Tomato • Lycopersicon esculentum

Family

Solanaceae

• Chromosome 2n = 2X = 24

• Wild type tomato species are thought to be native of western part of South America and specifically in the dry coastal desert of Peru.

• The tomato is the tropical and subtropical plant which is perennial in its natural habit, but elsewhere behaves as annual.

Importance • Important vegetable crop, can be grown:

– in most home gardens

– by market gardeners

– by truck farmers

– Out of season (vegetable forcing)

• Have important role in health and vigour.

• Helpful in healing wounds because ripe fruit have antibiotic properties.

• Good source of vitamin A, B and C.

• Have high β-carotene, precursor of vitamin A.

• Have lycopene that imparts red colour.

Tomato can be

• Baked,

• Fried,

• Juiced,

• Processed into ketchup,

• Culinary purpose and

• Salad purpose.

Uses

Area and Production

In Pakistan (FAOSTAT, 2012)

Area = 55 thousand hectares

Production = 560 thousand tonnes

Average Yield = 10.18 tonnes/hectare

Plant Parts Nature

Annual to perennial

Roots

• It has a tap root about 2 ft. long with several laterals bearing fibrous roots.

• Adventitious roots also develop from stem portion.

Stem

• The main stem is erect up to a height of 1-2 ft (in determinate varieties).

• Branches arise from the axils of the leaves which bear secondary branches or laterals.

Plant Parts Flowers

• Tomato flower is normally perfect.

• 4-8 flowers in each compound inflorescence.

•

• There is a tight protective anther cone surrounding stigma leading to self pollination.

• The tomato fruit is fleshy.

• Botanically it is a berry having seeds

within a fleshy pericarp.

• The shape of the fruit varies from round,

oblate, elongated, to pear shape.

• Color lemon yellow, orange, pink or

mostly red

• The young fruit is green due to the

presence of chlorophyll.

Fruit

FRUIT COLOUR

Carotenoid Level

Plant Growth Habit Determinate

• Flower clusters are borne with one or two leaves (nodes) between them.

• After several flower clusters, shoot will terminate in a terminal inflorescence.

• Compact and small (dwarf) plants, with short internodes suited for caging.

• Fruit tend to ripe at one time or over a short period of time.

Plant Growth Habit Indeterminate

• Three to four leaves are produced between flower clusters.

• Shoot does not terminate in inflorescence.

• Plant continue to grow in a vine fashion.

• Suited for staking.

• Fruit ripe gradually throughout the season.

Indeterminate Growth Habit

Climate • Warm season crop, sensitive to frost.

• It requires long season to produce profitable crop.

• Require 80-120 days from seeding to bearing.

• Low temperature without actual freezing inhibit fruiting.

• Blossom and fruit drop during high temperature and drought spell.

• High temperature inhibit pollination and fruit setting.

• Temperature – Nights: 15-20 °C

– Days: 25-30 °C

• Difficult to get crop from mid May to June and in rainy season due to insect and disease attack.

Frost damage

Soil

• All types.

– Sandy soils for early crop.

• Loam, clay loam and silt loam with high

organic matter produce high yields.

• pH 5.5 to 7.5.

Seed Rate and Spacing

• 500-600 g/ha.

• Channels 1.0 m apart.

• Seedlings on both sides of beds 60 cm

apart.

Time of Sowing

• Nursery sown in July/Aug – Transplanted in Aug./Sept.

• Nursery sown in Sept. – Transplanted in Oct.

• Nursery sown in Nov. – Transplanted in Feb./March

• Nursery sown in March/April – Hill crop

– Transplanted in May/June

Fertilizers

• FYM-----20-25 tonnes/ha

• N----100 kg/ha in 3 splits

• P---80 kg/ha

• K---40 kg/ha

Irrigation

• Depends on soil type and climatic conditions.

• Warm season – 5-6 days on sandy soil

– 10-12 days on heavier soils

• Fortnight application during cold periods.

• When temperature gets high--- weekly irrigation.

• Period of drought followed by sudden heavy irrigation cause fruit to crack.

• Plant is susceptible to wet feet.

Varieties

• Determinate • Lyallpur Selection I

• Naqeeb

• Roma

• Red top

• Nagina

• Riogrande

• Indeterminate • Sahil

• Salar

• Money maker

• Marglobe

Variety Selection

• Purpose to raise crop (type of gardening).

• Length of growing season.

• Yield.

• Ability to withstand handling during transport and marketing.

• Susceptibility to diseases and insect-pests.

Harvesting and Yield • Yield can be 20-24 Tonnes/ha

• Fruit can be picked after every 2 to 3 days.

• Should be picked when start changing colour.

• Stage of maturity at which fruit should be picked depends on purpose for which they are grown. – Immature green

– Mature green

– Turning

– Half-ripe/pink

– Ripe

Diseases

Wilt • Both Fusarium and Verticillium

wilt attack tomato.

• Soil borne pathogens survive for

many years.

• Plants are affected through roots.

• Rotation for 2-3 years.

• Use resistant varieties.

Fusarium wilt

Root and crown rot caused by

Fusarium causing Wilt

Early Blight • The leaf spots are generally dark brown to black, often

numerous and enlarging, and usually developing in concentric rings, which give the spots a target-like appearance.

• Lower, senescent leaves are usually attacked first, but the disease progresses upward and make affected leaves turn yellowish, become senescent, and either dry up and droop or fall off.

• Dark sunken spots develop on branches and stems of tomato plants.

• Stem lesions developing on seedlings may form cankers, which may enlarge, girdle the stem, and kill the plant.

Early Blight

• Controlled primarily through the use of resistant

varieties, disease-free or treated seed, and

chemical sprays with appropriate fungicides.

• Adequate nitrogen fertilizer generally reduces

the rate of infection by Alternaria.

• Crop rotation, removal and burning of plant

debris, and eradication of weed hosts

Early Blight

Late Blight • Symptoms appear at first as water-soaked spots, usually at the

edges of the lower leaves.

• In moist weather, the spots enlarge rapidly and form brown, blighted areas with indefinite borders.

• Fuzzy growth on the underside of leaf lesions is produced by the pathogen under moist conditions and consists mostly of spores.

• Soon entire leaves are infected, die, and become limp.

• Under continuously wet conditions, all tender aboveground parts of the plants blight and rot away.

• Tomato leaves, stems, and fruit are also attacked.

• Entire tomato fields may be destroyed.

Late Blight

Bacterial Spot on Leaves and Fruit

Sclerotium rot of fruit

(post-harvest problem)

Pests

• Borers

• White-fly

• Aphids

• Jassids

• Thrips

• Cutworms

Borer in the Fruit

Whitefly • Adult feeding is usually of very

little direct consequence

• Adults of B. argentifolii can cause light spotting of small fruit.

• Adults may transmit viruses, particularly geminiviruses, that cause very serious diseases.

• The most noteworthy is tomato yellow leaf curl virus, which reduces new growth so severely that there is little or no subsequent yield.

Irregular ripening

(tissue whitening) due to

feeding of nymphs on fruit

Aphids • Cause cupping and yellowing of leaf

margins

Cutworm • Cut stem of young seedlings at soil line.

• Active at night.

• Hide under soil or under debris during day time.

• May climb and feed on green fruit as well.

• Physical barriers around stem.

Viruses • Tobacco Mosaic Virus

• Cucumber Mosaic Virus

• Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus