Tomatoes in Russia began to grow in the XVIII century. In care, this popular garden crop is considered unpretentious. However, tomatoes are still southern plants. To ripen their fruits requires a lot of time. Therefore, in Russia such a culture has long been cultivated in seedlings. About how tomatoes grow and how to properly care for them, and we will tell in our article.
Grade selection
Tomatoes can be grown on a suburban area today, early, medium-term ripening or late. The first variety of tomatoes in most cases is used for fresh food or for the preparation of salads. Tomatoes of medium ripening or later are harvested including for various kinds of harvesting for the winter.
As you know, in most cases, varieties of garden crops are selected taking into account the climatic characteristics of the region in which the site is located. To some extent this applies to tomatoes. However, today, breeders have bred many varieties of this crop, excellent for growing both in warm and cold regions of the country.
Of the early varieties, the most popular among Russian summer residents are, for example:
King of the early;
Pink Bush F1;
Early Dubinin.
Of the varieties of average ripening, summer residents of Russia in most cases grow:
Gazpacho;
Anastasia
The black baron;
Pink honey.
Of the late-ripening, the best reviews from summer residents deserved:
Bun;
Cheerful neighbor;
Hub F1.
For growing in greenhouses, you should, of course, choose special varieties of tomatoes. Different kinds of pollinating insects practically cannot penetrate into such structures. Therefore, the formation of ovaries to the owner of the site when using ordinary tomatoes for growing in a greenhouse will not succeed. Choosing for covered ground you need exclusively self-pollinating varieties. The best varieties of this group, according to summer residents, are:
early - Yarilo, Funtik, Friend, Evangelism;
mid-season - Watercolor, Buyan yellow, Butterfly;
late ripe - Ivanovets, Krasnobay.
Seed preparation
Sometimes summer residents complain, for example, that tomatoes do not grow on the site. What to do in this case? It is simply impossible to correct such a situation. This happens when inexperienced gardeners choose the wrong tomato planting material for sowing.
On your own, for example, in the garden you can collect only the seeds of varietal tomatoes. Planting stock of F hybrids should be purchased new in the store every year. When grown from independently harvested seeds, such tomatoes lose their varietal qualities, practically do not grow and do not produce a crop.
In any case, before planting, tomato seeds should be carefully prepared - treated with an antiseptic and sprouted.
To get rid of bad empty planting material, you first need to put the seeds in a glass, pour water into it and pour 1 tsp. salt. Next, the planting material should be shaken. Empty seeds will pop up and they can be easily collected and removed.
The remaining quality planting material is soaked in a flat bowl in the next step. Previously, it is placed in a bag of gauze. Next, for example, in a saucer lay a layer of cotton wool. A bag of seeds is placed on it. Then the planting material is again covered with cotton. At the next stage, warm water is poured into the saucer.
Soak tomato seeds in gauze is supposed to be no more than 12-18 hours. Every 5 hours, the water in the saucer should be replaced with a new one. After germination, the tomato seeds are treated with a weak, slightly pink solution of potassium permanganate. Keep planting material in this antiseptic for about 20 minutes.
In order not to ask in the subsequent question about why tomatoes do not grow on the windowsill and develop poorly, at the final stage, the seeds can be additionally held a little in a solution of some kind of stimulant, for example, Kornevin.
Soil preparation
Tomato seedlings are grown at home, usually in crates. Soil in such containers can be poured into a regular garden, harvested in the fall and mixed with a small amount of organic matter, or purchased. In the latter case, land intended for the cultivation of nightshade should be acquired.
Before falling asleep in boxes, it is desirable to fry the soil in the oven or simply pour it with boiling water. This will remove the eggs of pests preserved in the ground.
Transplanting
After the earth cools down after processing, it can be poured into boxes and proceed with the planting of prepared seeds. They are usually sown at home using this technology:
the ground in a box a day before planting is shed with warm water;
make grooves in the soil with a depth of not more than 2 cm at a distance of 3 cm from each other;
lay tomato seeds along the grooves in increments of 2 cm;
sprinkle grooves with earth.
Sometimes it happens that the tomatoes planted in boxes grow up, that is, they are pulled out. To prevent this from happening, you must first place boxes with plants on the windows facing the south or east side.
