Rationing of the number of fruits of tomatoes in open ground with the aim of a friendly return of the crop. Spring protection of garden plants from pests and diseases

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You can take any complex fertilizer, but add ash or potassium magnesium to the aisles. Foliar dressing with microelements during flowering is also very useful. For tomatoes, a boric acid solution is used, since boron promotes fruit set.

Seed treatment before sowing

The main assistants in the fertilization of tomato flowers are ordinary bees or bumblebees. The presence of insects in a greenhouse is vital, since air circulation is limited or completely absent. For artificial pollination of tomatoes, hydroponics are used.

  1. In case of sharp fluctuations in temperature or its rise in the daytime above the mark of 30 ° C, it is necessary to spray the flowering inflorescences with "Tomaton", which is capable of providing artificial fruit formation. An important condition for growing tomatoes and obtaining a decent harvest is the organization of ventilation in the greenhouse. The lack of intensive respiration in plants leads to a decrease in ovaries and a decrease in the quality of tomatoes. On hot, sunny days, it is necessary to organize ventilation no later than 8:00.
  2. The first feeding is carried out 12-14 days after planting the seedlings in the soil with the formation of ovaries on the first inflorescence. Top dressing is carried out using “Yara Mila Complex” - 30 g per 1 m², “Kemiru-universal” - 80 g per 1 m² or “Sotku-universal” - 60 g per 1 m². 12 days after the first feeding, the second one is carried out, during which 30 g of Yara Mila Complex is added to 1 m². The third feeding takes place 13-15 days after the second, using 25 g of Yara Mila Complex per 1 m². To obtain large fruits, experts recommend immediately after the formation of ovaries to carry out processing "on the sheet" with a solution of "Benefit" - 60 ml per 10 liters of water and repeat the procedure 2-3 times every 10 days. Accelerate ripening, improve the color of tomatoes, increase their sugar content, transportability will help the treatment with a solution of "Svita" - 30 ml per 10 liters of water. Foliar feeding of seedlings with a solution of "Speedfol Amino CalMag" - 30 ml per 10 liters of water will help prevent yellowing of the leaves at the time of pouring the fruits.
  3. After the emergence of 30% of shoots, the covering film is removed from the surface of the boxes, and the boxes are exposed to light. The moment the cotyledons open indicates the need to lower the temperature to 18-20 ° C in the daytime and 15-16 ° C at night. Such actions will help protect the seedlings from pulling. After 7-10 days, the temperature is raised to 20-22 ° C during the day, and 17-18 ° C at night. If the process of growing seedlings did not take place in cassettes, then with the appearance of the third true leaf, the seedlings dive into pots with a diameter of at least 8 cm, filled with soil mixture. Diving of tomato seedlings can also be carried out on racks with soil, 10 cm high. Transplanted tomato seedlings are watered with a 0.1% solution of "Extrasola-55" and put in the shade for 1-2 days for successful, fast rooting. If the soil has not warmed up to a temperature of + 15 ° C, do not rush to dive seedlings into it. The root system of tomatoes at temperatures below 15 ° C practically does not function.
  4. Tomatoes in the greenhouse should be illuminated by the sun from morning to evening, any shade will reduce the yield. Tomatoes are very light-loving plants. Tomatoes are not afraid of cold weather. The greatest enemies for these plants are frost and dampness. Therefore, you should not forget about airing in the greenhouse. With the onset of stable sunny weather, the greenhouse can be opened 1/3 of the top of the front sides. On hot days, you can open the completely western part of the greenhouse before a cold snap. Such actions will promote good ventilation and access to the bees during the flowering period.

The next feeding is carried out 15 days after the second transplant. To prepare the top dressing composition, take 1 tablespoon of superphosphate and potassium sulfate and dilute in 10 liters of water, while stirring thoroughly. One pot should be watered with 1 glass of the resulting solution. After 15 days, re-feeding is carried out.

The yield of tomatoes directly depends on the correct care of the seeds.

Tomato is perhaps the most long-awaited and beloved fruit-berry on our table. Juicy mouth-watering tomatoes were brought to Europe from South America. Tomatoes were grown in the old days as decorative decoration and only later did they begin to appear on the tables of wealthy rulers.

Most people, including myself, try to do without chemicals and use organic fertilizers - they are not only the best, but also safe. Use ash, chicken droppings, and a variety of weeds. If this is not possible, then you will have to purchase various fertilizers in the store.

When the first brushes bloom, watering is carried out with diluted potassium permanganate, together with 25 g of superphosphate and 20 g of potassium sulfate (per 10-liter bucket of water).

This type of technique is effective when it comes to the industrial level or in the case of high planting density. Alternatively, you can use the following method to grow greenhouse crops: Shake the plants daily at midday at the time of flowering to spread the pollen. The weather should be dry and warm, after a while, apply a light sprinkler so that the pollen sticks to the new inflorescences.

Seedling care: temperature, watering, feeding

Tomato varieties react in different ways to the appearance of certain diseases. Whatever varieties you choose, a number of preventive works will help to avoid the occurrence of diseases and protect young plants from ailments and death. To prevent fungal diseases, 2 weeks after planting the seedlings in a permanent place, spray the bushes with a copper-containing fungicide - 70 g of "Ordan" or "Kurzat R" per 10 liters of water. Processing is carried out at intervals of 12-15 days. Secondary treatment is recommended to be carried out with a systemic fungicide: "Strobi" - 2 g per 10 liters of water, "Thanos" - 20 g per 10 liters or "Quadris" - 6 ml per 10 liters of water. Systemic fungicides are highly effective in the prevention and treatment of fungal diseases:

Growing juicy and tasty tomatoes in a greenhouse is hard to imagine without properly organized watering. Among the main recommendations, the following should be remembered: A key role in the growth of fruits is played by fertilizing the soil when planting tomatoes. Growing tomatoes in greenhouses makes it difficult for bees to access flowers, which makes pollination not entirely effective. You can also pollinate tomato flowers by hand, gently shaking the brushes of the inflorescences. Shaking the flowers is carried out every 3-4 days in warm sunny weather. In order for pollen to germinate on the stigma of the pistil, pollination must be accompanied by spraying the flowers with water. After spraying, the greenhouse is ventilated to prevent waterlogging of the soil and air, since an increase in moisture reduces the palatability of the fruit and the sugar level in tomatoes.

Before planting, the seedlings begin to harden. It is taken out to the balcony at a temperature not lower than 12 ° C, covering it with a film overnight.

Hardening of seeds is carried out in a refrigerator for 1-2 days at a temperature of + 1 ° C, periodically spraying them with water. After all the procedures, the seeds are immediately sown into the soil.

Seedlings of tomatoes begin to be planted in early spring, then a month later - two are hardened, and in late spring, early summer they are planted in a greenhouse.

You can feed the tomatoes with mullein infusion. Tomatoes love this fertilizer very much. For 10 liters of water, 1 liter of mullein infusion is used.

To speed up flowering, iodine is used, and thanks to this technique, the yield of tomatoes increases. To feed the plants of the flowering phase, you will need 30-40 drops per bucket of water.

It is not uncommon for tomatoes in a greenhouse to be affected by the same diseases from year to year. In order to avoid this situation, regardless of the chosen growing technology and tomato variety, it is necessary to take measures for the autumn preparation of the greenhouse for new seedlings.

Do not water the seedlings while growing. cold water, its temperature should not be lower than 16 ° С. Do your best to keep the plant dry and water directly into the root system.

Planting tomatoes in the ground

If the picking of tomato seedlings is carried out directly into the soil of a greenhouse or greenhouse, during transplantation it loses 50-60% of the roots. As a result, the seedlings do not take root well, their growth and development stops. To improve the survival rate of seedlings, a week before transplanting, cut the greenhouse soil with a knife in two perpendicular directions to a depth of at least 10-12 cm and spill it with Speedfol Amino Marine solution at the rate of 30 ml per 10 liters of water.

Manual pollination is used as an additional method; bees, no doubt, do the best with pollination. Pollination with bees significantly increases yields, since tomato pollen is sticky, which prevents the flowers from pollinating on their own. Tomato flowers do not have nectar and odor, therefore, to attract bees, the latter are "trained". Pollination of tomatoes is carried out by bee colonies pollinating cucumber flowers. The hives with bees are transferred to greenhouses with blooming tomatoes and the insects are fed with syrup flavored with tomato flowers. Thus, the bees will work intensively in the tomato greenhouse. However, with the flowering of other fragrant honey plants, bees can jump on them. To prevent this from happening, tomatoes should be grown so that they bloom earlier than other pollen-bearing flowers.

To grow a strong bush, the upper part of the plants is cut off. From the axils of the lower leaves, shoots appear - stepchildren. The two upper stepsons are left, the rest of the lower ones are removed. Thus, the plant is formed into 2 shoots, which, when planted in the ground, will be tied to the trellis. The pinching procedure is performed 20-25 days before planting in the ground.

Tomato seeds are sown from 5 to 25 February in boxes, each variety separately. The soil for growing seedlings is prepared as follows: take 1 part of sod land, peat and humus. A liter can of river sand, 1 tablespoon of superphosphate and the same amount are added to the finished mixture wood ash.​

Now tomatoes are grown not only by professional agronomists, but also by amateur summer residents. Taking this matter seriously, you can achieve excellent results if you grow tomatoes in a greenhouse. Caring for these wonderful fruits is a rather interesting and time-consuming process. To get a good harvest of tomatoes in the greenhouse, you need to prepare the seeds for sowing, dive the seedlings in time, water them correctly, maintain the appropriate temperature regime, ensure good pollination of flowers, feed the plants in a timely manner.

You can feed the tomatoes with Agricola instant fertilizer. Use both root top dressing and foliar dressing (spraying from a spray bottle).

Application of heteroauxin - a growth stimulant that increases fruit set during flowering. This method is especially useful in poor natural light conditions. Dilute heteroauxin in a ratio of 20 g per liter of water and spray each flower brush with a spray bottle, resulting in large fruits, rich in vitamin C and sugar.

Flowering and features of pollination of tomatoes

Remove tomato bushes from the greenhouse in September. Often among specialists there is debate about whether it is worth pulling out the plant by the root or pruning at the root will be enough. If you are faced with a fungal disease, then it is better to remove the roots, as they can be infected.

"Ordan" or "Kurzat R" - 60 g per 10 liters of water;

The presence of too dry a substrate can provoke the appearance of late blight.

Early harvest

In the places of the cuts, new numerous roots will appear, allowing the seedlings to take root in a permanent place. For the future harvest, it is very important to observe the modes of humidity, temperature and illumination. At the initial stages of seedling growth, the air temperature is maintained in the range of 20-22 ° C on sunny days, 15-17 ° C at night. After the appearance of 4-5 leaves, the temperature must be reduced to 18-20 ° C during the day and 13-14 ° C at night. 2 weeks before transplanting to a permanent place, the temperature is lowered to 16-18 ° C.

Many agronomists use a little secret to attract pollinating insects to the greenhouse: they hang a container with jam, honey or other sugar treats near the open entrance. The smell of sweets will attract bees, which will subsequently start pollination of tomatoes in the greenhouse.

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Greenhouse business: growing tomatoes

Before planting seedlings in a permanent place, at the end of April, they begin to harden it. On warm days, the seedlings are taken out onto the balcony at a temperature of at least 12 ° C, covering with foil overnight. Seasoned, healthy seedlings have a bluish purple hue.


The resulting mixture is thoroughly mixed 6-7 days before sowing, then evenly distributed in the seedling boxes. In the boxes with the ground, grooves are made, the depth of which is 1.0-1.5 cm. The distance between the grooves should be at least 5-7 cm. The rows are watered with a solution of sodium humate, the temperature of which is 35-40 ° C. Seeds are sown in prepared rows. The distance between future plants should be at least 1.5-2.0 cm. The grooves are covered without watering from above. The boxes with crops are placed in a warm, bright place, with an air temperature of 22-24 ° C. In order for the plants to start sprouting faster, it is recommended to cover the boxes with foil.

Seed processing for sowing is carried out in 4 stages:

Planting seeds and caring for them

Can be fed with boric acid solution. This, by the way, will help increase yields.

