Cherry tomatoes

Hello!

As much as I know it is impossible to compare taste of tomato from grocery and your own, grown in garden or balcony. Tomatoes are easy, fast growing and tasty plants, they are perfect for beginners to ease into gardening.

Some examples from huge tomato family

Variety of tomatoes is impressive. For my first experiment I choose to simply take some seeds from cherry tomatoes bought in grocery store.

My cherry tomatoes today

To grow your own tomatoes you only have to avoid some basic mistakes:

• To much water - roots cannot breath then! Leaves can get dark spots.
• To little water - don't let plant be dry for too long, they can lost some leaves or flowers!
• Water only directly to the soil - wet leaves can lead to fungus.
• To much or to little of sun - tomatoes need 6-8 hours of direct sunlight.  

Health benefits

Tomatoes are rich in vitamin C, beta-carotene, mineral maganese and vitamin E. In terms of phytonutrients, tomatoes are basically off the chart. There are some studies involving tomato and specific antioxidant protection of the bones, liver, kidneys, and bloodstream. They reduce risk of health disease in terms of antioxidant support and regulation of  fats in bloodstream (Lycopene and a related group of nutrients has the ability to help lower the risk of lipid peroxidation in the bloodstream.)

Anti-cancer benefits?
-Risk for many cancer types starts out with chronic oxidative stress and chronic unwanted inflammation. For this reason, foods that provide us with strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory support are often foods that show cancer prevention properties - Best researched type of cancer in relation to tomato intake is prostate cancer - tomatoes can definitely help lower risk of prostate cancer in men. One key tomato nutrient that has received special focus in prostate cancer prevention is alpha-tomatine - which han been shown to trigger programmed cell death (apoptosis) in prostate cancer cells that have already been fully formed. Research on alpha-tomatine has also been conducted for non-small cell lung cancer, with similar findings.
There is fairly well documented risk reduction for breast cancer in association with lycopene intake. (lycopene from orange- and tangerine-colored tomatoes may actually be better absorbed than the lycopene from red tomatoes. That's because the lycopene in deep red tomatoes is mostly trans-lycopene, and the lycopene in orange/tangerine tomatoes is mostly tetra-cis-lycopene.)

That's not enough ? 

Diets that include tomatoes have been linked with reduced risk of some neurological diseases (including Alzheimer's disease) in multiple studies. Tomato-containing diets have also been linked in a few studies with reduced risk of obesity.

Amount of nutrients provided by tomatoes:

vitamin C 32.8%
biotin 24%
molybdenum 20%
vitamin K 15.8%
copper 12.2%
potassium 12.1%
manganese 10.5%
fiber 8.6%
vitamin A 8.3%
vitamin B6 8.2%
folate 6.7%
vitamin B3 6.6%
vitamin E 6.4%
phosphorus 6.1%
vitamin B1 5.8%
magnesium 4.9%
chromium 3.6%
pantothenic acid 3.2%
protein 3.1%
choline 2.8%
zinc 2.8%
iron 2.7%