Tomato and sweet pepper are both members of the Solanaceae family. Tomatoes are native to South America and grow as vines or bushes. They prefer warm temperatures between 21-24°C and well-draining soil. Tomatoes are often picked unripe and ripened with ethylene gas in storage. Sweet peppers are also in the Solanaceae family and native to Central and South America. They grow as annual or perennial plants and prefer warmer temperatures than tomatoes. Both crops require similar growing conditions including fertile, well-draining soil and are susceptible to similar pests and diseases.

1. Tomato and sweet pepper
1.Tomato:
Family: Solanaceae
Genus: Solanum
Species:Lycopersicum
Synonyms: Lycopersicon esculentum
Origin:
Native to South America, Mexico and Central America.
Botany:
 Tomato plants are vines, typically growing above the ground if supported.
 Tomato plant vines are typically pubescent, meaning covered with fine short hairs.
These hairs facilitate the vining process, turning into roots wherever the plant is in
contact with the ground and moisture, especially if there is some issue with the vine's
contact to its original root. It is Tomato plants are dicots, herbaceous, annual shrubby
plant in temperate zones, or could be perennial of short life in tropics.
 Can be determinate (bushy compact growth), and indeterminate.
Climate:
 Adapted to wide range of climatic and soil conditions → so it shows wide distribution all
over the world either protected or in open field of tropics.
 Temp means should be over 16ºC, but if temp drops below 12ºC tomato gets chilling
injury especially if it remains for long period below this degree.
 The optimum range is 21-24ºC, but the minimum soil temp for seed germination is 10ºC,
while 30ºC is optimum and 35ºC is maximum.

2.  Also, if light intensity is more than 1000 foot candle → it will affect negatively on growth
and flowering, but if light intensity falls down → then supplemented light is needed to
increase the photoperiod.
Flowering andfruit set:
 If temp degree is more than 38ºC for 5-10 days → this will cause poor fruit set since the
pollens and eggs will be destroyed.
 After anthesis (flowering), if temp is more than 38ºC for 1-3 days → this will also cause
poor fruit set since embryo destroyed.
 If minimum night temp is more than 25-27ºC for few days → this will cause poor fruit
set before and during anthesis except incase of tropical cultivars that can tolerate this
level.
 At 10ºC or below → abortion.
 Using of IAA and gibberellins can increase fruit set avoiding puffy fruits by Gibb
presence.
Fruit Ripening:
 Tomatoes are often picked unripe (and thus colored green) and ripened in storage with
ethylene. Unripe tomatoes are firm. As they ripen they soften until reaching the ripe
state where they are red or orange in color and slightly soft to the touch.
 Ethylene is a hydrocarbon gas produced by many fruits that acts as the molecular cue to
begin the ripening process.
 Tomatoes ripened in this way (ripened in storage with ethylene) tend to keep longer but
have poorer flavor and a mealier, starchier texture than tomatoes ripened on the plant.
They may be recognized by their color, which is more pink or orange than the other ripe
tomatoes' deep red, depending on variety.
 Optimum ripening temp is from 18-24ºC, but less than 13ºC poor ripening and slow, and
below 10ºC chilling injury and → no fruit ripenes.
 32ºc green mature fruit will not formed red color since lycopen (one of the most
powerful natural antioxidant) is inhibited → yellowish color of ripen fruit in storage.
 Also more than 40ºC as mean temp → fruit remains green since chlorophyll degrading
mechanism is inactivated.

3. Culture:
1. Soil: Sandy loam to clay loam of high organic matter content, pH range is from 5.5-7.0,
plant can't with stand flood for long period, so well-drained soil is important.
- Planting in high beds avoiding using infested soil with nematodes or bacterial
wilt, using also resistant cultivars to fusarium wilt strain and verticillium wilt in
infested soil.
- Incase of poor soil, 112, 22 kg N, P, K /ha are used, incorporating about 11, 17 of
N, P below seeds (during land preparation) and the rest as plants reach up to 15-
20 cm.
- Also manure is recommended and N is important to increase yield either direct
seeding or transplanting at 30-40 cm apart x 1.0-1.25 m between rows for
indeterminate and 50-60 x 1.25-1.5 for bushy plants.
2.Moisture: over watering is detrimental, when plants are small → frequent watering
produce low quality fruits, so frequent watering becomes less as plant gets older (because of
more efficient root system).
- Roots can reach 120-150 cm deep in the soil or more unless it will be blocked by
hard pan or reach layer or water table.
- At cool conditions, the ETP from tomato field reach to 0.3 cm/day while at hot
conditions → it reaches 1 cm/day, as ETP.
- B.E. Rot is physiological disorder related to un uniformity in water availability
and to Ca deficiency.
3.Harvest andstorage:
- Tomato requires about 60-90 days to start the harvesting of fruits (depending on
the cultivar, climate condition = temp and photoperiod).
- For fresh market, it is harvested at fall green mature stage then ripened during
transportation or in storage, which should occur at temp degrees more than
10ºC since below that temp chilling injury happens, as temp is more than 10ºC
the rate of ripening will be faster.
- Light is also important for development of red pigment lycopene.
Table: Maturity stages of tomato ripening are:

