Tomatoes, perhaps the more correct name for this plant are tomatoes, have been known since ancient times. It was grown by the American Indians, the fruits they consumed were called tumatl, hence the name that came to be more harmonious for us was tomato. The homeland of the plant is Peru, although its wild-growing species can still be found today in the Galapagos Islands, Peru and Chile, in Ecuador. Tomatoes that got into Europe, which are pretty beautiful, constantly growing vines, were grown as a decorative crop, because considered poisonous. Long disputes over the toxicity of tomatoes turned out to be groundless, attempts to use these berries proved that they have excellent aroma and taste and do not cause poisoning. From the beginning of the 19th century, tomato began to be grown as a vegetable crop and quickly gained popularity. The modern name for the tomato was given by the Portuguese, calling it the apple of love.

Content

1. How to choose the seeds of the most delicious varieties of tomato
2. Growing seedlings  video
3. Growing a tomato in a greenhouse
4. Site preparation and transplanting  video
5. Features of plant care, pinching  video
6. Fertilizer beds
7. Is it worth believing in the existence of varieties resistant to late blight?
8. Tillless tomato growing method
9. Tomato Diseases and Pests

How to choose the most delicious tomato seeds

Every amateur gardener asks this question with the onset of the spring season, when it comes time to buy tomato seeds or ready-made seedlings. After all, everyone who is used to working in their own garden wants the grown vegetables to be tasty, fragrant, environmentally friendly, healthy. Judging by the extremely wide range provided on the shelves of seed shops, a very serious problem seems to be the need to sort out varieties, both long-used and completely new hybrids. But it is precisely this factor in most cases that is crucial in obtaining a rich harvest.

When choosing seeds, we pay attention to:

• declared in the description of the variety plant productivity, fruit size, their taste,
• germination rate
• ripening period (early, late, middle grades),
• height of an adult plant: higher ones are suitable for growing in greenhouses or trellises in open ground, for growing on rows it is better to purchase seeds of undersized tomatoes that do not require a garter,
• features of preparing seeds for planting, temperature and weather conditions of the area where the plants will be grown, because there are varieties that can withstand drought, heat-loving or can withstand low temperatures,
• whether your tomatoes will be grown in open ground or in a greenhouse - greenhouse varieties require more treatments, more thorough care.

Experts do not recommend buying seeds in large professional packages - there will be too many of them for planting tomatoes in the summer cottage, and when using seeds the next year you can get poor germination.

Growing tomato seedlings

After selecting seeds, you can begin to grow seedlings. Soil should either be prepared in the fall, or bought in a store. If soil is to be used from its site, one should not take one on which nightshade cultivated in the current season. In a home-made mixture (per 10 liters of soil) you will need to add: 1 teaspoon of potassium sulfate, superphosphate and wood ash. The prepared mixture is poured into a container, watered for a week with water. The day before sowing it is treated with a strong solution of potassium permanganate.

Seeds are sown in prepared grooves and covered with the same soil, sowing depth - up to 1.5 cm. The containers are left in a warm room (22-25 degrees C), preferably well-lit by the sun. Shoots will appear in about a week. During the first month after seedlings, the plants live in the same capacity, care consists in infrequent watering with water at room temperature. Waterlogging should not be - excess moisture and insufficient lighting will lead to elongation of seedlings.

It is difficult to indicate the exact time of sowing seeds, the success of growing high-quality seedlings depends on the light, if, for example, in February-March it may be insufficient, then it will be required backlight phytolamp. Tomatoes sown at the end of March usually get by with natural light received from the sun. If you want to get very early seedlings, you can pay attention to varieties that are not demanding for illumination, such as Siberian precocious or Pixie.

After a month, the grown plants are subjected picky  - replanting in a more spacious container. When transplanting, lower leaves should be pinched off - this will contribute to faster formation of the first flower brush. When picking, they also pinch off the lower part of the root - this will contribute to the development of lateral roots.

