Tomato

The wild species originated in the Andes Mountains of South America, probably mainly in Peru and Ecuador, and is thought to have been domesticated in pre-Columbian Mexico; its name is derived from the Náhuatl (Aztec) word “tomatl”. The tomato, along with corn, potatoes, chilli peppers and sweet potatoes was introduced to Europe in the early sixteenth century with the voyages of Columbus. In France and northern Europe, the tomato was initially grown as an ornamental plant and was regarded with suspicion as a food because botanists recognized it as a relative of the poisonous belladonna and deadly nightshade. Indeed, the roots and leaves of the tomato plant are poisonous and contain the neurotoxin solanine. Tomatoes were introduced to North America from Europe. The tomato was used for food in Louisiana as early as 1812, but not in the northeastern states until about 1835. It did not attain widespread popularity in the United States until the early 20th century. The plant is now grown commercially throughout the world.

The cultivated tomato, (Solanum lycopersicum), is the world’s most highly consumed vegetable due to its status as a basic ingredient in a large variety of raw, cooked, or processed foods. It belongs to the family Solanaceae, which includes several other commercially important species like potato, pepper, eggplant.  This crop plant can be perennial or semi-perennial, but commercially it is considered an annual.

The growth habit of the plant varies from indeterminate to determinate. The primary root may grow several meters in length. The stem is angular and covered by hairy and glandular trichomes that confer a characteristic smell. Leaves are alternately arranged on the stem and range in shape from lobed to compound. All leaves are covered by glandular, hairy trichomes.

The tomato fruit is globular or ovoid. Botanically, the fruit is a berry, a simple fleshy fruit that encloses seeds in the pulp.

Tomatoes undergo four main stages of growth during their life:

  • Seed germination: the first stage is of course the seed sprouting, but tomato is transplanting at the beginning of the cultivation. It means that growers buy young plants ready for transplanting from specialized nursery which guarantee high quality plants.
  • Vegetative stage: during this stage most of the tomato plant’s energy is directed toward forming strong roots and leaves. The stem will get stronger to support the increasing weight of the leaves.
  • Flowering stage: tomato plant will begin to develop its first set of flowers. Determinate tomato plants are ones where the plant bears all its fruit at once. After flowering, these plants will generally stop growing new leaves. Indeterminate tomato varieties will continue to grow taller, produce new leaves, and set additional flowers even after this stage of growth.
  • Fruiting stage: at this stage flower petals die back and the tomato fruit begins to swell. Tomato fruit starts out with green color and will retain this color until it reaches full size. When the fruit attains full size, it will begin to ripen. The first sign of ripening occurs at the bottom of the fruit or the blossom end.

Tomato is a perennial herbaceous plant, but it is often grown as an annual crop even if biennial and perennial forms exist. Tomato is cultivated in tropical and temperate climates in open field or under greenhouse in temperate climate. Greenhouses are often used for large-scale production. In warm climate with the right light intensity for growth, around 45 days are necessary from germination to anthesis and 90-100 days to reach beginning of fruit ripeness. The end use of the crop, whether for the processing market or fresh market, will determine the cultivars sown, the time of harvest and harvest processes, which can be manual or mechanical. Tomato is a rapidly growing crop with a growing period of 90 to 150 days. It is a daylength neutral plant. Optimum mean daily temperature for growth is 18 (64.4 °F) to 25°C (77 °F) with night temperatures between 10 (50 °F) and 20°C (68 °F). Larger differences between day and night temperatures, however, adversely affect yield. The crop is very sensitive to frost. Temperatures above 25°C (77 °F), when accompanied by high humidity and strong wind, result in reduced yield. Night temperatures above 2O°C (68 °F) accompanied by high humidity and low sunshine lead to excessive vegetative growth and poor fruit production. Tomato can be grown on a wide range of soils but a well-drained, prefer deep, well-drained sandy loams.

Tomato cultivation requests adequate fertilization: it is very important to avoid excesses or deficiencies of nutrients. This crop requires high amounts of potassium and calcium. The organic fertilization is very useful because bringing nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, Magnesium, Calcium, trace elements, organic matter, it favors the good development and the health of the plants. It also helps to improve poor and tired soils and to avoid excess of salinity in the soil, which is the main problem with chemical fertilizers. Tomato absorbs large quantity of Potassium which influences the final quality of fruits. The Phosphorous favors roots growth in the early stages, and vegetative plant growth in addition to play an important role in fruit development. It is requested at the very first stage of the tomato development and more specifically in an organic form to avoid any insolubility issues. Nitrogen is required to obtain both good quantitative and qualitative results. It is recommended to bring nitrogen under organic form before transplanting and a further application at later stage. Calcium is useful to improve the firmness and the shelf life of tomatoes and to prevent apical rot. Boron applications ensure good fruit set, higher number of fruits and better fruit weight. Boron also has a positive effect on fruit quality and shelf life.

The crop also benefits from the application of products with a biostimulant action, based on beneficial microorganisms and vegetable protein hydrolysates. These products are able root development in the early stages, to improve the availability of nutrients in the soil, to increase the yield from a quantitative and qualitative standpoint and to reduce the negative impact of climatic stresses. The application of biostimulants increases the environmental and economic sustainability of the production system.

