Jason Graves: A tomato refresher By Jason Graves Different growth habits Tomatoes are often classified as determinate, semi-determinate or indeterminate. Determinate tomato plants produce one large crop that ripens all at once. They are favored by commercial growers that want to harvest most of the fruit from one picking. Homeowners who wish to can tomatoes may also decide to use determinate plants since they produce one large crop all at once. Mature determinate plants are smaller than other types of tomatoes and can be planted closer together to get the most tomatoes from a small space. Primo Red is one example of a variety that is strongly determinate.