PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY OF TOMATO

Production technology of Tomato

Botanical name: Solanum lycopersicum

Family: Solanaceae

Chromosomal number: 2n=24

Origin: Peruvian and Mexican regions

  • Tomato is one of the most popular and widely grown vegetable in world.
  • Tomato seeds contain 24% of oil is used as salad oil and in the manufacture of margarine.
  • Green tomatoes are also used for pickles and preserves.
Pigments:

  • Red color is due to lycopene.
  •  Yellow color is due to carotenoid
  • Tangerine is due to pro-lycopene.

Distribution:

  • Evidences first tomato cultivation was compiled and evaluated by Jenkins(1948).
  • Cultivated tomato originated from Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia. 
  • Domesticated place of tomato lies in Mexico.
  • From Mexico is distributed to Spain, Europe, Britain,France etc.
Uses:

  • Tomato is one of the versatile crop in the world because of its fast and wide climatic adaption and it is universally treated as "protective food".
  • The pulp and juice are digestible mild apparent,a promoter of gastric secretion and blood purifier.
  • Its ripe fruits are utilized on a large scale in the preparation of a variety of processed products, such as puree, paste, ketchup, sauce, soup, syrup, juice, drinks, and canned whole peeled fruits.

Health benefits:

Health benefits of eating tomatoes are,

  • Control blood pressure
  • Good for heart
  • Make bones stronger
  • Cure constipation & indigestion
  • Manage Diabetes
  • Good for Vision
  • Prevents urinary tract infections 
  • Good for Skin

Foreign exchange:

  • According to NHB,leading tomato producing states are - AP, KN,MP, Orissa, Gujarat.
  • Pune, Bangalore, Nasik and Amaravati are major exporting areas.
  • The European markets prefers red color, cherry tomato.
  • The Gulf markets prefers oval/ round, medium sized fruits

Classification:

   Botanical classification of cultivated tomato according to fruit shape and plant spread by Bailey (1949).
  1. L.esculentum. var. commune-common round tomato
  2. L.esculentum. var.grandifolium - potato leaves type
  3. L.esculentum. var. cerasiformae - small fruit, cherry like appearance 
  4. L.esculentum. var. validum - upright tomato
  5. L.esculentum. var. pyriformae - pear shaped tomato

Botanical Description:

  • Cultivated tomato is an annual herb
  • Stem : Growth habit is erect.Plant height is 2-4 m. The stem is solid, coarse, hairy and glandular.
  • Roots : Tap root system having depth of 50cm or more.
  • Leaf : Leaves are compound pinnatifid with small leaflet. The petiole is long clasping. The main leaflet is shortly stalked,5 to 7cm long, ovate to oblong with margin irregularly toothed.
  • Fruits : Fleshy berry, globular to oblate in shape and 2-15 cm in diameter. The immature fruit is green and hairy.Ripe fruits range from yellow,orange to red.
  • Seed : Numerous, kidney or pear shaped. They are hairy, light brown 3-5mm long and 2-4 mm wide
  • Flower : Fowers are pendent,perfect,hypogynous.
Tomato flower
According to the growth habit,tomato is characterized by two types Determinate type and Indeterminate
 Determinate type 
  • Bushy in nature
  • Self topping occurs
  • Flower cluster occurs at every node
  • Early maturity 
  • Staking is no required.
Indeterminate type 
  • Erect in nature
  • Self topping doesn't occurs
  • flower cluster at every 3 rd node
  • Late maturity 
  • Staking is required.

VARIETIES:

 Selection of varities based on
  • High yield.
  • Free from cracking.
  • Disease resistance
  • High percentage of no. of fruits
  • Good shelf life & TSS.
IARI varieties 
  • Pusa Ruby- Indeterminate, flat fruits (IARI)
  • Pusa Gaurav- Good for processing (IARI)
  • Pusa red plum- Table variety, determinate (IARI)
  • Pusa early dwarf- Suitable for kharif and rabi(IARI)
IIHR varieties 
  • Arka Saurabh- Semideterminate, round fruits; good keeping quality (IIHR)
  • Arka Vikas- High yielding table variety
  • Arka Ahuti- Oblong fruits, TSS 5.4% (IIHR)
  • Arka Ashish- Determinate oval fruits; tolerant to DM (IIHR)
  • Arka Abha- Determinate; bacterial wilt resistant (IIHR) 
  • Arka Meghali- Rainfed' thick flesh.(IIHR)
TNAU varieties
  • Co-1- Semi spreading dwar, fruits in cluster (TNAU)
  • Co-2- Mutant of Co-1.
HAU varieties
  • Hisar Arun- Extremely early, large fruits (HAU)
  • Hisar Lalima- Determinate, early, ;large fruit (HAU)
  • Hisar Lalit- Semi determinate, root-knot nematode tolerant(HAU)
  • Hisar Anmol- Tolerant to leaf curl virus, determinate (HAU)
  • HS 101- Determinate; dwarf spreading, good for winter season(HAU)
varieties resistant to abiotic stresses:
  • Pusa Sheetal - low temperature
  • Pusa hybrid 1- High temperature.
  • Pusa Sadabahar - high and low temperature region.
Varieties suitable for processing - Arka ahuti, Arka Sourabh, Arka Ashish
Varieties resistant to ToLCV - Nandi, Sankranti, Vaibhav, Arka Rakshak 
Varieties resistant to bacterial wilt - Arka alok, Arka Abha, Arka shresta, Arka abhijith 
Variety suitable for nematode resistace: Arka Vardana

Hybrids : Arka Ananya,Arka Rakshak,Arka Samrat

Climate:

  • Warm season crop.
  • Optimum temperature required for its cultivation is 20°C-24° c
  • Optimum temperature of 15°C -20°C for fruit setting.
  • The temperature below 16°C and above 27° C are not desirable.

