Tomatoes useful properties
Tomatoes - the right vegetable for gardeners and truck farmers. You can grow low-stamping varieties, covering plants with a film in the spring or autumn, when there are frosts on the soil, or high-stamping. The fruits of the tomato have a different size, shape, color - yellow, white, red, marble, purple. There are tomatoes very small, like currants, and real giants, weighing up to 0.5 kg. The tomato is thermophilic, does not tolerate frost, loves moisture, but also dry air. Tomatoes can be grown in greenhouses.
Fruits are approximately 94% water. They contain sugars, organic acids, especially citric and malic, pectin, fiber, little protein, vitamin C about 50 mg%, carotene, vitamins B1, B2, folic acid, niacin, a little starch and minerals, especially potassium, sodium,magnesium, phosphorus, calcium, from trace elements - copper and iodine. Tomatoes contain dyes - lycopene, etc. In the plant there is a poisonous glycoside of solanine, which is more in immature and less( only traces) in ripe fruits. Immature fruits can be added to vegetable mixes and proportions not more than 20%.
Well-known field and garden crop is a herbaceous annual plant with glandular pubescence, up to 120 cm high. Root stem, branching. Stem erect, cylindrical, strongly branching. Leaves are simple, regular, pre-chaste, odd-pinnate. Flowers are regular, five-membered, yellow. Inflorescences - curl. The fruit is berry-shaped, multigested, multi-seeded, juicy. Seeds are small.
Medicinal raw materials are fruits and their juice. Tomatoes contain a large amount of potassium, carotene( up to 2 mg%), vitamin P, B complex vitamins and ascorbic acid, approaching its content to lemons and mandarins. In addition to this, tomatoes contain purines, pectin substances, fiber, citric and malic acids, and a very small amount of pituitary acid. Ascorbic acid is preserved in sufficient quantities and when canning tomatoes.
Family - Solanaceae. The homeland is tropical America, where they were cultivated by Indians long before the discovery of America. The word "tomato" comes from the ancient American( Aztec) "tomato", and the tomato is the Italian word "pomodoro", or "golden apple".Like many vegetable plants brought to Russia, tomatoes up to the middle of the XX century were used as ornamental plants - they were decorated with beds and flower beds. Tomatoes were often grown as houseplants.
In our country, tomatoes are very popular, they are composed of popular sayings, proverbs, riddles. As an example, the following can be cited: Berry red, Berry tasty, Rye and salt, Eat and praise. Tomato is an evergreen, perennial plant, in culture it is one-year old. For indoor gardening the most interesting are dwarf varieties with erect stalks 30 to 50 cm high. The leaves of the tomatoes are green, odd-numbered. In the axils of the leaves shoots( stepchildren) are formed. Inflorescence - curl Flowers are greenish-yellow from small to large. Fruit is a variety of shapes and colors( red, yellow, orange, white, light pink).Fruits contain a number of useful substances, including vitamins A, C, PP, B1;B2 and others.
♦ Accommodation. Tomatoes are a heat-loving and light-loving crop, for their room keeping the most favorable temperature is +20 - + 25 ° C, in winter it can be several degrees lower. At temperatures below + 15 ° C, plants do not bloom, but at + 10 ° C stop in growth. Therefore, in winter and late autumn, tomatoes are best placed in light, warm rooms, heated loggias, winter gardens. In the summer, we recommend placing pots with plants on the air, preferably on a balcony, terrace or garden.
♦ Care. Tomatoes are relatively drought-resistant, but at the same time the need for water is large enough. With a lack of moisture, plants in pots quickly fade. Therefore, watering should be regular, but not abundant. In winter, water should be watered at room temperature.
Substrate for indoor tomatoes: turf, peat, humus, river sand( 2: 2: 1: 1).For the cultivation of tomatoes, any other mixture with an acidity of at least pH 4.5 can be used. In the shops, flower blends are also sold, also suitable for growing tomatoes( Azalea, Begonia, Senpolia, Rosa).The main thing - the substrate for tomatoes should be loose and fertile.
There are a lot of tomato varieties, for the room conditions we recommend the following: Gribovsky 3, Low-growth, White filling, Siberian fast-track, Alpatievsky, Kostroma, Luxor, Shagane, Samara and others.
You can grow tomatoes either in a seedling or in a seedling way. However, we recommend the first one to grow tomatoes on the window. When plants have 7-8 leaves, it usually occurs 45 to 50 days after sowing the seeds, they are planted in large plastic or clay pots or beautiful buckets with a capacity of 7-10 liters. For dwarf tomatoes, containers can be about 4-5 liters in volume. Pots for 3/4 fill the substrate, and plants in them are planted 2 to 3 cm deeper than they were before transplantation. After the transplant, the plants are watered and transferred to a light window with an air temperature of +20 - +22 ° C. At night, the temperature may be lower than during the day. With the beginning of flowering and fruiting, the temperature in the premises should be increased to +23 - + 25 ° C.For normal fruiting, large temperature fluctuations are undesirable, especially
draft. When forming, 1 stalk is left on the plants, all side shoots and stepchildren are regularly removed when they reach 3-5 cm.
