Crop Management and Production of Tomatoes

The tomato is a major vegetable crop that has achieve tremendous popularity over the last century. It is grown in practically every country of the world - in outdoor fields, greenhouses and nethouses. The tomato plant is very versatile and the crop can be divided into two categories; fresh market tomatoes, which we are concerned with and processing tomatoes, which are grown only outdoors for the canning industry and mechanically harvested.

Cultivation Methods

Determinate and semi-determinate tomatoes and fresh market tomatoes in the outdoor fields are grown either with determinate bush tomato varieties, (which grow on the ground without staking), or with semi-determinate varieties using the stake and string method. The latter method involves the use of wooden stakes placed within the row of plants and running a number of parallel pieces of string or wire from stake to stake and trapping the new growth of the plant between the strings. This keeps the plants in an upright position preventing the fruit from touching the ground.

Determinate tomatoes require very little plant care and have a predetermined number of clusters, which is not very high. Their yields and quality are usually not very high but the inputs are very low. This type of crop is more popular in developing countries where prices are lower and quality is not a major concern. Semideterminate varieties usually grow to a height between 1 - 2 metres and have more clusters and hence yield than the determinate varieties. The quality is much better because the tomatoes do not lie on the ground. However, neither method involves the removal of side shoots, while the semideterminants require only a minimum of leaf removal. In both of these types the fruit is irregular in shape. i.e. They are more beefsteak than round in shape.

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