Content
Growing tomato seedlings at home is sometimes more effective than buying ready-made seedlings. The owner dealing with growing tomatoes, from seeds to harvest, I am one hundred percent confident in their quality and compliance with the declared variety. While seedling sellers are often dishonest: they use cheaper seed material, feed seedlings with growth stimulants and nitrogen fertilizers to speed up its development and improve its presentation.
This article will tell you how to sow tomato seedlings and not make mistakes.
When to plant tomatoes
The timing of sowing tomato seeds largely depends on where the seedlings will be planted subsequently. In central Russia, gardeners follow the following seeding scheme:
- mid-late February - when tomatoes are planted in the greenhouse;
- March 1-20 – if seedlings are transferred to beds with temporary shelter;
- mid or late March - for tomatoes in open garden plots without film and agrofibre cover.
The timing of sowing tomato seeds must be adjusted depending on the climatic characteristics of the region. On average, we can say that in the south of the country all dates are postponed a week earlier, and in the northern regions tomatoes need to be sown 7-10 days later than the dates indicated above.
Stages of growing seedlings at home
In order for tomato seedlings grown with your own hands to be strong and strong, you need to follow some rules, and also follow these steps sequentially:
- Selection of seeds and varieties of tomatoes.
- Preparation of seed material for sowing.
- Preparing soil and containers for tomato seedlings.
- Sowing seeds in prepared soil.
- Planting care.
- Picking seedlings.
- Growing and preparing tomatoes for transfer to a permanent location.
Growing tomato seedlings at home is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. With the right approach, even a novice gardener can cope with this task.
Selection of seeds and varieties of tomatoes
A tomato grown on your own plot can become a source of seed material only if:
- the fruit is healthy and picked from the bush without any signs of disease;
- the tomato has fully ripened on the bush, and has not yet ripened when already picked;
- The tomato variety is not a hybrid; only varietal tomatoes carry genetic information into the next generations.
That is, seeds obtained from last year’s tomato harvest are completely unsuitable for sowing for seedlings - their germination rate will be minimal. The same fate awaits seeds that are four or more years old.Seeds two to three years old are optimal for seedlings.
The tomato variety must meet the demands and needs of the gardener, and also be suitable for the climatic characteristics of the region in which the plot is located. In addition, it is not recommended to plant tall indeterminate tomatoes in open beds - their stems can easily break under the influence of wind or rain. Such varieties are also planted in greenhouses with caution - the height of the bush should not exceed the size of the greenhouse.
Preparing the soil for seedlings
First of all, the gardener must take care of preparing the soil for future seedlings. Certainly, Ready-made substrates, which are sold in specialized stores, are ideal for these purposes. However, it is quite difficult to find such a soil mixture, and it is not cheap.
A more affordable way is to mix the soil for tomato seedlings by hand. To do this, take turf soil from an area where grass has grown for several years (the top layer of garden soil is suitable), humus and peat or coarse river sand. All this is mixed in equal proportions and “seasoned” with a couple of tablespoons of wood ash.
Priming you need to moisten it a little and fill the seedling containers with this mixture. The soil is slightly compacted and shallow (1-1.5 cm) grooves are made in it at a distance of about five centimeters from each other.
Any container found on the farm is suitable as containers for tomato seedlings. The ideal depth of the container is considered to be 12-15 cm - the seedlings should have enough sunlight.
When the containers are filled with soil, you can begin preparing the seeds themselves.
How to prepare tomato seeds for sowing for seedlings
Purchased tomato seeds, as a rule, go through all stages of preparation and are sold completely ready for sowing.
If the seed material was collected with your own hands from your own beds, then it should be carefully prepared for planting. This is done in several stages:
- First of all, it is necessary to reject unsuitable seed material. To do this, the seeds are poured onto the table and carefully examined - they should be approximately the same size, have a uniform shade and smooth edges.
- Empty tomato seeds can be identified using a strong saline solution. To do this, they are placed in a container with salt water and left for several minutes. Those seeds that float on the surface are removed with a spoon and thrown away - they are unsuitable for planting. You can sow only those seeds that have sunk to the bottom of the jar.
- Now the seeds need to be disinfected; this is done in order to protect seedlings and adult tomatoes from dangerous diseases such as late blight, verticillium and others. Each gardener uses different compositions as a disinfectant: some use a solution of manganese, or a weak solution of iodine. The easiest way is to immerse tomato seeds in melt water for a couple of hours.
- You can feed the seeds with useful substances by wrapping them in linen bags and placing them in a nutrient solution for a day.This can be any purchased mixture for indoor flowers (such as “Bud”) or a special composition for seedlings.
