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Despite the fact that spring will not come soon, gardeners are thinking about choosing tomato varieties for their plots. There are so many colorful packets of seeds in stores today that your head is spinning. It's very difficult to choose.
Therefore, we want to talk about an amazing variety that has long taken its place in summer cottages. This is a lady fingers tomato. You will always have a harvest. They can be grown in any soil, in any region of Russia. But it should be remembered that tomatoes of this variety bear fruit best in warm climates. There it works better on ordinary ridges.
A little history
The tomato has been known to Russian gardeners for more than a century. It was cultivated mainly in the south of Russia. But the variety entered the State Register only in 2006. The author of the Ladyfingers tomatoes is the famous breeder L.A. Myazina. Today there are many varieties of tomatoes, slightly different in shape.
Several seed companies produce lady finger seeds:
- Aelita;
- Altai seeds;
- Biotechnology;
- Gold of Altai.
Description of the plant
It’s not at all difficult to understand what lady fingers tomatoes are, based on their characteristics and descriptions, as well as the photos that will be in our article.
Bush
Tomatoes are determinate varieties with early ripening. The first ripe fruits can be harvested after 95-110 days, if you count from the moment the sprouts appear.
Tomato bushes are low. On ridges no higher than 60 cm, in a greenhouse they grow up to 1 m 20 cm. The foliage is average, the tops are dark with an emerald tint. Type of plant: carpal. The inflorescences are simple, each of them bears up to 6 fruits.
The Lady Fingers tomato variety is also interesting because it forms itself: there are no more than two stems on the plant. This makes the work of gardeners easier, since the tomatoes do not need to be planted.
Fruit
The tomato variety is represented by fruits of an elongated cylindrical shape with weak ribbing. There are fruits with a pipette or with a rounded top. Each tomato has two chambers with a small number of seeds.
The weight of tomatoes is small, only 50 or 70 grams. They are almost the same size in all brushes. Although sometimes there are record holders that grow to 110-130 grams. Until they are ripe, green, at technical maturity, the tomatoes are rich red in color.
The taste and aroma of Lady Finger tomatoes, according to consumer reviews, is excellent. The fruits are sweetish-sour, with dense and tender pulp. The surface of the fruit is smooth, shiny, and the structure is dense.
Productivity
Tomatoes are productive; per square meter, when grown in open ground, you can get up to 10 kg of juicy, tasty fruits. There is much more in a greenhouse if agricultural techniques are followed. You can verify the productivity of the Lady Fingers tomato by looking at the photo below.
Features of use
The Lady Fingers tomato variety is universal. Our readers constantly write reviews about this:
- prepare salads from fresh vegetables for the winter;
- close ketchup, tomato paste, lecho for the winter;
- whole fruits are preserved;
- dried, it turns out to be a real delicacy.
Important Features
Often, one description and photo of tomatoes is not enough; a characteristic is also needed that tells about the advantages and disadvantages of the variety. Let's talk about all the important points.
Advantages
- Cold resistant. The fruits ripen before the first frost.
- Unpretentious. Drought, heat and rain do not have a negative effect on the fruits. In addition, they never crack at the stem.
- Ripening is smooth, and the fruits of the Lady's Fingers variety, according to the description and reviews of gardeners who have been working with the variety for decades, never fall off the bush and hold up well until harvest.
- You can always get your own seeds, since this is a variety and not a hybrid. They do not lose their germination up to 5 years.
- Transportable and lightweight. These qualities attract not only gardeners, but also agricultural producers. During transportation and storage (until the New Year), the fruits do not change shape, do not crack, and, most importantly, the taste and beneficial qualities are preserved almost 100%.
- Versatility of use. Tomatoes in a jar look especially beautiful (photo below). After filling they remain intact.
- Lady finger tomatoes are resistant to diseases of nightshade crops, including late blight. Perhaps the reason is the early ripening of the variety; the crop ripens before the “attack” begins.
Minuses
Based on the description of the variety, it is impossible to make juice from Lady Fingers tomatoes.
Tomatoes are light-loving and heat-loving. A rich harvest is obtained in the southern regions of Russia.
That's probably all the shortcomings. Judging by the description and characteristics, growing tomatoes is easy. In reviews, our readers write that Ladyfingers is a special variety created for lazy gardeners: plant it and forget it.
Fingers in the garden:
Growing seedlings
Tomatoes of this variety are grown in seedlings. Seeds need to be sown 55 or 60 days before planting in a permanent place.
Stages:
- Seeds of determinate early ripening varieties should be sown in seedling boxes in late March. For disinfection, seed material is treated with a pink solution of potassium permanganate, and then washed in clean water. Before sowing, the seeds are dried until they flow.
- You can buy ready-made soil or prepare it yourself. It is poured in boxes with pink boiling water (potassium permanganate crystals are added).
- When the soil has cooled to room temperature, you can sow tomato seeds to a depth of 1 cm. The distance in the furrows is 2 cm, the row spacing is about three. Cover the top with film to speed up germination, and place the boxes in a warm, bright room.
- As soon as the first sprouts appear, the shelter is removed and the temperature is reduced to 16 degrees, then raised again to 22. Lady finger tomatoes, according to the description, cannot develop harmoniously in low light: if necessary, add backlighting.
- Tomato seedlings are picked when 2-3 true leaves appear in separate cups weighing at least 500 ml. While growing seedlings, they are watered regularly. If you feel that the tomatoes do not have enough nutrition, you can feed them with wood ash extract.
Planting and care
Seedlings should be planted after the threat of return of spring frosts has passed. Taking into account climatic features is important for lady fingers tomatoes.
The planting scheme is simple: 6 to 8 tomatoes are placed per square meter. It is better to plant in a two-line manner with a row spacing of up to 40-50 cm.
Finger care is simple. They do not need to be pinched or tied up. Most often, tomatoes are grown in a lying position. The uniqueness of the variety is that once on the ground, the tomatoes do not rot and do not get sick. They form a real carpet and decorate the garden both at the beginning of fruiting and during the ripening of fruits.
Worry about weed also not worth it. Only the large ones need to be harvested, and the small ones will act as a protective screen: protecting the setting and ripening tomatoes from the scorching sun.
Water tomatoes no more than 2-3 times a week. If the summer is dry and the heat is unbearable, then every day. Feeding is carried out as usual, as for other varieties.
The main problem can be mosaic, regardless of where the tomato variety grows. Amber-emerald spots appear on the leaves. The leaves curl and even wrinkle. At the first sign, diseased leaves are torn off and burned.
