Tomato
| Lifespan: | ⌛ | [[Lifespan::short-lived perennial]] |
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| Origin: | ✈ | [[Origin::Mexico to Peru]] |
| Exposure: | ☼ | full sun"full sun" is not in the list (sun, part-sun, shade, unknown) of allowed values for the "Exposure" property. |
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| Water: | ◍ | regular"regular" is not in the list (wet, moist, moderate, dry, less when dormant) of allowed values for the "Water" property. |
| Features: | ✓ | fruit |
| Sunset Zones: | [[Sunset zones::allsn]] |
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Solanum > |
Tomatoes are technically fruits (berries to be exact) that are treated like vegetables. Tomatoes are one of the most common garden plants in the United States and have a reputation for being easy to grow, and producing a prolific cropsn. Plants usually grow 1–3 m high, on a weak, woody stem that often needs support. Leaves are 10–25 cm long, pinnate, with 5–9 leaflets, each leaflet up to 8 cm long, with a serrated margin; both the stem and leaves are densely glandular-hairy. The small, 1-2cm yellow flowers have five pointed lobes on the corolla, and come on a cyme of 3–12 together.
Tomatoes are grown around the world for their edible fruit, and thousands of cultivars having been selected for varying fruit types, colors, sizes, textures, shapes, and for optimum growth in different climates and conditions. They range in size from the 1-2cm cherry tomatoes, to the 10cm or more beefsteak tomatoes. Most cultivars are in the 5-6cm range and red is the most common color, though yellow, orange, pink, purple, green, or white fruit are also easily found. Some have multicolored and striped fruit. Tomatoes grown for canning are usually elongated, at 7–9 cm long and 4–5 cm wide; they are known as plum tomatoes.
Cultivation
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6 plants provide enough fruit for a family of 4 to use fresh, and preservesn. Planting early, mid and late season varieties will ensure tomatoes throughout the season. Grow in sunny spot with good drainage. Soil should be neutral to a little acidsn, if it's very acid add some sulfur, or if it's very alkaline add lime before planting. Staked and trained plants can be planted 1½ - 3 feet apart, while unstaked/trained plants should be planted 3-4 feet apart. Plant the seedlings deep, up to the first leaves, as they will form additional roots on the buried stem, giving them a healthier root system.
Training the plants to keep them off the ground will help prevent fruit rot and pests on the fruit. Either use a 6 ft. stake, or a wire cylinder made just for this purpose, and sold widely at nurseries (or make a big cylinder from a 7 foot long concrete reinforcing screen with 6 inch mesh, then stake it to the ground, firmly).
Water heavily, and regularly 2-3 times a week, depending on the weather. Rich soil will not require fertilizer, but poor soil could use some Tomato fertilizer.
If night temperatures drop below 13°C (55°F) in the spring, fruit will probably not setsn. You can use fruit-set hormones to speed up production. When temperatures top 38°C (100°F), fruit production also may stopsn, but hormones will not help in this case. It is important then if your climate is extreme to choose varieties specifically for your needs.
Fruit is ripe when coloration is complete and fruit are juicy. Continually harvest ripe fruit to extend season. If frost is going to end the season, pick all fruit including unripe, which can be kept in a dry, dark place at 16-21°C (60-70°F) where it may ripensn. Or you can pickle the green tomatoes.
Hydroponic and greenhouse cultivation
In cooler climates, tomatoes are frequently grown in greenhouses. Cultivars like the British 'Moneymaker' and some of the cultivars grown in Siberia have been specifically bred for indoor growing. Starting seeds in a greenhouse (or at least indoors) in more temperate climates during the winter is a common way to get a head start on the growing season. These greenhouse starts need to be hardened before planting outdoors.
Tomatoes are also grown hydroponically, either for high-density plantings and production, or in hostile climates.
Tomatoes are falsely claimed to be self-pollenating. Outdoors, bees and wind do the trick, but in a greenhouse, pollination must be aided by artificial wind, vibration of the plants (one brand of vibrator is a wand called an "electric bee" that is used manually), or more often today, by cultured bumblebees.
