Studies show what everyone knows - tomatoes are the most popular crop we grow. Determinate tomato varieties produce fruit earlier in the season and then stop, while indeterminate tomatoes produce a larger crop over a longer period. When it comes to selecting tomatoes, the choices are vast, but all tomatoes fall into two main growth categories or a smaller third one. They are determinate, indeterminate and semi-determinate. Perplexed home gardeners often wonder why their tomatoes begin producing abundantly, then stop suddenly in mid-season.
Weather can be a factor.
Blossom set is adversely affected when daytime temperatures are too hot or night temperatures are too cold. But most likely, these gardeners were unaware that most tomatoes fall into two main categories, each with very different growth habits. The gardener whose tomatoes suddenly stop producing most likely planted the determinate short season variety. Determinate tomatoes set and ripen most of their fruit at nearly the same time, usually within a couple weeks. The other main category is the long season variety known as indeterminate.