Family: SOLANACEAE

Botanical Name: Lycopersicon lycopersicum (L.)karst ex farwell

Common Name:
SPANISH: Tomate ENGLISH: Tomato FRENCH: Tomate DUTCH: Tomato DUTCH: Tomaat
PORTUGUESE: Tomate GERMAN: Tomate ITALIAN: Pomodoro

General characteristics:
Pluriannual herbaceous plant, but cultivated as an annual. Creeping stem with the ability to emit roots, highly branched, with indeterminate growth or determined by a flower cluster. It is grown creeping or trained, for which it is pruned, leaving all the green parts of the plant covered with glandular hairs which, when rubbed, give off a liquid with a characteristic odour. This species does not have apical dominance; all the axillary stems develop with the same vigour as the main stem, so pruning is necessary to force greater production. This operation is carried out when the stems are between 4 and 5 cm long, making them detach from the abscission area to achieve better wound healing. The flowers appear in clusters which are simple in the lower part of the plant and then more divided and branched. The number of flowers is very variable and they do not appear at the same time, so that in the same bunch there may be both fruit and flowers. The fruit is a fleshy berry, yellow, pink or red when ripe, spherical, flattened, pyriform or cylindrical in shape, with smooth or ribbed skin, with green shoulders or without green shoulders. The tomato plant is self-pollinating, but needs minimum conditions of temperature and humidity for pollination. In order to avoid problems, fruit set products such as auxinic acid derivatives or techniques such as the use of air in greenhouses or the use of bumblebees. The seed is disc-shaped, three to four mm in diameter, grey in colour and covered with hairs.

Indicative data:

• Number of seeds per gram: 250-300
• Useful Plants per 10 gr. of Seed: 1500-2500
• Planting spacing between rows: 80-100 cm
• Sowing spacing between plants: 30-50 cm
• Seeds per Stroke: 1-2
• Planting Depth: 0.5-1 cm
• Germination Power: 4-5 years
• Growing Cycle: short 4-5 months, long 8-9 months
• Kilograms per Seed per Hectare: 0.15-0.20
• Germination Temperature (minimum, maximum, optimum): 12ºC, 35ºC, 20ºC
• Germination time: 5-8 days