Tomato Cultivation

Tomato is the largest vegetable crop and known as protective food both because of its special nutritive value and also because of its wide spread production. Tomato is one of the most important vegetable crops cultivated for its fleshy fruits. Tomato is considered as important commercial and dietary vegetable crop.  Tomato is a major vegetable frown in Pakistan, with a high production turnover. Tomato in its fresh and processed form is a kajor consumable. Recently the tomato crop has gained popularity amongst the tunnel growers because of good yield and early maturation. Both conventional and hybrid varieties are grown in the field and under the tunnel. For profitable tomato growing, awareness of management practices for insects and diseases is very important. Tomato is a rich source of minerals, vitamins and organic acids, essential amino acids and dietary fibers. Tomato is known as productive as well as protective food. It is a rich source of vitamin A and C. It also contains minerals like iron, phosphorus. Tomato contains Lycopene and Beta-carotene pigments. Due to changeable climatic conditions, there is a wide range of sowing time of tomato in Pakistan.

There are three main crops that are as under. For early crop, nursery is sown in July-August, transplanted in the field in August-September and the harvesting of the crop starts in November. Nursery is sown in September, which is transplanted in October and harvested in December/January.  Nursery is sown in mid-November, transplanted in February and the crop is harvested in May-June. 300-350 g seed is required to prepare nursery for one hectare. Seed is sown in raised beds prepared with a growing media of farm yard manure, soil and sand with the ratio of 1:1:1 and covered with thin polyethylene sheet. The seeds will germinate in 7-14 days. Remove polyethylene sheet after seed germination. The seedlings should be harvested to withstand the out-door conditions with as little shock as possible. The hardening may be accomplished by lessening water supply. The process may require 7 to 10 days. The seedlings are transplanted on the both sides of 1.5 meter wide beds with a distance of 50 cm on the rows.

The plants are irrigated just after transplanting. Irrigation with an interval of 7-8 days is recommended. The irrigation interval can be decreased from 5-6 days when weather is too hot. Irrigation water should be given with care so that beds should not be submerged into water. In case of tomato crop, high yield can be obtained only if well balanced fertilizers and manure are supplied to the plants in time. Well rotten farm yard manure should be applied at the rate of 25-30 tons per hectare, at the time of land preparation for maintaining proper physical conditions and fertility status of the soil. General recommendation for chemical fertilizers is 75 kg of nitrogen, 60 kg of phosphorus and 60 kg of potassium. Half amount of all fertilizers and full amount of farm yard manure are incorporated into the soil at time of land preparation. Remaining half amount of fertilizers is split into two doses and applied as side dressing to the plants one month after transplanting and after first picking of fruit.

The stage of ripeness at which the tomatoes are harvested depends upon the purpose for which they are grown. For canning and processing, the fruit is harvested when it is fully ripened on the vines. For local markets, it is harvested in the hard ripe and pink stages. For the distant markets, the fruit is picked in the mature green or turning pink stage. For the home use, tomato may be left on the plants until they are fully coloured. Tomatoes can be kept for storage for only a short period of 7-10 days. Fruits picked at semi-ripe stage and placed in well ventilated store with low humidity and at 1.1-2.2 °C will remain fit for human consumption for about three weeks.