 |  | Better Farming Series 19 - Market Gardening (FAO - INADES, 1977, 56 p.) | ||
 |  | Tomatoes | ||
|  | How to grow tomatoes | ||
| | Tomatoes must be well tended | ||
| | Guard against snails, insects and diseases | ||
| | Harvesting | ||
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54. Tomatoes grow well in a hot and dry climate.
Damp air and rain encourage diseases, especially blight.
In regions where the air is very damp, it is best to grow tomatoes in the dry season.
Some varieties widely grown in Africa are shown in the picture.
Prepare the soil well
55. Tomato roots go deep down into the soil. Tomatoes therefore need a deep soil. If you want to grow tomatoes, you must first till fairly deeply.
But this deep soil must not retain water. If there is too much water, the roots cannot breathe and they rot. When tilling, mix manure and fertilizers into the soil. The manure must be well decomposed. Apply especially potassium and phosphate fertilizers.
Ask the extension services how much fertilizer to apply.
Varieties of tomato
Tomatoes must be sown in nursery beds
56. Buy selected seeds. In most cases, these seeds have already been disinfected. Seeds that are not disinfected are more easily attacked by certain diseases.
If the seeds you buy have not yet been disinfected, mix the seeds with a powder. Ask the extension services which powder to use.
57. Disinfect the soil of the nursery beds with boiling water.
The soil must be very fine and well firmed in depth.
58. Sow the seeds in rows, leaving 10 centimetres between rows.
Do not push the seeds into the soil, merely cover them up with a little earth.
Water twice a day.
Make a shelter like the one shown on page 19.
When the seedlings have come up and begin to grow remove surplus seedlings
If the plants are to grow well, they must not get in each other's way and must not be too close together. At the same time, remove weeds.
59. Transplanting
Prepare the soil of the tomato beds several weeks before transplanting.
Work manure into the earth.
Put stakes in the beds. The
stakes should be fairly strong and about 1.5 metres high.
Leave 50 centimetres between rows and 40 centimetres between plants.
Transplant your tomato seedlings 5 or 6 weeks after sowing.
Water the soil of the nursery beds so as to get the seedlings out more easily. Then the roots will not be damaged.
It is very important not to damage the roots.
Transplant the seedlings at once; they must not dry out in the sun.
It is best to transplant in the evening, when the sun is not hot.
Dig a hole at the base of each stake. Lean the seedlings a little sideways, so that you can cover the roots well with earth. Then many adventitious roots will grow.
The seedlings are planted
Pack the earth down well around each tomato seedling, and water it.
Make a shelter.
When the plant has grown to a height of 4a centimetres, tie it to the stake with raffia.
Keep some seedlings in the nursery bed to replace any seedlings you have transplanted which do not grow.
Tomato
plant
60. Watering
Water very often.
Be careful not to pour water on the leaves and fruit; then, tomato blight will develop less easily.
Mulching
Cover the soil between the plants with cut herbage or leaves.
Like that the soil remains fresh and loose, and the weeds grow less easily.
When you water, the earth does not make the leaves and fruits so dirty.
But the mulch must not be too thick, otherwise it might prevent the soil from breathing.
Weeding
Remove weeds very often. Weeds take the nourishment of the tomatoes out of the soil.
When you are cultivating, remove snails and insects. Take out and burn plants that are diseased or have been spoilt by pests.
Replace the diseased plants you remove by seedlings from the nursery beds.
Pruning
Tomato plant with shoots
The shoots are removed
61. Tomato plants grow very quickly.
They put up many branches, and then the fruits come late and are small. The
leaves and fruits are easily attacked by diseases.
Remove the buds which show between the leaf and the stem.
Keep only one or two main stems with their leaves and flowers.
Prune once or twice a month. If you do not prune often enough, the fruits grow more slowly and are smaller.
With quick- growing varieties, keep only one main stem.
Keep only one main stem
Do not prune before the tomato plant has two flowers and one leaf above the second flower.
Cut the top of the stem above the leaf. Two shoots will form: leave only one of them.
The bud develops into a new stem. Wait until two flowers form on that stem, and then cut it back in the same way as the first stem.
With slow- growing varieties, keep two main stems.
Keep two main stems
Do not prune before the tomato plant has two flowers and one leaf above the second flower.
Cut the top of the stem above the leaf. Two shoots will form: leave them both.
The two shoots develop into two main stems; cut them both back in the same way as the first stem.
62. Snails eat the stems and leaves of tomato plants. Pick them up and remove them often.
Tomatoes are attacked by many diseases on all parts of the planton the roots, stems, leaves and fruits. Ask advice from the extension services on how to recognize and treat tomato diseases.
Some diseases of tomatoes
|
Disease and symptoms |
Treatment |
|
Alternaria: Brown or black spots on fruits and leaves |
Treat seedlings when young, after transplanting, with copper based products, or Maneb or Zineb |
|
Bacterial canker |
Always disinfect soil and seeds pull up and burn diseased plants. |
|
Fusarium wilt |
Good rotation. |
|
Tomato blight: Grey or black spots on leaves and fruits |
Treat plants every day with products based on copper, Maneb or Zineb. |
|
Verticillium wilt |
Good rotation. |
|
Mosaic |
Do not grow tomatoes next to cucumbers, potatoes or tobacco, which may have the same diseases. |
3. Pick your tomatoes only when they are quite ripe, red all over. Tomatoes that are picked only when they are quite ripe are heavier and sweeter, and sell at a good price.
Tomatoes are very delicate fruits:
- Do not drop them.
- Do not bruise them by handling them roughly.
- Do not pile too many of them on top of each other.
It is best to pick tomatoes during the day, when they are not wet. Wet tomatoes do not keep well.
Sort your tomatoes: do not leave perfect tomatoes next to damaged tomatoes.
If you grow your tomatoes well, you can produce 20 to 40 kilogrammes for every bed of 10 square metres.
If you grow your tomatoes
well
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