Talk:Tomato
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The pronunciation conundrum
what a stupid section this is! So much info needed and in a fruit/vegetable article there's a section about pronunciation? Who cares how Americans and British speakers pronunce "tomato" in a vegetable article? BTW I'm not an native English speaker. And...In dispute?!?!?! bah!!!! -Pedro 22:10, 14 May 2005 (UTC)
Perhaps it's not all that important but I wouldn't delete it. I would, however, change the wording. It's more than just American verses British. We speak English in Australia too. I'm changing it to North American verses Commonwealth English unless there's any objection. - Jim 23May05
Poisonous
I knew that tomatoes were regarded as poisonous, but I thought that because of genetic variation, some early strains may have actually been slightly poisonous. Is this wrong? Vintermann
In addition to this, how poisonous is it? Ie. is it just an irritant, ie. like poison ivy, or very lethal? I mean, what about the leaves at the top of a tomato? -- Natalinasmpf 22:57, 19 Jun 2005 (UTC)
South America
I wonder about the history of cultivation of the tomato before the discovery of the Americas by Europeans. Nothing said about consumption of tomatoes in South America before that event, which I think is weird.
Species name
I looked it up in ITIS and found Lycopersicon lycopersicum and L. esculentum esculentum - but no L. esculentum. That species is listed under Solanum. What gives? -phma
Killer tomatoes
Moved from the article as non-encyclopedic:
- "The reputation of tomatoes has been severely damaged by their appearance in the Killer Tomatoes movies. Few, if any, actual tomatoes have been found to be homicidal." 209.149.235.254 20:10, 23 Mar 2004 (UTC)
- LOL. I think tomatoes are rather suicidal than homicidal. When they become mature, they fall down and crush in the ground. -Pedro 14:10, 25 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Robert Gibbon Johnson story
Re: Robert Gibbon Johnson: some people say that this legend is apocryphal. Googling "Robert Gibbon Johnson" shows that some people believe this occurred in 1830, not 1820. Finally, in at least some versions of the anecdote it took place in Salem, NJ, not Salem, MA; the former seems more likely to me. In short, I don't know what's going on, but something seems wrong.
- I agree - I've always heard Salem, NJ, but I haven't done any research on it. This is on the front page today, Sept. 28, 2004, so now it's really noticeable. Spalding 16:54, Sep 28, 2004 (UTC)
Fruit or vegetable
Good article this morning on WBUR (http://www.wbur.org) about whether a Tomato is a fruit or a vegetable. Conclusion was that botanically it's a fruit, legally (in the US) it's a vegetable. -Bernfarr
This debate seems kind of stupid, since all fruits are also vegetables, aren't they? --P3d0 18:22, Sep 28, 2004 (UTC)
- yeah. You just put them in different places in the refrigerator and you use them differently. -Pedro 14:01, 25 Mar 2005 (UTC)
"Early" History
The tomato is a new-world fruit. What do we know about its uses in pre-colonized America? The article says: "The first traces of use of tomato as food date back to South Europe in the first half of the 18th century. Only in the second half of the 19th |]] – Quadell (talk) (help)[[]] 03:30, Nov 11, 2004 (UTC)
We know the tomato was eaten in Mexico, but we don't know if it was eaten in Peru. If I were to guess, I would guess it was eaten in Peru, but there is no proof. There seems to have been an exchange in pre-history when Mexico got the tomato and Peru got corn. Zenyu 20:38, Nov 21, 2004 (UTC)
Better info please
What's the usual size of a tomato plant in metres? In the article we have the tallest but what about the usual? How long do the plants live, one year? How they like the soil? rich in what, pooer in what? they like a lot of water? -Pedro 13:35, 25 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Cherry and grape tomatoes?
Heaven knows I'm no vegetable expert, but I think this page could benefit from some info about the smaller varieties of tomato, the cherry and grape varieties. Does anyone have some knowledge in that area? --Marcg106 22:09, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)