- When the seeds are disinfected and nourished, they can be placed on a damp cloth and put in a warm place for a day or two. During this time, the seeds will swell and will be completely ready for planting in the soil. You can wait a couple more days, and then the seeds will hatch, which will further speed up the process of the appearance of the first tomato shoots. However, you need to be extremely careful with hatched seeds - their delicate sprouts break off very easily; it is best to transfer them to seedling containers with tweezers.
- The process of hardening tomato seeds several times improves the survival rate of seedlings in a new place, because plants developed from hardened seeds tolerate acclimatization, changes in temperature conditions, and fluctuations in night and day temperatures much better. Swollen or hatched seeds need to be hardened. To do this, they are carefully wrapped in a damp cloth and wrapped with plastic wrap on top. Then they put such “packages” in the refrigerator or other cool place (basement, veranda, balcony).
Now the tomato seeds are completely ready for planting in the soil.
It is not at all necessary to perform all these actions on tomato seeds; dry seeds will also germinate and they will turn out to be good seedlings.
Planting seeds and caring for tomato seedlings
Sprouted or dry seeds are placed in grooves that are made in advance in moist soil for tomatoes. The distance between the seeds should be about two centimeters. After this, the seeds are sprinkled with a thin layer of dry soil; there is no need to water the ground.
Boxes or pots with tomato seeds are placed in a warm place and covered with film. The seedlings remain in this state for about a week or ten days. When the first shoots appear - the loops, the film must be removed and the boxes placed on a well-lit windowsill.
In the first three days after this, the seedlings should be constantly illuminated; for additional illumination, fluorescent daylight lamps are used, installing them directly above the boxes with tomatoes.
In subsequent weeks, tomato seedlings need 13-15 hours of daylight. Therefore, if there is not enough sunlight, additional artificial lighting must be used.
Watering young seedlings, on which the first true leaf has not appeared, is carried out carefully. If the soil in the boxes and pots with tomatoes is not very dry, it is better not to water the seedlings at this stage at all. When watering cannot be avoided, it is better to use a spray bottle or lightly spray the soil in the boxes with your hands.
After the first and second leaves appear, the tomatoes can be watered as usual - adding warm water from a watering can to the root of each plant.
The water temperature for watering tomatoes should be about 20 degrees; it is better to use boiled or melt water.
Diving tomatoes
Two or three leaves on tomato seedlings is a reason to pick them up. Many gardeners try to avoid this stage, since tomatoes do not tolerate transplantation well, their roots are too tender. Probably, for beginners such measures are justified - it is better to immediately plant the seeds in disposable individual containers (such as half-liter peat glasses) so as not to risk the plants.
It is more correct, from the point of view of agricultural technology, to still carry out dive tomatoes.After all, this process is a kind of “training” before planting in the ground or greenhouse. In addition, the height of the seedlings is regulated in this way - plants that are too elongated are buried deeper, thereby making the seedlings stronger.
Before diving, the seedlings are watered generously with warm water, and a few days before, the tomatoes are fertilized for the first time. The seedlings are transferred very carefully, trying not to break the roots and stems. Pots for tomatoes should be at least 10 cm in diameter - good roots can form in such containers.
Hardening off tomato seedlings
Before moving tomatoes to a permanent place (in a greenhouse or garden bed), the plants must be hardened off. The room temperature for seedlings is 22-26 degrees during the day and about 16 degrees at night. While tomatoes in the garden beds experience lower temperatures, in May, when the seedlings are planted, the weather is still quite unstable.
Indoor grown tomato need to be gradually acclimatized to outdoor or greenhouse conditions. To do this, the air is gradually cooled, reducing the temperature in the room by half to one degree every day. To do this, you can open the window a little, but avoid drafts and wind. After a few days, you can take the boxes outside, starting with 15 minutes and gradually increasing the time.
You need to start hardening two weeks before transplanting tomatoes. The day before, the seedlings are taken outside for the whole day and night.
How to determine the readiness of tomato seedlings for transplanting
Tomatoes are ready to be moved to a permanent location when:
- the stem of the seedling grows 15-30 cm (depending on the variety);
- the trunk is powerful, its diameter is approximately equal to the diameter of a pencil;
- 6-7 leaves are formed on each bush;
- the plants have buds and one or two inflorescences;
- weather conditions allow the plants to be moved to a permanent location.
Growing Tomato seedlings at home gives good results: the gardener can be confident in the quality of the seed material, the suitability of the tomato variety, the seeds go through all the necessary stages of processing and preparation, the seedlings are hardened and completely ready for planting.