Seedling Care
Next, let's see how tomatoes grow in crates and what kind of care should be taken after them. Dry tomato seeds hatch usually no earlier than 10 days after sowing. Soaked sprout for 5-8 days. Pick of young plants in most cases is carried out 3 weeks after planting. In this case, the bushes are distributed in separate containers, for example, in plastic cups of 1-3 pcs., Choosing the strongest.
If desired, tomatoes can not be dived. But, of course, you need to thin them out, leaving 4-5 cm of free space between the bushes.
Approximately 10 days after picking or thinning, the tomatoes should be treated from pests. For this, you can, for example, use a solution of skim milk and water, prepared in a ratio of 1: 2 with the addition of a drop of iodine.
Watering young tomatoes should be as necessary, avoiding drying out of the upper layer of the earth or wetland. For all the time of growing on the windowsill, seedlings can be fertilized a couple of times with a mineral compound intended for tomatoes, according to the manufacturer's instructions.
About 20 days before the transfer to the open ground, plants need to begin to harden. To do this, boxes with seedlings should be taken out onto the open balcony first for 1 hour per day, gradually increasing this time to 3 hours.
Land preparation in the beds
Where are the tomatoes best grown on the plot? It is supposed to equip tomato beds in the garden in well-lit, sheltered from the wind places. Soil in the area selected for the cultivation of this crop must first be fertilized with rotted manure.
Beds for tomatoes are best prepared narrow. In this case, the plants in the future will be easier to care for. Having formed such beds, inside them, with a step of about 50 cm, pour half a bucket of manure. Next, you need to dig the earth with a shovel and level it with a rake.
How to transfer plants to open ground
Seedlings are brought to the site directly in boxes or cups at the end of May. The day before, the soil under the plants is abundantly watered. Tomatoes are placed on narrow beds, usually in two rows in a checkerboard pattern. The distance between the individual plants is left depending on the variety. High fluffy tomatoes are planted in increments of up to 80 cm. Low and medium-sized tomatoes are placed at a distance of 30-40 cm from each other.
Plants are taken out of the crates with a spatula along with a lump of earth, being careful not to damage the roots. Glasses are pre-kneading hands to separate the earth from the walls. Then they pull out the plant also with a lump of earth.
If in the process of growing seedlings are too long, it is allowed to plant it, digging the stem into the ground. In this case, long holes are dug in the garden. The stem is placed horizontally in them.
After all the seedlings have been planted in open ground, a support should be installed next to each bush (for long varieties). Next, the bed needs to be tightened with a film. This will protect the tomatoes from frost and wind.
If the tomatoes are planted late - in early June, the film on the garden bed can not be pulled. But in this case, as supports for tomatoes, it is best to use well-leafy, freshly cut branches of some fluffy trees growing in the area - for example, maple. Such "devices" for a couple of days will not only keep the bushes from lodging, but also protect them from the wind and sunlight.
Helpful advice
It is advisable to shed the soil in the tomato bed a day before planting seedlings. This will make the procedure more convenient. In addition, experienced gardeners do not recommend watering tomatoes immediately after planting. In soft, soil saturated with moisture, plants will surely “fall”, which will reduce the percentage of survival.
How to water tomatoes properly: recommendations of experienced gardeners
The answer to the question of how tomatoes grow on the site, probably, every summer resident knows. This culture is developing, including in the open ground, quite actively. But in order for tomatoes to grow quickly on a suburban area, the soil under them, of course, needs to be moistened periodically.
Experienced gardeners recommend performing this procedure in the evening. A feature of tomatoes is that they like rare plentiful waterings. Therefore, the soil under these plants should be moistened only after its top layer on the bed has practically dried up.
After each watering every other day, the soil under the tomatoes must be loosened. In this case, it is desirable to carry out simultaneous weeding of tomatoes. To reduce the amount of watering, it is advisable, among other things, to mulch the soil under the tomatoes. For this purpose, you can use, for example, pulled out weeds, compost or well-rotted manure.
What and when to fertilize
Of course, in the process of growing tomatoes, they need not only watering, but also periodic feeding. Fertilize this crop when cultivated in a suburban area, usually 3 times per season.
In this case, the first feeding is carried out approximately a week after the seedlings are taken. As a fertilizer during this period, usually used infusion of mullein or bird droppings, mixed with a small amount of ash.
The second time the plants are fed at the beginning of the fruit ovary. This time, a mullein infusion with the addition of mineral compounds is used for fertilizer:
For low-growing tomatoes, in this case, spend 1 liter of solution per bush, for high - 1.5-2.0 liters.