If possible, the picking procedure is repeated after a couple of weeks. When planting plants, immerse in soil until the first cotyledon leaves. The transplanted plants are kept in the shade for a couple of days, then put on a well-lit window. The recommended temperature after planting is +22 C, after a few days - in the region of +18 C. Watering seedlings is plentiful, 1 time per week, but do not allow strong drying of the soil.

When the temperature rises outside seedlings are tempered  - take her to a well-lit balcony or porch for the whole day. Leave it overnight in the open air only if there is no threat of frost. An indicator of quality hardening will be the acquisition of a lilac shade in the stem.

If the plants look somewhat painful, they will need top dressing. For it, you can use ready-made mixtures for complex fertilizers or a urea solution prepared by your own hand (1 tablespoon per 10 liters of water).

Growing a tomato in a greenhouse

Tomatoes can be grown in open ground and in greenhouses. The greenhouse option is rational to apply in the case of varieties with giant fruits or late ripening. It makes no sense to plant ordinary varieties in a greenhouse - care for them will be complicated, and the ripening of the first fruits will begin at about the same time as those planted in open ground.

Seedlings should be planted in closed ground not earlier than May 1, provided that the greenhouse is made of modern cold-proof materials, for example, from cellular polycarbonate or a durable polymer film. A good option are traditional glass greenhouses. Structures of any material should be equipped with ventilation vents. You should not plant tomatoes in the same greenhouse for several years in a row - this will lead to an increased threat of bush disease. The easiest way to alternate tomatoes and cucumbers. The best option for long-term cultivation of one crop is a complete replacement of the topsoil.

For growing in a greenhouse, tomato varieties resistant to diseases and pests should be taken, hybrids have such qualities to a greater extent.

Site preparation and transplanting

The site for tomatoes should be selected protected from the wind, well-lit area, dry with loamy soil. You should not pay attention to the wetlands. The best predecessors of tomatoes: root crops, except for potatoes, legumes.

If the cultivation of tomatoes will be carried out in the open ground, then care should be taken to prepare the beds. Digging them out in advance, a week before planting, you should disinfect the soil with a solution of copper sulfate, about 1 liter of liquid will be required per 1 square meter. Then the soil can be flavored with mineral fertilizers (200 grams of ash and 1 tablespoon of superphosphate) and organic (per 1 sq. M area of \u200b\u200b4 kg of humus).

To enhance the survival rate of seedlings, it is recommended to reduce the crown of plants, it is allowed to tear off the lower four leaves from it. It is not advisable to pick off more leaves.

• Wells are made at a distance of 35 cm in a row,
• the distance between the rows is 0.7 m,
• the depth of the hole is up to 35 cm.

Seedlings are planted in the evening or in cloudy weather. To achieve the rapid development of the terrestrial part of the plant, the wells are treated with Effekton.

In the early days, plants are watered, but gently, so that the water does not erode the holes. Next, the plants are watered as necessary. Weeding will also be required after watering, but you should not touch the soil 10 cm in diameter from the plant itself - you can only pick weeds.

Features of plant care, pinching

To obtain a high crop of tomatoes, it is more efficient to use tall varieties, but they will need special care: they will have to be exposed stepson, i.e. removing useless shoots. If you follow the principles of the Mittlider method, then the formation of three plant stems will be the best option - this will sufficiently increase the yield and accelerate the ripening of the fruit. With this method of cultivation, it will be necessary to observe the recommended distances between the bushes in a row.

If the bushes will be formed from one stalk, then it will be necessary to remove all the stepsons that appear. As stakes for plants, you can use wooden stakes or supports about 2 m high with crossbars and a wire stretched between them. Twine is attached to the wire around which one shoot of the plant will wrap. This method will allow you to ventilate the plants sufficiently.

If the plant is grown in two stems, then stepsons will need to be removed, only the main shoot and branch, formed under the first brush, which is the strongest, will remain. At the place of the broken-off stepson, there should remain a hemp 1.5 cm high. Overgrown stepchildren should also be removed - they will reduce productivity.

Fertilizer beds

Caring for tomatoes will also require fertilizer. You can prepare a solution:

• 20 g of urea
• 40 g superphosphate
• 2 g of boric acid,
• 2 g of copper sulfate,
• 30 g of potassium sulfate,
• 10 liters of water.