For normal pollination of flowers, we recommend that you shake the plants every morning or day.
Tomatoes are very sensitive to fertilizers, feeding is carried out 2-3 times a month. On sale you can find special tomato fertilizers or you can use liquid flower fertilizers "Rainbow", "Palm".When watering and top dressing, make sure that the water does not fall on the plant.
♦ Pests and diseases - with inadequate care-ale, spider mite, whitefly. Of the diseases the most harmful are powdery mildew, phytophthora, root rot, brown spotting. In room conditions, the fight against diseases is most successful only when the temperature and humidity in the rooms are observed. It is very important to remove and destroy sick plants as soon as possible.
♦ Reproduction. If you want to grow seedlings of tomatoes yourself, then it's best to seed the seeds in mid-January-early February. Before sowing, they are aged for 30-35 minutes in a weak solution of potassium permanganate( 1 g per 100 g of water) and, after washing, put for germination in a soft damp cloth laid on a saucer. As soon as the seeds come on, they are planted to a depth of 0.3 - 0.5 cm in small peat or plastic pots. The substrate for sowing seeds is the same as for growing plants. To guarantee sprouting in each pot, 3 to 5 seeds are sown and pots are placed in a warm place, it is possible for the heating battery to be placed on a small board beforehand. Maintain the substrate in a wet state. When emergence emerges, they are transferred to a bright place. To get healthy, strong seedlings with the emergence of shoots, the air temperature for 5 to 6 days is reduced to +12 - + 15 ° C in the daytime and about +10 - + 12 ° C at night. After passing this period, the temperature in the room should be in the range of +20 - + 25 ° C in the daytime and +12, * -.+ 15 ° C at night. After 5-7 days, the weakest plants are removed.
A variety of dishes is prepared from tomatoes. They are mostly eaten fresh.
Tomato puree, obtained from tomatoes, is widely used in the preparation of fish and canned meat, for filling the first dishes. They are made of pasta, sauces, gravies, ketchup.
Fresh tomato juice is the favorite vitamin drink of our population. Tomatoes marinated in Georgian, stuffed in Bulgarian and Moldovan are also widely spread.
Green tomatoes also produce delicious jam, jam, marmalade.
Selected tomatoes carefully washed, wiped with a towel. Cut the tip with a sharp knife, gently remove the flesh with the seeds. Prepared in this way, tomatoes can be stuffed in cold form with potato salad with mayonnaise, fish salad, stewed green peas.
If you want to cook stuffed tomatoes as a hot dish, they put a mixture of rice with mushrooms, smoked products, stewed meat. Prepared in this way, tomatoes from above should be sprinkled with grated cheese, for each fruit put a piece of butter and close the topped tomato. Put in a frying pan greased and bake in the oven.
1 cabbage, 800 grams of tomatoes to wash and cut. From vinegar, vegetable oil, salt and pepper to prepare a dressing. Add greens( basil, thyme) and finely chopped onions. Mix everything. To the salad to serve cheese and white bread.
Small green tomatoes( 1 kg) and wash for 2 - 3 hours in a solution of soda( 20 g per 1 l of water), again wash and put in a cooking bowl. Kernels of walnut( 100 - 150 g) lightly fry in a pan. With hot sugar syrup pour the tomatoes, add the nuts and leave for 4-6 hours( 1.3 kg of sugar and 1.5 glasses of water).Then bring to a boil, cook for 8-10 minutes, leave for 4 - 6 hours, then cook until cooked.
Tomatoes are relatively new food plants. We quote from a botanical dictionary published in 1811.It says: "... Although tomato is considered a poisonous plant, but in Italy it is already eaten with pepper, garlic and butter."
The substances contained in tomatoes make them a very valuable product of therapeutic nutrition. They can be successfully recommended to patients with various types of metabolic disorders, with diseases of the cardiovascular system and the gastrointestinal tract. Tomatoes can be recommended as part of the menu on unloading days. The long-standing opinion about the adverse effect of tomatoes on the body with oxalate diathesis was not confirmed.
The medicinal basis of tomatoes are fruits and freshly prepared juice from them as a means of enhancing the secretion of gastric juice, especially when its acidity is low( hypocidal state), and the activity of the intestine, which improves blood formation and the function of the cardiovascular system.
Tomatoes have a number of useful protective properties. They can be eaten with gout, rheumatism, circulatory disorders, they affect the formation of blood, they are used in a diet for kidney diseases. In India, crushed tomatoes are used as a stimulator of hair growth, so their action is transferred to the skin. From the crushed tomatoes it is recommended to make a mask on the face, especially if the skin is flabby, besides they slightly color it.
Effective as a source of vitamins and mineral salts. In fresh form are recommended for metabolic disorders( especially saline), with obesity. Pectin substances of fruits contribute to lowering the level of cholesterol in the blood. Tomato juice inhibits the growth of bacterial flora.