at one time.

I agree, I have tried and liked every BHN variety I have planted. I also plant Florida 91, a heat set variety, as most of these tomatoes are producing and setting fruit during the hottest part of the summer.

Jay

Thanks, looks like there is a BHN agent here in Australia, hopefully they will do some small packet lines and not just 1000 seed lots.

I tried to find Florida 91 last year as it gets very hot very early here, will keep trying...

This will be my first season with a hoop house. I've got a mix of early and later maturing determinants as well as a few indeterminate varieties ready to go in in the next week or two. I just seeded some flats of my main season varieties, and I will probably get a third planting later in the season to take me through fall. I plan on treating some of the indeterminate varieties as determinants for the same reason as Jay, dwindling quality later in the season. I grow specific varieties for a chef, and some just don't hold through the season, hence successive planting and ripping out the occasional low productivity vines that otherwise might still be productive. Black krim is a good example, it's listed as indeterminate, but I've never picked a salable one after about early August.

If this weather doesn't shape up, not sure when I will be planting this year! I usually aim for the 15-20th of March, but this year I don't think so, it is snowing tonight. I also didn't start my plants as soon as I usually do, so we will just have to wait and see.

Growing in a hoop house, your determinates seem to keep producing. If you have a cool summer, you can get another huge production off the same plants in late August/September. That has happened to me twice. At the end of last year, I was still picking tomatoes off all 4 plantings. I stripped the inside ones and pulled them out. I sold lots of green tomatoes for a few weeks during that time too.