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Modern gardeners have a hard time choosing a variety, because breeders from different countries continue to improve their range. To choose the right tomatoes, you need to decide where you will grow the plants and in what climatic conditions. In addition, the choice will be influenced by the height of future plantings and the timing of ripening.
If you need tomatoes for open ground, not too tall, but productive, we recommend paying attention to the General tomato. In the article we will not only give characteristics and descriptions of tomatoes, reveal the secrets of growing them, but also present some photos to our readers.
Description of tomato General F1
Tomato General F1 is a product of Japanese breeders. The originators include the seed company Sakata seeds corp. It supplies seeds of various varieties of tomatoes in 130 countries around the world. The products are popular due to their high quality, the coincidence of the description and characteristics with the real result.
The determinate hybrid General is recommended for cultivation in private gardens and farms. Its name can be found in the State Register of the Russian Federation for the North Caucasus region.Tests of the General tomato variety were successful; it was approved for cultivation in all regions of Russia.
The tomato is intended for open ground, ripening time is 107-110 days from sowing the seeds in the ground. Early ripening tomato General F1 is short, its height is 60-70 cm, shoot growth is limited.
The leaves on tomatoes are dark green and medium in size. Tomato bushes with a large number of shoots, each of which forms several simple inflorescences. As a rule, they bear from 4 to 6 fruits. There are joints on the stalk.
The stepsons on the short-growing General tomato are not removed, so by the time the fruits ripen, the bush looks like a multi-colored ball.
Tomato General, according to reviews from gardeners involved in the crop, has flat-round, smooth and dense fruits. Weight from 220 to 240 grams. There are also larger specimens weighing up to 280 grams. Before ripening, tomatoes are green, at technical maturity they are evenly red in color without any spots.
By cutting a tomato in half, you can see that the flesh is uniformly colored, bright red, and there are no yellow or white spots. There are few seeds in a tomato. This can be clearly seen in the photo below.
The taste of the General tomato variety is excellent, sweetish and sour. The pulp is dense, not watery. Sugar content is from 2.4 to 4.4%, dry matter is contained in juice up to 6.6%.
Tomatoes of the General variety are universally used, suitable for fresh consumption, making salads, juice, and tomato paste. The fruits are also good for canning, but you just need to use containers with a wide neck.
Characteristics of the variety
Such attention of Russian gardeners to the Japanese variety is not accidental, because the General tomato has many advantages arising from the characteristics and descriptions and confirmed photos.
Advantages
- The General F1 tomato variety is high-yielding (about 12 kg per square meter); even with its low growth, many fruits ripen on it. After all, temperature fluctuations do not affect fruit set.
- The ripening of tomatoes of the General F1 variety is amicable.
- Tomatoes not only have excellent taste, but also an attractive presentation.
- The transportability of day-grade tomatoes is excellent; long-term transportation does not affect the fruits, they do not crack or leak.
- The breeders took care of the immunity of the General F1 hybrid. It is resistant to many viral and fungal diseases that affect many nightshade crops. Verticillium, gray spot, fusarium, alternaria, bronzing and yellow leaf curl virus practically do not damage tomatoes, even without treatment.
Disadvantages of the variety
The characteristics of the General F1 tomato variety will not be accurate unless some shortcomings are pointed out. There are few of them, but when choosing seeds they are still important:
- Seeds of the General variety have to be purchased every year, since they are not worth collecting from hybrid tomatoes: the varietal qualities are not preserved.
- While many diseases do not interfere with growing tomatoes, it is not always possible to protect tomato bushes from late blight.
Features of growing seedlings
Determinate varieties and hybrids are most often grown by seedlings. Especially those gardeners who live in the risky farming zone. The thing is that by the time late blight is activated, the fruits have time to be collected.But tomatoes grown by direct sowing of seeds in the ground most often end up at the very height of the disease, which affects not only the leaves, but also the fruits.
