Growing tomatoes is not difficult. But how to make it cheaper and more efficient? Some prefer to buy seedlings on the market or in the nursery, others - grow tomatoes from seeds.
Using healthy, ripe tomatoes, which may already lie in your kitchen, you can grow unique tomatoes. If you like tomatoes and want to include tomatoes from your own garden in your diet, then try growing them from seeds. This method has both advantages and disadvantages. But one thing is clear - tomatoes grown from seeds will not be oversaturated with fertilizers and will cost much less.
How to grow tomatoes?
Growing tomatoes from seeds can be divided into several stages.. These are seed preparation, sowing, growing seedlings, picking, planting tomatoes in the ground.
- The first thing to do is to choose the right seeds, since how to grow tomatoes with seeds takes longer than seedlings, and the right choice at this stage will save time in the future. At the same time necessarily take into account the climate and soil composition. You should also decide on a variety, what exactly do you want? An early or late variety of tomatoes, and maybe you need vegetables that can be stored for a long time?
- After the seeds are selected, they are prepared and sown (learn how to process tomato seeds before sowing, here).
- When the seedlings grow a little, they dive and sit in separate containers. Here they grow until the time to transfer to the ground. How to grow seedlings of tomatoes from seeds without picking, read here.
It should also be said that there is also a seedless way of growing tomatoes from seeds.
It has its own features:
- Correctly pick up the time of sowing.
- Choose a suitable place (north and south side will not fit).
- Prepare and fertilize the beds.
- Prepare a covering material.
- Set the arc above the garden to protect the seedlings.
Pros and cons of cultivating tomatoes from seeds
pros:
- Cheapness Growing tomatoes from seeds will be several times cheaper than growing from purchased seedlings.
- High survival rate and fecundity of tomatoes.
- Guaranteed to obtain organic vegetables.
Minuses:
- Serious labor costs.
- The need for a large area (for seedlings).
- There is no guarantee that the plants will be healthy and give a good harvest.
- You need to have the necessary knowledge and skills.
Training
Seed preparation is where to start. After all correctly selected and prepared seed - a guarantee of a good harvest.
Tomato seeds can be purchased:
- in the nursery;
- in a specialty store;
- On the market;
- in the online store.
Prices for planting material can range from 10-15 rubles to 100-150 rubles per pack. It depends on the variety of tomatoes and the quality of planting material.
Since tomatoes can be grown from their seeds, it is necessary to carefully approach the issue of collecting seed.
How to collect seeds yourself:
- You should choose the fruit of brown ripeness.
- Cut it to reproach.
- Carefully squeeze the seeds into the container along with the juice.
- Put in a warm place for 2-3 days for fermentation.
- If a thin diaper and bubbles appeared on the surface, and the seeds sank to the bottom, the digestion is complete.
- The liquid is gently drained, and the seeds are washed under running water.
- Then they should be laid out on a cotton fabric in a thin layer and placed in a warm and dry place. Here they dry out for several days.
Attention! Over-ripened fruit and F1 hybrids should not be used to harvest seeds.
Seed preparation and treatment:
- Disinfection. In order for plants to have less pain, seeds are disinfected before sowing. To do this, they need to soak in a solution of potassium permanganate (1 g of funds for a glass of water) for 15-20 minutes.
- Soak in a special solution. To do this, prepare a solution: 1 teaspoon nitrophoska, 1 tbsp. spoon of wood ash, 2 tsp of sodium humate, 1st. l fertilizer "Idel". Seeds are placed in the solution for 12 hours.
- After that, the seeds are placed in warm clean water for 24 hours.
- Now the seeds need to be immediately sown in the soil.
Alternative way
Training
Usually for the cultivation of tomato seedlings use a mini greenhouse. It can be purchased at the store or do it yourself. To fit any container and cut a large plastic bottle or plastic bag. How to plant and care for seedlings:
- Soil preparation. For this, humus and peat are mixed in equal parts of the soddy soil, you can add river sand. Before sowing the seeds, the soil is disinfected, for this purpose it is kept in a hot oven for 30 minutes. Then the soil is shed with a pink solution of potassium permanganate.
- Sowing seedlings are usually produced in late February - early March.
- During growth, seedlings should provide good coverage. To do this, they are placed on the south window sill and, if necessary, light up specially with a lamp. Growing seedlings should be lit at least 10 hours a day. Night temperature in the room should not be below +18 degrees.
