Tomatoes are grown in many countries and are an ingredient in many dishes. They produce tomato paste, tomato juice, ketchups and sauces. In Eastern Europe, tomatoes are classified as vegetables, primarily focusing on their taste, but far from all countries consider tomato to be a vegetable crop. Consider how to properly qualify a tomato, get acquainted with its description, useful and harmful properties, how to choose it when buying and how to grow it.

What is a tomato: berry, fruit or vegetable

Any nerd will confidently say that a tomato is a multi-nested syncarp berry, because it has a juicy center with seeds and a dense skin. However, in everyday life, berries include smaller soft fruits, such as small berries (for example, currants, cranberries), some multi-roots (strawberries, strawberries) and drupes (cherries, cherries, blackberries, raspberries, viburnum). The tomato is too large, so it must be bitten off, and it does not have a very sweet taste, not used for dessert, so in Russia and many other countries it is referred to as vegetables.

Did you know? In the United States, tomatoes were recognized as vegetables in a court of law in 1893 when considering taxes on their imports. The court made such a decision on the basis that they are served as a side dish for the main dishes, and not for dessert, and grow on beds with other vegetables.

In addition, the agricultural technology of its cultivation in our latitudes is the same as that of other vegetables - tomatoes are grown as a one-year row crop. But the European Union made another decision about the tomato and carried it to the fruit, because it is a fruit with juicy pulp. This decision was made by Europeans in 2001 to regulate trade operations.This situation also happened due to the fact that in English there is no separation between the words “fruit” and “fruit”. After all, a fruit is not a biological term, but has a household or economic meaning: it differs from the same berry in that it is not eaten whole at once, but is bitten off, and taken with a few fingers, not two. From this point of view, tomatoes can easily be attributed to fruits.

Description and characteristics of the fetus

Tomato came to us from the South American continent, during its colonization by the Spaniards in the middle of the XVI century. Initially, Europeans grew tomatoes as an exotic plant, and the edibility of its fruits was in doubt. In the XVIII century, he fell into the Russian Empire, where he was first considered a decorative exotic plant, until the Russian botanist and writer A.T. Bolotov received ripe tomatoes, using seedling and ripening methods for them.

Did you know? Bolotov Andrei Timofeevich lived a long life (1738–1833) and made a huge contribution to the development of Russian agronomy. He introduced potatoes and tomatoes for cultivation in agriculture, and developed an agricultural technique for their cultivation. He advocated nutrition with products that are locally grown and not imported from other countries or regions.

The fruits of tomatoes are multi-nested berries of different round shapes (from flat to elongated cylinder). The weight of different varieties can range from 20 g to more than 1 kg. Depending on the size of the fruit, tomatoes are divided into small-fruited (up to 50 g), medium (up to 100 g) and large-fruited (from 100 g). In tomatoes, there are from 2 to 20 chambers inside the seeds and juice, and by their number the varieties are divided into small-chamber (2-3 chambers), medium-chamber (4-8), multi-chambered (more than 9). The thicker the walls of the chambers, the fatter the fruits. The color of human-grown tomatoes is mainly red, but there are varieties with yellow, orange, black, green, purple and whitish colors.

Properties of Tomatoes

Tomatoes contain few calories (18 kcal per 100 g), vitamins (C, K, E, PP, A and carotenoids, group B) and mineral elements (potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, iron, copper, zinc, manganese, fluorine ) They are champions in the content of the carotenoid lycopene, which has a pronounced antioxidant effect.

Important! In the diet of young children, it is initially recommended to include yellow varieties of tomatoes, as babies are often allergic to red colored berries. The fetus selected for the child is first washed and scalded with boiling water, and then the skin is removed.

Benefit

• Tomatoes have such useful properties:
• improve digestion;
• have antioxidant and oncoprotective effects;
• positively affect cardiovascular activity;
• strengthen the immune system;
• act like a diuretic;
• inhibit inflammatory processes;
• good effect on blood, reduce blood clots;
• cleanse the liver and lungs;
• normalize metabolism;
• useful for diabetes;
• reduce the likelihood of Alzheimer's disease;
• increase mood and help fight depression;
• useful with different diets, including baby food.

Harm

• Tomatoes should be taken with caution or discarded altogether in some cases:
• gallstones and kidney stones;
• joint ailments;
• gout;
• allergy;
• exacerbation of digestive diseases (stomach and intestinal ulcers, pancreatitis).

