We all have used it, as an ingredient in a cooked dish or raw in a salad. FRANCIS DASS gives tips on how to grow tomatoes.

WHETHER you like to call it to-MAY-to or to-MAH-to, tomato is a bit of a challenge to grow. It is a fussy plant that lives up to its tongue-twister Latin name, Lycopersicon lycopersicum.

Part-herbaceous and part-vine, tomatoes can be grown from seeds. Yes, squeeze out the seeds from a fresh tomato onto some soil and, voila, they should be sprouting within a week or so.

Although I have found it to thrive in soil that is sandy, I have also come to discover that layering sandy and compost material a few times works fine if the tomatoes are to grow in containers.

Otherwise, best results are obtained from raised beds of compost on a sandy base. Bear in mind that water-logged soil is not good for the plant.
Once the plant reaches the height of a foot or more, staking it would be a good idea as, otherwise, the plant has a tendency of collapsing in on itself, especially when it rains.

Amongst garden plants, the tomato plant is easily a pretty one. Closer inspection of this perennial will reveal that the plant is “hairy”, which is its novel feature.

This somewhat challenging plant thrives when grown in a cool spot. The reward of growing a tomato plant is that once it matures, it will bear little yellow flowers which grow into an abundant crop of the precious fruits — or rather, vegetable, as tomatoes are often categorised (the rule of thumb, apparently, is that if it does not go into the making of desserts and goes into the creation of main dishes, then it is a vegetable).

The health benefits of tomatoes are many, especially the compound called lycopene, which apparently prevents prostate cancer in men.

According to scientists, an avalanche of the antioxidant lycopene will be unleashed when tomatoes are cooked.

In Malaysia, tomatoes are so versatile that they are either eaten raw or cooked in soups, curries, or even tossed into sambal for that extra acidic piquancy. The only thing I have yet to see in this country is tomatoes invading the yong tau foo brigade!