4. 4.Storage:
Mature green should be stored at 13-18ºC x 85-90% of RH where no chilling injury and fruits
will ripen at temp degrees more than 18ºC.
Rapid ripening up to 30ºC, but more than that temp, red pigment not formed, fruit color is
orange to yellow.
5.Pests anddiseases:
DescriptionDays from mature green at
20ºC
Stage
Still ↑ in size, angular in shape, dull green, immature seeds that
not germinate.
-Immature green
Bright green to whitish green, rounded waxy skin, seed
embedded in gel, they are mature and can germinate → only
and not before this stage → can ripen.
-Mature green
Pink color at blossom while the placenta is pinkish.2Breaker
Pink covering 10 – 30% of fruit starting from blossom.4Turning
Up to 30 – 60% is of pink – red color.6Pink
Up to 60 – 90% is of pink – red color.8Light red
At least 90% of fruit of red color.10Red

5. 1. One common tomato disease is tobacco mosaic virus, and for this reason smoking or
use of tobacco products are discouraged around tomatoes. The signs are blotchy yellow
and green spots on plant leaves.
2. Various forms of mildew and blight are also common tomato afflictions as verticillium
and fusarium wilt which causes yellowing of leaves and reddish brown color of vascular
stem system.
3. Nematode that makes knot, like swellings of roots → but resistant cultivars are
available.
4. Phytophthora as soil born diseases due to wet soil.
5. Bugs, worms, and mites.
6. Thrips that cause spotted wilt vines.
7. Tomato Yellow Leaf Curling Virus (TYLCV).
6.Nutritive value:
1. Tomato fruits produce the most powerful lycopene, carotene, anthocyanin, and other
antioxidants.
2. Ripened tomatoes are good source of vitamin A (provitamin), and when ripened on
vines, it’s a good source of vitamin C, while if its red off → it has low vitamin A and
vitamin C content.
2.Pepper :
Family:Solanaceae
Genus:Capsicum
This Genus Capsicum
includes many species, as:
1- Capsicum annuum: Sweet pepper
2- Capsicum frutescens: Chili pepper

6. Origin:
Native to Mexico, Central America, and Northern South America (Andes mountains).
Botany:
Annual in temperate regions, and perennial in tropical regions.
Self-pollinated crop (on Bell-like Pod-like berry fruits, (pungent or non pungent) cultivars.
Needs slightly high temp than tomato for growing since it is more sensitive to cool and to wet
weather.
Hot cultivars are more tolerant to high temp than sweet cultivars.
Below mean of 16ºC → no fruit set as well as over 32ºC.
Maximum temp for fruit set of bell pepper occurs between 16-21ºC.
Culture:
1. Warm season crop, so it needs warm climate and it has long growing season showing
tolerability to extreme hot weather than tomato or eggplant.
2. Favoring light, fertile, well-drained soil.
3. Can be transplanted or seeded directly, but after frost period showing optimum
germinating temp of 30ºC and 35ºC as maximum.
4.They are planted at 40-60 cm x 75-90 cm between rows.
5.It needs: 170-220 kg/ha of N, and 22 kg/ha of P, while K is not added unless its availability in
soil is low.
Harvest and storage:
Needs 60-90 days from transplanting to fruit harvest (immature) at full size and still
green incase of bell pepper.
Also hot pepper is harvested for fresh consumption while still green, but for processing
it is harvested when ripe (red color).

7. The best storage temp is 7ºC-10ºC where green pepper can remain 10-15 days below
this range → chilling injury causing cell to die and fruit decay.
Pests anddiseases of pepper:
1. Flea beetle, Cut worms, aphids, vegetable weevils, grace hoppers, wire worms, corn
seed maggots, leaf miner, and caterpillars where these mainly damage plant and/or
fruit.
2. Tobacco mosaic virus, tobacco etch virus, potato Y virus and cucumber mosaic virus,
curly to P virus that causes curl up ward and yellowing of old leaves, spotted wilt which
causes die back of growing plants.
3. Nematodes: gall formations on the roots.
4. Phytophthora root rot: rotting of roots under high temp and high soil moisture, so good
management of water application is important.
5. Seedling damp-off by Rhizoctonia solani.
6. Pythium and Phytophthora which attack seeds and seedlings before being emerged
throughout the soil.
Nutritive value:
1. They are rich in pro vitamin A, vitamin C at mature stage.
2. Capsecin is the active component of chili peppers, it is responsible for pungent flavor, it
concentrates in septa and placenta tissues of fruit and in seeds of hot pepper.