Canned tomatoes contain a lot of salt, and hypertensive patients should abandon their consumption by consuming fresh fruits. And if you eat too many tomatoes at a time, it will cause an intestinal upset.

Basic rules for selecting and storing tomatoes

When choosing tomatoes, you need to pay attention to some details. After all, a poor-quality product will not only have a bad taste, but can also cause damage to health. When purchasing, you must pay attention to the following:

1. Appearance. People who have a tendency to allergic reactions, it is better not to take a red vegetable. If there is a greenish spot around the stalk, then the fruit ripened after it was harvested. Such a vegetable partially loses its beneficial properties.
2. View inside. It would be nice to carefully consider such a vegetable on a slice. It should be quite juicy, not sluggish and without white veins, and the chambers should be full.
3. Ribbing. Typically, ribbed tomatoes contain the largest number of chambers. But the more cameras, the tastes are worse; in addition, such instances quickly crack.
4. Touch the tomatoes. If the vegetable is too soft, it means that it is overripe, and if it is too hard, then most likely it has not ripened. Thick peel indicates the use of nitrates in the cultivation.
5. Smell. A good quality tomato has a pleasant aroma. Unripe tomatoes do not emit aroma at all, or it is weakly expressed.

Important! Long-term storage in the refrigerator negatively affects the taste of tomatoes, so they are recommended to be stored at room temperature - for example, laying on the table. It must be ensured that direct sunlight does not fall on this product.

When storing tomatoes, you should follow these rules:

• Well-ripened specimens are stored for no more than 3 days;
• in the refrigerator in the vegetable section, the shelf life is a little longer - 7 days;
• when storing a large number of tomatoes, wooden boxes or cardboard boxes are usually used in which sawdust or straw is placed. In such a prepared container, put the vegetables with the stalk up. Moreover, each layer is covered with sawdust (straw) on top. They are stored in a well-ventilated room with an air temperature of 8–12 ° C;
• Tomatoes of small parameters are more suitable for storage than large ones.

The basic rules of growing

Deciding to start growing tomatoes in the garden or cottage, you need to consider the following:

1. The soil. This vegetable prefers slightly acidic or neutral soil. If the soil has a slight acidity, then lime should be used. In case the soil is too acidic, sulfate granules are used.
2. Lighting. You should choose a well-lit area. Tomato does not like shading.
3. Crop rotation. Do not plant tomatoes in the area where the same plant crop, as well as potatoes, previously grew.
4. Seeds. Must be purchased from trusted manufacturers. When buying them, pay attention to the expiration date. Before planting, the seed should be decontaminated.
5. Seedlings. Must be of good quality. The variety must be zoned, and also have resistance to various diseases.
6. Landing scheme. When planting seedlings in the ground, the interval between plants should be about 0.5 m, and between the lines of beds - about 1 m. Although such parameters depend on the variety.
7. Watering. They are carried out under the root with warm, settled water. Raining is unacceptable, as it can cause burns on the leaves. In dry weather, tomatoes are watered every 2-3 days. Do not allow excessive waterlogging, which can cause the appearance of fungal diseases, but do not allow the soil to dry out.
8. Loosening. Be sure to loosen the earth around the bushes after each watering. This will saturate the plant with oxygen.
9. Hilling. This process is best done during loosening - it strengthens the root system well.
10. Weeding. Weed should be removed in the area with tomatoes, as it draws moisture and nutrients on itself, contributes to the spread of diseases and pests.
11. Stepson. In the absence of molding and pinching productivity decreases. Only low-growing varieties do not need pinching, and that is not always the case.
12. Garter. Be sure to tie up the tomatoes if they are not stunted. To do this, use stakes or pull trellis. Under the weight of the fruit, as well as from gusts of wind, the bush may break.
13. Top dressing. Make them for the entire growing season should be 3-6 times. To do this, use mineral and natural (for example, manure, ash) fertilizers.
14. Grade. It is better to plant varieties of different ripening dates. In this case, fresh tomatoes will delight a long period. High yielding resistant tomatoes should be selected.
15. Diseases and Pests. If the first signs of damage to a disease or insect pests are detected, use chemical preparations or folk remedies to combat them.

Did you know? Tomatoes are grown by 25% morethan bananas and 42% - than apples. China is the leader in tomato production among all countries (16% of total production).

So, a tomato can be called a berry, and a vegetable, and a fruit. From a biological point of view, tomatoes are berries, and when solving other issues (household, commercial, agricultural), they can be classified differently.

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