The Tomato Plant (Solanum lycopersicum) is one of the most widely cultivated horticultural plants worldwide. Its fruit, the tomato, is extensively used in the cuisine of various countries. It belongs to the same family as potatoes, tobacco, peppers, and eggplants. Its stem is herbaceous to semi-herbaceous in texture, branched, creeping or climbing, flexible, and covered with numerous simple and glandular trichomes. Initially, it is upright but gradually becomes prostrate due to the weight of the branches. Its length varies from 4 to 8 feet (1.2 to 2.5 meters) on average. The leaves are alternate, petiolate, pinnate, and have toothed margins. The flowers, grouped in numbers of 3 to 12, appear in cymose inflorescences and are yellow.
The tomato is a berry-type fruit and can be round, oblong, flattened, or pear-shaped. Its color ranges from green, through yellow, orange, pink, to bright red, depending on the cultivar, and it can have a smooth or striped pattern. There is also great variation in the size of the fruits, which can be small, like the cherry variety, or very large, like the beefsteak, reaching up to 1.65 pounds (750 grams). Inside the fleshy fruits are the seeds, numerous, small, flattened, surrounded by a gelatinous pulp, and separated into locules, which vary in number according to the variety.
The tomato has a sweet and slightly acidic taste and can be enjoyed in various ways. It can be consumed raw, cooked, roasted, or dehydrated; in various preparations such as juices, salads, sauces, soups, drinks, pulps, jams, ketchup, sun-dried tomatoes, etc. Its vibrant color and unique flavor have won the palate of many peoples. Rich in lycopene, vitamins A, B, and C, carotenoids, and minerals, the tomato is nutritious and contains antioxidant properties.
The tomato plant adapts to a wide variety of climates, being able to be planted in gardens and pots, outdoors or in greenhouses. For this, it is enough to choose the cultivar most appropriate to the climate, season, and taste. It is an interesting plant for the learning of the novice gardener, as it is subject to a wide variety of diseases and pests and requires constant care and management until harvest. Children benefit from learning about nature and the plant cycle by planting tomato plants, and they can also enjoy the fruit of their own labor.
It should be cultivated under full sun, in fertile, deep, tilled, well-drained soil, enriched with organic matter and regularly irrigated. It appreciates mild climates and is quite demanding in fertility. Under conditions of high humidity and heat, it becomes very susceptible to pests and diseases. It requires specific management such as transplanting, hilling, pruning, staking, and tying. It multiplies easily by seeds sown in seedbeds or directly in the final location. It takes about 110 days from planting to harvest in the summer.
