GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PLANT 23 



weaker until they die from starvation. From Phila- 

 delphia southward gardeners expect that spring set 

 plants will thus exhaust themselves and die by late 

 summer, and they sow seed in late spring or early 

 summer for plants on which they depend for late sum- 

 mer and fall crops. 



Under some conditions, particularly in the Gulf 

 states and in California, tomato plants will not only 

 grow to a much greater size than normal, but will con- 

 tinue to thrive and bear fruit for a longer time. Such 

 a plant grown in Pasadena, Cal., was said to have 

 been in constant bearing for over lo months. Again, 

 sometimes plants that have produced a full crop of 

 fruits will start new sets of roots and leaves and pro- 

 duce a second and even a third crop, each, however, 

 being produced on new branches and as a result of 

 a fresh set of roots, those which produced the prece- 

 ding crop having died and disappeared. The period 

 of development, 85 to 120 days of full sunshine at 

 a temperature above 75° F., has been given. The 

 full sunshine and high temperature are essential to 

 such rapid development, and in so far as there is a 

 lack of sunshine from clouds or shade, or the day tem- 

 perature falls below 75° F. the period will be length- 

 ened, so that in the greater part of the United States 

 the elapsed time between starting seed to ripened 

 fruit is usually as much as from 120 to 150 days and 

 often even longer. 



Characteristics of the root. — The roots of the 

 tomato plant, while abundant in number, are short 

 and can only gather food and water from a limited 

 area. A plant of garden bean, for instance, is not 



