How To Grow Tomatoes | Solanum lycopersicum
First thing First
The tomato, a fruit or a vegetable? Argued by many the answer is simple, more or less. If you ask a botanist the answer is easy, it is a fruit. They might even be more specific and tell you it is a berry. Mind blown right? But if you ask just about any chef, they will tell you a tomato is legally classed as a vegetable. This is because it has a savory flavor, and we use them in the kitchen like a vegetable.
Botanically, it is a fruit for two main reasons. First, we eat the seed-bearing flower part of the plant. This also leads up into the other reason, we only consume that part of the plant. We do not eat anything else from the plant. The name originated from the Nahuatl word tomatl, which means “the swelling fruit.” Either way, we can all agree a tomato is a great “nonlethal” means to get bad performers off the stage.
About a Tomato
As mentioned before, we only consume the flower part of the plant. This is because they are part of the nightshade family, and the leaves contain tomatine and solanine which are toxic to humans and dogs. Stay away from the leaves, stem, and unripe fruit of this plant.
The toxic stems of this vine plant are weak and love help to keep developing fruit off the ground. Tomato cages are good at keeping the plant from bending and tipping over, protecting the plant from disease and pests as well as protecting the edible fruit. A plant typically grows between 3-10 ft in height, so having support for your plant is important to remember when deciding which variety of tomato to grow.
Tomato Plant Varieties
There are two distinct varieties
- Determinate Tomatoes – This is also know as a bush variety. This variety generally grows about 3 ft tall, then stops, and produces numerous ripe fruit all at once. Once fruiting has started, this variety takes a pause on creating new leaves and focuses its energy into fruit production. This variety generally does not need to be caged, and grows really well container gardening or in limited space. Determinate varieties should not be pruned just let them grow!
- Indeterminate Tomatoes – This is also know as a vining variety. This variety produces larger types of fruit usually until the first frost hits, mid- to late-season. Generally considered perennials, they are really cultivated as annuals, and they will produce fruit for you spread throughout the season. Indeterminate tomatoes are great for large gardens because they need to be staked or trellised. Some indeterminate varieties of tomatoes include beefsteak and cherry tomatoes. Pruning suckers and focusing plant growth on a single vine will increase yield with indeterminate varieties.
How To Grow Tomatoes
Growing conditions
If you live in the southern regions of America, your plant will do better with light afternoon shade from the scorching sun. If there is no natural shade, you can buy covers that look like burlap sacks to protect your plants. If you live in the northern regions of America, the plant thrives off 8-10 hours of sun daily, but will settle for at least 6 hours. Most of the regions in America it is best to plant in late spring to early summer, when the soil is close to 70 degrees during the day. The plant will not survive if the soil is lower than 50 degrees.
This plant loves nutrient rich soil, filled with night-crawlers and other types of worms. Creating and maintaining your own compost will make strong and beautiful plants. If you do not have the time, energy or resources to create your own compost, I highly recommend using fertilizer or manure for your crop. Using a fertilizer with a nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium (NPK ratio) of 5-10-5 is recommended.
Growing Tomatoes From Seeds
There are a couple different ways to start your tomato plants. You can either start from a seed in a container or ground garden, propagate a sucker from another plant, or buy a “starter plant” from a nursery or hardware department store. They all have their positives and negatives but I personally prefer to propagate, which I will go over later.
If you choose to start your plant from seed, sow the seeds ½ inch deep in trays about 8 weeks before the tentative last frost hits in the spring time. If you are off a week or two they will be okay in the trays. When it becomes time to transplant, find a full sun space where the tomato plant can grow to full potential.
How To Propagate Tomatoes
If you look where the main stalk and branch meets, the “armpit” of a tomato plant, you can usually find a “sucker.” A “sucker” is a new growth sprout that will eventually grow into more branches creating more leaves and flowers. It is good practice to prune these off by pinching them with clean hands or gloves. These “suckers” can be used to propagate a tomato plant. Grab those “suckers” as early in the spring season as possible to increase your new plants chance to grow and fruit creation.
Carefully snip off the “sucker” with clean garden shears and place it in water. Aim for a 45 degree angle when cutting to produce the most surface area as possible. Then set your new plant in an indirect warm area to grow. Try to prop it up in the water and don’t submerge the leaves. If the water ever looks dirty or murky, it is okay to change out and replace the water. Within two weeks the “sucker” will produce roots where it was attached to the mother plant. When this happens, there are a minimum of two leaves, and the roots are longer than an inch, it is time to transplant into soil. The indeterminate varieties have a higher success rate than their counterpart, but either way, if done correctly will give you strong producing plants.
How to Harvest Tomatoes
Before harvesting, your plant’s flowers first have to bee pollinated. Lucky this plant is a self-pollinator, meaning you only need one plant to pollinate. This is where nature and insects can really help you out.
If pollination does not happen when the flowers are open, the flower will fall off at the knuckle in a couple days. If you find there are not a lot of bees to pollinate your fruit, you can always help nature out and grab a small paint brush. Brush the flowering leaves and the center of thee flower. Do this to all the flowers, and the flowers will stop falling off and turn into delicious tomatoes.
You will know from the lush red color when it is time for the fruit to be harvested. Grabbing the fruit in your hand, slowly twist and pull, and the berry should separate at the knuckle. Sometimes the fruit will separate from the green top stem part of the fruit. There are a couple different varieties based on how long it takes from seed to harvest.
- Early Varieties- Tomatoes like “Early Girl” and “Early Cascade” both are indeterminate, and can produce fruit to be harvested in 80 days. Although they are not the most flavorful varieties on the block.
- Min-Season Varieties- The “Fantastic,” an indeterminate, and the “Floramereica,” a determinant, can generally be harvested in about 90 days.
- Late-season Varieties- “Roma” a determinate, and some heirloom, “Beefsteak,” and “plum” which are indeterminate, generally can be harvested after 100 days.
Keep the unwashed fruit in room temperature and out of direct sunlight. I recommend not to refrigerate tomatoes as this can cause fowl flavor. Tomatoes stored in cold loose their flavor. Keeping the tomato stem downward can prolong its’ shelf life. Tomatoes you want to ripen faster can be kept in a paper bag.
Pests and Disease
Common pests to watch out for are:
- Tomato Bug
- Stink bug
- Cutworms
- Tomato Hornworms
- Aphids
- Whiteflies
- Red Spider Mites
- Slugs
- Colorado Potato Beetles
- Tomato Fruitworms
- Potato Tuber Moth
Not only do we have to worry about pests, but tomato plants can also become diseased. One disease is tobacco mosaic virus, which the plant can acquire from coming into contact with tobacco on the gardener’s hands. Curly top is another disease carried by the beet leafhopper. As the name implies, it makes the top leaves of the plant wrinkle up and grow abnormally. If container gardening, make sure you do not over water and have good drain holes. If water logged, root rot will occur.