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TOMATO CULTURE
A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE TOMATO, ITS HISTORY,
CHARACTERISTICS, PLANTING, FERTILIZATION,
CULTIVATION IN FIELD, GARDEN, AND GREENHOUSE,
HARVESTING, PACKING, STORING, MARKETING, INSECT
ENEMIES AND DISEASES, WITH METHODS OF CONTROL AND
REMEDIES, ETC., ETC.
By
WILL W. TRACY
_Bureau of Plant Industry,
United States Department of Agriculture_
_ILLUSTRATED_
NEW YORK
ORANGE JUDD COMPANY
1907
To
Dr. F. M. Hexamer
IN HONOR OF HIS LIFELONG EFFORTS FOR THE
BETTERMENT OF AMERICAN HORTICULTURAL
PRACTICE
Copyright, 1907, by
ORANGE JUDD COMPANY
_All rights reserved_
[Illustration: WHERE NEW VARIETIES OF TOMATOES ARE DEVELOPED AND TESTED
(By courtesy _American Agriculturist_. Photo by Prof. W. G. Johnson)]
PREFACE
This little book has been written in fulfilment of a promise made many
years ago. Again and again I have undertaken the work, only to lay it
aside because I felt the need of greater experience and wider knowledge.
I do not now feel that this deficiency has been by any means fully
supplied, but in some directions it has been removed through the
kindness of Dr. F. H. Chittenden of the Bureau of Entomology, who wrote
the chapter on insect enemies, and of W. A. Orton of the Bureau of Plant
Industry, United States Department of Agriculture, who wrote the chapter
on diseases of tomatoes.
I have made free use of, without special credit, and am largely indebted
to, the writings of Doctor Sturtevant and Professor Goff, Professor
Munson of Maine, Professor Halsted of New Jersey, Professor Corbett of
Washington, Professor Rolfs of Florida, Professor Bailey of New York,
Professor Green of Ohio, and many others. I have also found a vast
amount of valuable information in the agricultural press of this country
in general. I am also indebted to L. B. Coulter and Prof. W. G. Johnson
for many photographs. My thanks are also due B. F. Williamson, who made
the excellent drawings for this book under Professor Johnson's
direction.
Tomatoes are among the most generally used and popular vegetables. They
are grown not only in gardens, but in large areas in every state from
Maine to California and Washington to Florida, and under very different
conditions of climate, soil and cultural facilities, as well as of
requirements as to character of fruit. The methods which will give the
best results under one set of conditions are entirely unsuited to
others.
I have tried to give the nature and requirements of the plant and the
effect of conditions as seen in my own experience, a knowledge of which
may enable the reader to follow the methods most suited to his own
conditions and requirements, rather than to recommend the exact methods
which have given me the best results.
WILL W. TRACY.
_Washington, April, 1907._
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE v
CHAPTER I
BOTANY OF THE TOMATO 1
CHAPTER II
HISTORY 14
CHAPTER III
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PLANT 20
CHAPTER IV
ESSENTIALS FOR DEVELOPMENT 28
CHAPTER V
SELECTION OF SOIL FOR MAXIMUM CROP 33
CHAPTER VI
EXPOSURE AND LOCATION 38
CHAPTER VII
FERTILIZERS 43
CHAPTER VIII
PREPARATION OF THE SOIL 46
CHAPTER IX
HOTBEDS AND COLD-FRAMES 51
CHAPTER X
STARTING PLANTS 59
CHAPTER XI
PROPER DISTANCE FOR PLANTING 68
CHAPTER XII
CULTIVATION 76
CHAPTER XIII
STAKING, TRAINING AND PRUNING 79
CHAPTER XIV
RIPENING, GATHERING, HANDLING AND MARKETING 90
THE FRUIT
CHAPTER XV
ADAPTATION OF VARIETIES 97
CHAPTER XVI
SEED BREEDING AND GROWING 112
CHAPTER XVII
PRODUCTION FOR CANNING 117
CHAPTER XVIII
COST OF PRODUCTION 121
CHAPTER XIX
INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE TOMATO 123
CHAPTER XX
TOMATO DISEASES 131
INDEX 148
ILLUSTRATIONS
FIGURE PAGE
1. Where new varieties of tomatoes are developed
and tested _Frontispiece_
2. Tomato flowers 2
3. Two-celled tomato 3
4. Three-celled tomato 3
5. Currant tomato and characteristic clusters 5
6. Red cherry tomato 6
7. Pear-shaped tomato 8
8. Yellow plum tomato 9