Propagation
From seed. Seeds widely available in stores and catalogs, and heirlooms varieties can be grown from seed from your favorite varieties. Plant seeds indoors 5-7 weeks before moving them to the garden in order to get a head-start on the season and production.sn Plant seeds under ½ in. of fine soil, firmed over the seeds, and keep damp. Place in sunny window or cold frame. Temperatures from 18-21°C (65-70°F) are perfect, but anywhere from 10-29°C (50-85°F) will dosn. When seedlings are 2 inches tall, they should be in pots at least 3-4 inches in size. Keep in a sunny spot throughout the growing process. If you buy seedlings at the store, choose the compact and sturdy plants. If they're already flowering or fruiting in a small pot, they are probably root-bound and won't be as productive in the garden.
Pests and diseases
Tomato cultivars vary widely in their resistance to disease. Tobacco mosaic virus is a common problem, so smoking and the use of tobacco products should be kept away from tomatoes.[1] Different forms of mildew and blight are also often tomato afflictions, which accounts for why tomato cultivars usually get marked with letters like VFN, which indicate disease resistance to verticillium wilt, fusarium fungus, and nematodes.
Some common tomato pests are cutworms, tomato hornworms, aphids, cabbage loopers, whiteflies, tomato fruitworms, flea beetles, slugs,[2] and Colorado potato beetles.
Cultivars
There are countless tomato cultivars today, and some of the more common are listed below. Heirlooms tend to be grown for their flavor, colors and shapes, while hybrids are chosen for disease resistance, larger crops and uniformity.
Tomato cultivars can be divided into several rough categories, based mostly on shape and size
- "Slicing" or "globe" tomatoes are the usual tomatoes of commerce
- Beefsteak tomatoes are large tomatoes, often used for sandwiches
- Plum tomatoes, or paste tomatoes, have a higher solid content and are used in tomato sauce and paste
- Cherry tomatoes are small, often sweet tomatoes generally eaten whole in salads
Tomatoes are also commonly classified as determinate or indeterminate.
- Determinate, or bush, types bear a full crop all at once and grow to a specific height; these can work well in containers
- Indeterminate cultivars grow like vines that, continuing growth and production until killed by frost (most, if not all heirlooms are are indeterminate.)
- There are also tomatoes called "vigorous determinate" or "semi-determinate", which stop growth like determinates, but produce a second crop after the first one.
Commonly grown cultivars include:
- 'Beefsteak VFN' (a common hybrid resistant to Verticillium, Fusarium, and Nematodes)
- 'Big Boy' (a very common determinate garden cultivar in the United States)
- 'Black Krim' (a purple-and-red cultivar from the Crimea)
- 'Brandywine' (a pink, indeterminate beefsteak type with a considerable number of substrains)
- 'Burpee VF' (an early attempt by W. Atlee Burpee at disease resistance in a commercial tomato)
- 'Early Girl' (an early maturing globe type)
- 'Gardener's Delight' (a smaller English cultivar)
- 'Juliet' (a grape tomato developed as a substitute for the rare Santa F1)
- 'Marmande' (a heavily ridged cultivar from southern France; similar to a small beefsteak and available commercially in the U.S. as UglyRipe)
- 'Moneymaker' (an English greenhouse cultivar)
- Mortgage Lifter (a popular heirloom beefsteak known for gigantic fruit)
- 'Patio' (bred specifically for container gardens)
- 'Purple Haze' (large cherry, indeterminate. Derived from Cherokee Purple, Brandywine and Black Cherry)
- 'Roma VF' (a plum tomato common in supermarkets)
- 'Rutgers' (a commercial heirloom cultivar)
- 'San Marzano' (a plum tomato popular in Italy)
- 'Santa F1' (a Chinese grape tomato cultivar popular in the U.S. and parts of southeast Asia)
- 'Shephard's Sack' (a large variety popular in parts of Wales)
- 'Sweet 100' (a very prolific, indeterminate cherry tomato)
- 'Yellow Pear' (a yellow, pear-shaped heirloom cultivar)
Gallery
Tomato vegetable
Greenhouse tomato
Unripe tomatoes on a vine, good for pickling
The flower and leaves are visible in this photo of a tomato plant.
Tomato plants in the garden
Tomato seedling
Tomato slices
References
External links
- w:Tomato. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
- Tomato QR Code (Size 50, 100, 200, 500)
- ↑ Tomato-Tobacco Mosaic Virus Disease Extension.umn.edu. URL Accessed June 30, 2006.
- ↑ Slugs in Home Gardens Extension.umn.edu. URL Accessed July 14, 2006.