When shedding flowers, stir a spoonful of boric acid in a bucket of water. This fertilizer consumption corresponds to spraying an area of ​​10 sq. m.

It is also necessary to remove plant residues: mulch and weeds.

"Acrobat" - 50 g per 10 liters;

Do not allow excessive moisture at the initial stage of growing tomatoes, which can cause a number of diseases of the root system.

Correctly grown seedlings are planted vertically and buried in the soil to the level between the first true and cotyledon leaves.

Secrets of growing tomato seedlings

To get early tomatoes, seedlings begin to grow as early as possible. Usually in tomatoes, depending on the variety, the interval between shoots and ripening of fruits is 120-130 days. Improving external conditions: good light, sufficient heat and moisture, good soil composition, timely feeding, proper care - will help to grow the tomato crop 10-20 days earlier. Earlier seedlings have time to grow stronger to the stem and give a greater yield than young and fragile ones. When sowing seedlings, it is important to consider the area where the plants will be grown. In the northern regions, where short cold summers prevail, seedlings should be sown 70-80 days earlier. At the same time, artificial lighting, the required temperature regime is used.The seedlings ready for planting should have 8-12 leaves and one or two inflorescences, while the plants themselves should reach a height of 20-35 cm. control the mode of humidity and temperature. The temperature during the day should be maintained at 16-18 ° С, and at night - 13-15 ° С. Such care must be provided before the second leaf appears on the plant, within 30-35 days from the start of germination. During all this time, the seedlings need to be watered only 3-4 times. This is due to the fact that during the low light period, which falls in March, excessive soil moisture will provoke excessive stretching of the seedlings. Seedlings should be watered with warm water, temperature 20 ° C under the roots, without getting on the leaves.

Fertilizing tomatoes in a greenhouse

Tomato seeds require preliminary preparation before planting.

You can use the drug "Ovary", which is used to increase the number of ovaries. Use it as a foliar dressing.

During the flowering period, tomatoes are well fed with organic fertilizers. Top dressing must be prepared in advance. To do this, place the weeds collected in your own garden (nettles, quinoa, wheatgrass and everything that grows) in a large container, add ash, bird droppings (1 part of droppings to 15 parts of water), manure (1 part of manure to 10 parts water). If there is no bird droppings and manure, you can limit yourself to grass and ash. Mix everything and leave to infuse and ferment for a week. Stir again before use. Water at the rate of 1 liter per plant. You can also use mineral fertilizers, such as phosphoric, nitrate, ammonia, but this is chemistry, you can do without it.

Any dressings should be used in liquid form, because so nutrients more actively absorbed by plants and soil.

Regardless of which method of growing tomatoes was chosen, after harvesting them, densely sow the entire area with oilseed radish or white mustard. During the growing season, these plants release a substance that can destroy the causative agents of fungal diseases. In the spring, repeat the procedure, combining mustard with legumes (peas, vetch) or cereals (rye, oats).

"Ridomil-Gold" - 25-40 g per 10 liters of water.

Features of watering tomatoes in a greenhouse

Before the second brush blooms, the roots of the bush should be in a not very humid environment. After that, the amount of moisture is slightly increased, then gradually reduced until the end of the growing season, thereby eliminating the likelihood of cracking of the tomatoes.

  1. The less the plant loses its roots during transplantation, the higher the survival rate and the more active the initial growth.
  2. Caring for tomatoes is a rather responsible and troublesome business, but harvesting these beautiful juicy fruits is much more fun and rewarding. After all, tomatoes are famous not only for their excellent taste, but also for their vitamin content, mineral substances and many other elements necessary for the human body. Due to the content of potassium, iron, folic acid, tomatoes are extremely beneficial for the cardiovascular system, improve the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract, strengthen the general tone of the body and improve overall health.
  3. Caring for tomatoes that are planted in a greenhouse is more difficult. It is necessary to monitor soil moisture and temperature conditions environment.​
  4. Each day the boxes with seedlings must be turned the other way towards the window so that the plants receive enough light.

Warming up the seeds.

During flowering tomatoes lack nitrogen, therefore, instead of mullein, you can use the drug Azofoska.

I fed tomatoes with infusion of dandelion, wormwood and nettle.

Garter tomatoes in the greenhouse

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Leave the greenhouse open for the winter and do not cover with snow until early February to freeze the ground more.

You should also pay attention to contact fungicides:

Hybrid tomato varieties are more resistant to various diseases and pests.

How to win back crops from diseases

It is advisable to plant tomato bushes in a permanent place in the evening or on cloudy days, then the seedlings take root better and grow faster. After planting seedlings in the greenhouse, water them at the root. clean water, then a solution of "Radifarm" or "Speedfol Amino Marina" - 30 ml per 10 liters of water. The solution consumption for one plant will be 0.5 l. After a week, repeat the treatment with a lower dosage - 15 ml per 10 liters of water. If the greenhouse is equipped with a drip irrigation system, "Radifarm" and "Speedfol Amino Marine" are applied according to the same scheme - 60 ml per 100 m² at planting and 30 ml after a week.

Tomatoes (semi-determinant, indeterminate and determinant) in film shelters and greenhouses are grown, as a rule, by the seedling method. Seeds sold in branded packages exclude the possibility of infection with pathogens and pests, do not require pre-sowing preparation. The technology described below for growing tomatoes in a greenhouse is focused on this particular method.

  • Ripe seedlings are planted in a greenhouse in the first half of May. When planting tomatoes, it is unacceptable to plant them in the same place for several years, in order to avoid diseases. You cannot plant tomatoes after potatoes and eggplants, since these crops are of the same family of nightshades, respectively, they have the same diseases. If you still have to plant tomatoes after the listed crops, then before planting, the upper soil should be removed from the greenhouse, and then the soil should be sprayed with a hot solution of copper sulfate.
  • The seedlings should be well ventilated, therefore, boxes with seedlings should not be placed very close to the window pane.
  • Seed care when processing with chemicals.

I would not recommend that you feed the tomatoes with any industrial preparations, it is best to use some organic type of chicken manure. I know that some gardeners still use ash for feeding, but I advise not to make a solution from the ash, but simply sprinkle it around the stems, and water it as needed. This method will not only feed your tomatoes, but also scare away many pests.

  • You need to take two good handfuls of nettles, two handfuls of dandelions, two handfuls of wormwood (chopped), put them in a plastic tub, poured them with water, added a pinch of yeast and a glass of ash, mixed everything and insisted for about 10 days.

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"Poliram" - 80 g per 10 liters;

Who will pollinate the tomatoes?

Watering of greenhouse tomatoes is carried out in the morning with an interval of 2-3 days, spending 700-1200 liters of water per 100 m² of plantings. For all varieties of tomatoes grown in greenhouses, even one-time drying is dangerous.

Autumn greenhouse preparation

To grow good fruits in the greenhouse, ridges are made, the distance between which is 60-70 cm. As fertilizer, humus, peat, sawdust and a little sand are added to the beds. Before planting tomatoes, the soil is watered with a solution of potassium permanganate: for 10 liters of water - 1 g of potassium permanganate.

  1. At first, while the seedlings are growing in a common box, there is no need to feed the soil.
  2. Soaking in clean water.
  3. Better organic fertilizers have not yet been invented. Therefore, it is better to fertilize tomatoes during flowering with ash and chicken droppings.
  4. After the infusion was ready, I took 1 liter of this infusion and diluted it with 10 liters of water, the smell is certainly not pleasant, but for tomatoes and other vegetables it is a good top dressing.

Let the difficult but fascinating process of growing aromatic and tasty tomatoes give the long-awaited result and good mood.

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"Bravo" - 100 g per 10 liters of water.

Please note that heavy watering is prohibited 2 weeks before harvest. This warning is dictated by the fact that during this period the root system is weak and susceptible to various kinds of damage. Correct irrigation technology involves the frequent supply of water in small volumes. The total amount of water required for normal growth and fruiting of a plant ranges from 0.5 liters in cloudy weather and up to 1.6 liters on hot, sunny days. On heavy loamy and clayey soils, watering is carried out infrequently (once every 2-3 days), since it is able to retain moisture inside for a long time. On light sandy and sandy loamy soils, the problem of surface cracking arises, since given type soil is unable to hold water and requires frequent watering.

The method of growing tomatoes involves the introduction mineral fertilizers under the root. The procedure is performed every 10-14 days. Experts recommend feeding tomatoes in conjunction with watering them. 12 days after planting tomato seedlings in a permanent place, it is necessary once a week to feed "on a leaf" with a solution of "Speedfol Amino Start", prepared at the rate of 20-30 ml per 10 liters of water, and "Plantofol 10:54:10" has good recommendations "- 25-35 g per 10 liters of water. With the beginning of the flowering of tomatoes in the greenhouse, to improve the fertilization of flowers, stop shedding of ovaries and flowers, increase the brushes and eliminate the top rot of the fruits, the plants are processed “on the leaf” with “Speedfol Amino Flowering and Fruiting” - 30-35 ml per 10 liters of water. A mixture of "Boroplus" - 20 ml with "Speedfall Amino CalMag" - 20-35 ml per 10 liters of water has proven itself well. After 12 days, the treatment is repeated. If the cultivation of seedlings is carried out in hot and dry weather, a third treatment is carried out with a similar dosage.

If the main goal is to get a very early harvest, seedlings are grown with the first flowering inflorescence for a period of 40-60 days for indeterminate varieties of tomatoes, and with the first brush formed, but before the opening of the first flower - for determinant and semi-determinant tomatoes. In addition, it is possible to plant seedlings in the greenhouse at the age of 35 days, grown without picking. Tomato seedlings are planted in a permanent place when the soil temperature at a depth of 10 cm reaches + 15˚С. Optimum temperature air for the growth and full development of tomatoes in the greenhouse is considered to be 22-25 ° С.
Seedlings are planted vertically, only a pot with a root is immersed in the ground. The distance between bushes of tall varieties of tomatoes should be 50x50 cm, while the plants are planted in a row or staggered. When planting, a distance of 80-90 cm from each other should be avoided: this decreases the yield! This is due to the fact that a free plant branches strongly, that is, all nutrients will go not to the development of fruits, but to the deciduous system.
The most important growth conditions for seedlings in the first three weeks are temperature and the required humidity.
Hardening of seeds.
If neither one nor the other is not there, you can buy ready-made solutions with organic salts for feeding in the store.
For 1 bush you need 1 liter of diluted infusion under the root.

Tomato is a self-pollinating heat-loving vegetable. The most favorable temperature for its growth and fruitful development is 23-25 ​​° C. A polycarbonate greenhouse is an ideal place for growing, the required temperature for the growth of tomatoes will be maintained here, high humidity will not arise, but its required level will be maintained. The plant requires a sufficient amount of light, with a lack of it, the leaves turn pale, the stems stretch, and the resulting buds fall off.

WHAT TO FEED TOMATOES DURING FLOWERING?

A 1% solution of "Extrasol-55" can also protect the crop. The technology of growing greenhouse plants involves spraying in the budding phase, during the flowering of the third brush and when the fruit reaches the size of a walnut. "Extrasol-55" is a liquid suspension of phosphorus-fixing bacteria, the main food of which is fungal spores. The cotton bollworm is an insect whose caterpillars can destroy up to 50% of the crop.

3 days after planting, the plants are tied with twine to a wire, which must be tensioned in advance at a height of 2.2 m. Tie the lower part of the twine to the plant under the second sheet, and the upper part to the wire using the sliding loop method, which allows you to loosen the tension when twisting around the stem. Twisting of plants is carried out weekly, the stem of the tomato is wrapped in twine. With the correct tie, one revolution should fall on 1.5-2 internodes. Tomatoes of an indeterminate type in greenhouse conditions form in one shoot, semi-determinant ones - in one, less often in two shoots, regularly eliminating lateral shoots (stepchildren).

For tomatoes, it is desirable that the greenhouse be equipped with an irrigation system.

