Tomato seedlings for open ground

Content

1 How to determine the time for sowing tomatoes for seedlings
2 Preparing the soil for sowing
3 Preparing and sowing tomato seeds for seedlings
4 Frequency of watering seedlings
5 Temperature conditions for growing tomato seedlings
6 Picking tomatoes
7 Fertilizing tomato seedlings after picking
8 Organization of lighting for tomato seedlings
9 Hardening off tomato seedlings before planting
10 Planting tomatoes

Tomatoes are the favorite vegetable of most gardeners. In an open area, the crop can be grown even in the climatic conditions of the Moscow region, Siberia, and the Urals; the main thing is to correctly determine the timing of sowing seeds for seedlings. The tomato bears fruit well and grows in the Non-Black Earth Region if the beginning of the growing season takes place in an artificially created microclimate. Grow at home tomato seedlings for open soil available to every gardener, you just need to strictly follow the entire technology of this process.

How to determine the time for sowing tomatoes for seedlings

Now you can find a lot of advice on determining the exact dates for sowing tomatoes for seedlings. Some people trust the lunar calendar, while others trust other sources. It must be said that only a vegetable grower can determine the exact sowing date, depending on the local climate. Let’s say that in the middle zone, the timing of planting tomatoes in the garden is determined from the third ten days of May, covering the first days of June. From here, tomato seeds are sown in March-April. However, such a concept is flexible.After all, even in two neighboring cities of the same region, weather conditions may differ.

To figure out the exact date for planting tomato seedlings in open ground, let's look at several main factors:

Tomato seedlings must be planted between 50 and 60 days of age. Undergrown or overgrown plants do not take root well and produce a small harvest.
By the time tomato seedlings are planted outside, a stable night temperature of at least +15 should be established.^OWITH.

Guided by these factors, the vegetable grower must independently determine the optimal date for sowing and planting seedlings, for example, for open ground in the Moscow region.

Preparing the soil for sowing

Once you have determined when to sow tomatoes, you need to take care of preparing the soil. Home gardeners do not trust store-bought soils and prepare it themselves. There are many options here. Usually these are mixtures of several components. Quite often, a mixture of equal amounts of peat and sand is used for tomato seedlings. Another popular soil is made from three components, also in equal proportions: peat, humus, and turf soil.

Many vegetable growers only collect garden soil for seedlings. This option is very good. Tomatoes immediately get used to the composition of the soil on which they will grow all summer. When using this method, better survival rate of transplanted tomatoes is observed. Land from the garden has been collected since the fall. In winter, it is kept in a cold barn so that most pathogens freeze out. Before planting, the soil is disinfected by calcination in the oven at a temperature of 100^OC, plus watered with a steep solution of potassium permanganate.

For those who love plant tomatoes into store soil, different mixtures are sold. They can be made for a specific crop or universal. The advantage of such soil is that it does not need to be additionally fed with fertilizers, which is essential when preparing the soil yourself. The store-bought mixture contains all the necessary microelements and is completely ready for use.

Preparing and sowing tomato seeds for seedlings

Preparing good soil for tomato seedlings is only half the battle. Now it's time to start seeding your tomatoes. Until the time of sowing, you will have to tinker with the grains.

Each vegetable grower has his own method of preparing tomato seeds. Let's look at one of them:

The process of preparing tomato grains begins with culling. You can manually sort through the seeds, discarding all broken, empty and rotten specimens. It is easier to do this with plain water or a weak saline solution. Full-bodied seeds immersed in liquid will sink, and all empty ones will float to the surface.
Process disinfection of tomato seeds required. A simple recipe is based on immersing grains in a saturated solution of potassium permanganate. After half an hour, the shell of the grains becomes brown. They are pulled out of the solution and then washed under running water. Next, prepare a solution of 1 liter of water plus 1 g of boric acid powder. Tomato seeds stay in this liquid for a day.
After disinfection, the seeds are soaked. To do this, use melt, rain, or purified water. Soak tomato grains for 24 hours. Do not soak tomato seeds in tap water. Even a small concentration of chlorine will harm the embryos.
Hardening of tomato seeds causes a lot of controversy among vegetable growers.Some welcome this method, others argue that hardening off the seedlings will be enough. If you decide to harden the tomato grains, they are placed in the refrigerator for a day.
The final preparation is germinating the seeds. Tomato grains are wrapped in ordinary damp gauze or cotton cloth, placed on a tray and placed in a warm place, but not on a radiator.