Soil:

  • All types of soil
  • Sandy loam rich in organic matter is preferable.
  • pH :6.0 - 7.0
  • To control phytophthora,pythium - methyl bromide or formalin are drenched in soil
Seed rate :
  • Variety: 300 - 400 g/ha
  • Hybrid:125 - 175 g/ha

Time of planting:

Tomato can be grown in any season as it is a day neutral plant. Three crops are taken in areas which are not affected by frost.
  • Kharif crop transplanted in July,
  • Rabi in October-November months.
Seed treatment:
 Seeds are treated with captan or thiram or Cereson 2g / kg of seed

Season:
Seed sowing in the plains is done thrice during the year.
  • For rainy to autumn crops - June to July.
  • For autumn to winter crops - September to October
  • For spring to summer crops - January to February 
  • In hills the seeds sowing depend upon the elevation of the place.
  • On lower hills, seeds are sown at Feb-March while on the higher hills in the months of March and April.

Land preparation and Planting:

  • FYM @25t /ha is applied before the last ploughing.
  • Neem cake @ 100 kg is applied before last ploughing.
  • Raised beds of 120 cm width.
Nursery bed Preparation:
  • The land is first ploughed with soil turning plough followed by 4-5 ploughings with country plough or harrow.
  • Leveling should be done after ploughing and bring the soil into fine tilth and also provide better drainage facilities.
  • At the time of soil preparation, raising the planting bed above ground level facilitates drainage during rainy season.
Mulching:
  • It is used to increase the temperature.
  • It Suppress weed growth and conserve soil moisture.
  • Organic mulches like straw can reduce the soil temperature during summer season.
  • Plastics are used to increase the soil temperature during winter season for maintaining the optimum temperature which is required for good growth, flowering, fruiting and quality of tomato

Planting:

  • 25-30 days old are ready for transplanting.
  • Spacing - 60cm × 45cm
  • No.of plants - 14814 plants/ acre
  • The transplanting of seedlings are done in January-February and July-august for taking two crops in a year.
  • In high hills -March-October.
  • Low pressure drip irrigation system can also be used for green house tomato cultivation.

Irrigation:

  • Water requirement of crop : 600-700mm/ha
  • Frequent irrigation is essential for plant growth, fruiting and yield. 
  • The crop should be irrigated daily.
  • However during summer more irrigation is required due to higher surface evaporation.
  • Drip system is highly economical and produces quality tomato.

Cultural Practices :

Weed control:
  • Two hand hoeing in the first and third fortnight after transplanting and an earthing up operation during the seasonal fortnight.
  • Application of pre emergence herbicides like metribuzin at 0.35kg/ha, fluchloraline 1.25kg/ha controls the weed population and increases the yield of tomato.
Staking:
  • In case of indeterminate varieties, the yield and quality of fruit is improved by staking the plants with wooden sticks/polythene threads. 
  • Staking not only increases the yield and improve its quality but also reduces the infection by fungal diseases.
Training systems:
  • Single stem
  • Two stem
  • Three stem
  • Spacing: 60 x 45 cm
Pruning:
  • Start pruning 30DAT
  • Prune the plants to two stems by removing the lateral suckers
  • Helps maintain balance between vegetative growth and fruit production 
  • Perform every 8-10 days

Harvesting:

  • Harvesting of tomato fruits is carried out either at breaker stage or at half red depending upon the market preference.
  • First harvest starts at 60 days after planting.

Maturity indices:

  • Tomatoes progress from completely green in the first stage of maturity to more than 90% of the tomato surface being red in the sixth and final stage of maturity.
  • Tomato harvest begins in the second stage when there is a break of color from green to tannish-yellow covering less than 10% of the tomato surface.

Grading:

Tomato fruits are graded based on
  • Colour 
  • Size
  • Degree of ripening/stage of maturity
Pack the fruits separately according to grade before sending them to market.
The Bureau of Indian standards has specified four grades, viz. super A, super, fancy and commercial.

Storage:

  • The tomato can be stored in low temperature and evaporative cool storage.
  • The best storage temperature is from 12° C to 15° C.
  • The recommended relative humidity is 85-90 %per cent.
  • Tomato can be stored under normal conditions for 7-10 days.
Yield:
Generally most of the varieties are ready for first picking in 75- 85 DAT.
  • Open field - 50 tonnes/ha
  • Green house - 150 tonnes

Plant protection <<<tap it for physiological disorders, pest and disease 

Cultivation technology of Tomato
 Reference

Textbook of vegetable crops by Prem nath k.R.M.swamy
Vegetable science by D.singh