For several years the tomato has been classified as a vegetable. Not for scientific reasons, but for reasons that simply made sense. Most fruits you pick up and consume, like an apple or an orange, but when it comes to tomato, not many pick up a beefsteak or large boy hybrid and begin munching, my spouse excluded, she loves to eat berries.
Tomatoes
Tomatoes are botanically classified as a fruit but due to their savory flavor many still refer to the popular food for a vegetable. Tomatoes are so common in the home vegetable garden which the USDA has noted that over eighty percent of home vegetable gardens grow a number of tomato, which is more than double the sum of the next most popular vegetable.
What are you growing?
With all this said, how well can you know the tomato and what you’re growing? Here are ten facts pieced together that you will discover interesting that will force you to examine the tomatoes you develop in your house vegetable garden a little differently. Yes, there’ll be a test on this, so listen carefully.
The tomato is part of the nightshade family which makes the tomato a close relative to tobacco. If you ever need to consider two plants which are worlds apart in use this is probably it. Since they are so closely associated, berries are vulnerable to several diseases which are tobacco related like the tobacco mosaic virus.
Have you ever thought about why you may not be having success with growing tomatoes in your patio? It might be that your plants aren’t receiving the complete sun they need so as to grow. I read a story once where tomato plants grew extraordinary large in Alaska because of the twenty four hour sunshine. Tomatoes require sun and a lot of it. The more you give them the happier they will be.
Have you ever taken a pH reading of your soil in which you plant your tomatoes? If not you should certainly do it. Tomatoes love the dirt to be a little more acidic then most veggies. A soil level in the 5.8 to 7.0 range would be perfect. You can find a pH soil test kit from your local home or backyard for under four dollars.
Climate Factor
Stop! Before you plant a different tomato seed what are the temperatures like in your region? Tomatoes like hot weather. The hotter and humid it is, the better it’s going to be for the tomato. It’s probably why we do this well with berries in NJ. Start your tomato seeds inside and when the temps stay steady at 70 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and 55 degrees Fahrenheit at night you can transfer them out.
Many individuals believe the tomato is native to China because they’re the world’s biggest producer of them. However, early historical records show the tomato originating in South America. Where does the USA rank so far as total tomato production? The USA ranks a distant second to China generating more than twelve million tons of tomatoes each year.
Maybe you are not a lover of large tomato varieties like the beefsteak, or even the tiny ones like cherry or grape. You’re in luck. You don’t even need to be a lover of the red ones. There are over 7,500 varieties of berries you may opt to grow that range in size, form and color. It really is a vegetable, er um, fruit, that gives you lots of choices to pick from.
Some 500 years back, the tomato was thought to be poisonous. Today we couldn’t imagine life without it. It’s used in soups, sandwiches, pasta dishes, you name it. However though the tomato fruit is edible, the leaves, stalks and green leafy fruit have a poisonous alkaloid known as tomatine. Because the traces of tomatine are so small it’s basically harmless to people and the main reason why fried green tomatoes are OK for ingestion. Just do not eat large quantities of these raw.
Conclusion
So there you have it ten fun filled facts about the tomato you might not have known before. After studying these tidbits you might not examine the tomato plants in your garden the same, ever again.
