How to grow good tomato seedlings at home?
Tomato, or tomato, is a plant from the Solanaceae family native to South America. The Europeans got to know him only after the discovery of the New World and the tomato, like everything new, “took root” rather difficult and for a long time. Despite this, the tomato is now one of the most popular and demanded vegetables in the world. It is difficult to imagine at least one of the national cuisines where the tomato would not be used. Some dishes cannot be imagined without tomatoes - just remember Ukrainian borscht, Italian pizza, Mexican chili, American ketchup and much more.
An important condition for obtaining a plentiful and high-quality harvest is the correct planting of tomatoes for seedlings. Only strong and healthy seedling it will quickly and easily take root in the ground or in a greenhouse, it will actively bloom and set large and tasty fruits.
In order for tomato seedlings at home to be healthy and of high quality, simple, but very important rules must be followed:
- The correct timing of sowing tomato seeds for seedlings.
- Maintaining the temperature regime.
- Stable water balance.
- Competent selection of soil.
- Selection of varieties for open ground and greenhouses.
- Correct planting of a tomato in the ground.
When to sow tomatoes for seedlings according to the growing season?
Tomatoes are early, medium ripening and late. Between these three varieties there are intermediate ones with a ripening difference of 5-15 days, but basically this division is correct and correct.
- Early tomato varieties have the shortest growing season from sowing to flowering, hence the earliest and most valuable harvest. Early tomato seedlings produce delicious fresh vegetables, but require more care and effort to grow.
- Varieties of medium fruiting periods bear fruit in the high season, they are the most delicious and healthy. The growing season is longer than that of early tomatoes.
- Late tomatoes bear fruit from the second half of summer until late autumn; in warm weather, tomatoes remain fresh on the bushes until frost. These tomatoes have the longest growing season.
Usually early tomatoes are a pleasant delicacy to the table after a long winter, mid-ripening ones accompany food throughout the season, and later ones go for conservation and processing.
When is the best time to plant tomato seedlings?
If it is too early to plant tomatoes for seedlings, they will quickly grow and form, and weather conditions will not allow them to be planted in the ground or under film. Such seedlings will stretch out, become fragile, pale and painful, it will be difficult to take root in the ground and bear fruit poorly.
It is too late to sow - to get small seedlings that have not taken shape. The timing of planting seeds depends on the weather conditions of the area where it is planned to grow seedlings, usually it takes 1.5-2.5 months to grow tomato seedlings.
According to the type of growth, all tomatoes are divided into two large groups:
- Determinant (weak).
- Indeterminate (vigorous).
For growing in greenhouses, tall and vigorous varieties of tomatoes are usually selected, since they are most productive in indoor conditions and give a large harvest.
If you plan to grow tomatoes in the open field, you can grow good tomato seedlings from low-growing varieties, they are less at risk of stretching and overgrowing. Such plants form squat, strong bushes that often do not need to be further tied to trellises or stakes.
How to properly plant tomato seedlings indoors?
To get good seedlings, you need to choose healthy planting material, choose the right soil and containers for planting, observe the correct temperature and watering.
For planting, healthy calibrated seeds are chosen, puny and damaged seeds are thrown away. There are two ways of sowing seeds - into a common container with subsequent picking and immediately into individual cups.
Since tomatoes tolerate picking and replanting well, in order to save money and space, you can sow tomatoes in boxes or other suitable containers. Subsequently, the seedlings dive for the first time, planting them at a greater distance, and then transplanted into separate containers, where the seedlings stay until they are planted in the ground.
In the second version, the seeds are sown 2-3 in pots or cups, weaker plants are subsequently simply pulled out. This method is more costly, planting will take up a significant area, it will not be possible to grow a large number of seedlings in an apartment.
Almost any non-soaking container can be used as a container for planting seedlings. For these purposes, amateur gardeners successfully use wooden and even cardboard boxes lined with plastic wrap, disposable plastic or paper cups, containers for sour cream and yogurt, juice boxes or milk bags. For used containers, it is important to thoroughly clean the remains of the contents, otherwise it can rot, infect the earth and destroy the seedlings.