Tomatoes are tied to a trellis 10-14 days after planting. The lower stepsons are removed, leaving 2-3 cm columns.
A month later, when two or three leaves appear on the seedlings, the first pick is made - transplanting each plant into a separate pot. The pots, in which tomato seedlings are dived for the first time, should be 8x8 cm in size. There the plants will develop for about 25 days. The soil for dive seedlings is prepared in exactly the same way as for sowing seeds. Before planting plants in pots, the soil is watered with a solution of potassium permanganate, in the proportion of half a tablespoon to 10 liters of water. When picking, weak and unusable plants are rejected.
For the rapid growth of seedlings, it is recommended to warm up the seeds at a temperature of 45-65 degrees for 3 hours. This procedure can be carried out at the battery or on special heating devices. But the main thing here is to observe the measure: an excessively high temperature can damage the structure of the seed.
Tomatoes and other plants in general are best fed and fertilized with only natural products, chemistry should be excluded. Use manure - dilute it in a bucket of clean water in an approximate proportion of one part manure to ten parts water. Stir everything thoroughly and let it infuse for a day, before feeding, stir again and water at the root.
But after feeding, it is imperative to water the tomatoes with settled water.

Throw nettles, dandelions, burdocks and others into a large container weeds, bird droppings (1:15 to the amount of water) and cow dung (1:10), do not forget to mix all the ingredients more often.

Time abundant flowering tomatoes - this is a signal for the second feeding of the plant. Its flowers are small, yellow, five-membered, the inflorescence is collected in a curl (brush). There are many ways to feed tomatoes during flowering and each summer resident uses only his own time-tested method. Some of them will be discussed below:

How to feed tomatoes during flowering?

irians

The insect's years occur at the beginning of May, so it is important to take a number of preventive, protective measures. Tomatoes are treated with insecticides at intervals of 14 days: "Avant" or "Carrageen", "Regent", "Fury", "Arrivo", "Fufanon" or "Fastak". The procedure can be carried out at any temperature, with the exception of "Fufanon", which is used at temperatures below + 28˚С. From year to year, there are more frequent cases of tomato ticks. The fight against the misfortune can be organized with the help of acaricides or insectoacaricides: Clipper, Talstar, Fitoverm, Aktellik, Omayt. Treatment of tomatoes with fungicides and insectoacaricides is combined with foliar feeding of plants.

Aleso

At the beginning of ripening, thanks to the foliar dressing "Speedfol Amino Flowering and Fruiting" in a dose of 35 ml per 10 liters of water, it is possible to accelerate the ripening of tomatoes and increase the content of vitamins and carbohydrates in them. In stressful situations, the treatment of tomatoes with Izabion or Megafol at a dosage of 20-40 ml per 10 liters of water for open field seedlings, 20 ml per 10 liters of water for greenhouses is most effective. The efficiency of the growing process is largely dependent on the correct nutrition of the tomatoes and the ratio of nitrogen to potassium during plant growth. In top dressing of greenhouse-type tomatoes, the ratio varies from 2.5: 1 to 1.5: 1. Kemira-universal, Sotka-universal, Yara Mila Complex and Sotka-flower are mineral fertilizers as close as possible to this ratio of nitrogen and potassium.

Seeds are sown in the first half of February in cassettes or special boxes filled with a loose, air-permeable, nutritious soil mixture based on peat with the addition of mineral fertilizers and sand, deepening them by 1.5-2 cm. The soil mixture in boxes a week before the moment of immediate sowing seeds spill "Extrasol-55" (0.1% solution) at the rate of 1 tbsp. l. for 10 liters of water. Tillage of the soil makes it possible to avoid the disease of seedlings "black leg". After sowing, cassettes (boxes) are covered with plastic wrap and placed in a shaded place. The optimum soil temperature for seed germination varies between 24-26 ° C. Due to this temperature and high soil moisture, tomato seeds germinate in 4-6 days.

Before flowering and fruiting, tomatoes are watered every 5-6 days. During the growing season, plant nutrition is especially important. Tomatoes are fertilized with liquid mullein or ready-made fertilizers "Ideal", "Fertility" every 10-15 days. To increase the fruit ovaries, tomatoes are sprayed with a 10% boric acid solution on flower brushes and leaves.

Picked seedlings are grown at a temperature of 20-22 ° C during the day, and at 16-18 ° C at night. Watering seedlings in pots should be no more than 1 time a week until the soil is well wet. 2 weeks after picking, tomato seedlings are fed with this solution: 1 tablespoon of nitrophoska is diluted in 10 liters of water. 1 pot contains half a glass of fertilizer.

After warming up, the seeds are treated with chemical solutions to avoid possible diseases of young plants. First, the seeds are treated with a solution of pharmaceutical manganese in the proportion of 1 g of manganese per 1 glass of water. In a cloth bag, the seeds are soaked for 15-20 minutes in the prepared solution, and then washed with water. Then the seeds are soaked in a solution that promotes their nutrition and development. In 1 liter of water, dilute 1 tablespoon of ash, or liquid fertilizer "Ideal", or ¼ teaspoon of sodium humate. Tomato seeds are dipped into one of the prepared solutions for 12 hours. Before processing with chemistry, it is very important to carefully read the instructions for the use of chemicals and observe the necessary proportions. Since improper care using formulations can cause great harm to human health.

Elena-Lilia

You need to feed a tomato only with organic matter (natural fertilizer) - this is the most beneficial for human health. Use simple humus from plants from your garden or manure, but not concentrated, but dilute it with plain water so that it does not destroy the plant itself. You can simply throw rotted plants under the roots and water them as usual.

This feeding should be done once every ten days.

D Y M K A

Spread dry mineral fertilizers evenly into the aisles: 20 g of phosphorus fertilizer, 15 g of 40% potassium salt, 12 g of nitrate, ammonia per 1 sq. m., then sprinkle with earth.

natla

Water the ground or spray the flowers with boric acid, diluted in a ratio of 1 g per 1 liter of water.

In the Meatlider method, there is no loosening of the soil, weeds rarely appear on the ridges.

The stepsons are removed at intervals of 3-4 days one at a time, leaving small stumps of 5 mm. After setting the fruits of the first inflorescence, remove the leaves from the bottom of the plant. Experts do not recommend removing more than 2 leaves at a time. By the time the fruits of the first cluster ripen, all the leaves below it must be removed. After harvesting the fruits of the first cluster, remove the leaves up to the second. The cultivation technology involves removing stepchildren and leaves only in the morning. It is advisable to leave up to 6 fruits in each fruit cluster. For the bottom three brushes, this rule is mandatory, otherwise the fruits of the fourth brush will be small. It is possible to increase the number of ovaries by using the technology of shaking and tapping on flowering brushes, in addition, growth regulators: Boroplus and Speedfol Amino Flowering and Fruiting have proven themselves well.

At soil temperatures below 24 ° C, tomato seeds sprout more slowly or rot.

irishenka

It is necessary to take care of tomatoes, observing the humidity of no more than 65%. It should be remembered that tomatoes are not liked high humidity... Watering should be moderate in evening time and under the root, since the ingress of water on the leaves is undesirable, especially on a sunny day. You should also observe the temperature regime in the greenhouse: 20-28 ° С during the day and 15-16 ° С at night.

Barambulechka

After 3-4 weeks, the second picking of the seedlings is carried out into large pots, 12x12 cm in size. Care for the seedlings after the second pick is the same as after the first. The second pick is necessary to inhibit plant growth, since it is necessary to achieve the growth of strong resistant plants, and excessive stretching of the stems makes the seedlings fragile and vitally unstable.

After chemical treatment, the seeds are placed in clean water or in a solution of boric acid (0.2 g per 1 liter of water) for 12 hours. It is important that the solutions and water are at a temperature of 24-25 ° C.

chacha777

During the flowering period for feeding the tomato, it is better not to use chemistry, but to give preference to organic matter. It is best to use humus, fill the weeds, and any water, add a little ash and let it all ferment for about a week. You can also use chicken droppings or dung.

PRAVDA911

When the tomatoes start to bloom, it is important not to overdo it with nitrogen fertilizers. Indeed, in this phase of their development, tomatoes, like all representatives of the plant world, need potash fertilizers for good flowering and phosphorus fertilizers for the formation of fruits. Therefore, when choosing fertilizers for feeding tomatoes during the flowering period, read the composition, potassium and phosphorus should be in proportions more than nitrogen.

Greenhouse tomato variety

For residents of the southern regions, the problem of ripening standing tomatoes does not exist. There is a warm autumn, the cold does not come soon. And what should people living in middle lane? How to speed up the ripening of tomatoes?

After all, as is customary to do: when the cold August nights come, all the green fruits are cut off. Then they wait for them to blush on their own. There is no doubt that this way it is possible to preserve almost the entire crop. But his taste is no longer as alluring as from a bush.

We start racing in the fall. Who will come to the finish line first - ripe red tomatoes or late blight? Let's figure out which methods accelerated maturation tomatoes offer us various sources.

Spraying

In order for the tomatoes to begin to ripen faster, various mixtures are used for spraying the bushes. They all burn the foliage and cause it to turn yellow. This allows the roots to strengthen the nutrition of the remaining fruits without wasting it on the leaves.

The compositions are completely different, but their principle of action is the same:

  • For 10 liters of pure water add 35 drops of alcoholic tincture of the most common iodine.
  • 2 matchboxes of urea are dissolved in 5 liters of water.
  • 300 g of table salt is dissolved in 6 liters of pure water.
  • Medium pink solution of potassium permanganate.
  • 2 tbsp. l. superphosphate is stirred in a bucket of warm water. After two days use.

When using any of these solutions, spray the bushes very liberally. Up to the drainage of liquid from the leaves. After 3 days, the leaves will fall off, and after 8 days all the tomatoes remaining on the bushes will turn brown.

Advice. This method is good if you have a large tomato plantation.

Breaking off

Similar in action to the first method. It is necessary to remove all stepsons, new ovaries and lower leaves up to the first brush. The crown of the tomato will also have to be pinched off, leaving 2 sheets. They will allow the underlying hand to be nourished.

If too large leaves cover the fruits, then it is better to cut them off too. Thus, tomatoes will receive more nutrition, and the free rays of the sun will accelerate their ripening.

Advice. Try using the garters or props to rotate the brushes so that they are as bright as possible in the sun throughout the day.

Wound

It has long been noticed that tomatoes that have skin injuries ripen much earlier than their whole counterparts. So why not take this method into service?

Stocking up thin wooden stick or even an ordinary toothpick. We also need vodka or diluted alcohol for sterilization. Now we dip the tip of a toothpick into an antiseptic, about half. And stick it into the tomato 2 times. Desirable near the stalk.

Dip the toothpick into the vodka again and poke the next fruit. The wound will wind up, and the tomato itself will ripen much faster. Of course, you can't process a lot of tomatoes like that, but at least part of the harvest will avoid cold nights.

Advice. Pierce the tomatoes boldly, this procedure does not affect the taste.

Plastic bag

Of course, not the package itself, but its contents. Many people know that if you put at least one red to green fruits, then ripening is accelerated at times. This is provided not by the presence of red pigment in the ripe tomato, but by the release of ethylene. By the way, apples and banana peels also emit ethylene. This property can be used for their own purposes.

To do this, you need a thick plastic bag. It is put on the largest, but still unripe bunch of tomatoes. At the bottom of the bag, place a piece of banana peel, half an apple or a small ripe tomato. Next, the bag must be tied tightly and left for 3 days. After this time, the bag is completely removed and transferred to another hand.

And tomatoes after such a procedure begin to turn brown already on the 5-6th day. And what's stopping you from hanging such tomato spurters on every green brush?

Advice. One bag can be used many times. Only the filling is changed as signs of mold appear on it, or rotting.

Overlapping

The method is called that way, because the outflow of phytosynthesis products to the roots is blocked. Most of all nutrients begin to flow to the fruit, which speeds up their ripening. It is done in two ways:

  1. Dragging. A thin wire made of any material is carefully pulled over the trunk at a level not higher than 14 cm from the ground surface. They try to pull the stem, but not cut it through.
  2. The incision. The stem is cut with a sharp knife right in the center at a height of 6 cm from the ground level. The length of the cut is about 7 cm. A match, a piece of wood, and a toothpick are inserted inside.

