Content
- Are tomatoes fruits or vegetables?
- Botanical definitions provide only clues
- Clever backdoor from the dilemma: fruit vegetables
- Tips & Tricks
Are tomatoes fruits or vegetables?
With bright red, juicy-sweet tomatoes, most people think of fruit rather than vegetables. In which category do paradise apples actually belong? Even the scientists are struggling. There is an answer anyway.
Botanical definitions provide only clues
Not so easy to answer the question about the difference between fruits and vegetables. In such cases, mortals turn to highly qualified scientists, hoping for a sound answer. Botanists and food scientists are available with the following definitions:
fruit
Hydrous fruits that are consumed raw. When ripe, fruit is so soft that it does not have to be cooked. The fruits come from the fertilized flowers of perennial trees or shrubs. Their natural sugar content is so high that they taste sweet without the addition of granulated sugar.
vegetables
All edible plant parts, such as roots, leaves or stems. Most vegetables produce one year old and are grown every year. Even mature, vegetables are so hard that it is unfit for raw consumption. Only by the preparation, such as cooking or steaming, people can eat vegetables.
The definitions are thus clearly applicable to cherries, apples and peaches. There is no need to discuss the assignment of Brussels sprouts, leeks or carrots. Nevertheless, tomatoes resist a precise determination. The fruits are usually consumed like fruit. The green parts of plants are even poisonous to humans and animals due to the solanine content. At the same time, it should not be ignored that they are planted once a year.
Clever backdoor from the dilemma: fruit vegetables
Since tomatoes fulfill the requirements both for an assignment to fruit and to vegetables, a solution had to be found. The answer is as simple as it is convincing: Tomatoes are fruit vegetables.
They rank alongside pumpkins, peppers and legumes, which also escape the definitions of fruit and vegetables. This does not affect the cultivation of tomatoes in the hobby garden. Even as a fruit vegetable, the paradise apples will indignantly react to a planting neighborhood to red cabbage, fennel, sweetcorn, strawberries and potatoes.
Tips & Tricks
The specification of tomatoes as fruit vegetables is now also considered in the lunar calendar. If hobby gardeners orientate themselves after the earth, they find the favorable days for the sowing, planting and refinement additionally in the category fruit vegetables.