Tomato Plant Characteristics

Tomatoes are a plant that grows well in a sunny, moderate climate. Their fruit is a popular food that contains vitamin C and A. Tomatoes are easy to grow in a greenhouse and are more widely consumed than any vegetable except the potato. Tomatoes are eaten fresh, but also cooked down into sauces and pastes for a variety of dishes.

Color

Tomatoes are a green shoot with green leaves and varied color fruits fruits.Tomato fruits are usually seen as red, but they can also be green, yellow, orange, pink and white.

Plant Identification

Tomatoes grow as a main stalk which ends in a flowery cluster of leaves and fruit. From there, the plant grows a side shoot that ends in another leaf cluster. This pattern repeats making the tomato plants appear to be one long main stem, but it is actually one main stem and several side shoots.

Growth

Tomato plants grow well in 65 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit with at least six hours of sun a day. Frost kills the plant and higher or lower temperatures can produce oddly shaped fruit. Since successful growing conditions are easy to replicate indoors, tomato plants are often produced in greenhouses are just grown as houseplants.

Makeup

Tomato plants are comprised of only five percent solids. These solids are cell walls, sugars, and acids. The rest of the tomato is comprised of water.

Fruit

The fruit of the tomato is fleshy, juicy, and ranges from sweet to mildly acidic. The two types of fruit produced by a tomato plant are the small cherry tomatoes that only contain two seed chambers inside and the larger tomatoes that have multiple chambers.