Tomato Quandary

I guess we're still going to plant tomatoes.

We bought the Akoya tomatoes in April. We'd gone to Home Depot and they didn't have any tomato plants. Well, I think they had a few but they were dying. 

City Mill had only the Akoya variety so we bought it.

However, the small plant did start to produce rather larger sized cherry tomatoes pretty quickly. At last count (Yes, Art counted 😂), we'd gotten a little over 90 tomatoes from it.

But as you can see...it's dying. 

The leaves just slowly dried up no matter how much water I gave it.

However, now Art liked the idea of growing our own tomatoes. So we stopped at the Navy Exchange garden shop and checked to see if they had tomatoes. And surprise! There were a LOT of DIFFERENT kinds of tomatoes in different sized pots. 

So there we were checking online with our phones to see what kind of tomatoes there were. Art's sister is an avid gardener and had mentioned something about an indeterminate vs. determinate tomato variety. Sheesh! I'd never heard of that. I just knew bigger tomatoes vs. cherry tomatoes.

So we looked it up while standing there in the garden shop. And this is what we found on this Homes and Gardens website: 

Determinate Tomatoes:

Determinate tomatoes are generally smaller than indeterminate varieties. They are more compact tomato plants that grow to a fixed size and do not continue to grow throughout the season. This growing habit does impact their fruiting, which happens during one period rather than continuously throughout the summer, and earlier than indeterminate types.

Indeterminate Tomatoes:

Indeterminate tomatoes make up the majority of tomato varieties. They continue to grow taller throughout the season and continually produce fruits all the way through to when the frosts hit.

The plants can get very tall, between six and ten feet, and need sturdy supports as they grow. Whereas determinate varieties have shorter and wider growth habit, indeterminate types grow vertically and need to be trained as tall and narrow plants. 

Trouble is there was only ONE kind of Indeterminate tomatoes. Only one and it didn't look very healthy. It was called Husky Red VFA. 

I got the following from AI Overview.

The Husky Red (often Husky Red F1) is a dwarf indeterminate tomato that combines the compact habit of a determinate plant with the season-long production of an indeterminate. Reaching 3 to 4.5 feet tall, it is perfect for containers, patios, and small spaces. 

Key Growing & Care Info

• Container Size: Requires at least a 5 to 10-gallon container to allow for full root development and maximum yield.
• Support: Despite its short stature, it features sturdy central stems with thick foliage and still benefits greatly from a tomato cage or stake.
• Harvest Timeline: Produces 5 to 7-ounce, globe-shaped slicing tomatoes in about 68 to 78 days.
• Disease Resistance: Known for its high tolerance to Verticillium Wilt, Fusarium Wilt, Gray Leaf Spot, and Alternaria Stem Canker. (This is what the VFA signified.)

OK... so we'll nurse this Husky Red tomato in the pot until Art is able to count the last Akoya harvest and then we can transplant the Husky Red in the same place after I compost the soil.  Fingers crossed the Husky Red is able to grow a longer period that the Akoya.

We shall see.