Post by jcm05 on Feb 28, 2010 12:36:01 GMT -5
This is from the tomato crops profile section of Sustainable Practices for Vegetable Production in the South
www.ncsu.edu/sustainable/profiles/bot_tom.html
It fairly technical but the key parts are highlighted...
Growth habits: determinate vs. indeterminate. The primary shoot of a young tomato plant produces 5 to 10 leaves, then produces a flower cluster. Each flower cluster is referred to as a 'hand'. In indeterminate cultivars, the shoot continues to grow upward and flower clusters appear to develop to the side of a main shoot or main stem. In greenhouses, main stems are sometimes allowed to grow indefinitely and can reach 10 to 20 feet in length. In order to make harvest easier, older leaves are picked off and the bare stems lowered to the ground. Only the youngest 6 to 7 feet of plant growth, which includes the developing fruit clusters, are trained upright. In this training system, that vegetative side shoots or suckers which form in leaf axils are removed.
Although indeterminate plants appear to have a single main stem, this is actually not the case. The growth of the primary shoot ends with the formation of the first flower. Upward growth continues because the last leaf initiated before the flower cluster (which actually grows to occupy a position above the cluster) produces a side shoot. This side shoot produces three more leaves before it terminates in a flower cluster. The process of initiating new growth from a side shoot of the last leaf initiated before the flower cluster continues indefinitely, giving the appearance of a mainstem with a flower cluster between every three leaves.
In determinate cultivars, the process differs in that the side shoot above the first flower cluster produces 0 to 2 leaves and a flower cluster but no further vegetative shoots. This ends the upward growth of the plant, making the apparent main stem much shorter. Many side shoots arise from the primary shoot, giving the plant a bushy appearance, but each eventually terminates in a flower cluster. The simultaneous growth of many flower clusters promotes earliness and concentrates fruit maturity compared to indeterminates. Shoots of semideterminate plants produce several flower clusters to the side of an apparent main stem, like indeterminates, but eventually the shoot terminates in a flower cluster, as in determinate plants.
So the jest is
indeterminate = 3 or more nodes between flower
determinate = 0 to 2 nodes between flowers
www.ncsu.edu/sustainable/profiles/bot_tom.html
It fairly technical but the key parts are highlighted...
Growth habits: determinate vs. indeterminate. The primary shoot of a young tomato plant produces 5 to 10 leaves, then produces a flower cluster. Each flower cluster is referred to as a 'hand'. In indeterminate cultivars, the shoot continues to grow upward and flower clusters appear to develop to the side of a main shoot or main stem. In greenhouses, main stems are sometimes allowed to grow indefinitely and can reach 10 to 20 feet in length. In order to make harvest easier, older leaves are picked off and the bare stems lowered to the ground. Only the youngest 6 to 7 feet of plant growth, which includes the developing fruit clusters, are trained upright. In this training system, that vegetative side shoots or suckers which form in leaf axils are removed.
Although indeterminate plants appear to have a single main stem, this is actually not the case. The growth of the primary shoot ends with the formation of the first flower. Upward growth continues because the last leaf initiated before the flower cluster (which actually grows to occupy a position above the cluster) produces a side shoot. This side shoot produces three more leaves before it terminates in a flower cluster. The process of initiating new growth from a side shoot of the last leaf initiated before the flower cluster continues indefinitely, giving the appearance of a mainstem with a flower cluster between every three leaves.
In determinate cultivars, the process differs in that the side shoot above the first flower cluster produces 0 to 2 leaves and a flower cluster but no further vegetative shoots. This ends the upward growth of the plant, making the apparent main stem much shorter. Many side shoots arise from the primary shoot, giving the plant a bushy appearance, but each eventually terminates in a flower cluster. The simultaneous growth of many flower clusters promotes earliness and concentrates fruit maturity compared to indeterminates. Shoots of semideterminate plants produce several flower clusters to the side of an apparent main stem, like indeterminates, but eventually the shoot terminates in a flower cluster, as in determinate plants.
So the jest is
indeterminate = 3 or more nodes between flower
determinate = 0 to 2 nodes between flowers