It is advisable to pre-rinse all tools and materials with any antiseptic. Because the procedure is traumatic, pathogenic bacteria can be introduced into the wound. Then the bush will not pour out the fruits, but will begin to fight the infection. We are not interested in it now.

Hungry ration

From mid-July, tomatoes are abruptly transferred to a starvation diet. They are no longer watered and fed in any form. After a week, the plant realizes that there is no one to hope for. And he begins to intensively give food to the fruits. After all, one must have time to leave offspring, if starvation is already close.

For the same purpose, they are trying to make a temporary film cover over the beds. This will prevent moisture from rain and dew from reaching the roots.

Advice. Do not use non-woven fabric for cover. It perfectly permeates water.

Ripping off legs

This cruel name is just a procedure to speed up the ripening of tomatoes. It consists in tearing small roots that continue to feed the plant.

To do this, they gently grasp the stem almost at the level of the soil with both hands. Then gently pull up. As soon as we heard the characteristic clicks of the coming off roots, we stop pulling.

If you are afraid to completely pull out the bush, then just cut off the small roots with a shovel. You just need to stick it as close to the trunk as possible, but not swing it. Cut off the roots around the entire perimeter.

Hanging

Name - one more terrible than the other! But in fact, everything turns out to be ordinary. This method is useful when the forecast promises a sharp cold snap or freezing, and you have nothing to cover the tomato bushes with. For those who overdid it with tearing off their legs, and still ripped out the bush completely, the method is also suitable.

All you need is to thoroughly shake the root system from the ground. At the same time, one should try to keep all unripe brushes intact. Now, together and cheerfully, we are dragging our beautiful "bouquets" into the barn or the attic. There we hang them upside down.

Everything, the hanging is over. Now it is only necessary to periodically visit our executed and collect the gradually ripening crop. By the way, tomatoes in such bouquets ripen 15 days earlier than in the ground.

Intoxication

In every green tomato Alcohol is injected through a thin insulin needle with a syringe. 96% alcohol - 0.25 ml. 40 ° vodka - 0.5 ml. There have been no global scientific studies on this topic. But, according to numerous reviews of amateur gardeners, the method works perfectly. Tomatoes begin to ripen 20 days earlier than usual.

By the way, it is promised that the taste and composition of tomatoes does not change at all from such a procedure. Try it, if it’s true that Russian vegetables must be processed with Russian vodka.

Unnamed chemistry

The modern industry offers several chemicals that help speed up the ripening of tomatoes a month earlier. We will not write their names here, so as not to advertise. If you wish, you can safely buy them at any agricultural store or order them on the Internet.

Rave reviews urge you to immediately purchase these drugs and use them in your garden or greenhouse.

Maybe better the old fashioned way, huh? Cut off the green ones on the windowsill or under the straw in a warm barn. Still, it's not in vain that nature has set its own terms for everything. By the way, tomatoes ripen much faster in the light than in the dark. But without access sun rays the tomatoes have a uniform color. On the windowsill, the fruits are always spotted. Consider this.

How to speed up the ripening of tomatoes? There are a lot of methods, choose the taste and mood. My only wish: when trying the method for the first time, start with a small batch of fruits. Or combine several options at once. Even with a mistake in one, there is a guarantee in the other to preserve the harvest and enjoy the real taste of ripe tomatoes.

Video: how to speed up the ripening of tomatoes

Tomatoes are grown by a significant part of gardeners in Russia. Most often, greenhouses based on polycarbonate, as well as covered with glass or polyethylene film, are used for this purpose. In the Moscow region, there is an opportunity to get a good harvest of high-quality tomatoes in the open field, but only in the area you can harvest fully ripe tomatoes.

Ways to accelerate ripening

Ripening of tomato fruits in a polycarbonate greenhouse can be accelerated by quite affordable means. It is enough to correctly perform a few simple manipulations and it will be possible to harvest ripe fruits without ripening green tomatoes at home. In order to accelerate the ripening time, you need to perform the following actions.

  • Acceleration of fruit ripening causes spraying with some means. For this purpose, you can use a special iodine solution, for the preparation of which forty drops of ordinary pharmaceutical iodine should be dissolved in a bucket of water. At this stage, you should suspend the implementation of fertilizing and irrigation.
  • Harvesting tomatoes much earlier allows the branches of low-growing plants to turn towards the sun, followed by their fastening with struts and slingshots.

How to grow tomatoes in a polycarbonate greenhouse (video)

  • The presence of large brown fruits on the branches inhibits the ripening of the remaining tomatoes and it is advisable to harvest them at the stage of incomplete maturity.
  • The fruits ripen much faster if you pinch the tops of the plants. It should be borne in mind that in order to ensure the growth of the fruits, it will be correct to leave a couple of leaves above the inflorescences on which the fruits have already set.
  • The lower leaves must be removed up to the brushes, where the tomatoes are already ripe.
  • Short and medium-sized bushes should have a maximum of four or five brushes, and the rest of the brushes should be broken off correctly. After such manipulations, the harvest is formed faster, which is due to the expenditure of the plant's energy for ripening the fruits.
  • In a polycarbonate greenhouse, a fairly high efficiency is shown by limiting the intake of moisture from the roots. In order for the nutrients not to be spent on the growth of the green mass, at a height of ten centimeters in the stems, a through incision should be made with a knife, the length of which is about five centimeters. You need to insert a piece of wood into the cut. To speed up the collection of ripe fruits, it is also allowed to tighten the stem at a height of five centimeters with a thin copper wire.


Ripening terms

How long it takes from germination to harvest and how long the plant grows depends on the variety of tomatoes. In addition, maturation depends on how many ovaries the plant has formed, as well as innate "genetic factors", environmental factors and growing methods. The ripening rate of greenhouse tomatoes varies greatly, and depending on how long it takes for this process, all varieties of this vegetable crop can be combined into subgroups.

  • Hybrid tomatoes. They are designated F1. They are characterized by a high ripening rate and give the earliest possible harvest. The most popular hybrids, most of which grow well in a greenhouse, are Typhoon, Verlioka, Semko and Druzhok.
  • Greenhouse varieties. Collecting varietal tomatoes in the greenhouse occurs somewhat later. The earliest harvesting involves the use of early-maturing and ultra-early-maturing varieties. Among the most successful are "Hurricane", "Yantarny", "Samara", "Junior" and "Joy of Summer".

The earliest collection of ripe fruits is characteristic of determinant tomato varieties, and indeterminate ones form ripe fruits a little later. Hybrid tomatoes ripen somewhat earlier than varietal representatives. You can pick ripe fruits almost a month earlier.


Harvest time

Regular collection of fruits is very important for obtaining a high-quality harvest. It is necessary to pick the fruits at the stage of technological maturity of tomatoes, which is subdivided into the following stages:

  • partial ripening of fruits;
  • full ripeness of the fruit.

Fruits, pink in the cut, are already quite edible. Selective harvesting at the stage of partial maturity can significantly increase the total harvest. Tomatoes overripe on the bushes lose their taste and reduce the overall yield. Poured green fruits are allowed to be left on tomato bushes until the first days of September.


Storage rules

Harvested tomato fruits are very short-lived, but you can lengthen their shelf life by a month or more. For this purpose, the harvesting of fruits is carried out upon reaching technical maturity. During this period, tomato seeds are characterized by full formation, but green pulp. The best option is harvesting at the stage of milk or brown maturity.

Harvesting tomatoes in a greenhouse (video)

The harvested fruits must be stored with ripening. It is this process that allows you to preserve tomatoes for as long as possible, and the gardener will be able to boast of having self-grown, juicy homemade tomatoes on the New Year's table.

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Tomatoes are classified as nightshade crops. They come from Peru, where the climate is hot and dry, and hence the requirements for tomato growing conditions: good illumination, warmth, moderate soil moisture and dry air.

Tomato seeds are brought to Europe from South America Columbus, and at first they were grown for purely decorative purposes. The fruits of tomatoes were considered poisonous, and so much so that the English spy James Bailey, introduced into the headquarters of the American army, which fought for US independence, decided to poison General Grant, who was too successful in commanding the rebel army, with tomatoes. He invited the general to dinner, where he was served a whole dish of exotic red fruits, which the general ate with great pleasure. When the next morning a courier galloped for Bailey with an order to urgently report to headquarters, Bailey decided that he would be arrested at headquarters in connection with the death of the general, and shot himself. And (the welt just wanted to persuade Bailey to give him his gardener, who knows how to grow such a magnificent vegetable.

So, tomatoes need moderately fertile soil (agronorm N + P + K = 58), loose, air and moisture permeable, with a neutral or slightly acidic reaction (pH 5-6), sun. However, they can grow in low light conditions, for example, in cloudy or cloudy weather. Tomatoes love dry air, draft, uniform and at the same time moderate watering, warmth (from 18 to 28 degrees). But they can easily tolerate short-term drops in temperature to 1 - 12 degrees and even small frosts to -2 degrees, and in greenhouses and greenhouses on insulated ground, with additional double cover with lutrasil or spunbond, tomatoes tolerate morning spring frosts down to -6 degrees.

Tomatoes are phosphorus-loving (the ratio between nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium is 36: 19: 45). For normal growth and development, they require increased doses of phosphorus and additional potassium, but they should be given nitrogen in moderation.

Clayy, heavy loams, compacted acidic (pH below 5) soils are completely unsuitable for growing tomatoes. Tomatoes do not like fresh manure. The introduction of manure causes them to grow green mass to the detriment of fruit formation. Excess nitrogen in the soil delays the formation of ovaries or causes them to fall off. Tomatoes also do not like thickened plantings and poor ventilation, as this causes early late blight disease and strong stretching of plants. Humid air is also contraindicated for them, since moist, heavy pollen does not scatter and pollination does not occur. Tomatoes do not like high temperatures (above 36 degrees), at which pollen becomes sterile and fertilization does not occur.

What else does tomatoes not like? Large doses of mineral fertilizers, waterlogging of the soil, uneven watering (after a long period of drought, abundant watering causes cracking of the fruits), prolonged cold snap (8-12 degrees), in which plants stop absorbing nutrients from the soil, and therefore stop growth and development. Prolonged cool (14-16 degrees) weather causes the pistil to stretch out, and pollen does not get on it, therefore pollination also does not occur, accordingly, fruits are not set, therefore, in such weather, pollination should be done manually in the morning.

Variety selection

Before sowing and planting anything, decide what exactly you need. If you want to get an early harvest, then you should purchase seeds of early varieties, and also better than hybrids, since hybrids have better germination, they are more hardy, which means they are more resistant to diseases, they yield more amicably, but they are also more expensive than varietal seeds. In addition, seeds cannot be taken from hybrids for subsequent sowing, since they do not inherit parental properties, in addition, their seeds are often underdeveloped. A best seedlings is obtained just from the seeds of the past summer.

If you do not have tall greenhouses, then you should also choose undersized varieties - as a rule, ultra-determinant (super-determinant), the growth of which is limited. It can be both varieties and hybrids. In such tomatoes, 2-3 flower clusters are formed on the central stem, and this is where their growth ends. Therefore, they are not stepchildren, since the main harvest is taken from stepchildren. Their first flower cluster is laid after the 6-7th leaf. Then, after 1-2 leaves, the following flower brushes are laid. Usually their fruits are small or medium, in the family chambers of which there is a lot of juice. Ripening period - 90-100 days. The crop usually has time to ripen before the appearance of phytophthora. The varieties often have fruits that are not aligned in size, there are smaller and larger ones in one cluster, the fruits are larger in the first cluster, and smaller in the upper cluster. Hybrids have more even fruit. Among these tomatoes, the most interesting are: the Far North, North, Subarctic, Dubok, Dwarf, Japanese dwarf, Crab, Yamal, Nevsky, Moskvich, Antoshka (with yellow fruits), Siberian early ripening, Betta, Boni-M, Alaska, Harem F1, Benito F1, Sultan F1.