The third season of fertilizing tomatoes is done just before the harvest. In this case, the same composition is used as was used for fruit ovary. The dose for feeding during the fruiting period is increased to 2.5-3.0 liters per bush.
Tomatoes grow poorly: what to do
In addition to the usual, foliar top dressing can be carried out as necessary when growing tomatoes. This is done, for example, when slowing down the development of tomatoes, yellowing leaves, etc. For foliar top dressing, they usually use:
if the tomatoes grow poorly - a urea solution of 1 tbsp. l on 10 l of water;
in insufficient light - a solution of calcium nitrate in the amount of 10-15 g per 10 l;
for weakened and thin plants - with a solution of 10 g of urea and 15 g of calcium nitrate per 10 l of water.
If the fruits of the tomatoes do not grow, that is, the ovaries do not form, for spraying it is worth using boric acid in an amount of 1 tsp. on 10 l of water. Such treatment will prevent primarily the shedding of flowers.
Pest and Disease Control
If the tomatoes do not grow well, you can try to fix the matter with conventional or foliar top dressing. However, such a problem can be caused at all and not by a lack of any nutrients.
Like any other garden crops, tomatoes in the process of growing on a suburban area, of course, can be infected with fungi, bacteria or damaged by pests. In this case, one must ask a question not about how to water the tomatoes so that they grow, but about what compounds should be sprayed from diseases.
From each type of insect and bacteria, certain groups of drugs are used to process tomatoes. Spraying is carried out when detecting the first signs of infection.
Prevention on the site is carried out mainly from fungal diseases (for example, phytophthora) of tomatoes, since it is from them that this culture suffers most often. In this case, use solutions of drugs of a special group - fungicides.
Method for growing tomatoes in a greenhouse
Today, breeders have bred a huge number of tomato varieties that are resistant, including to cold. Therefore, most summer residents even, for example, in the Urals grow tomatoes in open ground. But in order to accelerate the harvest, in some cases, such plants can also be planted in greenhouses. Indoors, you can also get good tomato crops. But with non-compliance with the care technology, of course, tomatoes will grow poorly in the greenhouse.
Of course, growing this crop indoors has some of its own characteristics:
watering the bushes is carried out if the soil crumbles when compressed in a fist;
feeding is carried out weekly with nitrogen, phosphorus and potash fertilizers in a ratio of 1: 3: 2 (10 g per 10 liters of water in 5 bushes);
monthly spray plants with a 1% solution of Bordeaux fluid;
as plants grow, they are fixed on supports;
during flowering, stalks of plants are tapped from time to time to obtain more ovaries.
The soil in the greenhouses is depleted quickly enough. Therefore, in order not to wonder why tomatoes do not grow in closed ground and do not develop as well as we would like, from time to time soil from greenhouses should be taken out with wheelbarrows and laid in its place. Pre-imported land must be mixed with a small amount of organic matter.
Sometimes the answer to the question of why tomatoes do not grow in the greenhouse is simply a banal stagnation of air in the bushes. To improve the ventilation of tomatoes when growing indoors, they should remove the foliage in the lower part of the stem.
Harvesting
So, we found out how tomatoes grow in a greenhouse and in open ground. Such summer residents cultivate such plants in suburban areas, of course, to obtain a good harvest. As the tomatoes develop in the open ground or in the greenhouse, gardeners produce their bushes. The technology of this procedure depends on the characteristics of this particular variety. To form tomato bushes, gardeners simply pluck out a certain portion of stepsons from them at the required height.
The answer to the question of how much tomatoes grow before the fruits fully ripen depends on the characteristics of this particular variety. In most cases, summer residents begin to harvest this crop in July. There are only three degrees of ripening of tomatoes:
In principle, picking the fruits of tomatoes from the bushes can begin already at the stage of milk maturity. During this period, the tomatoes are still green, but already reach the sizes required for this particular variety. At the stage of milk maturity, tomatoes are removed from the bushes for the purpose of their long-term storage fresh in the future.
With blanch maturity, tomatoes already have a pink skin. During this period, they are also removed for a sufficiently long storage. Such tomatoes ripen, being picked from the bush, in about a week. Sometimes milk and blanche tomatoes are also used to make original workpieces.
Fully ripened tomatoes are plucked for salads and fresh consumption. The same tomatoes, of course, are used in most cases for canning.