Proper watering, nutrition and care for tomatoes
Growing vegetables
Tomatoes are the most common vegetable crop. They are grown by almost all landowners, even amateurs on window sills in their apartments. Taking care of tomatoes is not an easy matter. A sense of care is the main rule. With the competent watering of tomatoes, you can get a good harvest.
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How to water tomatoes correctly
Tomato yields depend on proper care and feeding. The best way to get nutrients is to use aqueous solutions.
Water the seedlings
Before planting the seedlings, pour half a bucket of water or a liquid nutrient solution into each hole. Leave the seedlings after planting for 3 to 4 days to allow them to root. Wilted tomatoes are already feeding on moisture from the ground. The floor under the bushes should be watered to keep it from drying out.
Watering the seedlings before flowering should be no more than 2 times a week for 3 liters of water under the bush.
Tomato
The tomato bush becomes heavy and can’t hold itself up when the fruit pours. Its stem may break. In the vegetable garden, tomatoes have their lower leaves cut off so they don’t rot when they come into contact with the wet floor.
Tomatoes are tied to missions that are on the north or west side. Use soft “Rag” ropes for tying so as not to damage the stem. If the variety is medium or tall, tomatoes are tied to trellises. Such plants get more sunlight, and care for them becomes comfortable.
Proper watering
It is carried out under the root and do not try to get on the leaves. Water should be settled and warmed in the sun. It is good if the container is covered with black. Tomatoes are watered in the early morning or afternoon if the sun is not too bright. If the weather is cold and overcast, watering should be reduced to a minimum. Plants do not like stagnant water and drought.
When there are wide rows between bushes, grooves can be made and fertilizer can be applied to both sides of the bushes. The floor under the bushes and the grooves themselves are sprinkled and mulched with a small amount of ash, so that no crust is formed.
Drip irrigation can be done with plastic bottles. Also, 1 teaspoon should be poured into the bottles from time to time. Ash.
Watering frequency.
Before flowering, plants are watered twice a week for 3 liters under the bush. After the beginning of flowering and fruit setting, watering is reduced to 1 time, that is, the amount of water is brought to 5-6 liters. During the ripening of fruits, it is increased to two times a week, but it is necessary not to water abundantly, so that the fruits do not crack.
Feeding
The first feeding should be carried out in the ground in 2 weeks after planting seedlings. Thereafter, feeding is carried out every 2-3 weeks.
Tomatoes – a useful yeast fertilizer. Mix 1 packet of quick-soluble dry yeast with 2 tablespoons. l. Add sugar, a little warm water and leave for 30 minutes. The resulting mixture should be diluted in a 10-liter bucket of water and apply 2 cups per plant. Feeding Hefe should be done only in warm weather, so that they bring more benefits.
After that, you should feed with a liquid solution made of wood or grass ash.
Feeding with 4 drops of alcohol solution of iodine per 10 liters of water gives fast growth, accelerates flowering of plants, and fruits grow larger. 2 liters of solution are applied under the bush.
Pest control
For disease prevention, tomatoes should be sprayed from time to time with an aqueous solution of iodine (2 drops per 10 liters) or a solution of boric acid (2-3 tablets per 5 liters).
If there are snails or other pests on the plot, the floor near the tomatoes should be sprinkled with a mixture of mustard powder, ash and cinnamon in a ratio of 1: 1: 1.
Proper watering, feeding and care of tomatoes always bring a high yield, which delights with beautiful and tasty fruits.
Taking care of tomatoes outdoors
Tomatoes are perhaps the most popular vegetable in our gardens. Summer residents grow them for a long time and in general agrotechnics know: how to fertilize water, how to form. But they do not always follow it with confidence. Meanwhile, the norms, timing and proper care of tomatoes in the open ground often play an important role
Water the tomatoes
It would seem that what difficulties can there be? Take a hose … and immediately a mistake: tomatoes do not like such watering. There are 4 rules that must be followed.
How to water. Rainwater. It is soft, in it the nutrients are better dissolved, and it is easier for plants to maintain their floor. And tap water and even more so, tap water is hard. If you pour it, it will be harder for tomatoes to get nutrition. So don’t be lazy and don’t get in the way – put a barrel on the site.