Determinant tomatoes begin to lay the first flower cluster after 8-9 leaves, and the next ones - after 2-3 leaves, the growth ends with the 5-6th brush. These tomatoes are usually grown in two stems. For the second stem, a stepson is left, coming from under the first flower brush (and by no means the first, growing from the axils of the first or second leaf). Such tomatoes are stepchild, that is, they pluck out or cut out the stalks (stepchildren) that appear at the point of attachment of the leaf to the trunk (in the leaf axil). This should be done as early as possible (until the stepson is longer than 3-4 cm) so that the plant does not waste energy on an unnecessary additional stem.

Determinant tomatoes can be small-fruited, medium-fruited, and large-fruited. Their fruits can contain a lot of juice in the seed chambers, but they can also be dense, suitable for canning (this depends on the variety). The harvest ripens on the 110-120th day and falls under phytophthora. There are a lot of good varieties and hybrids of firms "Semko", "Sedek", "Hardwick", "Gavrish", "Ilinishna". In my opinion, the most interesting are medium-sized varieties: Angelica, Corsair, Danna, Golubka, Garant, Raketa (Vinturi), Photon, Fontanka, Tsarskoye Selo early, Talalikhin, Blagovest F1, Master F1, Verlioka F1, Semko-Sindbad F1, Portland F1.

Semi-determinant tomatoes end with the 8-10th brush, completely all the brushes do not have time not only to ripen, but even to bloom over the summer, so they should be grown in the same way as indeterminate tomatoes, that is, tomatoes with unlimited growth. Usually, all these tomatoes bloom after the 10-12th leaf, subsequent clusters appear every 2-3 leaves, during the summer the fruits have time to ripen on 5-6 clusters. Each subsequent leaf appears in about 5-7 days, so it will take about 90 days for the 6th cluster to appear, plus about 60 days before the first flower cluster appears, for a total of about 150 days to grow them. Further growth of the central stem has to be limited, that is, simply to tear off the top (pinch), so that the plant does not waste its energy on growth, but uses them to grow already set fruits (this technique is called vershkovanie). Typically, edging is carried out in late July and early August. As a rule, the fruits of these types of tomatoes are large, fleshy, evenly growing and all the same size. All varieties and hybrids of this group of tomatoes naturally fall under phytophthora. These are famous hybrids: Margarita F1, Gamayun F1, Milady F1, Strizh F1, Kostroma F1, Swallow F1, Rusich F1, Olya F1, Fields F1 and others. But there are also tall varieties with small fruits, for example, Marseille (with fruits 60 g), Anna German (with yellow fruits 50 g), Yablonka Rossii (Tamina) with potato leaves and red fruits about 50 g, Herringbone (Citafel) with fruits about 100 g of raspberry color and many others.

Large-fruited tomatoes are of great interest to amateurs. Among them are especially popular varieties Persimmon, King of London, Gigant Novikova, Ox Heart, anniversary Tarasenko, Cap of Monomakh, Dessert pink (early, with potato tops), Dessert red, Best of all, Beefsteak, Senior and amateur varieties Perfection, Vizma, De -Barao (large-fruited),

An amateur's dream, Tsifomandra, as well as hybrids Atos F1, Porthos F1, Duet F1, Funtik F1. It should be noted that tomatoes with potato tops are no different from tomatoes with ordinary tops. Recently, a whole series of promising varieties of Siberian breeding tomatoes have appeared on sale: Sevryuga, Dried apricots, Golden domes, Anna, Japanese tree, Japanese crab, Giant raspberry, Bread Salted, Pink honey, Favorite holiday, Russian soul, Bear's paw, Three Fat men. I recommend that lovers try these varieties in their regions, since even in the Northwest they have shown excellent qualities.

I would also like to note the tomatoes that are subject to long-term storage - up to 3-4 months (without genetic alteration): varieties Novogodniy and Giraffe, hybrids Shlyager F1, Instinct and Cartush.

Recently, racemose tomatoes have come into vogue. Usually these are hybrids, for example, Samara, Intuition, Reflex and others. They are interesting in that they have long flower clusters, bearing up to 20-25 fruits, aligned in shape and size.

In addition, small-fruited cherry tomatoes, the size of a cherry, but very prolific (yellow cherry, red cherry) are widespread.

There are tomatoes suitable for potting that grow and bear fruit well in the room and on the balcony: Little Prince, Hummingbird, Ranetochka, Bonsai, Balcony miracle.

There are vines reaching 3-4 m in height, for example, Lemon-liana, the same De Barao.

In short, there are tomatoes for literally every taste: undersized, tall, small, large, sweeter and spicier, red, yellow, purple, pink, orange, white and even striped. So the choice is yours. Pick up those varieties and hybrids that you like and are good at. Place your bet on them, and satisfy your curiosity by sowing a couple of new products annually, but never sow many varieties unknown to you on seedlings at once, no matter how much neighbors and acquaintances praise them.

Sowing dates

Sowing dates for seedlings should be determined in accordance with the selected variety or hybrid of tomatoes. For large-fruited tall tomatoes, the seedling age should be 60-75 days after germination, plus it will take another 5-10 days for germination, so the seeds should be sown about 70-80 days before the seedlings are planted in the ground. Do not sow too early, the seedlings will stretch out and may even bloom, and these first flowers will still have to be cut off, because the plant does not yet have a good enough root system. You can, of course, resort to some tricks so that by this moment the seedlings already have a well-developed root system. For example, cut off the bottom and neck of a plastic bottle, cut it lengthwise and, breaking off a few lower leaves, wrap the lower part of the stem with it. Fill with wet soil and fix, that is, build up the container. Additional roots are formed throughout this part of the stem. However, there is also some inconvenience: it will have to be planted in rather deep holes, and below the ground in many regions of the country remains cold for a long time, and the plant stops developing. You can, of course, plant such seedlings lying down, but then much more area is required for its placement. But you can follow the advice of Jacob Meatlider: transplant seedlings with 5-6 leaves in a container of large volume (3-5 liters) and arrange them wider so that the leaves do not overlap each other.

Since you want to harvest the crop already in mid-July (for non-chernozem and North-Western regions), and this will take about 150 days, tall, large-fruited tomatoes should be sown at the very end of February and early March. Plant them in greenhouses in early to mid-May.

For small-fruited, early-ripening, undersized varieties, seedlings can be planted in greenhouses in mid-late May, and in the ground after the end of frost, in order to harvest in mid-July. For this, seedlings at the age of 60 days are best suited, and therefore the seeds can be sown for seedlings at the end of March. There are super-fast-growing tomatoes that are sown in open ground in a seedless way. However, in cold regions (Kaliningrad, Leningrad, Vologda regions), you still have to grow them through seedlings. Sowing can be done at home in early April, or directly into the greenhouse, if biofuel is added, or the greenhouses can be heated, and then, after the spring frosts have passed, they can be planted in open ground. In the Northwest, it is still better to grow them in a greenhouse. Among these tomatoes, the most interesting variety is Bullfinch, which has rather large, fleshy, exceptionally tasty fruits weighing from 50 to 150 g.

Soil preparation for seedlings

I do not advise taking soil from greenhouses, because with it you can bring home pests and pathogens. It is best to make the soil yourself from a mixture of peat, sand and ash: for each bucket of peat, take half a bucket of sand and a liter can of wood ash.

In this mixture, you can add additional "living earth" from under the Californian worms, or pour it with a solution of "Fitosporin", or add "Bamil", "Agrovit" or other organic fertilizer, but all this in small quantities, in accordance with the instructions of the instructions ...

Instead of peat, you can use coconut or sphagnum moss, pine needles or sawdust. It is necessary to take them in the same proportions with sand and ash as peat, but sawdust and coniferous needles must first be poured with boiling water, cooled, drained, again filled with boiling water, cooled, drained and only then added sand and ash. If using fresh sawdust, add 5 tbsp. spoons of any nitrogen fertilizer.

Why is it recommended to compose such a soil? The process of decomposition of the organic component in it is slow and therefore, while the seedlings are growing, chemical composition the soil does not change and the temperature of the soil is approximately constant, there are no pathogens and pest larvae in it.

If you are using them, steam them first. To do this, put a sealed bag with soil in a bucket and pour boiling water into it along the side of the bucket, cover with a lid and hold the bag in water until it cools down.

Sowing rules for tomatoes

If you are confident in the good quality of the seeds, they do not need any preliminary preparation. If you are afraid that there are pathogens on the seeds, then do as the famous American scientist Dr.Jacob Meatlider advises: immerse the seeds for 20 minutes in a thermos with water heated to 53 degrees, then drain the water and dry the seeds slightly on a clean, ironed iron paper until flowing and sow immediately. The causative agents of diseases will die, the seeds will not suffer with such a short heating.

You should be aware that some growth stimulants, for example, "Regrost", cause premature aging: the plant begins to develop rapidly, but then stops growing ahead of schedule, sometimes even at a young age, the foliage turns yellow. When using any kind of stimulants, all seeds sprout together, including weak ones, which will certainly lead to a poor harvest. If you want, use drugs such as Novosil (Silk), Epin-extra or Energen. They have natural origin and act differently than other stimulants and growth regulators, since they strengthen the plant's own immune system. They use stimulants only when the seeds are bad, and the plants need to be grown, because there are no other seeds of the variety of interest. In other cases, they do not stimulate seeds, because at an early stage of growth, I immediately see weak plants and discard them.

If you are an advocate of unnecessary procedures, then carry out the pre-sowing seed treatment as follows. Dissolve 1 teaspoon of table salt in a glass of water and dip the seeds there, stir and wait a little until they get wet (this is called calibration). Throw the ones that float up, and wash the drowned ones in water, then soak for 15 minutes in a solution of crimson potassium permanganate, then for another 10 minutes in a solution of any preparation containing copper (1 g per 1 L), rinse with water (this is called disinfection).

After that, keep the seeds in the refrigerator for a day in a solution of aloe juice with water (1: 2) or in a solution of a growth stimulator (better than Novosil or Epin-extra). Then, at room temperature, keep the seeds in a solution of mineral fertilizers (1 teaspoon of azofoska plus a grain of trace elements per 1 liter of water). You can use an ash extract (pour 1 tablespoon of 1 liter of boiling water and leave for 24 hours), Kemira-Lux fertilizer (0.5 tsp of fertilizer per 1 liter of water) or Uniflor-growth (0.5 tsp. spoons in 1 liter of water) and hold the seeds in any of these solutions (they are called nutrient solutions) for 15-20 minutes. Then you need to wrap the seeds in a wet cloth and refrigerate overnight, remove during the day and keep at room temperature. To have fun like this for three days (this is called hardening). And only after that, you can finally put the seeds in a warm place for germination for 2-3 days, and then sow them. Watch the sprouting seeds all the time: as soon as the seed sprouts, sow it immediately, since a long (more than 1 mm) sprout can break off during planting.

J. Meatlider believes that all these measures do not give anything, except for shock conditions in the embryo, and, therefore, are harmful to the future plant. Best result is obtained from seeds simply sown in the soil without any treatments. You can do fun experiments yourself, comparing the results obtained this way and that.

All these activities will take an additional ten days, so start these procedures 10 days before better day sowing according to the lunar calendar, if you follow it. Sowing dry seeds should be done 2 days before the best sowing day according to the lunar calendar, so that they have time to swell and the biochemical process of cell division starts in them.

The planting container should not be very deep (6-7 cm high). Fill it with a well-moistened potting mix, not reaching the top edge of 2 cm. Compact the soil with a tablespoon, add soil, if necessary, compact again and spread the seeds over the soil surface at a distance of 1 x 1 cm.Pour dry soil 2 cm high on top and compact spoon. Cover the container with glass or plastic and place in a warm place.

At a temperature of 28-32 degrees, the seeds will sprout in 4-5 days, at 24-26 - in 6-8 days, at 20-23 - in 7 days. They will rise even at ^ degrees, but only after two weeks and later. The best shoots are those that appear in a week at 25 degrees Celsius. The very first shoots are not yet the best. The best are those that sprout together, as a whole group. Those that are much (4-5 days) behind the main group should be discarded immediately.