9. One of the first illustrations of the tomato 11
10. An early illustration of the tomato 12
11. Typical bunch of modern tomatoes 27
12. Tomatoes trained to stakes in the South 35
13. Three-sash hotbed 52
14. Cross-section of hotbed 53
15. Cold-frames on hill-side 54
16. Transplanting tomatoes under cloth-covered
frames 56
17. Spotting-board for use in cold-frames 61
18. Spotting-board for use on flat 62
19. Tomatoes sown and allowed to grow in hotbeds 69
20. Planting tomatoes on a Delaware farm 75
21. Training tomatoes in Florida to single stake 81
22. Tomato plant trained to single stake 82
23. Method of training to three stems in
forcing-house and out of doors 83
24. Training on line in greenhouse 84
25. Ready to transplant in greenhouse 85
26. Training young tomatoes in greenhouse at New
York experiment station 86
27. Tomatoes in greenhouse at the Ohio
experiment station 87
28. Forcing tomatoes in greenhouse at New Hampshire
experiment station 88
29. Florida tomatoes properly wrapped for long
shipment 93
30. Greenhouse tomatoes packed for market 95
31. Buckeye State, showing long nodes and distance
between fruit clusters 98
32. Stone, and characteristic foliage 99
33. Atlantic Prize, and its normal foliage 101
34. Dwarf Champion 103
35. A cutworm and parent moth 124
36. Flea-beetle 125
37. Margined blister beetle 125
38. Tomato worm 126
39. Tomato stalk-borer 127
40. Characteristic work of the tomato fruit worm 128
41. Adult moth, or parent of tomato fruit worm 129
42. Proper way to make Bordeaux 137
43. Point-rot disease of the tomato 140
TOMATO CULTURE
CHAPTER I
Botany of the Tomato
=The common tomato= of our gardens belongs to the natural order
_Solanaceae_ and the genus _Lycopersicum_. The name from _lykos_, a
wolf, and _persica_, a peach, is given it because of the supposed
aphrodisiacal qualities, and the beauty of the fruit. The genus
comprises a few species of South American annual or short-lived
perennial, herbaceous, rank-smelling plants in which the many branches
are spreading, procumbent, or feebly ascendent and commonly 2 to 6 feet
in length, though under some conditions, particularly in the South and
in California, they grow much longer. They are covered with resinous
viscid secretions and are round, soft, brittle and hairy, when young,
but become furrowed, angular, hard and almost woody with enlarged
joints, when old. The leaves are irregularly alternate, 5 to 15 inches
long, petioled, odd pinnate, with seven to nine short-stemmed leaflets,
often with much smaller and stemless ones between them. The larger
leaflets are sometimes entire, but more generally notched, cut, or even
divided, particularly at the base.
[Illustration: FIG. 2--TOMATO FLOWERS ENLARGED ABOUT 2-1/2 TIMES.
SECTION OF FLOWER SHOWN AT RIGHT (Drawn from a photograph by courtesy of
Prof. L. C. Corbett)]
=The flowers= are pendant and borne in more or less branched clusters,
located on the stem on the opposite side and usually a little below the
leaves; the first cluster on the sixth to twelfth internode from the
ground, with one on each second to sixth succeeding one. The flowers
(Fig. 2) are small, consisting of a yellow, deeply five-cleft,
wheel-shaped corolla, with a very short tube and broadly lanceolate,
recurving petals. The calyx consists of five long linear or lanceolate
sepals, which are shorter than the petals at first, but are persistent,
and increase in size as the fruits mature. The stamens, five in number,
are borne on the throat of the corolla, and consist of long, large
anthers, borne on short filaments, loosely joined into a tube and
opening by a longitudinal slit on the inside, and this is the chief
botanical distinction between this genus and _Solanum_ to which the
potato, pepper, night shade and tobacco belong. The anthers in the
latter genus open at the tip only. The two genera, however, are closely
related and plants belonging to them are readily united by grafting. The
Physalis, Husk tomato or Ground cherry is quite distinct, botanically.
