It might be difficult to identify tomato plants when no identifiable flowers or immature tomatoes are forming on the plant. Tomato plants resemble several wild tomato plants and weeds.
Knowing how to recognize the actual tomato plant leaf while purchasing seedlings or picking weeds in the garden is useful.
Tomato seedlings possess two oval leaves that grow on both sides of the first genuine leaf later.
Tomatoes are among the most prevalent plants in gardens. Let’s learn to find the plant below.
How To Identify Tomato Plants?
Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum or Lycopersicon esculentum) is popular plant is the US, They provide an extensive selection of essential nutrients, and can help to make meals more interesting.
After being sown from tomato seeds, the plants need up to four weeks to rise from the soil.
When we’re unsure whether we have a tomato in our garden, keep an eye on this tomato plant identification.
A tomato plant will have a vining habit and vining tendrils. The plant soon grows multiple branches with ovoid leaves.
How To Identify Tomato Plants By Their Leaves
Tomato plants can become vining and bushy. The leaves are complex and deeply separated. They are green and nicely textured.
The stems are very fragile and might need support or staking. The leaves and stems are both slightly fuzzy and rough.
Regular leaves comprise several leaflets that develop around a usual stem known as a rachis. On an average plant, the leaves measure 10 inches in length. Small leaflets measure three inches in length.
Rub the entire leaf, and I’ll notice a little fuzziness generated by the trichomes, or multicellular hairs. I can also sniff our fingers. Tomato leaves emit a strong fragrance that remains on the skin.
The smell is produced by a yellow material emitted by glandular trichomes. The powerful aroma lingers and is easily removed with washing and water.
How To Identify Tomato Plants By Their Fruit
When it has already bearing fruit, it will be easier to identify variety of tomato base on fruits’ shape and color.
Tomatoes come in various shapes, like pear, round, and oblong. They also feature different colors, including red, pink, green, yellow, and white tomatoes.
Their sizes can range from a pear size to a pound and even more. The seed is tiny, fuzzy, and has a tan color. It looks like a pepper seed or an eggplant.
Waiting for the tomato fruits to develop is the sole method to figure it out. For industrial tomato type or commercial tomato sales, people rely on other traits, including its parent fruits.
The size of cherry tomatoes is round and small. That is great for snacks or putting them into salads.
Grape tomatoes are little fruits with an oval shape. They are good for cooking. The Roma tomato is a bigger, oblong-shaped tomato that isn’t particularly juicy. It is best served fresh or mildly cooked.
The beefsteak tomato is what most people think of, and it could be used for almost anything. We can slice, roast, grill, or snack them.
Teardrop tomatoes are a variety in a group of indeterminate heirloom tomatoes. There are orange and yellow tomato colors of this type.
How to Tell if Your Tomato Plant Is Determinate or Indeterminate?
There are some common varieties with different development tendencies. Based on their tendencies, tomatoes are classified as indeterminate and determinate tomato plants.
Knowing it will help us create a tall enough cage or trellis. It will also tell us when we can anticipate harvesting tomatoes.
Inspect The Branching Formation
Examine the branching structure of our plants. Branches that are lengthy and have little foliage could be an indication of Indeterminate.
A small, bushy tomato plant is the Determinate type. It is because this category of tomato produces blooms at the branch’s tip, signaling the stem to cease growing.
Consider The Plant Height
Examine the plant’s size. Determinate types are often just 2 to 3 feet tall. Indeterminate tomato plants can reach heights of more than 6 feet and have multiple lengthy branches.
Determinate ones are also known as compact plants and feature smaller fruit production than its counterpart.
Count The Flowers
Count the number of blooms in different phases of development. The determinate tomato types will blossom almost at the same time.
They will produce ripe fruits that will be the plant’s only crop and mature almost simultaneously. The plants will then turn yellow and be finished.
The indeterminate plant can produce buds and blooms which were pollinated. The circle will continue all season.
How To Identify Types Of Tomato Plant Leaves?
Another good way to identify the types of tomatoes is by the different tomato plant leaves. It is one of the easiest and quick methods to check the tomatoes.