Weak plants emerge later, without shedding the seed coat, they have accrete cotyledons, the first true leaves - irregular shape, they lag behind in growth and development from the rest. But shoots may come later because you sow some seeds deeper than others, so make sure all seeds are sown at the same depth. The plant does not shed the seed coat because the seed is sown too finely, or the soil was not compacted after sowing, or the seed is weak. Therefore, compact the soil, sow the seeds to the required depth, then the seedlings will signal you about the poor quality of the seed.

The first transplant of tomato seedlings

In tomatoes, the damaged root system is quickly restored, and when the sucking hairs are cut off, they grow even thicker, so tomatoes easily tolerate a transplant, and generally speaking, the more transplants, the stronger the plant. Therefore, tomatoes can be transplanted first into small cups, then into larger containers.

A pick of seedlings is done in the phase of 2-3 true leaves. It is necessary to prepare planting pots with a capacity of at least 1 liter, fill them with soil 3/4 of the volume, water it well, compact it slightly, make a funnel with a pencil, pick up the seedlings with a teaspoon and lower them into the funnel. Moreover, if the spine is too long, it must be shortened by a third of the length; it must not be allowed to bent upward. The tomato is buried to the very cotyledonous leaves. When transplanting, the plant should not be held by the stalk, but by the cotyledon leaves. Then the soil around the plant is squeezed, carefully watered with water and set for a couple of days so that the direct sun and light from the lamp do not fall on the seedlings. Then they move it to the brightest place.

If you leave for the site on weekends, and there is no one to water your seedlings, then I recommend that you use Aquadon for the first pick. It is a polymer crumb that turns water into a gel. Plants take moisture from Aquadon gradually, as needed, as happens with drip irrigation. You may not water your seedlings for a couple of weeks or more - there will be enough moisture for it all this time. "Akvadon" is pre-soaked in water to the state of jelly and during transplantation, 2 teaspoons of the resulting gel are placed directly under the roots (instead of "Aquadon" you can use a hydrogel). As the seedlings grow, it is necessary to add soil.

There is an interesting way of picking seedlings into "diapers" from a film. To do this, cut the film into pieces measuring 15 x 25 cm, pour 1 tbsp in the center. spoon of soil and put the plant on it so that all the leaves are above the top edge of the film. Pour another 1 tbsp on top. spoon of soil and swaddle like a baby, while the bottom edge of the film is barely tucked so that the soil does not spill out. Slide an elastic band over the tape to keep it from unrolling. It is not necessary to wrap the edge at the very ends of the roots, this will prevent them from growing down. With this method of picking, the central root is not pinched, so that when transplanted into place, it immediately begins to grow deep into the soil.

1 teaspoon of water is poured into each film and all the bags are made next to each other in a shallow pan, for example, in a herring jar or photo cuvette. When the plants have 5-6 sheets, they unfold the bag, add a couple more spoons of soil to it and wrap it up again. With this method of growing seedlings, it takes up little space, requires a small amount of soil, it is easy to transport, and since it grows under stress, it seeks to lay flower brushes as soon as possible.

By the way, in this way you can directly sow seeds and grow seedlings without picking at all.

Roll up small pouches from a small sheet of film (12-15 x 20-25 cm), fill them with moist seedling soil and sow a tomato seed in each. Put an elastic band on the bags or fasten them with a paper clip so that they do not unfold, then put them in shallow containers close to each other. Place in a warm place, such as under a regular desk lamp or near a heating battery ( best temperature for a friendly and quick emergence of shoots about 25 degrees). Seedlings sown in this way do not dive or sow. You just need to unfold it and add one tablespoon of soil when it has about 4-5 true sheets. As you understand, the root tip does not pinch. In the future, this will help rapid growth deep into it, and this will allow you not to water the tomatoes all summer. Watering seedlings, especially the one that is dived into the "diaper" of the film, is always done very sparingly. By the way, in such film "diapers" any seedlings grow well, even cabbage.

When growing seedlings, leave only the most friendly and strong seedlings.

As soon as the first loop of seedlings appeared, without waiting for the others to appear, immediately place the container in the lightest and coolest place (12-14 degrees at night and 16-18 degrees during the day). The seedlings should not be kept near the glass, it is too cold there, the seedlings will not absorb food. Signs of phosphorus starvation are purple the underside of the leaves and stem, as well as the leaves raised upward. If these signs appear, move the seedlings away from the glass. After a week, both night and daytime temperatures should be increased by about 3-4 degrees.

As soon as the cotyledon leaves have opened, the plant switches to root-own nutrition. It is very important that at this moment all nutrients are available to him, especially nitrogen and phosphorus atoms, so immediately start feeding the plant by watering with a weak solution of mineral fertilizers, without waiting for the first true leaf to appear. You can use a weak solution (1 teaspoon per 5 liters of water) of one of the following fertilizers: Kemira-Lux, Uniflor-growth, Solution, AVA. At the same moment, very good lighting must be given, since at the point of growth the development program of the whole plant is being laid. "Tomatoes that lay the first flower cluster after the 5-6th leaf, in insufficient light, instead of a flower brush, they will lay leaves until the lighting becomes enough for them, and each leaf is about 5-7 extra days before fruiting. Where Summer is short, every week counts, so try to provide the plants with very good lighting, including daily fluorescent lamps for 12 hours. directly above the plants, about 7 cm above them As the plants grow, raise the lamps so that the distance between the plants and the lamp remains the same.

Seedlings should be watered very sparingly, 1 teaspoon is enough for each plant in the initial period. A common mistake is over-watering the seedlings. As a result, the roots develop poorly, they do not have enough oxygen, they do not go deeper.

Watering should be gradually increased, while monitoring the weather. In cloudy and cold weather, watering and feeding should be less, and in sunny and hot weather - more. It is better to water it not with water, but with a weak solution of mineral fertilizers, as mentioned above. This should be done as needed, as soon as the soil surface dries slightly. On hot days - every day in the evening, on cold days - after 2-3 days. Seedlings should not be allowed to dry out, this will certainly affect the harvest.

Transportation of tomato seedlings to the site

When transporting seedlings in "diapers" to the dacha, each plant is wrapped in a newspaper, folded into a box with a jack (one crown to one side, the other to the other) and transported to the site. When planting in place, water the seedlings in "diapers" well with water, unfold them and transplant the seedlings into the wells prepared in advance.

If you are transporting seedlings in pots or in boxes, wrap each plant in newspaper and arrange them in large boxes. You can put seedling boxes in banana boxes so that the seedlings stand upright in them. The boxes are covered with lids. They are easy to carry, and you don't need to wrap each plant in newspapers. If you are planting seedlings from pots or other containers, then, on the contrary, do not water them for a couple of days.

Before any transportation, the seedlings are not watered for 2-3 days, then they will be less fragile and will suffer less during transportation, and they will be much lighter in weight.

Transplanting tomato seedlings into the greenhouse and into the ground

It is often recommended to water the seedlings before planting them in the soil. I do not advise doing this for the simple reason that along with wet soil, when you transplant seedlings from a container, a significant part of the roots breaks off. Usually, the seedlings are turned upside down, passing the stem between the fingers, then the container is removed. At this moment, part of the roots remains in the container along with the moist soil. On the contrary, do not water the seedlings before planting in place for 2-3 days, so that the soil in the container dries up (even if the leaves of the seedlings hang, like the ears of a poodle). If you turn the seedlings upside down, the container can be easily removed and all roots will remain unharmed.

Before transplanting, add 1 tbsp to each well. spoon of superphosphate (if you have double superphosphate, then an incomplete spoon). Pour in a full hole of water and, as soon as it is absorbed, add water 3-4 more times and only then plant the seedlings. The hole should be slightly deeper than the height of the seedling pot.

When planting, a tomato is buried and hilled to form additional roots. By the time you transplant, the plants will be tall enough that they should be tied to pegs with narrow strips of tissue to prevent them from dying. Then the transplanted plants should be well watered again and after that not watered for a week in order to force the roots to grow in breadth and depth in search of moisture.

It is better to transplant seedlings in the second half of the day and shade it for a couple of days after transplanting. Top dressing can be done after the seedlings have taken root (they have a new leaf).

A transplant into the ground can be done only after the end of the night frosts. If you transplant seedlings into open ground, then they must first be hardened, for this, take them outside for 3-4 hours within a week.

If you are planting seedlings in a greenhouse or greenhouse, then you do not need to harden them. You don't need to harden the seedlings at all, but to protect them from strong ultraviolet radiation, you just need to spray it with a solution of the homeopathic preparation "Ekoberin" once immediately after planting. It is enough to shake 2 grains until completely dissolved in a small bottle, half filled with water. Then add water to 1 liter, stir thoroughly and spray. In the same way, you can spray not only seedlings, but also any other plantings (in particular, conifers) against spring sunburn.

Tomatoes can be planted in the greenhouse early if the soil is insulated. To do this, in the spring, as soon as the soil in the greenhouse allows, it is necessary to dig trenches with a depth and width of a shovel bayonet. After filling the trenches with dry hay (or dry leaves) harvested in the fall, return the soil dug from the trench on top of the hay, put a board on it and walk with a paddle to compact the soil. Next, do everything in the same way as when planting seedlings in the ground.

It is better to tie the seedlings in the greenhouse to a horizontally stretched wire (trellis) with a soft twine. Two such tapestries must be pulled. One is pulled 10 -15 cm above the tops of the transplanted seedlings, the second is under the very ceiling of the greenhouse. Under the lower pair of leaves, you need to tie the twine with a free loop and, wrapping the twine around the stem, draw it under each leaf, then tie it first to the lower trellis with a bow so that you can easily untie the twine. The twine should be taken so long that in the future you can tie the tomatoes to the upper trellis. Curvature of the stem should not be allowed, in this case the plant is poorly supplied with food from the soil. As the plant grows, the twine must be wrapped around the stem all the time, passing it under each leaf.

Throw spunbond or lutrasil nonwoven over the trellis and cover the planted tomatoes. It is better to make the double cover with thin material rather than single and thick one. Spunbond will give a slight shade and protect plantings from night frosts. The hay in the trench will begin to reheat in the greenhouse and give heat to the tomato root system, in addition, this heat will warm the air under the spunbond. With this planting, tomatoes can withstand morning frosts up to -6 degrees. After the end of the frost, both the shelter and the extra trellis can be removed, and the plants can be tied to the upper trellis.

In warm daytime, the greenhouses should be open until the end of the frost, but the spunbond can be left on. When, after the end of the frost, warm weather sets in, the door to the greenhouse and the vents under the ridge of the roof must be kept open around the clock; moreover, in hot weather in the middle of summer, the roof over the greenhouse with tomatoes can be removed altogether. This improves fruit setting and prevents late blight disease.

Top dressing and watering tomatoes

It is usually recommended to feed tomatoes every two weeks, first giving 10 g of nitrogen, 10 g of phosphorus and 20 g of potassium (10 g - about 2 teaspoons) per 10 liters of water, spending 0.5 liters for each bush. Then the dose of fertilizers is doubled, 10 g of magnesium per 10 liters of water is added, spending 0.5 liters per plant.

However, experience shows that it is much more effective to combine watering with top dressing, that is, water the plants not with water, but with a weak solution of mineral fertilizer (3 tablespoons per 10 liters of water) weekly (or more often in dry, hot weather). To do this, you need to take 2 tbsp. tablespoons of azofoska, add 1 tbsp. a spoonful of double superphosphate and 0.5 teaspoons of potassium carbonate or sulphate (tomatoes do not like chlorine), add 2 teaspoons of Uniflor-micro to a bucket of water and pour 0.5 liters of solution under the root of each plant.

Better yet, organize drip irrigation- either with the help of a special hose with holes, or digging two-liter plastic bottles with nutrient solution between the plants, in which in the lower part of the side surface you need to make a thick hot nail of 10 -12 holes and unscrew the lid. The perforated part of the bottle should be in the soil. If the solution is poured out too quickly, rotate the bottles on their own axis so that the soil forms earthen plugs in the holes. The solution will continuously and slowly seep into the root zone. Your business is to make sure that the bottles do not empty by pouring the solution into them through the neck (it is convenient to use a kettle for this).