The pistils of the true tomato are short at first, but the style
elongates so as to push the capitate stigma through the tube formed by
the anthers, this usually occurring before the anthers open for the
discharge of the pollen. The fruit is a two to many-celled berry with
central fleshy placenta and many small kidney-shaped seeds which are
densely covered with short, stiff hairs, as seen in Figs. 3 and 4.
[Illustration: FIG. 3--TWO-CELLED TOMATO]
[Illustration: FIG. 4--THREE-CELLED TOMATO]
It is comparatively easy to define the genus with which the tomato
should be classed botanically, but it is by no means so easy to classify
our cultivated varieties into botanical species. We have in cultivation
varieties which are known to have originated in gardens and from the
same parentage, but which differ from each other so much in habit of
growth, character of leaf and fruit and other respects, that if they had
been found growing wild they would unhesitatingly be pronounced
different species, and botanists are not agreed as to how our many and
very different garden varieties should be classified botanically. Some
contend that all of our cultivated sorts are varieties of but two
distinct species, while others think they have originated from several.
=Classification.=--The author suggests the following classification,
differing somewhat from that sometimes given, as he believes that the
large, deep-sutured fruit of our cultivated varieties and the distinct
pear-shaped sorts come from original species rather than from variations
of _Lycopersicum cerasiforme_:
=Currant tomato, Grape tomato, German or Raisin tomato= (_Lycopersicum
pimpinellifolium_, _L. racemiforme_) (Fig. 5).--Universally regarded as
a distinct species. Plant strong, growing with many long, slender, weak
branches which are not so hairy, viscid, or ill-smelling, and never
become so hard or woody as those of the other species. The numerous
leaves are very bright green in color, leaflets small, nearly entire,
with many small stemless ones between the others. Fruit produced
continuously and in great quantity on long racemes like those of the
currant, though they are often branched. They continue to elongate and
blossom until the fruit at the upper end is fully ripened. Fruit small,
less than 1/2 inch in diameter, spherical, smooth and of a particularly
bright, beautiful red color which contrasts well with the bright green
leaves, and this abundance of beautifully colored and gracefully poised
fruit makes the plant worthy of more general cultivation as an ornament,
though the fruit is of little value for culinary use. This species, when
pure, has not varied under cultivation, but it readily crosses with
other species and with our garden varieties, and many of these owe their
bright red color to the influence of crosses with the above species.
[Illustration: FIG. 5--CURRANT TOMATO AND CHARACTERISTIC CLUSTERS]
[Illustration: FIG. 6--RED CHERRY TOMATO]
=Cherry tomato= (_L. cerasiforme_) (Fig. 6).--Plant vigorous, with stout
branches which are distinctly trailing in habit. Leaves flat or but
slightly curled. Fruit very abundant, borne in short, branched
clusters, globular, perfectly smooth, with no apparent sutures. From 1/2
to 3/4 inch in diameter and either red or yellow in color, two-celled
with numerous comparatively small, kidney-shaped seeds. Many of our
garden varieties show evidence of crosses with this species, and by many
it is regarded as the original wild form of all of our cultivated sorts.
These, when they escape from cultivation and become wild plants, as they
often do, from New Jersey southward, produce fruit which, in many
respects, resembles that of this species in size and form; but they are
generally more flattened, globe-shaped, with more or less distinct
sutures on the upper side, and I have never seen any fruit of these wild
plants which could not be readily distinguished from that of the true
Cherry tomato.
Prof. P. H. Rolfs, Director of the Florida experiment station, reports
that among the millions of volunteer, or wild, tomatoes he has seen
growing in the abandoned tomato fields in Florida, he has never seen a
plant with fruit which could not be easily distinguished from that of
the true Cherry tomato. Again, one can, by selection and cultivation,
easily develop from these wild forms plants producing fruit as large and
often practically identical with that of our cultivated varieties, while
I have given a true stock of Cherry tomato most careful cultivation on
the best of soil for 20 consecutive generations without any increase in
size or change in character of the fruit.
