Everett
The tomato plant is native to western South America, specifically the region encompassing present-day Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and northern Chile. The earliest evidence of tomato cultivation dates to around 500 BC in what is now modern-day Mexico.
Spanish conquistadors encountered tomatoes during their expeditions to the Americas and introduced them to Europe. Initially, Europeans cultivated tomatoes as ornamental plants. It was believed that they possessed aphrodisiac properties, and the fruit’s vibrant colors made it an attractive addition to gardens. However, eventually tomatoes began to gain culinary popularity.
Tomatoes arrived in North America during the 18th century. Thomas Jefferson grew tomatoes at his Monticello estate in Virginia, helping to popularize their cultivation in the country. However, tomatoes were still met with skepticism in some parts of North America, with some considering them to be poisonous or unfit for consumption. Advances in scientific understanding helped to erode these myths and tomatoes today are found in grocery stores and in most home gardens.
From 500 BC to today growing tomatoes is a relatively easy vegetable to grow. However, this past growing season in northern, Ohio has given us many challenges. Besides the normal insect and disease issues, we faced a multitude of environmental challenges.
Below is some of the challenges I faced in my garden, which was echoed across Wood County.
Normally tomato plants have a taproot that extends vertically into the soil. From the taproot, lateral fibrous roots branch out, spreading horizontally across the soil profile. At the microscopic level, the root surface is covered with tiny root hairs. Root hairs play a crucial role in facilitating the uptake of water and nutrients from the soil. Root hair densities in tomato plants range from approximately 100 to 500 root hairs per square millimeter of root surface area.
I enjoy growing the large beef type tomatoes. Late April and May we had almost ideal weather conditions for growing our young tomato plants. After transplanting, staking the plants, fertilizing, and removing suckers the plants were growing quite nicely. This is when the problems started.
Late May I added additional dry granular fertilizer. Of course, I became distracted and did not incorporate the fertilizer around the outer edge of the plants. That night we had a nice soaking rain that moved the fertilizer next to the stem where the majority of the young root hairs are. This in turn burned off the hairs and within two days the tomato plants collapsed. With close monitoring and care the tomato plants recovered. This disaster caused a loss of several weeks production time.
Late June to early July with recovered plants they began flowering. This is when problem number two started. During that period, we were experiencing our first of several occurrences of 90 degree+ temperatures. Did you know the flowers pollen becomes sterile at temperatures above 93F. This caused the blossoms to abort and fall from the plant. Had to wait for cooler temperatures for blossom set, another loss of two weeks production time.
It is now late July with finally young tomatoes forming on the plants. The second week of August problem number three started. Some of the tomatoes started to show the dreaded symptoms of Blossom End Rot. While low calcium in fruit is the cause, the real culprit is often drought. Without a steady supply of water, the tiny root hairs dry out, which limits the amount of calcium the plants can absorb and supply to developing fruit. Even though I was supplementing watering with a drip irrigation system, I was not watering enough to compensate for the wicking action of the adjacent dry soil. To solve this problem, I stepped upped the irrigation practices. Estimated tomato crop yield loss around 10%. This is on top of the already yield loss of the other two issues.
Late August early September was when problem number four started. The remaining tomatoes were not ripening. The temperature for ripening tomatoes is 70 to 75F. When temperatures exceed 85 to 90 F, the ripening process slows significantly or even stops. At these temperatures, lycopene and carotene, pigments responsible for giving the fruit their typical orange to red appearance cannot be produced. As a result, the fruit can stay in a mature green phase for quite some time. Finally Mid-September the tomatoes started to ripen.
I am thankful we did not receive a frost, as I began the harvest toward the end of September. During harvest I dealt with problem number five Fruit Cracking. Cracks can be described as openings that radiate from the stem end and move downward, and circular those that form rings around the stem end of the fruit. The cracks were caused by insufficient moisture and high temperatures during fruit development.
