ABSTRACT
One of the most important crops on the planet is the tomato, hence it will form the case study presented in this chapter. However, at the end of the chapter tables are presented covering other crops. The tomato is an herbaceous perennial, but is usually grown as an annual in temperate regions since it is killed by frost. It originally had an indeterminate plant habit, continuously producing three nodes between each inflorescence, but determinate varieties have been bred with a bushlike form in which the plant is allowed to produce side shoots and the plant terminates with fruit clusters. Determinate varieties have fewer than three nodes between inflorescences with the stem terminating in an inflorescence, producing fruits that are easily machine harvested and primarily grown for processing.
