Indoors, the bush varieties are your best bet. You can grow indeterminates (vine type) if you like, but they're more work to keep under control. The vines have to be supported, pruned, and basically reigned in so they don't go crazy and take over the whole room.

I've had tomato plants big enough they'd have covered my entire kitchen.

Determinates grow to a certain length/height and pretty much stop. They can't put out the same per-plant yield as an indeterminate under ideal conditions, but indoors you'll actually get more fruit usually from a good Bush variety. Plus, the bush types (usually have the word "bush" in the name) will grow like a bush - you don't have to have something from them to climb on to support the vines.

Unless you get a huge amount of tomatoes on the plant at once you shouldn't have to support it at all. They typically stay short and squat if they have enough light, too.

Right now I'm growing a Bush Goliath in my closet. It's a stocky, dense plant with really beefy stem and branches. Looks like it'll be a good producer.

Suggested heirlooms, anyone? I especially love some of the nontraditional-looking types, like Aunt Ruby's German Green, Purple Potato Leaf, Amish Paste (nice and thick for sauces!!), Big Rainbow...

Anyone doing any of these?

I'm growing Red House Free Standing Tomato. They are about 2.5 feet tall with large, potato leaves. Last year I grew Oregon Spring Bush.

I grew persimon cherry tomatoes, vinson watts, and radiator charlies this year. the persimons were almost sugary sweet, though I felt the 'tomato' flavor wasn't strong enough. the vinson watts were excellent baseball sized tomatoes, and the radiator charlie's had great flavor though I felt the skin was a bit thick. they are large though. my biggest was 1lb 2.5oz. I'm sure If I had selectively groomed the plants i could've gotten bigger ones.

This is some really good information. Anyone have some pictures of these varieties?

Well I can't really see much in that picture. There's a lot of questions that need answered before I can be much help.

1. What are they growing in (medium, system)
2. What are they being fed (nutrients)
3. What's the pH and ppm of the solution
4. What's the temps of the grow area and solution?
5. What's the humidity?
6. How old is the plant?
7. How are you pollinating?

Also, some good close-up shots of the leaves, new and old, would be helpful.

Just as a guess, I'd say the problem is either nutrition or pollination.

has anybody grew itialan ice cherry tomatoes? they are a solid white cherry tomatoe. i'm going to try them and types of yellow tomatoes myself. i have a lot of seeds coming from bupee seed company for a medium sized indoor winter garden. peppers, tomatoes, herbs and lettices. i'm doing the herbs, peppers and tomatoes in hydro and the lettice in soil this time. i might order some radishes as well. i love lettice and radishs covered in bacon greese!!!

I haven't grown or tried white tomatoes, that sounds interesting. I'd definitely like to hear how that goes for you.

Have you decided what kind of hydroponic nutrients you'll be using?

i'm going to finish up some custum nutrients i got from a local grow shop first. then i'm ganna switch over to some flora nutrients i have here. i have found ebay to be a great place to find everything!! i got my auroponic set up and all my nutrients from there at half the price of catalogs or stores!! i got a gallon of floragrow,floramicro, and florabloom for $46.00 for off ebay. i've been seeing brand new 1000 watt grow lights for $100 and up.i got 2 brand new 400 watt mh's for $160 on there!!! i went ahead and got 2 new lighs for it for $30 total!!! my auroponic set up cost me $140 and it was worth every penny!!! check it out if you haven't already!!!

I am new to hydroponics and was wondering where do you get your seeds. My local garden stores are rather poorly stocked. Id there some place I can order them off of the Internet? Thanks for any advice.

i ordered mine from burpee on line. i'd say if you go to amazon.com you can get seeds there as well. i got my coffee bean trees from amazon.com.

i got a hydrofarm 1000 watt hps with a umbrella hood off ebay for $162.50 tonight. i used a 10% coupon on it so with shipping and everything i gave $189.00 bucks for it!!! now i have a 400 watt hps, two 400 mh's and the big 1000 watter!!! i'll be growing veggies very soon. i hope everything goes great!!! i have this strange feeling the cops are ganna come visit me!! imagine the looks on thier faces when they find nothing illegal at all!!! in a way it bothers me, but i have nothing to hide at all.. you guys keep a eye on ebay. they have brand new 1000 watt mh lights for under $200 that you can buy now. i'll post the pages if anybody is interested in it. these are ballast, light and a batwing reflecter(i know they suck but for under $200 you can't beat it!!)it's a good ideal to keep a eye on it.

i ordered some more seeds yesterday and my burpee seeds came in today. i now have the white cherry, rugers, rainbow tomatoes, parsley,chives,lettuce, and 2 types of peppers in my hydro sprouter right now.

last night i ordered cherokee purple and white beefsteak tomatoes. i also ordered some miniture head lettuce seeds from england. i'm going to give this a good test this winter. if everything goes good i'm going to start doing this every year. i'm also going to grow about 15 flats of marigolds and see how they do so i can set them out this spring and have my yard done up right.

i'll take pictures of everything when i get it going and try to post them up so you all can see how things are coming along.

Yeah, you definitely have to get some pictures of that once they're going, that sounds great!

I know what you mean about the cops though - I just hope if they get curious they will say something. I'd be happy to show them what I'm up to, I just don't want them busting down the door with a warrant and guns drawn.

Though to be honest, there's no way they could get a legal warrant for me - I don't do anything that could even be remotely construed as illegal activity. My electric bill isn't crazy (and as unhelpful as that would be environmentally, it's still not illegal anyway), I'm not selling anything out of the house, there's no "funny smells" or anything even slightly suspicious.

But at the same time I don't mention hydroponics when I'm at the garden center because I know they'll all just assume I'm growing "that".

Glad I saw this thread. I was going to skip tomatoes this winter (because of the sprawl factor, but I may rethink that now and try a bush variety.

It is pathetic that we're made to feel guilty or like criminals for simply growing vegetables in our homes!!! Hydroponics is the future of gardening. I tell anyone I talk to about gardening (store clerks, teachers, etc.) that my garden is hydroponic. No one seems too shocked. Then again, my system is just 4'X5' and uses one 600 W HPS. Yours sounds a little more like a small farm!

I think that slowly but surely we're making progress and hydroponics is starting to develop a cleaner image.

It'll probably take awhile but sooner or later we'll be able to hold our heads high and say that we were growing hydro before hydro was "cool".

I'm growing Green Sausage not (have some tiny fruit that has just set) and also plan on about six Siletz plants once the seedlings get large enough to move.

The Siletz is a parthenocarpic plant that matures in 55-70 days and produces 10-12 ounce (sometimes larger) toms.

Also have some basil and lettuce in a unit and plan on adding green beans and strawberries.

One ambitious goal this summer is to build a greenhouse so I can raise two rows of hydro plants, probably using a DWC system, with each row being about 15 feet long.

I figure I should be able to raise about 20 tomato and 15 basil plants at a time, enough to supply a couple of small or medium deli's or one medium size restaurant with fresh produce from October through June (and use the garden for the summer months. Not enough to get rich or even make a living but if I clear $25/wk. I can keep adding more room, lights, etc. and in 10 years, when I'm ready to retire, have a very nice setup!

Mike

That sounds like a good plan. I've kicked around the idea of growing enough to supplement or supply a local deli myself, but I don't have the room where I am currently.

Plus I'm not sure I want to really make it a "job" rather than a hobby.