Tomato cultivation in greenhouses or under cover is carried out in certain regions of our country, especially in the Mediterranean Region, as the climate is suitable in winter. In this system, which is also called greenhouse cultivation or early-season cultivation, production is made during the winter months when tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, melons, squash and watermelons do not grow normally, and the products needed by the consumer are obtained and presented to the market.
In our country, no vegetables are grown (planted, planted, etc.) in open fields during the winter months or, more generally, between September and the end of March. Even if it is done, enough products cannot be obtained and we may have to consume tomatoes at 10 TL/kg as in some years.
During the period of early vegetable growing, it is argued that the taste and aroma of the fruits are bad, since the production is done outside the normal season, where hormones are applied to tomatoes and other vegetables every year, and that the tomatoes grown in the garden in the summer by our grandmothers in our childhood do not taste like today's greenhouse tomatoes. In fact, some so-called experts, who are not related to agriculture, show up in the media with the shapeless fruits they pick up in the market and try to be popular by confusing the public by saying that they don't eat vegetables in winter, there are hormones, they play with the genetics of vegetables. When summer comes, they keep talking about pink tomatoes, Kemer eggplant, Urfa and Antep peppers and Kırkağaç melon.
These products, which are unique to our country, of course belong to us and are important products for us. This type of vegetables with high taste and aroma are usually grown in summer, and many crops such as tomatoes grow well and taste good because it is hot enough in summer. This is also the case with our local melons and watermelons.
However, the vegetables that our grandmothers obtained from the seeds they kept in their bundles in the summer by planting them in small wooden crates at home have some characteristics. For example, pink large, sliced tomato is one of them. Even if you buy them from the market in the summer and put them in the refrigerator, they will rot in two or three days at the latest. They taste good, but they have a short shelf life and cannot withstand transportation from one place to another, they melt and rot. Therefore, tomato varieties have been developed for tomato and other important vegetable species, which are suitable for early season cultivation in winter, are resistant to transportation, have a long shelf life, and taste and aroma like traditional tomatoes.
While developing tomato varieties, the seeds of locally grown tomato and other vegetable species (Kemer eggplant, Aydın black eggplant, Ayaş tomato, Demre pointed pepper, Urfa pepper, Kırkağaç melon, Ankara winter melon etc.) and seeds supplied from different regions. Hybrid (hybrid) seeds with a long shelf life, good taste and aroma, suitable for winter conditions were obtained.
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In this system, for example, the seeds obtained by crossing Kemer aubergine and Aydın Siyahı aubergine have been developed to develop better quality, more productive and more resistant eggplant varieties.
Hybrid or hybrid varieties are used in greenhouses and these varieties are definitely not GMO (genetically modified organism).
No new genes were added to these cultivars. These varieties are hybrids of materials grown in two different regions (one line is used as a parent and when both lines bloom, pollen from the father plant is crossed with the flowers of the other mother plant, so only the fruits formed on the mother plant crossed with pollen from the father plant are hybrid seeds) the resulting varieties.
Since hybrid or hybrid varieties are obtained from two plants or individuals, when we obtain the seeds of vegetables such as tomatoes that we consume and grow them in the summer months, if we take good care of them, we will get fruits from the plants developed from those seeds, but we cannot use these seeds in large production. Because those seeds are now second generation seeds obtained from the seeds obtained from the hybridization of two plants, they are not hybrids and show expansion and very different types emerge from them.
But surely tomato fruits are obtained from these seeds. As someone in the media said, I planted the seed I bought in the market, and there is no such thing as a plant, but I did not get fruit.
As a result, you can use the seeds called ancestral heirlooms in the hands of our grandmothers in small quantities in the gardens in front of the house in summer and get your own tomatoes and peppers.
If this type of production is not done, if old-style cultivation is carried out, the large, soft but delicious pink tomatoes we eat in summer do not grow in winter and do not produce enough fruit. Even if they give fruit, when we send the fruit from Antalya to Istanbul in 12 hours, even if it reaches Istanbul, it softens and starts to rot before it reaches the consumer. Modern hybrid varieties, on the other hand, can even be sent to Finland and withstand shipping for 15-20 days, and 15-20. At the end of the day, it can reach the consumer in a healthy and high quality way.
Sources
Dr. Ercan ÖZKAYNAK