Sample Fertilization Plan

Hello Nature tomato before transplanting

Before ploughing

Improve soil fertility (chemical, physical and biological)
Improve soil fertility (chemical, physical and biological)
Hello Nature TIFIMAX
Trichoderma improve roots biostimulation and enhance plant resistance (strenghten Plants) Repeat at transplantation.
Improve the roots development
Improve the roots development. Repeat at transplantation.
Hello Nature tomato transplanting

Transplantation

Enhance nutrient availability and provide useful bacteria
Increase growth and yield and improve Nutrients use efficiency
Increase growth and yield and improve Nutrients use efficiency. Repeat at vegetative growth.
Prevent/cure micronutrients deficiency and biostimulant action
Hello Nature tomato vegetative growth

Vegetative growth

Prevent/cure micronutrients deficiency and biostimulant action
Prevent/cure iron deficiency
Prevent/cure iron deficiency and biostimulant action
Nutritional action and increase the endogenous resistance to disease and abiotic stress
Nutritional action and increase the endogenous resistance to abiotic stress. Repeat at flowering.
Increase yield and quality
Hello Nature tomato flowering

Flowering

Providing a balance of Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium
Nutritional action and increase the endogenous resistance to disease and abiotic stress
Increase yield and quality
Increase the fruit setting and final quality of berries
Increase yield and quality
Increase yield and quality
Hello Nature tomato fruit development

Fruit development

Increase growth and yield and improve Nutrients use efficiency
Increase growth and yield and improve Nutrients use efficiency
Prevent/cure micronutrients deficiency and biostimulant action. Repeat at ripening.
Prevent/cure iron deficiency
Prevent/cure iron deficiency and biostimulant action. Repeat at ripening.
Prevent physiological disorders, increase skin resistance
Prevent apical rot and improves the quality and shelf life of fruits. Repeat at ripening.
Hello Nature tomato ripening

Ripening

Nutritional action and increase the endogenous resistance to disease and abiotic stress
Nutritional action and increase the endogenous resistance to abiotic stress
Providing a balance of Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium
Nutritional action and increase the endogenous resistance to disease and abiotic stress
Increase yield and quality
Increase yield and quality

Request a fertilization plan

Some products may not be available in your region. Reach out to a sales rep to get a fertilization plan that fits your needs.

PRODUCT BENEFITS

Organic fertilization provides organic matter and plant essential nutrients to the soil. It is important to reduce the necessity of repeated application of synthetic fertilizers to maintain soil fertility. For this reason, it is important to use organic fertilizers in pre-sowing, capable of improving the physical, chemical, and biological fertility of the soil and sustain growth and development of tomato plants. ITALPOLLINA is the ideal solution for organic fertilization of tomato before plantation. ITALPOLLINA releases a great quantity of organic matter which improves the soil structure and activates the micro-organisms, reducing soil exhaustion.

Nutrients in the soil are often unavailable for plants but specific bacteria are able to solubilize mineral elements and make them available for plant uptake. Besides, vegetal protein hydrolysates can modify the microbiome on plant tissues increasing the microbial biodiversity and especially plant growth promoting bacteria. GLYSS is a new generation plant biostimulant based on the combination of beneficial bacteria and vegetal protein hydrolysates including Plant Stimulating Peptides (PSP) enriched with Lateral Root Promoting Peptide (LRPP). GLYSS enhancing nutrient availability and providing useful bacteria increases the yield and quality, with positive impact also on soil biodiversity.

As a first line of defense, nutritional status of crops is directly involved in plant health. Some nutrients and organic compounds like vegetal peptides are able to increase endogenous resistance and tolerance against abiotic stresses, nowadays more and more frequent and aggravated by climate change. TIFI is a product with a very high concentration of propagules of Trichoderma atroviride Hello Nature’s strain (MUCL45632), which enhances plant growth and prevent stress. POSPHIT-ONE is a NPK fertilizer enriched with vegetal peptides ideal to feed the plant and trigger the natural endogenous resistance. SCUDO is a liquid fertilizer with copper and vegetal peptides able to prevent/cure copper deficiency helps plant to overcome rapidly the stress induced by nutritional imbalances and unfavorable environmental conditions.

Nowadays, sustainable fertilization management is essential to increase the overall performance of cropping systems by providing economically optimum nourishment to the crop while minimizing nutrient losses from the field and supporting agricultural system sustainability by increasing Nutrient Use Efficiency (NUE). NUE is directly linked to the crop yield and generally defined as the yield of harvestable product per unit of nutrient available from the soil and fertilizer. AQUAMIN containing vegetal peptides, which we called Plant Stimulating peptides, improves NUE by enhancing both the uptake and utilization efficiency of nutrients. For instance, promoting the fine root growth, stimulating root enzymes involved in nutrient uptake, or upregulating genes encoding for enzymes involved in plant assimilation of inorganic nutrients such as nitrates.
The microelements are absorbed by plants in reduced quantities, but they are nevertheless essential to achieve adequate levels of quantity and quality of agricultural production. Lack of micronutrients in the soils is very common​ and their availability can be disrupted by antagonistic relationships between soil nutrients, or soil pH. Micronutrient deficiency can strongly affect crop productivity​. Providing micronutrients is the solution to allow the expression of the maximum productive potential of the crops. KEYLAN Max is an innovative product containing a complete cocktail of micronutrients. Cation elements are fully biochelated with peptides, making them completely available for plant uptake.
The prevention of the apical rot of the tomato begins with a good knowledge of the causes that can determine it. This physiopathy, also known by the English term of blossom end rot (BER), is quite common in the cultivation of tomato. It presents itself as a lesion in the apex of the berry (distal). The damaged part takes on a variable color from gray to black, which subsequently assumes an opaque (greyish) appearance and finally necrotizes assuming an intense black color. This area, in the advanced stage of tomato ripening (which is accelerated), becomes depressed and leathery. This physiopathy is caused mainly by a lack of calcium (Ca). KEYLAN Ca is an innovative product containing Calcium biochelated to Vegetal peptides. Effectively prevents apical rot of tomato fruits and improves their quality and shelf life.

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