“Let mothers come to Jesus with their perplexities. They will find grace sufficient to aid them in the management of their children. The gates are open for every mother who would lay her burdens at the Saviour’s feet…. He … still invites the mothers to lead up their little ones to be blessed by Him. Even the babe in its mother’s arms may dwell under the shadow of the Almighty through the faith of the praying mother.”
The Adventist Home, 274
Tomatoes – Determinate or Indeterminate
Did you know there are two distinct types of tomatoes? Tomatoes grow in two different ways. The two types of plants are referred to as determinate and indeterminate tomatoes. Here are some differences that I have found.
Determinates grow for their growing period and put on fruit all at once. The plant has a definite limit to its growing capacity or ability to put on fruit. This is a type of tomato that you would like to have in your garden if you are choosing to can your tomatoes. You will get a large crop all at once. They do well being supported with tomato cages.
Indeterminates do not have a limit to its growing capacity, except by its external physical limitations. Indeterminates will continue to grow, as long as they are supported and the weather allows. These vines have been known to grow up to 12 feet or longer. They grow best with a strong support system so the long vines do not break. These plants put on tomatoes at regular intervals, so if you only have a couple plants, you will need to be creative with your planning for preserving your tomatoes. If you have a lot of these plants, you will have a continuous supply of tomatoes for processing, eating fresh, and sharing.
What type of tomato plant you choose will be largely determined by your garden space, your ability to support the plant and your plans for the fruit.
I find that for canning, I like a paste or Roma tomato or a smaller round tomato like Marglobe. Many of these are determinates (but not all of them). I like the determinate varieties because they all come ripe at one time so I can pretty much be done with tomatoes in a 2 week period of time. This is wonderful for canning purposes.
For fresh eating, I like to have tomatoes over a longer period. I have found that indeterminate varieties are wonderful for this purpose. As long as you keep the tomatoes picked, they seem to continue to produce until the end of your growing season. These plants are good to get in early in your garden season so you have a longer continuous supply.
Over the years, the seed companies did not always (and still do not) mention whether a tomato variety is a determinate or an indeterminate type of growing tomato. Gardeners would get jealous over their neighbor’s tomato plants that grew 10 feet tall, while their own remained at a meager 4 feet height. Others watched as some picked a large crop for canning purposes and they were struggling to find enough tomatoes to get a batch for canning. I have been in both categories and it wasn’t until the last couple years that I finally discovered this interesting fact about tomatoes.
So, what can we learn from the types of tomatoes?
We each have different styles of growing and producing fruit.
A typical evangelistic campaign of sending out flyers and having a 3-4 week long session of meetings produces a crop of believers that we work with to produce a harvest. Does it work? Yes.
We also have another style of witnessing in which we put out feelers and have Bible studies with a smaller group, but on a more continuous basis. It produces fruit often in smaller quantities, but in a more continual pattern. Does this work? Yes.
In our homeschool setting, we will find that some children thrive with a large motivated project while others thrive with smaller more steady forms of input and output expectations.
Each style has its own type of work associated with it and its own expected response of success. I have learned there are benefits to the two different types of tomatoes for my home garden. I believe there are also benefits to the different styles of sharing Jesus with those we meet, to the learning styles within our families/homeschools, and to the style of teaching (sometimes switching it up is better for obtaining a different response). Knowing the growing style of the plant helps you to care for it better; knowing the learning styles of those around us, helps us to help them grow better, as well.
To learn more about determinate and indeterminate tomatoes, see the link below:
Should You Grow Determinate or Indeterminate Tomato Plants?
Please share more spiritual insights that determinate and indeterminate tomatoes bring to mind with you in the comments below.
Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the LORD thy God giveth thee, for ever.
Deuteronomy 4:40
While working at Farmer’s Market several years ago, we met another vendor who shared with us a great tip for reviving an old patch of rhubarb. I hadn’t had a chance to try it out until last year and I am pretty excited about the results!
Tip: Rhubarb plant roots will continue to thicken and twist around one another. Heavy picking can increase the timing of this process. This will decrease the productivity of the plant. To keep the plant healthy and to increase yields, you will want to dig up the roots and divide your plant in early spring…just as the buds are coming up, but before leaves begin to open.
Last year I divided two older plants into 10 new plants. (If you have no room for that many new plants, consider giving some away to your neighbors or friends). This year I divided 3 plants into 20.
You will need to dig about a foot away from the plant and dig down at least a foot to 18 inches to get underneath the established roots of the plant you intend to divide. After digging it up, you will want to divide it into smaller pieces. Twist the roots to try to divide with minimal breaking. I found I still heard roots breaking and snapping off, but the plants still all grew back. I tried to keep each clump with at least one bud (up to 2-4 buds) with some roots connected to it. Plant in a new hole, like you would for a bush, dig a hole twice as wide and much deeper so that the soil is not as compacted around the new transplant. Keep the buds at ground level as they were before. Fill soil under and around the transplant. Rhubarb enjoys full sun and even partial shade (if you are trying to figure out where to place them in your yard).
This first year, do not pick from the new plants, let them get established. The second year, pick lightly so you do not stress the transplant. The third year you can pick as heavily as desired.
I stood the same distance from an old patch above (first picture in this post) and the 2nd year transplants below. You can visibly see how much healthier the transplant is. It has larger leaves and longer thicker stems.
I thought of a few spiritual applications as I was writing this post. I will share a couple below, but I invite you to comment additional thoughts, as well. This helps all of us to recognize spiritual thoughts in nature/gardening and we can share these with our children, too.
*We can wear ourselves out by too much work and not enough rest, just like over-picking can decrease the productivity of a rhubarb plant.
*Challenges in our lives can be like the dividing of the plant and help us grow to be more productive.
*It reminds me of the Stewardship of Talents found in Matthew 25:14-30.
* One plant can supply our family with a couple rhubarb desserts or a batch or two of jam . If I divide that plant into 5, I now can share with others and still have plenty for us at home. When I share of what the Lord has given me, He will bless what is left and often you will find what’s left is enough to supply our needs.
Please share your additional thoughts below.
Fathers and mothers, connect with your children. Pray with them. Encourage them. They need encouragement. Why? Because the fallen angels will bring the most beautiful things to present before them in various ways, and they will think that is the highest education. If they can get that education, they will think it is the very highest education that they can have. The highest education that we can have is to be God’s obedient children. It is to have a mind subject to Christ, who laid aside His royal robes and kingly crown and came into our world as a little child to bear all the infirmities of children, and He gave the evidence to all that He had the mind of God, and was doing it. He made all that sacrifice, and at last He was stretched on the cross at Calvary. But before that He was in prayer.
Manuscript 83, 1910
The Adventist Home Educator 