When to water. If there is no heat. In the morning (until 9 am) or in the evening (from 17 to 20 hours). In the daytime in hot weather, you can not water: a large difference in air and water temperature can cause physiological shock absorption in plants. It turns out a paradox: in front of the eyes – water and tomatoes.
How to water. Strictly under the root (1). Watering on the leaves increases the risk of a late post. Of course, it will definitely appear, but faster on wet leaves.
How often to water. If you water often and little by little, the plants develop a superficial root system and constantly suffer from a lack of moisture, because the top layer of soil dries out the fastest.
Therefore, you need to water infrequently, but correctly. In several steps. Let the water soak and return to the same place – so the moisture penetrates deeper, and do not water.
Until the fruiting process, tomatoes are watered at 5 liters per plant once a week. And then they need more moisture – they consume more water during the mass formation of fruits and their watering (2). The timing of watering depends on the variety.
Unripe tomatoes. They are watered until the first fruits begin to redden. The norm is the same – once a week for 5 liters per bush. Then stop watering. If you continue to water the plants, the tomatoes will crack.
The harvest of low-growing tomatoes matures together, so do not be afraid that the plants will die without watering – the fruits have time to ripen.
Large-fruited varieties. They have flowers, ovaries and already ripe fruits on one plant at the same time, so they have to be watered even when the crop ripens. But the amount of water should be reduced – up to 3 liters per plant.
Mulch the beds after watering with hay, straw, or rotten sawdust (fresh sawdust should not be used because it takes nitrogen away from the plants) with a layer of 4 – 5 cm. With this simple technology, you can keep moisture in the soil longer. In addition, lightweight mulch reflects light, and tomatoes get more sun – they get it not only from above, but also from below. The mulch also protects the soil from overheating. As a result, ripening occurs about a week earlier and the yield increases by 25 to 30%.
Tomato nutrition
To maintain tomatoes in the field need only 2 main feedings of nitrogen and potassium in the summer – during the formation of fruits, plants use most of these elements (3):
- During active fruit growth – 1 matchbox of ammonium nitrate and potassium sulfate per 10 liters of water, the consumption – 3 liters per bush;
- In 20 – 30 days after the first – the same fertilizer in the same doses.
Improve the quality and taste of the fruit helps infusion of ash: 2 cups pour 10 liters of warm water and incubated for 5 hours. And then water the plants at the root. And so all summer.
Shaping tomatoes
Tomatoes grow very strongly, produce many side shoots. But the more green, the lower the yield. Therefore, plants need to be shaped. There are many ways, they depend on the variety and where tomatoes grow – in the greenhouse or in the field. But you should not suffer by studying different options, there is a universal: Form tomatoes with 6 flower brushes in the fruit stalk – you can not go wrong.
How to remove the stalks This should be done constantly, so that they do not become longer than 5 cm. And this is already a gateway for infection.
You can not completely break out the stems – after this, new ones will climb out of this cavity. Lateral shoots must be cut. So that a stump of 1 – 2 cm (4) remains.
Do I need to cut off the lower leaves? Some gardeners think that this is additional work, and there is no benefit from it. But it is not so. There is no benefit from the lower leaves: they do not catch the light, because they are covered by the upper part of the bush. But they actively evaporate moisture. In addition, when it rains, they fall to the ground, in which phytophthora spores live. The disease begins with the lower leaves.
It is necessary to cut off the leaves when the fruits begin to turn white. Do it gradually – first 1 – 2 leaves, after a few days a few more and so on, until under the first fruiting brush all the leaves are removed. Why can’t you cut them all at once? Because it creates a strong imbalance: the roots continue to take up water in the same amount as before, and there are fewer leaves to evaporate water. As a result, water is redirected to the fruits and they burst.
Tomato Mountains.
We’re used to potatoes growing, but tomatoes need this technique too – it’s how they form extra roots. And the more roots, the easier it is for the plant to feed itself. And therefore, the yield will be higher.
2 Sprouting is carried out in summer:
- When pods of roots appear on the stems near the ground;
- When the stem turns a little blue at the bottom.
Popular Questions and Answers
About the care of tomatoes, we talked with the agronomist and breeder Svetlana Mikhailova.