The Determinate type often has leaves together that are nearer to the stem. It gives them a bushier appearance. It means we can grow these tomatoes in a small space.
Meanwhile, the Indeterminate tomatoes have more widely spread leaves that resemble vines. That is to say; it can offer us more tomatoes for a single plant.
What Are The Leaf Problems On Tomatoes?
There are some common tomato pests. Particularly, Flea beetles or bugs are little, glossy, brown insects with long back legs that hop from plant to tomato plant.
In cool temperatures, the brown beetle shelters on the undersides of the plant leaves.
They are voracious feeders, cutting holes of irregular shapes in our immature tomato plant leaves. It can be to the point of defoliation.
Cutworms reside in the dirt, crawling in the soil surrounding our flavorful tomato plants during the day.
Thus, you can discover them and confirm they are the perpetrators of devouring our plant leaves.
Although the Colorado potato aphid or beetle favors potatoes, it will also eat tomato leaves when they are present. Some solutions, like organic bug killers or pesticides, can help you get rid of them.
How To Diagnose Tomato Plant Problems?
Despite our best attempts to keep common diseases at bay, they may appear in our garden at any moment. Here’s an overview of the six most prevalent tomato plant illnesses.
Early Blight
This widespread tomato disease causes brown spots on the plant’s bottom leaves. The patches seem like a bull eye shape. The tissue surrounding it frequently turns yellow spots.
Infected plant leaves will ultimately fall off the plant. Many tomatoes remain to ripen regardless of the disease development on the plant.
To stop it, mulch plants soon after planting with an additional layer of newspaper covered with untreated grass, leaf mold, or full compost. This mulch acts as a shield, blocking ground-dwelling spores.
Fusarium Wilt
The pathogen causing Fusarium wilt is more widespread in warm climates. Drooping stems are one of the symptoms.
An entire plant branch can die at any time, usually beginning at the bottom of the plant and advancing upwards.
Break the plant’s stem open and check black spots or streaks across the stem for identifying tomato diseases.
The easiest way to avoid it is to grow resistant types. At the end of every season, sanitize the tomato cages for tomatoes with a solution of 10% bleach. Air circulation may also help.
Late Blight
Late tomato blight is one of the most damaging tomato diseases. It is caused by a fungus. This common plant disease results in irregularly formed and slimy splotches.
They usually appear first on the stems and leaves.
There can also be white mold patches on the leaf undersides. Since the spores travel so quickly, there is not much we can do.
You could think of organic fungicides or soil amendment. Besides, plant only healthy plants and cultivars in our region to help prevent the infection.
Septoria Leaf Spot
This disease often begins on the bottom leaves first and appears as small, circular spots on the leaves. They are dark brown on the borders and paler in the middle.
The infected leaves become yellow, brown and ultimately fall off. Remove damaged plants after a season to prevent spores from staying in our garden.
Discard contaminated leaves and diseased plants, and sanitize pruning equipment.
Southern Bacterial Wilt
Southern bacterial wilt is a rapidly spreading tomato disease. It is soil-borne. However, it may spread the whole tomato crop through soil, water, plant debris, and clothing.
The withering of only certain leaves on a tomato plant is the first sign, while the remainder seems healthy.
Some may develop bacterial spots. As time passes, more leaves droop and become yellow. The stem will still stay upright.
The easiest way to avoid this illness is to buy and grow locally cultivated plants. You can consider North America cultivars as this bacteria usually comes from the south.
Verticillium Wilt
Some soil-borne pathogens trigger these fungal diseases. They obstruct the vascular tissue, causing the stems and leaves to wilt. Symptoms appear gradually.
For identifying tomato plant diseases, break through the main stem and examine for dark brown patches on the inside.
They flourish at slightly milder summer temperatures (70 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit). Only use plant-resistant variants.
Conclusion
The above are ways to identify tomato plants. Depending on your needs, you can choose the type you want. However, remember to select the proper tomato cultivars in your region.
Some could develop the above common tomato diseases that can even affect other gardens. They can also affect other fruits in your garden, including cucumbers.
