I seem to remember that maybe there were going to be some fields in the Plant Database that would be unique to just certain genuses or groups, like "Daylilies" or "Tomatoes".
Dave, did you wind up creating such an option? If 'yes', I would propose these somewhat standard fields for "tomatoes". What do y'all think?
And it might be desirable to keep the database uncluttered. But the existing fields often miss the mark for tomatoes: for example, maybe they ARE perennials in Zone 11 and warmer, and have yellow blooms.
But usually, if you are looking for a tomato variety to try, you're more interested in "early vs late", color, flavor, and heat tolerance or cold tolerance. ("Cold tolerance" not in the sense of over-wintering as a perennial, but fruiting and holding good flavor through a cool spell.)
I know there are free-text fields under "Fruit, Other" and "foliage, Other". But they aren't standardized or suitable for searching.
Perhaps if they are check-boxes or radio buttons or fixed-meaning numeric fields, we will be able to search and sort on them. Then you could search for things like:
- "Cherry"
- plus "Determinate"
- plus "OP"
- plus
- "Extra Early"
- plus "Orange"
- plus "Cold-Tolerant"
Proposed fields for Tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum ):
1. OP or F1 Hybrid
2. Earliness: Ultra-early / Extra-early / Early / Mid-season / Late
3. Climate Tolerance: cold-tolerant / heat-tolerant / cold-sensitive / heat-sensitive
4. Mode of growth: Determinate / Indeterminate / Semi-determinate
(The existing "Spread" field would be good for holding "4 foot - 6 foot vines")
5. potato leaf / regular leaf
6. fruit size: grape, cherry, small, med or large
or:
diameter in inches (# to # field) (each comment changes the max or min)
weight range in ounces (# to # field) (each comment changes the max or min)
7. fruit color - free text or :
- red
- orange
- yellow
- gold
- pink
- purple (probably allow multiple checks, hence red + orange)
- dark
- whiteish
- other - free text
8. fruit shape - globe beefsteak plum
9. flavor field: very subjective, so maybe each new comment could add a row
10. Best uses: paste, sauce, salsa, salad, slicing, snacking
