Tomato Kumato is a chokeberry indeterminate variety without GMO content. It attracts the attention of gardeners due to the black color of the fruit and the high content of nutrients. For example, it contains 2-3 times more vitamin C than yellow and red varieties. What is the reason for such a composition of Kumato, how to grow and use it, we will examine further.
Tomato seeds "Kumato"
Tomatoes of the Kumato variety in a cut
The fruits of the Kumato tomato are aphrodisiacs
Derivation and Distribution History
The origin of this variety is rather ambiguous. According to the basic version, its homeland is the Galapagos Islands, where the tomato grows in the wild. In its present form, it appeared on the European market thanks to the scientific work of Belgian breeders who, without any genetic engineering, crossed wild tomatoes with “domesticated” tomato varieties. The fruits are black in color due to the content of pigment based on blackberry.
According to another popular version, specific work on the development of this hybrid form was started almost 50 years ago by the geneticist Luis Ortego. In the 1970s, a farmer traveled around his fields in the village of Agra (Almeria coast, Spain) and noticed that the tomatoes in the last rows, where salty soil prevails and the least moisture, have a different color, but a more intense taste and bright aroma. Since then, Ortego has decided to grow only such tomatoes, creating specific conditions for this, which was not difficult in the Mediterranean.
Subsequently, the Spanish company Syngenta received the right to breed black tomato. The derived tomato was called Olmeca F1, but in many countries it is more recognizable under the Kumato brand name.
The variety is very popular today in Europe, Turkey and Australia, but in the CIS countries it has not received much distribution.
In Russia, the variety is not included in the State register of selection achievements, however, it can be grown throughout the country, especially in the southern regions.
Grade description
Tomato Kumato belongs to mid-season varieties, closer to late. Harvest can be harvested 100-120 days after the appearance of the first seedlings. How bushes develop, how fruits differ, except for black, we will consider separately.
Bushes
The external qualities of this plant are traditional and correspond to the category of tall varieties:
- Height. According to the type of growth, Kumato is indeterminate and reaches a height of 2-2.5 m. The top of the shoot must be pinched until it reaches 2 m in order to provide favorable conditions for the development of the fruit.
- Rhizome. Dense, rampant in all directions by more than 0.5 m and covers an area of up to 50 m in diameter. Its distribution occurs without recesses.
- Stem. It is persistent, bristly and lianike-like (in appearance it resembles a liana) with medium leafiness. Continues to grow even during fruiting.
- Leaves. They are small in size, the usual structure characteristic of most tomato varieties, a wrinkled mesh surface and a dark green color. There are no pubescence.
- Joint. It is simple and intermediate, that is, the first inflorescence is formed over 8-9 leaves, and the next - every 1-2 leaves.
- Brush. Up to 8 simple flower brushes can appear on one plant. On each of them, 6-8 tomatoes are formed.
Fruit
The fruits collected in the brush differ in their exotic appearance and original taste:
- Colour. Unripe fruits have a pale green hue, without spots and splashes, uniform at the stalk. As they ripen, the color gradually darkens, first turning into maroon, and then into chocolate. Sometimes the color may be heterogeneous and have thin strips of green.
- Shape and size. In shape, the fruits can be both round and oval with a small number of ribs. Their sizes are average: diameter - about 5-7 cm, weight - on average 80-100 g. All ripe tomatoes look almost the same.
- Pulp. Fleshy and dense, but tender. It has a rich dark red color, but sometimes greenish notes are visible. By the number of ribs, you can determine the number of seed chambers inside a ripe tomato. There are 2, 3 and less often 4. Thus, the seeds occupy a smaller part of the fruit and are evenly distributed over the chambers. The solids content in tomatoes is more than 5%, which is significantly more than that of ordinary red tomatoes.
The structure of the pulp is sugar-oily with thick walls and a high juice content.
- Taste. Black tomatoes have an original taste - sweet with light fruity notes and complementary sourness. The aroma is bright and intense. It is noteworthy that the taste persists even after heat treatment.
- Application. Kumato is a dessert variety and is more suitable for fresh consumption. Fruits can be served on the table in the form of slices or as part of various salads. Meanwhile, they can also be used to make soups and main dishes. Some farmers also prefer to preserve tomatoes, which tolerate heat treatment well due to their high density.
The fruits are well stored and easily tolerate transportation, because they do not crack due to the dense skin.
Feature table
The main characteristics of Kumato tomato can be found below:
Parameter | Description |
Core qualities | Indeterminate, mid-season, dessert grade |
Ripening period | For 100-120 days after the appearance of the first shoots |
Productivity | Stable and high. From one bush you can collect up to 8 kg of almost the same size fruits. Productivity from 1 sq. m of landing area - an average of about 15 kg. |
Growing Features | The plant necessarily requires tying to the support and pinching. It is best to form varieties in 2 or 3 stems. Bushes in height can reach 2.5 m, so they must be nipped to reach 2 m. |
Disease resistance | High - the variety is not afraid of most tomato diseases |
Keepiness | The tomato is stored well - up to 2 weeks at room temperature. It is undesirable to keep all the fruits in the refrigerator, because during such storage they lose their sweetness. |
Beneficial features
Tomato Kumato is not a genetically modified product (without GMOs!) And has an improved chemical composition compared to other domestic and wild varieties of tomatoes. Due to this, it has the following unique properties:
- They contain anthocyanins, which give the tomato a characteristic color. These substances are important for human health, but they do not form on their own and are not able to accumulate in the body, so it is extremely important to get them with food. Anthocyanins strengthen the walls of blood vessels, relieve swelling, strengthen the immune system and improve vision. In addition, they are powerful antioxidants and therefore help prevent cancer.
- They contain an increased amount of vitamin C - a powerful antioxidant and stimulant of immunity. Thus, the use of tomato helps to strengthen the protective properties of the body, as well as the cardiovascular system.
- It contains special pigment substances that stimulate tissue regeneration and inhibits malignant activity.
Due to the content of a large number of vitamins and minerals, tomato has the qualities of an aphrodisiac - a substance that stimulates or enhances sexual activity.
Agricultural technology
When growing such an original tomato variety, the following rules should be considered:
- Sow seeds for seedlings 60-65 days before the intended planting in a permanent place. Depending on the region, the optimal period falls at the end of March - the first decade of April.
- Kumato needs to be planted in open ground with the possibility of warming or in a greenhouse. In the second case, the plant will need to be shortened due to its high growth.
- Sow the seeds in a well-prepared soil, previously approved by phosphorus, disinfected and steamed from pathogenic microflora.
- After planting, the soil must be moistened and covered with polyethylene or glass to create favorable conditions for seed germination. Keep containers with seedlings in a well-lit and warm place.
- When planting seedlings in open ground, it is worth starting from a ratio of up to 4 plants per 1 sq. m. At the same time, the optimal distance between them is 50 cm.
- Caring for the seedlings consists in tying them to the support with the help of synthetic material, proper watering, fertilizing with fertilizers, removing weeds, etc. It is not necessary to form a bush, but you need to pinch the lateral and lower processes.
Black tomato is grown in the same way as regular tomato, but it needs to be moistened less often so that it grows sweet and with harmonious acidity.
Seed collection and storage
Planting material can be purchased at a garden store or prepared with your own hands, following these instructions:
- Gently collect the seeds with a toothpick.
- Rinse the seeds with clean water to remove tomato plaque.
- If desired, soak the seed in a weak solution of potassium permanganate to disinfect it.
- Dry the seeds for 2-3 days, wrap in a newspaper and store until spring.
Some gardeners do not wash the seeds, but immediately lay them out for storage, but this is a gross mistake, because after soaking them in potassium permanganate and planting in the soil, the tomato coating will begin to exfoliate, which will negatively affect the plant's yield.
How to grow seedlings?
Getting started is often possible from the end of March. Seedlings are grown in several stages:
- Presowing seed treatment. Soak the seeds for several minutes in 5% saline. Remove those that go up and disinfect the rest in a pale pink solution of potassium permanganate, then rinse and soak for a day in a growth stimulator. When the seeds swell, they are quenched on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator.
- Substrate preparation. You can buy it in a garden store or make it yourself by mixing peat, humus and river sand in a ratio of 60:30:10. Add a glass of wood ash to the finished mixture. Then it needs to be treated from pathogens, warming up for several minutes in a preheated oven.
- Planting seeds. The prepared substrate should be poured into a spacious box or individual cups and moistened with warm water. Its optimum temperature is 22 ° C. Seeds need to be deepened by 2 cm, maintaining a distance of 2 cm between them. Water the crops, cover with film or glass and transfer to a well-lit place where the air temperature is kept at 25 ° C.
Some gardeners do not cover crops with protective material. As a result, this leads to poor seed germination as a result of excessive dryness of the soil.
- Care. Approximately on the 5th day, when most shoots appear, the coating must be removed. When 2-3 real leaflets grow, dive seedlings into separate disposable cups or peat pots. A big plus of the second option is that seedlings can be immediately planted in them in open ground. After picking, water the seedlings as the soil dries (moisten it, preventing water from getting on the shoots themselves!) And fertilize it twice with mineral fertilizing with an interval of 2 weeks. With insufficient lighting seedlings several times a day use fluorescent lamps.
- Hardening. 2 weeks before landing on a permanent place, the sprouts should be hardened so that they can quickly adapt to new conditions. To do this, they need to be taken out every day for a couple of hours on the balcony or on the street.
Growing seedlings will take about 1.5 months. They can be planted in open ground or in greenhouse beds. At the same time, they should have a height of about 35 cm, a healthy appearance, a developed root system, strong stems and a leaf plate not affected by diseases. Standardly, on a seedling bush there should be 8-10 leaves about 0.6 cm thick.
Transplanting seedlings to a permanent place
Seedlings have been replanted in beds since mid-May. When grown in open ground, the transplant can be postponed for 2 weeks, so that the threat of repeated frosts is completely gone. Thus, it can be implemented in late May or even in early June. Transplanting seedlings is carried out in the following order:
- Prepare the wells at a distance of 50-60 cm from each other. In this case, it is better to use a 50x50 or 60x60 cm scheme. The best landing is in a checkerboard pattern.
- Fertilize prepared wells with phosphorus complexes. It is forbidden to bring fresh manure under the plants.
- Transplant seedlings, deepening the stems 2.5-3.5 cm, and overgrown of them - even deeper.
- Planted plants moisturize abundantly and mulch with peat.
- Each seedling is immediately tied to an individual support, using only synthetic material for this.
If you do not use synthetics, but other material when gartering plants, you can provoke its decay.
Seedling and Harvesting
In order to get a good harvest of Kumato hybrid tomato, it is necessary to provide seedlings with competent care, which consists in carrying out the following agrotechnical measures:
- systematically water the plant with warm water as a thin crust forms on the upper soil layer;
- after wetting, carry out shallow loosening of the soil and removal of weeds;
- mulch the soil around the bushes (for example, with organic matter) to create favorable conditions for the growth and development of the bushes;
- feed the tomato with mullein and other mineral complexes according to the schedule - 1 time in 10 days;
- to pinch the lateral and lower processes, without forming a bush, since the tomato grows in 2-3 stems;
- for prevention, spray the seedlings with special store-bought products against diseases and pests (decontamination of seeds and soil will prevent many major diseases, however, preventative treatment of seedlings should not be neglected!).
Subject to all the rules for caring for seedlings, at the end of July you can get the first crop of black tomatoes with excellent taste. They should be collected in a timely manner so that the plant can bear fruit further. Ripe tomatoes need to be inspected for damage in order to select the best ones that can be stored in crates for 14 days.
Pros and cons
Fans of everything exotic often try to grow black tomato Kumato, although in Russia it is not included in the State Register of Achievements of Breeders. Meanwhile, in addition to the original appearance, this variety has several advantages. These include:
- high productivity (about 15 kg of fruits with 1 sq. m of beds);
- high taste;
- the content of the group of substances that are responsible for the restoration of cells and the rejuvenation of the body as a whole;
- increased content of vitamins (for example, the concentration of vitamin C is 2-3 times higher than in ordinary tomatoes);
- lack of GMOs;
- good tolerance of high temperatures;
- resistance to transportation over long distances;
- resistance to many common tomato diseases.
As for the shortcomings, some indicate the same original color, because not everyone will like black tomatoes.
However, the original taste of tomato with fruity notes crosses out this nuance. In addition to black, the variety has such features:
- almost all fruits have the same round shape, which is quite rare among other varieties;
- the seeds germinate quite quickly, but then their growth slows down.
Tomato Kumato is an indeterminate mid-season variety that bears sweetish tomatoes with a dense skin and fleshy flesh. Their main distinguishing characteristic is black color and original taste with fruity notes. This variety is grown in the same way as traditional tomatoes, but will appreciate additional beneficial properties, as it stimulates cell regeneration and activates anti-aging functions.