- The first dressing is made after the appearance of 2-3 true leaves. To do this, 1 tablespoon of urea is diluted in 10 liters of water. The second feeding is carried out a week after the first. To do this, dilute 1 tablespoon of nitrophoska per liter of water. Next, seedlings are fed every 12-14 days before planting in the ground. For this, you can use "Agricol number 3" or "Effecton O".
Transplant into the ground
The soil for tomatoes should be good moisture and airbut at the same time it should be quite fat and nutritious. Before planting the soil is prepared in advance. To do this, it is necessary to pour a hot solution of copper sulfate (20-30 g per liter of water). The temperature of the solution is 80 degrees. This is the prevention of the appearance of pests.
After that, organic fertilizers are applied at the rate of 10 kg of humus per 1 square meter. m; 50-60 g of superphosphate and ½ bucket of wood ash to the same area. Then dig the plot. Usually planting seedlings in the ground occurs in the middle or end of May. But the main factor is air temperature.
The optimum temperature is + 22-23 degrees - in the daytime, +15 - at night. If the night temperature is below + 15, then you will have to wait with the landing. It is also necessary to take into account the fact that tomatoes are light-loving plants and should be planted in an open place where there is a lot of sun and heat.
How to plant tomatoes:
- When planting, the size of the bush should be at least 20-15 cm in height.
- Before planting, a hole is dug (depth - 1 shovel bayonet).
- Then pour about 1.5 liters of distilled water at room temperature.
- The plant is placed in the hole and held so that the root does not touch the bottom.
- Then the root is covered with earth and pressed tightly.
- Immediately after planting, tomatoes should be watered abundantly.
- Landing is made in the evening or in cloudy weather.
Planting seeds immediately in the ground: how to sow?
- First of all, you should properly prepare the wells. They are dug in advance and added to each bit of peat and humus in equal parts. Above the holes, special arcs are installed to protect the seedlings from the weather.
- Now you can start sowing. To do this, use determinant (undersized) early varieties of tomatoes. Sow seeds compactly (approximately at a distance of 30 cm from each other).
Before sowing, the well should be poured with a hot solution of potassium permanganate.
- Approximately 5 seeds are placed into each well. In the future, when the seedlings germinate, leave no more than 2 pieces per well. The rest is transplanted or discarded.
- After sowing, a cut plastic bottle is placed over each well to create a greenhouse effect. After that, a transparent polyethylene film is pressed onto the installed arcs and is pressed tightly to the ground.
Cultivation and care
Conditions of detention
If cultivation is carried out in a seedless way, then after the emergence of shoots it is better not to disturb them. After the seeds grow and the first real leaves appear, the seedlings will open depending on the weather. Ate the weather is sunny, but cool for several hours you can remove the plastic film, while the cut bank, which covered the hole, remains.
If growing is done by seedlings, then in the first two weeks after landing in the ground the plant should not be disturbed. At first, you should not feed a young tomato either. It is necessary to allow time for the root system to take root in the soil, and for the plant itself to adapt.
Watering
Young tomatoes are watered quite often, since the root system and the plant itself are actively growing, increasing the stem and green mass, and therefore actively consuming water and nutrients from the soil. Young plants are watered with warm settled water from a watering can. It is not necessary to water the tomatoes from a hose or a bucket, as the strong pressure of the water can damage immature roots.
Top dressing
- After the appearance of 2-3 true leaves should be made the first feeding. To do this, dissolve 1.5 g of ammonium nitrate in 1 liter of water. In each well pour no more than 0.5 liters of solution.
- The second feeding is carried out in 2-3 weeks. To do this, you can use nitrophoska (1 tbsp. Spoon to 1 liter of water). No more than 0.5 liters of solution is poured into the well.
- The third feeding is done after the formation of the ovary. Mullein or bird droppings are well suited for feeding.
The solution is prepared at the rate of 1 part of mullein or litter per 10 parts of water. Pour into the hole no more than 250-300 grams, that would not cause burn roots.
Attention! Before fertilization, the plant should be watered abundantly.
Gardening is a great way to save money and grow healthy vegetables. It is not at all difficult to do this; you just need to know the rules and carefully follow them. Knowledge and work will do the trick. And the result will be a wonderful harvest. But the most important thing is the moral satisfaction of growing plants with their own hands.