You can also use infusion of mullein (1: 8) or bird droppings (1:12) with the addition of 20 g of potassium sulfate and 30 g of superphosphate per 10 l. You can also fertilize tomatoes according to recipes, which include a larger number of components, but you should not forget that an excess of nitrogen fertilizers will lead to an increase in green mass and slow down the ripening of fruits. A sufficient amount of phosphorus-potassium fertilizers will stimulate the ripening of fruits with a low content of nitrates.

Is it worth believing in the existence of tomato varieties resistant to late blight

Sometimes there are seed packs with assurances that the variety is immune to late blight, the question is whether these statements can be trusted. Experienced gardeners claim that these assurances have no reason. It is possible that some varieties and hybrids are highly resistant to the disease, but we are not talking about 100% guarantees. Experience shows that the incidence of late blight disease is more dependent on weather conditions and air temperature.

Realistically extend the life of the plant and its fruiting can:

• timely treatment with systemic drugs against late blight,
• planting tomatoes in the beds where the previous crop was garlic,
• in the early stages of the disease, even tearing and destroying leaves with dry brown spots may be effective.

Tillless tomato growing method

The seedless method, which involves sowing seeds directly into prepared beds, may also prove to be a sufficient effective measure to prevent the most common tomato disease. Beds with crops, to accelerate the germination of seeds, should be covered with plastic wrap. You can also resort to a cheaper method and cover each well with a plastic bottle with a cut bottom.

It is advisable to decontaminate the seeds before sowing and treat them with a growth stimulator. The root system of such plants will be stronger, their development will occur quickly, it is likely that before the onset of cooling, they will have time to give back the crop. Nevertheless, it does not hurt to be safe, treatment from late blight can be saving for tomatoes with an average ripening period. Using all kinds of plant protection methods, it is possible to prevent diseases of varieties, which are not said to be resistant to late blight.

The most common diseases of tomatoes and their pests

The most dangerous disease for tomatoes today is considered late blight. We already mentioned it above. Such drugs as: Barrier, Barrier, Oksikhom will help to prevent its development. They should be used at the time and in dosages indicated in the instructions.

No less harm to the crop can cause vertex rot, its sign is the appearance of dark, deep spots on the fruits and their decay. The reason is too dry soil and the presence of an excess of nitrogen in it. As therapeutic measures, spraying with calcium nitrate and abundant watering of tomatoes can be used.

Often found and leaf mold tomato, especially in greenhouse plants. It is characterized by the appearance of a brown coating on the inner side of the sheets. The fight consists in processing a solution of 1 tablespoon of liquid soap and 1 tablespoon of copper sulfate in 10 liters of water. You can also resort to disinfection of the greenhouse, reducing the volume of water during irrigation. Effective weekly treatment of plants with a barrier.

Disease mosaic  characterized by the appearance of yellow-green spots, can lead to the death of the plant. Ill plants are removed from the beds and burned, as a preventive measure, the seeds are treated with a solution of potassium permanganate, watered with a pink solution of potassium permanganate seedlings, the plants are sprayed with skim milk.

Brown spotting  more common in greenhouse plants, manifested by gray spots on the underside of the leaves. The disease is provoked by high humidity and a temperature exceeding 25 degrees C. Watering the plants when symptoms appear, the ripened fruits are harvested, the plants are treated with Fundazole.

Tomatoes are also subject to other fungal diseases: gray rot, phomose, root rot. Control measures include disinfecting the soil, removing diseased plants or damaged parts, treating with fungicides, and a barrier.

The most dangerous pests of tomatoes can be called:

• bear, the fight against it is carried out by laying out the etched grains of wheat or pouring a solution of Thunder into the holes
• wireworm, which is caught on bait or destroyed by laying down sawdust processed by Bazudin
• caterpillars, dustpan, whiteflies are destroyed using insecticides such as BI 58, Iskra-M, Actellik, SEMPAY, etc., or use harmless drugs, for example, such as Arrow.

Author: Sergey and Svetlana Khuentsov

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