How Tall Will a Dark Cherry Porter Tomato Grow?

Description

• The Porter dark cherry tomato produces oblong, small, pink, plum-shaped fruit just over 1 inch long, in clusters of six to 10. An indeterminate, midseason, heirloom variety, the Porter dark cherry begins to produce after 74 days and will continue to produce fruit throughout the season. It has a rich tomato flavor and is excellent for canning, juicing or snacking.

Determinate vs. Indeterminate

• Determinate tomato varieties produce flowers at the end of their stems. When the flower appears, the stem stops growing. Indeterminates like the Porter dark cherry tomato produce flowers along the sides of the stem, therefore the stem continues to grow throughout the season - the longer the growing season, the longer the vine.

Care

• Indeterminate tomato varieties grow best when the young plant is trimmed back to one or two vines and all the suckers are trimmed as they appear. This puts the energy of the plants root system into just one or two vines making them grow faster and longer. Properly spaced 2 to 3 feet apart in well-drained soil, staked or tied to a trellis for support, the vines will grow until the first frost of winter. They must be properly watered, kept moist but not wet and fertilized with a good tomato fertilizer.

Height

• Indeterminates like the Porter can grow more than 10 feet tall but not less than 6 feet. Unlike determinates which make a bush shape 3 to 4 feet tall, indeterminates can spread out along trellises, growing laterally instead of vertically.