[Illustration: FIG. 7--PEAR-SHAPED TOMATO]
[Illustration: FIG. 8--YELLOW PLUM TOMATO, SHOWING MOST USUAL FORM OF
CLUSTER]
=Pear (not Plum) tomato= (_L. pyriforme_) (Fig. 7).--Plant exceptionally
vigorous, with comparatively few long, stout stems inclined to ascend.
Leaves numerous, broad, flat, with a distinct bluish-green color
noticeable, even in the cotyledons. Fruit abundant, borne in short
branched or straight clusters of five to ten fruits. It is perfectly
smooth, without sutures, and of the shape of a long, slender-necked
pear, not over an inch in transverse by 1-1/2 inches in longitudinal
diameter. When the stock is pure the fruit retains this form very
persistently. The production of egg-shaped or other forms is a sure
indication of impure stock. They are bright red, dark yellow, or light
yellowish white in color, two-celled, with very distinct central
placenta and comparatively few and large seeds. The fruit is inclined to
ripen unevenly, the neck remaining green when the rest of the fruit is
quite ripe. It is less juicy than that of most of our garden sorts but
of a mild and pleasant flavor. This is considered, by many, to be
simply a garden variety, but I am inclined to the belief that it is a
distinct species and that the contrary view comes from the study of the
impure and crossed stocks resulting from crosses between the true Pear
tomato and garden sorts which are frequently sold by seedsmen as
pear-shaped. Many garden sorts--like the Plum (Fig. 8), the Egg, the
Golden Nugget, Vick's Criterion, etc.--are known to have originated from
crosses of the Pear and I think that most, if not all, the garden sorts
in which the longitudinal diameter of the fruit is greater than its
transverse diameter owe this form to crosses with _L. pyriforme_.
=Cultivated varieties= (_L. esculentum_).--This is commonly used as the
botanical name of our cultivated varieties, rather than as the name of a
distinct species. In western South America, however, there is found
growing a wild plant of Lycopersicum which differs from the other
recognized species in being more compact in growth, with fewer branches
and larger leaves, and carrying an immense burden of fruit borne in
large clusters. The fruit is larger than that of the other species but
much smaller than that of our cultivated sorts; is very irregular in
shape, always with distinct sutures, and often deeply corrugated and
bright red in color. The walls are thin; the flesh is soft, with a
distinct sharp, acid flavor much less agreeable than that of our
cultivated forms of garden tomatoes.
[Illustration: FIG. 9--ONE OF THE FIRST ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE TOMATO
_Poma amoris_, (_Pomum aureum_), (_Lycopersicum_), 1581]
[Illustration: FIG. 10--AN EARLY ILLUSTRATION OF THE TOMATO (From
Morrison's "Historia Universalis," 1680)]
This has commonly been regarded by botanists as a degenerate form of our
garden tomatoes, rather than as an original species, but I find that,
like _L. cerasiforme_ and _L. pyriforme_, it is quite fixed under
cultivation, except as crossed with other species or with our garden
varieties, and I believe it to be the original species from which our
cultured sorts have been developed, by crossing and selection. Such
crosses probably were made either naturally or by natives before the
tomato was discovered by Europeans. The earliest prints we have of the
tomato (Figs. 9 and 10) are far more like the fruit of this plant than
that of _L. cerasiforme_, and the prints of many of the earliest garden
varieties and of some sorts which are still cultivated in southern
Europe, for use in soups, are like it not only in size and form, but in
flavor. These facts make it seem far more probable that our cultivated
sorts have come, by crossing, between this and other species rather than
by simple development from _L. cerasiforme_.
Prof. E. S. Goff, of Wisconsin, who has made a most careful study of the
tomato, expressed the same opinion, writing that it seemed to him that
our cultivated sorts must have come from the crossing of a small, round,
smooth, sutureless type, with a larger, deep-sutured, corrugated fruit,
like that of the Mammoth Chihuahua, but smaller. However this may be, I
think that it is wise to throw all of our cultivated garden sorts,
except the Pear, the Cherry, and the Grape--which I regard as distinct
species--together under the name of _L. esculentum_, even when we know
they have originated by direct crosses with the other species; and it is
well to classify the upright growing sorts under the varietal names, _L.
validum_, and the larger, heavier sorts, as _L. grandifolium_, as has
been done by Bailey. (Cyclopedia of Horticulture.)