I have started a few varieties of tomatoes inside and although I put tags on most ( but not all ) of the pots, I now have a bit of a problem. I have mixed up some of the Roma and Betterboy plants. Roma are determinate and shouldn't be pruned while I would keep Betterboy under control with some pruning, snipping suckers etc. So I need to know which is which. The plants are about 6 inches tall and look exactly the same. Is there some way of telling Betterboy from Roma now or at a later stage ??
I have had the same problem with my own tomato growing experience of mixing up unlabelled seedlings and I end up waiting until the fruit starts growing to see which plant(s) are which, unless the Roma variety I use is a window box variety which only grows about 1.5 ft tall.
I don't believe there is any way to tell them apart. Just don't prune any of them. The indeterminate will do fine without pruning. You may get a little smaller tomatoes, but probably more of them. Once you see what shape of tomatoes they are producing you could start pruning out the suckers, but not really all that important. IMO
I started plants from seeds 2months ago. I then took them outside to my movable greenhouse. The plants were young, labeled, and growing great. Then............I come home one evening to find nearly all my plants crushed, dead, unlabeled, etc. I save a few, but lost labels to many of those that survived. Right now, I have some in the ground. At night when it is brisk, I put containers over the peppers and tomato plants, then in the morning, remove them. This is great. So, if surprises are not your thing, then get rid of the seeds not labeled and buy new ones. I will not be able to enjoy my plants or garden because we just sold our home. The new buyers will. In a few years we will go for it again. No big.
