Modern selection offers a huge number of varieties and hybrids of different weight tomato. Often there are such definitions as beef tomatoes, cherry, cocktail. Let’s try to understand what they are, to further more consciously approach the choice of new varieties.
Medium fruit tomatoes
The most famous and common group of tomatoes is the middle — fruited. That’s what we used to see on sale. Fruit weight varies from 50-60 to 180 g. the Variety of such tomatoes is very large, most often they have a rounded or flat-rounded fruit, usually with a smooth (not ribbed) surface. These tomatoes are suitable for fresh consumption, for the preparation of canned food, soups, ketchup, etc.
Medium-fruit tomatoes are characterized by good keeping quality and dense skin, for a long time retain a marketable appearance, which allows them to be transported over long distances. They contain a full range of nutrients, including vitamins, sugars and organic acids. Their seeds are always in demand, as many of us grow such tomatoes on their sites. Therefore, every year there is a large number of new varieties and hybrids of this type.
They are not too demanding in care, give a stable harvest, have resistance to many diseases. In addition, some hybrids have a bright color and great taste.
Cherry tomatoes
Cherry tomatoes – this is the small-fruited tomatoes: mass of only 10-30, market cherry appeared a long time ago, but many still consider them exotic. Usually these tomatoes are red, although currently there is a huge variety of colors: there are yellow, pink and even black.
Small fruits are extremely decorative, look great in salads and snacks. But attractive appearance is not the main advantage of cherry tomatoes. First of all, they are famous for their excellent taste. Cherry fruitlets accumulate a huge amount of sugar, which makes them a real treat. Even those who are indifferent to tomatoes in General, appreciate the rich taste of tomatoes, berries.
Berry tomatoes are suitable for fresh consumption, and for canning in jars, cooking sauces. Even cherry tomatoes differ from other high yield and Amity of maturation. Bushes strewn with the same miniature fruits-a true decoration of the greenhouse. It is no coincidence that cherry are becoming more popular among gardeners, especially since no special techniques of farming are required for them.
Thanks to the rapid maturation, you can get a decent harvest, ahead of many diseases, including late blight. There is even a particularly compact pot varieties that can be grown on the balcony or in the room.
Cocktail tomatoes
We should also mention the cocktail tomatoes are larger than cherry tomatoes, portioned fruits weighing 30 to 60 g. They are popular for its excellent taste and aroma, maturation amicities and higher yields, while also decorative, like cherry. The world-famous variety ‘ladies’ fingers ‘ just refers to the cocktail.
Cocktail tomatoes are resistant to falling off (for a long time remain on the hands), have good keeping quality.
Large-fruited tomatoes
And, finally, Bif-tomatoes with fleshy large (weighing from 180 to 300-500 g and even higher) fruits slightly flattened or flat-round shape, with a ribbed or smooth surface. They are characterized by a high content of biologically active substances. Since the aging of such large fruits requires more time than for the average fruit, they accumulate a large amount of sugars and organic acids, so that they acquire excellent taste. And, of course, Bif-tomatoes — Champions in yield: from 1 m² you can get up to 12-15 kg of fruit.
These tomatoes are perfect for salads, juices, tomato paste, canning slices. But large-fruited tomatoes have their own peculiarity: because of the thin skin, the fruits do not tolerate transportation and are not stored for a long time, so they are quite rare on sale. However, they can be successfully grown on your site. Thanks to continuous breeding work there are new large-fruited varieties and hybrids.
Large-fruited tomatoes have their own peculiarities of cultivation. Since they take out a lot of moisture and nutrients from the soil, they should be planted less often than other tomatoes: no more than 2-2.5 plants per m². Also, Bif-tomatoes require an increased amount of fertilizers.In the process of growing, you need to pay attention to the number of fruits in the brush: leave only 4-5 pieces, and in the case of especially large — fruited (weighing more than 300-400 g) varieties-no more than 3 PCs.Thanks to this, all the fruits will be large, homogeneous and well ripen.