Germinate tomato seeds will start around the fifth day. By this time, the containers for planting and the soil are prepared.

Plastic cups, cut-off PET bottles, boxes, juice bags, store cassettes, etc. are used as containers for tomato seedlings. The inner walls of the containers must be disinfected with a strong solution of potassium permanganate. The filled soil is additionally disinfected once again with a weak solution of potassium permanganate. The soil is first lightly compacted, watered, and then loosened again.

In the boxes, along the surface of the soil, use your finger to cut grooves 1.5 cm deep, into which the tomato seeds are spread in 3 cm increments. It is important to maintain a row spacing of about 5 cm wide, otherwise the seedlings will become very dense. From 1 to 3 tomato seeds are sown in separate cups. It’s better to sow 3 grains. When the sprouts sprout, two weak ones can be removed, and a healthy seedling will develop further.

Attention! Overcrowding of tomato seedlings will lead to the appearance of a disease called “black leg”. It is accompanied by rotting of plant stems.

Tomato seeds laid out along the grooves are covered with loose soil on top. The containers are tightly covered with film, creating a greenhouse effect inside. Tomato crops are planted in a warm room with an air temperature of about +25^OC. The film can be removed only after all the seeds have germinated.This usually happens within 5–7 days. At this time, it is important not to lower the room temperature until the seedlings adapt.

Hatched tomato seedlings are watered on the second day after removing the film. It is better to do this from a spray bottle directly under the root. It has been noticed that watering before lunch promotes intensive growth of tomato seedlings, plus the plant’s stem becomes more powerful. As the soil dries, the soil under the plants is loosened. Coconut substrate demonstrates good results in moisture retention and oxygen access to the roots. It is scattered in a thin layer throughout the soil where the tomato seedlings grow.

Frequency of watering seedlings

It is believed that good tomato seedlings are obtained with infrequent watering. Moreover, this process is combined with the application of fertilizers. The soil must be kept slightly moist at all times, but not wet or dry. Tomatoes respond best to watering in the morning. Usually the frequency is 1 time every 5 days. The water temperature for irrigation should always be at room temperature. Cold liquid causes the possibility of a “black leg” appearing, plus the seedlings slow down their growth and become weak.

Advice! Tomato seedlings respond well to magnetic water. It's easy to prepare it at home. It is enough to throw a piece of magnet into a bottle of water and use a magnetic funnel when watering.

Temperature conditions for growing tomato seedlings

The intensity of development of tomato seedlings depends on the temperature regime. It is optimal to keep the daily above-zero temperature within 17–19^OFrom and 15–16^OHappy night. If it is colder indoors, tomato seedlings will slow down in growth. Fruiting should be expected from such plants 2 weeks later.

Picking tomatoes

If the tomatoes were sown in a common box, after about 15 days you will have to pick the seedlings. By this time, the plant has two true leaves. The essence of picking seedlings is to pry each tomato with a small spatula, after which the seedlings, along with a lump of soil, are transplanted into separate cups.

Many people have probably seen tomato seedlings on the market, sold in homemade plastic cups. This is the most economical option used when picking tomatoes. To make such a cup, a sleeve is made from a strip of polyethylene 25 cm wide. The joints can be soldered with an iron through newspaper or sewn on a sewing machine. The resulting tube is cut into pieces approximately 10 cm long. These cups do not have a bottom, so when filling the soil they are placed on a pallet close to each other. When the root system of the seedling grows, it will hold the soil together and prevent it from spilling out. If desired, you can put a piece of film inside the cup, making at least some kind of bottom.

