Tomato Facts

This morning I learnt a really interesting fact. Those little hairs that are present on the stem of tomatoes? You know the ones, and if not I’ve posted a picture below. Well, these are there for two reasons – to protect the plants from insects by creating a physical barrier, and to regulate the temperature of the plants (much in the same way as our own body hair does!).

I thought that was fascinating, so it spurred on a bit of a Google into tomato plants, because I’m bored at work and want to go play with my seedlings!

Here are some pretty awesome facts I’ve found along the way…

1. Tomatoes are the state vegetable of New Jersey. They are also the official state fruit of Ohio. Arkansas, however, couldn’t make a decision so tomatoes are both the state vegetable and state fruit.
2. There is a tomato plant at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, that covers an area of 56.73m². That’s bigger than the surface area of an Olympic size swimming pool.
3. Heinz Tomato Ketchup has a speed limit. If the sauce poursat more than 0.028mph when it’s in the factory, it’s considered too runny and rejected.
4. There are over 10,000 varieties of tomatoes worldwide.
5. The largest tomato ever picked weighed in at over 3.5kg.
6. There is no mention of tomatoes in either the bible or in the complete works of Shakespeare.
7. Tomato plants were some of the first plants to be grown in space.
8. 94.5% of tomato’s weight is water.
9. Green tomatoes will ripen off if you store them together with apples. The apples release ethylene gas which helps the tomatoes to turn red.
10. Although they are wildly known to be a fruit, the misconception of tomatoes being vegetables comes from the fact that the Supreme Court deemed the tomato a vegetable. This was decided for tax purposes.