For those who are quite rare on the site, but still want to grow tomatoes, I recommend adding 1 tbsp into the hole when planting. a spoonful of double superphosphate, 3 tbsp. spoons of "Aquadon" or hydrogel pre-soaked in water and 1/3 tsp of AVA fertilizer. Firstly, watering can be done once every 2-3 weeks, and secondly, there is no need to do any more fertilizing all summer.

But it should be said right away that the stock of mineral fertilizers will be enough only for the first period of seedling survival. In the future, of course, additional feeding will be required all summer.

The complex fertilizer AVA, obtained by a high-temperature melt of thirteen minerals, very slowly, within 2-3 years, “melts” in the soil solution and therefore is not washed out of the soil, but is constantly present in it, supplying plants with the necessary nutrients. It is even better to add 1/3 teaspoon of the powder fraction of this fertilizer to the hole when planting seedlings. Then the plants use it in one season, and no mineral fertilizing is required all summer. There is one more long-lasting fertilizer - "Apion". Before planting seedlings in place, dig a bag of Apiona between 4 plants to the depth of your palm. Watering should be done between plants according to "Apion".

If you are experiencing financial difficulties, then simply water the tomatoes with the infusion of weeds, diluting the infusion with water 1: 5, and constantly pour ash around the plants without falling on the stem.

Tomatoes love even watering. They are watered sparingly, while preventing the soil from drying out. If, after a drought, you immediately water the tomatoes abundantly, their fruits will crack. Therefore, first you just need to moisten the surface, then after a while water it not too abundantly and only the next day give the plants abundant watering. In cool or cloudy weather, 2 liters of water per plant once a week is enough. In hot and sunny weather, such watering is done twice a week. But it is better, as mentioned above, to organize a continuous supply of water to plants through drip irrigation. V early age the need for moisture in tomatoes is small, but at the time of fruiting it increases, however, excess moisture at this moment can cause cracking of the fruit.

On a note

To find out if there is enough moisture in the soil, you need to take a lump of soil from a depth of 10 cm and squeeze it in your palm. Then open your palm: if the lump has not disintegrated, then there is enough moisture; if it has disintegrated, there is not enough moisture and watering is required; if, when compressed, moisture begins to ooze from a lump of soil, then the soil contains excess water.

So, tomatoes are fed and watered in moderation throughout the season.

Tomatoes do not need to be watered at all, but for this it is necessary to direct their roots deep into the soil. This is how it is done. Firstly, when diving, the central root is not shortened and the seedlings are dived into "diapers" from the film. Secondly, before planting, dig holes in the soil a little deeper than the length of the roots. The necessary fertilizers are introduced into the hole and 4-5 liters of water are gradually poured. Then the seedlings are transplanted, watered, spud and be sure to mulch in order to prevent moisture evaporation from the soil surface. As mulch, you can use peat (it must be deacidified with ash), dry lumpy soil or just newspapers (for this they are folded in 2-3 layers, a cut is made and a small hole is cut out for the stem, then they are placed on the soil and slipped under the plant, like a child's bib). Moisture will begin to go down, and the roots will pull inward after it, instead of expanding in breadth. And at a sufficiently deep depth, there is enough moisture. Tomatoes planted in this way can not be watered all summer.

This technique is not suitable for sandy soils. On sands it is best to use "Aquadon" or drip irrigation through plastic bottles or hoses with holes connected to the tanks. Bucky doesn't have to be high. It is necessary that they only slightly rise above the soil surface and water flowed out of them by gravity.

How to speed up the ripening of tomatoes

To speed up ripening, stop watering the tomatoes and cut off some of the roots, reducing the supply of nutrients from the soil (for this plant, you need to pull the stem or split the stem and stick a chip into the gap).

Carry out perching (remove the growing point, that is, simply cut off the top of each stem) at the end of July and cut off all flowers.

It is possible to pollinate the soil under the plants with the "Regrost" growth regulator or similar, causing aging of plants. But keep in mind that "Regrost" contains a rather poisonous substance, carbide, so I do not use it.

Formation and phases of development of tomatoes

Formation consists in the timely removal of the stepsons: the gradual removal of leaves under the poured fruit brush, first the first, then the second, and so on, until all the fruit brushes are bare. 3-4 leaves should be left above the last of them, cutting off the top of the plant at the end of July. At the same time, all flowers and buds should be cut off. If tomatoes are grown in two trunks, a stepson is left for this, growing from under the first flower brush.

Tomato seedlings appear about a week after sowing, at a temperature of about 25 degrees. The first true leaf appears in about two weeks after germination, then each new leaf in 5-7 days. The first flower cluster is tied about 35-40 days after the emergence of seedlings in early varieties, after 60 days - in varieties of medium ripening, after 90 - in large-fruited, late varieties... Each cluster blooms from 7 to 10 or more days, depending on weather conditions, and after the formation of ovaries, the fruit is poured to blanche ripeness (this is the stage of technical ripeness - when the tomatoes have not yet colored in the tone inherent in the variety, but have already noticeably brightened) it takes about 20 -30 days, depending on the variety. Then it will take another 2-3 weeks for the fruit to ripen.

The fruits in blanche ripeness can be removed and placed for ripening, while the light does not play any role, but the temperature is important. Dose usually takes place at a temperature of 16-18 degrees, but it can also take place at lower temperatures. However, at temperatures below 12 degrees, the formation of the pigment substance lycopene stops, which stains the fruits red, and the fruits turn yellow. This is observed in the fall, when fruits ripening directly on plants turn yellow instead of red ones in cold weather.

The most delicious fruits are those that are fully ripe on plants. You can often hear that ripening fruits directly on the plants interferes with the growth of others. This is not true. While the first fruit is being poured onto the hand, the rest on this brush get less nutrients, but as soon as the fruit has grown to a standard size for this variety, its growth stops and it does not take more nutrients, since no nutrients are required for ripening. On the contrary, the ripening fruit releases ethylene gas, which contributes to the rapid ripening of the rest, still green, fruits.

Tomato is a perennial crop, unfortunately, we do not have a wintering one, and therefore we grow it as an annual. A healthy tomato bush can be dug up in the fall and, having been transplanted into a large (with a capacity of at least 5 liters) pot, transported home from the site. At the end of November, the tomato will shed its leaves, at this time it must be watered very sparsely. At the end of February, leaves will reappear on the plant and a flower cluster will form almost immediately. Move it to the site when the frost has passed, and plant it in the ground with fruits already. In the fall, you can take him home again. Gradually, the tomato grows into a real tree. But personally, I have not been able to grow the same plant for more than three years - it dies, probably due to too frequent transplants. The tomato grows well on the balcony and loggia, and even in the room on the windowsill. You just need to pick up suitable grade.

Recently, tomatoes have appeared so early ripening that they can be sown with seeds directly into the ground or greenhouse. As a rule, these are small-fruited and undersized varieties that do not require pinching. - Snowdrop, Spring drops, but among them there is also a fairly large-fruited variety Bullfinch.

From varieties (but not from hybrids - they are marked with the F1 sign), you can grow your own seeds. The best seeds are obtained from unripe brown tomatoes. If you want to sell them, then let them fully ripen, but do not overripe, as the seed germination will drop. Cut the red ripe tomato, take out the seeds with a teaspoon and soak them in the juice of the same tomato for two days, then rinse in water, dry, put in bags and write the name of the variety and the year on the bags. If you are preparing seeds for yourself and your friends, it is enough to take the seeds out of an unripe tomato with a spoon directly onto toilet paper, spread them, pushing them about 1 cm from each other, and dry them by inscribing the name of the variety and the year directly on the toilet paper. When the paper is dry, roll it up, put on an elastic band and store. When sowing, it is enough to cut off a piece of paper with seeds and spread it on a wet soil surface, sprinkle with dry soil on top and compact it.

Tomato diseases and problems

If the seedlings are very stretched, this means that they do not have enough light. Place a mirror behind the seedlings so that the mirror glass faces the window, this greatly increases the illumination of the plants. Instead of a mirror, you can use foil or special reflective film Petersburg firm "Shar". Exclude nitrogen from top dressing, it also promotes intensive growth, increase phosphorus dressing - this will slow down growth. But if the seedlings are still strongly outgrown, they will have to be cut off immediately above the 4th leaf and put in water with "Kornevin" or heteroauxin so that new roots form. There should be little water in a jar with seedlings, and the temperature in the room should not be lower than 20 degrees, otherwise, instead of giving roots, the tip of the stem in the water will simply rot and the seedlings will die. When several roots are formed, plant the seedlings in the soil again, preferably in more spacious pots with a capacity of at least 1.5 liters. This procedure delays fruiting by about 10-14 days. Discard the remaining lower part of the seedlings.

Leaves are a good indicator of the health of tomatoes.

If they are matte with a grayish tint or too light and small, this indicates a lack of nitrogen; feed the plant with infusion of weeds, urea or any saltpeter (1 tablespoon per bucket, 0.5 liters at the root).

If a purple tint appears on the underside of the leaves or the leaves are pressed against the trunk and raised up, then this indicates a lack of phosphorus. Sprinkle 1 tbsp under each bush. spoon of superphosphate and embed in the soil, without getting fertilizer on the stem and leaves. You will achieve a faster effect if you feed the tomatoes in watering with a superphosphate extract. To do this, pour a glass of fertilizer with a liter of boiling water and let it stand overnight. Then you need to dilute this solution in 10 liters of water and water the plants. Top dressing to give 0.5 liters under a bush.

If a drying border appears at the edges of the leaves or they roll up into a tube upward, then this is a lack of potassium, feed with any potassium fertilizer that does not contain chlorine, best of all with potassium nitrate (1 tablespoon per bucket, 0.5 liters per plant), or sprinkle half a glass of ash on wet soil under each plant.

If the leaves are curled downward in a boat (forming a "chicken foot"), do not pay attention: this is either a feature of the variety, or the central vein grows faster than the plate, and therefore the leaf curls.

If the leaves have acquired a marbled light and dark green color, this indicates a lack of magnesium; Sprinkle half a cup of dolomite under the plant on wet soil. For a quick effect, you can give top dressing on the leaves by dissolving 1 teaspoon of magnesium nitrate or 1 teaspoon of Epsom salts in 10 liters of water.

If the leaves have acquired a mosaic yellow-green color, this may be a signal of a lack of any of the microelements. Dilute 2 teaspoons of Uniflor-micro fertilizer in 10 liters of water and spray the plants over the leaves in the evening if the weather is dry, or water (0.5 liters of solution under the plant) if the weather is humid.

However, this leaf mosaic can also be caused by the tobacco mosaic virus. In this case (if after 5-7 days feeding with microelements "Uniflor-micro" did not help) the plant must be destroyed and burned.

If first black spots appeared on the lower, and then on the rest of the leaves, which then begin to increase, and a yellow spot forms around them, this is a formidable disease of late blight tomatoes - a fungus that lives in the soil, but only if there is not enough copper in it. Hence the prevention of the disease: before planting, water the soil with copper chloride ("Khom", "Osikhom", "Polykhom") or copper sulfate or use the drug "Profit" (1 tablespoon of the drug for 1 liter of water for watering the soil or 1 teaspoon of the drug for 10 liters of water for spraying on the leaves; after spraying, the fruit cannot be eaten for three weeks). You can prophylactically spray the tomatoes with the infusion of the tinder fungus, for this grind 10 g of the mushroom, pour boiling water, cover and cool. After that, strain and immediately spray the tomatoes over the leaves. Repeat spraying after 10 days. It is recommended to do this preventive spraying in late June - early July.

If late blight has just begun, then you can spray the tomatoes with an iodine solution (10 ml of 5% iodine per 10 liters of water). Repeat after three days. By the way, the solution costs unlimited time and can be used to spray other plants against all fungal diseases. You can use the biological product "Zircon", which strengthens the plant's own immune system. It is a mixture of hydroxycinnamic acids, which are produced by the immune system of any plant. But if the plant is weak, then it does not produce enough of these organic acids and diseases begin to overwhelm it. By spraying plants with Zircon, you increase the content of these acids in them to normal levels, and the plants become viable.