Before transplanting the seedling, each cup is filled one third with soil, a pickled tomato is placed in the center, after which all gaps are filled with loose soil. The soil level should reach the cotyledon leaves of the tomato, but 1/3 below the top edge of the glass.

Advice! When replanting a tomato, some vegetable growers pinch the roots to 1 cm. This allows you to create a more branched root system.

The transplanted tomato is watered with warm water over the edge of the glass so that the seedling is well established in its new place. The top soil is sprinkled with a thin layer of humus and wood ash, after which mulching is done. Picked tomatoes should not be exposed to hot sunlight for a week.In order for plants to take root better, it is optimal to maintain the soil temperature within 20–25^OWITH.

Fertilizing tomato seedlings after picking

After picking tomato seedlings definitely need to be fed. A nutrient solution is prepared from chicken manure, diluting 1 part of it in 20 parts of water. The liquid must sit for at least three hours before it can be used. The seedlings are added for the first time 14 days after picking. After 15–20 days they do it again. The tomatoes are added a third time 10 days before transplanting into open ground.

Sometimes spraying seedlings with skim milk - skim milk - is used as a top dressing. This will relieve the plants from some viral damage.

Organization of lighting for tomato seedlings

Lack of lighting can be determined by elongated seedlings and dull foliage color. There is not enough daylight for plants, so artificial lighting must be turned on in the morning and evening. Regular incandescent light bulbs emit a lot of heat. They should not be brought closer to the tomato seedlings than 60 cm. It is optimal to use LED, fluorescent or special phytolamps for these purposes.

Hardening off tomato seedlings before planting

Hardening off tomato seedlings for open ground helps strengthen the plants’ immune system and adapts them to a permanent habitat. From April, when there are warm days outside with a temperature of at least +12^OC, tomatoes are placed in the shade. The length of time spent outside is increased gradually. After a week, the seedlings can be acclimated to sunlight. This should not be done immediately to avoid burns to the foliage.

Planting tomatoes

Tomatoes for open ground are considered ready for planting when full 6–9 leaves appear.Usually the height of the stem at this time reaches 25 cm. The readiness of planting seedlings of early varieties of tomatoes is determined by the formation of the first inflorescences. When the night temperature is stable at a minimum of +12^OWith, you can be sure that the planted plants will not die. However, tomato is comfortable with a minimum night temperature of +15^OC, so you will have to make temporary wire arcs over the seedlings and cover the plants with agrofibre or film.

Typically, experienced vegetable growers plant tomatoes in batches, rather than all at once. This makes it possible to track the survival rate of plants, and if some tomatoes die, there is always a supply on hand to replace them.

Holes for tomato seedlings are dug about 30 cm deep, although it all depends on the size of the root system. It is important to adhere to a planting pattern that depends on a particular variety. The best yield is observed when low-growing bushes are located at a distance of 30 cm from each other, and between rows - 40 cm. For tall tomatoes, the step between bushes is 70 cm, and the row spacing is 130 cm. However, these are general figures. Each variety has different requirements: one likes thickening, and the other likes freedom. The optimal planting scheme is indicated by the seed manufacturer on the packaging.

The seedlings are watered with water 2 days before planting. So, it will be better to remove it from the cups. The seedling, together with a lump of earth, is carefully placed in the hole, sprinkled with loose soil, and compacted a little. Immediately the plant must be watered at the root with warm water. If the plant tends to the ground, it is tied to a temporary stake.

Video about tomato seedlings:

Tomato seedlings in open ground require some time to adapt.The construction of temporary shelters will help to obtain an earlier and more abundant harvest of tasty vegetables.

When to plant tomatoes for open ground seedlings