By Marco T. Fonseca
University of
Georgia
The Incas of Peru and Mayas of Mexico were growing tomatoes more
than 3,000 years ago. When Spanish conquistadors introduced them
in Europe in the mid-16th Century, they caught on first in Italy.
Can you imagine spaghetti now without tomato sauce?
Tomatoes are popular worldwide now. In North America, though,
early settlers regarded them as poisonous plants.
It was centuries before they found favor here. In the early
1900s, U.S. scientists were still trying to convince people of
their safety and their value as a source of vitamins A and C.
Tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum) are warm-season annual
plants. They grow best when days are around 75 degrees and nights
about 65. Most people consider the tomato a vegetable.
Botanically, though, it’s a fruit.
In your garden
Countless tomato cultivars are available now. New ones are being
added every year. For your garden, select varieties based on
early to late fruiting, insect and disease resistance, fruit
size, color and flavor.
In general, there are two types of tomato plants. Determinate, or
bush tomato plants, stop growing once they flower. Most
commercial varieties are determinate.
Indeterminate plants keep growing until frost or disease gets
them. Many of the popular salad and cherry varieties, such as
“Better Boy” or “Roma,” are indeterminate.
Always choose cultivars with disease resistance. The label will
indicate resistance with capital letters such as F (fusarium), V
(verticillium), N (nematodes) and T (tobacco mosaic).
The right stuff
Tomatoes require well-drained soils, full sun and good air
circulation around each plant and among plants. Don’t plant in
low areas or where water tends to stand after rain or watering.
You can grow tomato plants from direct seed or transplants, but
you’ll likely be more successful with the latter.
Choose healthy, vigorous transplants. After transplanting,
immediately stake or cage the plants to avoid future injuries to
branches and root systems. Apply mulch, and pick weeds by hand as
well. Tomatoes are extremely sensitive to herbicide damage.
Keeping the soil uniformly moist all season is a must for
successful tomato growing. Letting the moisture go back and forth
from too wet to too dry will lead to fruit disorders, such as
cracking and blossom-end rot, and more disease problems.
Tomatoes are heavy feeders. They require a constant but not
excessive supply of nutrients. It’s best to base your fertilizer
program on a soil test analysis. Any University of Georgia
Extension Service county office can provide a soil test.
Once they’re harvested, tomatoes may change color, but they won’t
improve in nutrition or flavor. They can accomplish this only
while they’re still attached to the plant.
So, pick your tomatoes just before you eat them. Truly vine-ripe
tomatoes will have the best taste and the bonus of a higher
content of vitamins A and C.
(Marco Fonseca is a horticulturist with the University of
Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)
