TOMATO FARM

 TOMATO FARM

The tomato is grown worldwide for its edible fruits, with thousands of cultivars.[38] A fertilizer with an NPK ratio of 5-10-10 is often sold as tomato fertilizer or vegetable fertilizer, although manure and compost are also used.

PRODUCTION

In 2014, world production of tomatoes was 170.8 million tonnes, with China accounting for 31% of the total, followed by India, the United States and Turkey as the major producers (table).In 2014, tomatoes accounted for 23% of the total fresh vegetable output of the European Union, with more than half of this total coming from Spain, Italy and Poland.In 2013, global tomato exports were valued at 88 billion US dollars.

VARIETIES
For a more comprehensive list, see List of tomato cultivars.There are around 7,500 tomato varieties grown for various purposes[citation needed] having been selected with varying fruit types, and for optimum growth in differing growing conditions.
Tomato varieties can be divided into categories based on shape and size.[citation needed]
    Beefsteak tomatoes are 10 cm (4 in) or more in diameter, often used for sandwiches and similar applications. Their kidney-bean shape, thinner skin, and shorter shelf life makes commercial use impractical.
    Plum tomatoes, or paste tomatoes (including pear tomatoes), are bred with a lower water /higher solids content for use in tomato sauce and paste, for canning and sauces and are usually oblong 7–9 cm (3–4 in) long and 4–5 cm (1.6–2.0 in) diameter; like the Roma-type tomatoes, important cultivars in the Sacramento Valley.    Cherry tomatoes are small and round, often sweet tomatoes, about the same 1–2 cm (0.4–0.8 in) size as the wild tomato.    Grape tomatoes are smaller and oblong, a variation on plum tomatoes.
    Campari tomatoes are sweet and noted for their juiciness, low acidity, and lack of mealiness, bigger than cherry tomatoes, and smaller than plum tomatoes.Tomberries, tiny tomatoes, about 5 mm in diameter    Oxheart tomatoes can range in size up to beefsteaks, and are shaped like large strawberries.[citation needed    Pear tomatoes are pear-shaped and can be based upon the San Marzano types for a richer gourmet paste.[citation needed]    "Slicing" or "globe" tomatoes are the usual tomatoes of commerce, used for a wide variety of processing and fresh eating.[citation needed] The most widely grown commercial tomatoes tend to be in the 5–6 cm (2.0–2.4 in) diameter range.Tomatoes are also classified as determinate or indeterminate. Determinate, or bush, types bear a full crop all at once and top off at a specific height; they are often good choices for container growing. Determinate types are preferred by commercial growers who wish to harvest a whole field at one time, or home growers interested in canning. Indeterminate varieties develop into vines that never top off and continue producing until killed by frost. They are preferred by home growers and local-market farmers who want ripe fruit throughout the season. As an intermediate form, there are plants sometimes known as vigorous determinate or semi-determinate; these top off like determinates, but produce a second crop after the initial crop. The majority of heirloom tomatoes are indeterminate, although some determinate heirlooms exist.[citation needed]Early tomatoes and cool-summer tomatoes bear fruit even where nights are cool, which usually discourages fruit set.[citation needed] There are varieties high in beta carotenes and vitamin A, hollow tomatoes and tomatoes that keep for months in storage.[citation needed] In 1973, Israeli scientists developed the world's first long shelf-life commercial tomato varieties.[44][full citation needed][better source needed]Heirloom tomatoes are becoming[when?] increasingly popular, particularly among home gardeners and organic producers[where?], since they tend to produce more interesting and flavorful crops at the cost of disease resistance and productivity.[43] The definition of an heirloom tomato is vague, but unlike commercial hybrids, all are self-pollinators that have bred true for 40 years or more. Quite a few seed merchants and banks provide a large selection of heirloom seeds.[43] Home cultivars are often bred for flavor to the exclusion of all other qualities, while commercial cultivars are bred for factors like consistent size and shape, disease and pest resistance, suitability for mechanized picking and shipping, and ability to ripen after picking.[citation needed] Hybrid plants remain common[where?], since they tend to be heavier producers, and sometimes combine unusual characteristics of heirloom tomatoes with the ruggedness of conventional commercial tomatoes.[citation needed]Most modern tomato cultivars are smooth surfaced, but some older tomato cultivars and most modern beefsteaks show pronounced ribbing, a feature that may have been common to virtually all pre-Columbian cultivars.[citation needed] While virtually all commercial tomato varieties are red, some cultivars – especially heirlooms – produce fruit in green, yellow, orange, pink, black, brown, ivory, white, and purple. Such fruits are not widely available in grocery stores, nor are their seedlings available in typical nurseries, but they can be bought as seed. Variations include multicolored fruit with stripes (Green Zebra), fuzzy skin on the fruit (Fuzzy Peach, Red Boar), multiple colors (Hillbilly, Burracker's Favorite, Lucky Cross), etc.