Hello Mrs. B,

I am sure that eventually Carolyn will come along and verify this, but Heidi is an indeterminate tomato. When she listed in the Seed Saver's Exchange Yearbook in 1996, part of her description read "...indet. plant with huge set of red, 4 oz. pear shaped fruit having outstanding rich sweet taste, lasts well on the vine and thus is like Tadesse and Opalka in that regard, seed from Cameroon, Africa via my student Heidi Iyok"

I checked other SSE listings going back several years (more than 15 growers) and those who list type, list it as indeterminate except one, and that one is listed as a semi-determinate.

Hope that helps.

Betsy

I feel much better now. Thank you Betsy!

The varity Heidi was from a former student of mine, Heidi Iyok, who was from Cameroon. Thanks Bets for looking up my blurb, and in my book I listed it as semi-determinate and will stick with that description.

I call it semi-determinate b'c it's much more compact than a typical indeterminate.

It and Mama Leone and a few more I think are some of the best varieties out there although myself and others prefer to make sauce from the best tasting varieties, not necessarily pasters, but Heidi, Mama Leone and Opalka are pretty darn good in that regard, oh, and I should definitely add Sarnowski Polish PLum as well.

Carolyn

Thanks ever so much Carolyn. After reading all the good reviews, I'm glad to think I might be growing Heidi after all. Mama Leone wasn't on my wish list, but it's there now.

I branched out considerably this year with regard to non-paste types. (I started out with 40 varieties but killed the only Beefsteak plant by mistake.) Nearly every variety came from GW member recommendations. We're looking forward to trying sauce from the cocktail of varieties. Since it's quite important for us to have sauce for the winter, though, I'm trying to hedge my bets a bit. Hopefully, productive varieties like Heidi will make up for some that are less so.

"...trying to hedge my bets a bit."

ROFLOL!

That just struck me as so funny!

Betsy

Hehehe! Good catch Bets :)