When deciding how to properly grow tomato seedlings, you need to remember that this plant is very demanding on room temperature, lighting and watering. Humid air is harmful to tomatoes, therefore, when we plant tomato seedlings, it is important to regularly ventilate the room where they grow, avoiding strong temperature changes and drafts that are detrimental to this plant. It is not necessary to spray crops with water, they can easily get sick and die.
Tomatoes are sown in trays or boxes, lightly sprinkled with sifted nutrient mixture and sprinkled abundantly, covering with foil. Air humidity is needed only until the seeds germinate, and then the film is removed.
The soil for tomato seedlings should not be too acidic, that is, pure peat is absolutely not suitable for this plant. At home clean seedling soil from diseases and pests the easiest way is by freezing. For this, a bag or box of earth is left in the open air, where frosts will quickly kill everything harmful to seedlings. The container with the earth must be covered from precipitation, which can wash nutrients from the soil.
Healthy seeds peck and germinate very quickly and within 2-5 days, first "loops" appear from the soil, and then full-fledged cotyledon leaves. At this time, the temperature in the room should not drop below 25 degrees, and then it is slightly gradually reduced. Low temperatures are dangerous for this plant; already at 10 degrees, serious damage begins - it turns yellow, buds and ovaries fall off, growth stops.
For tomato seedlings on the windowsill to be strong and green, it needs a lot of light. With a lack of natural light, planting will have to illuminate, sometimes it needs to be done around the clock. Tomatoes must be provided with stable and even watering without waterlogging and drying, which are equally detrimental to the plant.
The grown tomato seedlings are dived for the first time, and after the appearance of a pair of true leaves, a second dive into the seedling cups is carried out.When performing this operation, young plants are carefully buried in cotyledonous leaves. It is not worth damaging or even more so cutting off the cotyledons - they are a source of nutrients for a plant that has begun to develop. Subsequently, they will fall off themselves when they are no longer needed.
With the help of a pick, you can slightly reduce the effect of pulling the plant in the early stages - by deepening the seedling and adding light, you can make the seedlings stronger and healthier. The part of the stem, which, after a dive, will be in the ground, will give roots and will additionally feed the plant. In order for the cut seedlings to take root quickly and without losses, the soil must be warm enough, and watering should be uniform without flooding. If we plant tomato seedlings correctly, we end up with plants with a strong, stable stem, juicy green leaves and an overall healthy appearance.
The question often arises: how to feed tomato seedlings?
During the growth period, plants need complex fertilizers with a predominance of nitrogen and the obligatory content of trace elements. The grown seedlings need more potassium, with a lack of this element, the plant becomes stained, stretches, turns pale and becomes ill.
A properly grown tomato seedling quickly takes root in the ground, forms a strong green plant, begins to bloom and bear fruit within the time frame set for this variety.
Recently I got hooked on this business with my mother, so we already know a lot about seedlings and tomatoes. From this article we also managed to find little-known but necessary information. For the first time we heard about such consequences of a dive. On my own behalf, I want to add that when growing seedlings, it is not necessary to allow waterlogging of the soil, low illumination and high temperatures - these are the main reasons for stretching the stem of seedlings and a weak root system.
I will add a little specifics on growing healthy seedlings in an apartment. Each area has its own climate and planting of seedlings occurs at about the same time. Seedlings should appear in early tomato varieties 45 days before planting, in medium determinant ones in 60 and in indeterminate ones in 75 days. It is during such a period of time that they will develop the first flower brush, with which it is recommended to plant seedlings. At the stage of germination in a loop, the containers must be placed closer to the cold place on the window for a week, but at the same time the ground cannot be cooled, a stand must be made. So the seedlings will become stocky. After a month, the plants will begin to stretch intensively in the warmth. They need the coolness of the night. And during the day, on clear sunny days, you can harden the plants on the balcony. The less the seedlings stretch, the better they will take root. A month before planting, seedlings of late varieties need to create Spartan conditions so that the plants lay the first brush earlier.