The same danger awaits the General F1 tomato; according to reviews from gardeners and the description of the variety, its resistance to late blight is low. Therefore, to obtain a rich harvest of fruits, early ripening tomatoes must be grown through seedlings.
Timing of sowing seeds
The question of when to sow seeds of the General variety worries many gardeners. Even the most experienced vegetable grower will not give a definite answer to this question. It is necessary to focus on many factors:
- the ripening time of tomatoes, and for our variety, according to the description, they are within three months;
- climatic conditions of the region;
- features of spring in a particular year.
As a rule, good tomato seedlings should be 35-40 days old by the time they are planted in a permanent location.
After you have decided on the timing of sowing the seeds of the early General tomato variety, depending on climatic conditions (this is March 15-20 or April 8-10 for the northern regions), you need to start preparing the soil and seeds.
Soil and seed preparation
Depending on how many seedlings of a particular variety need to be obtained, a planting container is selected: boxes, cassettes or a snail.
Some gardeners buy ready-made soil compositions, but most prepare them themselves. The nutrient substrate for seedlings should consist of the following components:
- garden soil - 1 part;
- humus or compost – 1 part;
- a glass of wood ash for each bucket of the mixture.
The containers are filled with earth and poured with dark pink boiling water (potassium permanganate is dissolved) to prevent blackleg. It is advisable to stretch the film on top so that steaming gives the best effect.
As for the preparation of tomato seeds, most often they are already processed and covered with a protective coating. If the seed is ordinary, then it should be washed in a pink solution of potassium permanganate or a weak solution of boric acid. Then rinse in clean water and dry slightly.
When the earth has cooled to room temperature, make grooves or holes half a centimeter deep and plant General tomato seeds in increments of at least 1 cm. Cover the container with cellophane and put it in a bright, warm place.
Video about sowing tomato seeds for seedlings:
Picking seedlings and care
When 3-4 true leaves appear on your tomatoes, they need to be transplanted into separate containers. The soil is prepared in the same way as for sowing seeds. Tomatoes are selected carefully so as not to damage the root system and placed in the soil up to the cotyledon leaves.
The soil is squeezed to increase the adhesion of the roots and shed with warm water. Tomatoes are placed on a bright window and shaded for three days so that the plants grip the ground. During cultivation, seedlings are watered (do not let the soil dry out) and the containers are rotated so that the plants develop evenly.If the soil is fertile, then General tomato seedlings do not require any fertilizing.
But you need to loosen the soil in cups with tomatoes to saturate the root system with oxygen.
A week and a half before planting, tomato seedlings are hardened off. To do this, it is taken outside or placed on the balcony (in urban environments). The main thing is that there is no draft.
Outdoor care
By the time the tomatoes are transplanted, the soil should warm up to a depth of 10 cm to 16 degrees. At a lower temperature, the root system of the tomatoes will suffer, which will cause a slowdown in development. Consequently, at best, the ripening period will be delayed, at worst, some of the tomatoes planted in open ground will simply die.
Since tomatoes of any variety require light, a bed for them is prepared in an open place. The soil is prepared in advance, fertilized (complete mineral fertilizer or compost is added), dug up and allowed to settle.
Ridges are made in areas where potatoes, peppers, eggplants and tomatoes have not been grown for several years. But after peas, beans, and zucchini, soil is most suitable.
The holes are prepared in advance. Since the General variety is low-growing, 4-5 bushes can be planted on one square. A two-line landing is considered the best. There should be at least 40 cm between the rows. Fill the holes with a solution of Epin or another stimulator for root growth, sprinkle with soil and water again. Then we plant tomato seedlings.
Further care for General tomatoes is simple: watering, weeding, loosening, hilling the bushes and fertilizing. There is no need to plant tomatoes, but some of the leaves, especially from the bottom, need to be removed.
Fertilizing is applied simultaneously with watering. Before flowering, the bushes are fed with nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers, and at the time of ripening, potassium mixtures are used.