In case of severe damage to late blight, diseased leaves must be removed and burned, and the fruits should be sprayed with a 1% solution of calcium chloride (a 10% solution in bottles of 200 ml is sold in a pharmacy. The bottle should be dissolved in 2 liters of water). Especially carefully you need to spray the stalk, since late blight penetrates the fetus through it.

After harvesting tomatoes heavily affected by late blight, it is necessary to lower the fruits for 10 minutes in a hot (40 degrees) solution of pink potassium permanganate. Do not make the solution too dark - a burn forms on the skin of the fruit. Remove the fruits, rinse with water and wipe dry. They can then be folded for storage by wrapping each one in paper. Then phytophthora will not pass from one fruit to another, if suddenly one of them still starts to deteriorate.

Sometimes gardeners insert a thin copper wire into the stem in order to avoid late blight. In my opinion, it is better to gradually saturate the plant with copper, spraying it 2-3 times during growth, starting from seedlings, with a weak solution of copper oxychloride (1 g per 1 l). In addition, regular preventive spraying of plants, as well as watering the soil under the tomatoes with Fitosporin, helps a lot, but it should be started from the end of June.

Tomatoes growing in open ground, as a rule, are not susceptible to fungal diseases, but if the fruits lie on the ground, late blight disease cannot be avoided.

There is one popular way to combat fungal diseases: dilute a yeast stick in 10 liters of water and water the plants over the leaves.

Another formidable tomato disease is leaf mold. The disease manifests itself in the form of yellowish spots on the leaves, staining the hands, later the leaves dry up. The disease spreads very quickly and can kill tomatoes in a greenhouse in just a week. Too high (95%) humidity in greenhouses provokes the disease. At the very beginning of the disease, stop watering, sprinkle the soil with chalk or ash, ventilate the greenhouses well, remove diseased leaves and burn them.

Less common diseases include white and gray fruit rot, which results in rotten spots on the fruit, often at the stalk, causing it to fall off. The best defense is good ventilation greenhouses. Tomato wilting is usually caused by stem rot. In this case, there is nothing left but to dig up the plant and destroy it. Top rot often affects peppers, but sometimes it also affects tomatoes. It appears from a lack of potassium, calcium and moisture. The plant begins to pump them to the point of growth from the apical part of the fruit, the tissue of the fruit dehydrates, turns pale, then dies and decays. As soon as you notice light spots on the fruits, give watering and feeding with calcium and potassium nitrate (1 tablespoon each for 10 liters of water).

There are few pests in tomatoes, but there is one rather dangerous one - this is the whitefly (small white moth butterfly). Whitefly is a sucking pest, very prolific. It can be destroyed with Top-Star, Confidor or Commander chemical poisons, after spraying with which the fruits cannot be eaten for 20 days. Usually they are used after harvest, if the attack of the pest is too strong. There is a less effective (for whitefly), but ecologically safe biological agent Fitoverm, after which you can eat tomatoes in two days. There are special glue traps for flying insects that can be used in greenhouses.

Typical failures when growing tomatoes

Fertilization does not occur... High humidity or high temperature in the greenhouse (spray in the morning hours with "Bud" or "Ovary" preparations and ventilate the greenhouses well).

Ovaries fall... The reason is excessive fertilizing with nitrogen, manure or infusion of weeds after transplanting to a permanent place; for the same reason, there is a delay in fruiting and excessive growth of the aerial part.

In tomatoes, faceted (double) flowers are formed. The reason is low temperatures when flower buds are laid, ugly tomatoes grown from several fruits are formed from double flowers, the seeds from which cannot be taken, since this deformity can be transmitted to offspring, therefore, abnormally large buds of faceted flowers should be removed even at the bud stage.

Early disease with late blight. The reason is the lack of copper in the soil, high humidity, poor ventilation and thickening of the plantings.

Slow growth of ovaries. The reason is a prolonged cold snap, cloudy weather or a sharp change in day and night temperatures (in this stressful situation, you should feed the plant with calcium nitrate - 3 tablespoons per 10 liters of water, 0.5 liters of solution under a bush).

Sometimes gardeners are themselves to blame for creating stressful situations when greenhouses are opened late. They must be opened no later than 8 am, while the temperatures inside and outside the greenhouse differ by only 2-3 degrees. If you open the greenhouse at 10 am, then outside the temperature is still low, but in the greenhouse it has already risen to 20-25 degrees. As soon as the greenhouse is opened, temperature equalization begins, which proceeds quickly. Plants react negatively to a rapid change in temperature - they stop the process of photosynthesis, that is, development stops for 2-3 hours, and the delay occurs in the most valuable morning hours.

Growing tomatoes in greenhouses offers significant advantages over growing tomatoes outdoors. The most useful greenhouse is for gardeners in the northern regions of Russia, who do not have the opportunity to keep the fruits until fully ripe on unprotected soil. The greenhouse allows vegetables to complete their development without hindrance, regardless of unfavorable weather. Since each variety has its own ripening times, it is impossible to unequivocally answer the question of when to pick tomatoes in a greenhouse. However, you can, guided by external signs, determine the degree of readiness of the fetus with your own hand.

As already mentioned, there is no exact date for picking tomatoes. The following factors influence the ripening time of tomatoes:


If we talk about the exact time of ripening, then for different varieties it can vary from 80 to 120 days. We will talk about some varieties of tomatoes and their characteristics in the next section.

Collection of different varieties of tomatoes

Despite the fact that it is not possible to cover the entire variety of tomato varieties, we will consider the most popular options and the time for which they ripen.

Table 1. Tomato varieties and terms of their ripening

VarietyMaturationDescription
Mid-season variety, ripening three and a half months after plantingDepending on growing conditions, it reaches one and a half meters in height in open soil and about two meters in greenhouse conditions. On average, the fruits of this variety weigh 400 grams at the time of ripening. During growth, it is advisable to tie several stems to a support to fix the plant
An early maturing variety that takes less than three months to matureThe fruits have strong immunity and are not prone to disease. The weight of a ripe tomato of this variety is half a kilogram. The leader of the Redskins is not susceptible to cracking during temperature extremes and tolerates transportation well. Has a sweet and rich taste
A mid-early variety, the end of the growing season of which occurs three and a half months after sowingThe shrubs of the plant reach 120 centimeters in height and are great for growing outdoors, but they grow well in a greenhouse. The variety brings excellent yields, and the average weight of one fruit is eight hundred grams. However, to achieve this size of tomatoes, the amount of ovary must be monitored.
A late-ripening variety that requires a gardener at least four months of careful careThe reward for the efforts made will be the weight of the fruit, reaching the one kilogram mark. At good conditions bushes of this variety grow up to two meters in length. Despite their size, these tomatoes tolerate transportation well and can be stored for a long time. Well suited for salads and have a very unusual taste, as reflected in the name
Mid-early variety, ripening in more than three monthsThey are distinguished by their resistance to low temperatures, therefore they are often grown outdoors. The average weight of a ripe fruit approaches one kilogram. Tomatoes of this variety are valued for their sweet taste and are actively used for making juice. Consumed both raw and dried
Medium early variety, ripening in one hundred and ten days from the moment of the first shootsWith proper care, mature bushes grow up to one and a half meters in length. The main feature of the variety is thin stems, which are recommended to be fixed in order to avoid damage under the weight of the fruit. The dense skin allows the tomatoes to be moved around without harming them. This variety is intended for greenhouse cultivation, but it can also take root in the open field.

Tomato harvesting has its own key features. If it is recommended to wait outdoors until the onset of frost in order to achieve the greatest ripeness of the fruit, then greenhouse conditions imply different rules. In order for the tomato to last longer, it is necessary to remove it from the bush a little unripe, so that it has time to ripen in the cellar or any other storage.

It is allowed to wait until the tomatoes are fully ripe in three cases:


By the way! For any forthcoming transportation of fruits, transportation from the dacha, and so on, unripe fruits should be collected, since their peel is tougher and saves the fruit from most potential mechanical damage.

In order for the tomatoes to ripen faster and not be damaged during further storage, you need to take care of the proper condition of the soil from which the bushes grow. How to process purchased soil and create your own, we describe below.

Features of tomato harvesting

Greenhouse heating plays an essential role in harvesting. If the gardener has the ability to control the temperature in a given room, then there are no obstacles to the year-round collection of ripening fruits.

If your greenhouse is not equipped with heating and depends on the weather outside, then you should be guided by the following tips:


Video - Details of harvesting tomato in a greenhouse

Ripeness of tomatoes

Each tomato goes through several stages during development, which will tell the grower the condition of the fruit better than any approximate dates. Tomatoes differ in that they can be used in cooking in almost any state, however, each such state needs its own approach.

Unripe tomato gaining weight

Unripe tomatoes are easily recognized - their dimensions are much smaller than the standard for a particular variety. The color of such fruits is usually dark green; they are firm and firm to the touch. It is advisable to leave unripe tomatoes on the bush until the moment when their peel begins to gradually lighten. The use of such tomatoes is elementary unprofitable, due to the fact that they have not yet reached their full size.

Milk-ripened tomato

The appearance of ripe milky fruits does not inspire doubts - the whitish tint of the skin suggests that the berry is clearly not ready for use. However, if you cut the fruit, you will see a pink center, which is an indicator of the onset of milk ripeness. This stage is ideal for transferring the fruits to the cellar for ripening. As a rule, it takes about two and a half weeks for tomatoes of this condition to ripen.

A tomato that has reached blange ripeness

The condition of the blanche ripeness presupposes the coloring of the tomato in a rich orange-brown hue. Such a tomato is firm to the touch, elastic and has almost reached the optimal dimensions for its variety. Fruits that have reached blanche ripeness must be moved to the cellar. However, unlike milk ripeness, blanche takes less time to ripen. One week is enough for the fetus to reach maturity.

Ripe tomato

The final color of tomatoes depends on their species. In addition to reds, there are pink, yellow and even purple varieties. The characteristic shine of the skin of the fruit is a universal feature. The age of mature tomatoes is short-lived. They are eaten raw or canned as quickly as possible to avoid massive berry rotting.

Ripening tomato

Ripening is an integral part of tomato storage for many gardeners, as it allows them to extend their shelf life to two and a half months. For comfortable ripening, tomatoes will need the following conditions:


Important! All tomatoes must be carefully examined and sorted before ripening. Both for short-term and long-term storage are allowed only those fruits on which there are no traces of mechanical damage, diseases and cracks. During storage, the stalk should be separated only if it comes off easily.

Late blight

Unfortunately, while growing tomatoes, gardeners are often faced with such an unpleasant phenomenon as late blight. It also happens that the disease manifests itself only during storage. Late blight refers to fungal spores that annually infect many bushes with fruits. First, the fungus captures the leaves, which gradually dry out and acquire a brown tint. If these primary symptoms are ignored, the disease spreads to the berries, making them unusable.

Treatment and prevention

Despite the fact that this ailment cannot be treated, it can be contained by the following measures:

  1. Garlic spraying. Mushrooms are quickly killed by the action of garlic, so this method works flawlessly. In order to make such a composition, it is necessary to mix one and a half cups of chopped heads of garlic, a couple of grams of potassium permanganate and ten liters of water. The resulting composition is first distributed before the formation of the ovary, the second - after ten days. Further preventive sprays are carried out every two weeks;

  2. Salt spraying. Please note that the saline solution is not curative, but purely prophylactic. It creates a protective barrier that prevents infections from entering through the plant's stomata. Before applying the solution, all leaves affected by the fungus must first be removed. The recipe for the composition is very simple - a glass of table salt is dissolved in ten liters of water;

  3. Kefir spraying. It is also used as a preventive measure. For the first time, the bushes are treated with this solution no later than two weeks, after planting the seedlings in the soil. After that, it is advisable to repeat the procedure once a week. It takes two days to prepare the composition, since kefir should be fermented. A liter of fermented kefir should be dissolved in ten liters of water and mixed thoroughly to avoid lumps.

In addition to the generally obligatory conditions that prolong the life of the fruit, there are a number of tricks, the use of which makes it easier to store tomatoes:

  1. To protect against decay processes, it is advisable to cover the tomatoes with petroleum jelly or paraffin. These substances gently envelop the surface of the tomato and prevent the growth of pathogenic bacteria inside it, serving as reliable protection;