Tomato Varieties And Hybrids, Cultivation Techniques

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Read the previous part. ← How to get a turnip onion from seeds in one season

Colored giants ripen in a tomato greenhouse

I did the next experiment on tomatoes. She grew 65 varieties last season. I sowed them on seedlings in two stages in March. Dive seedlings are usually in the phase of the cotyledons and the slightly nesting first leaf. I prepare the earth myself. From the village to the St. Petersburg apartment I bring rotted manure (sometimes even horse manure), compost soil, sand from the lake, I buy coconut substrate and vermiculite.

I mix all these components, add the dust fraction of the AVA fertilizer with a validity period of one year, mix everything again and fill the cups with soil. In them, I transplant seedlings when picking, trying not to damage the roots. The husband made hooks on the windows, on which I hang boxes with cups, as well as fluorescent lamps for additional lighting of the seedlings. I light it up in March morning and evening.

Gardener's guide

Plant nurseries Stores of goods for summer cottages Landscape design studios

In the very first days of April we are already moving to the village. But even earlier, I went there to remove insulation from roses, and at the same time prepared greenhouses to accommodate growing seedlings in them. In the middle bed, I laid the boards on the block of wood, put the arcs and covered everything with spunbond and film. The greenhouse is warm enough, the seedlings under the shelter feel very good, they develop well and do not outgrow. During the daytime, I ventilate the shelter.

In the same greenhouse there are onions, and flower seedlings of buttercups, and cucumbers and peppers dissolved in sawdust. All my citrus trees - lemons, tangerines, calamondin - found a place in the greenhouse. Only the seedlings of melons remained at home on the windowsills, where they were still illuminated by a fluorescent lamp.

Notice board

Kittens for sale Puppies for sale Horses for sale

There is enough nutrition in my substrate for seedlings, so I do not feed it before planting it in the ground, I only water it. But when watering I use a very weak solution of phytosporin, and sometimes I spray the plants with this drug to prevent diseases. I do not disinfect the seeds before sowing, my plants do not get sick, because I collect seeds only from healthy tomatoes. And if I buy hybrids, they are already processed.

Most of all I like to grow large-fruited varieties of tomatoes of different colors, as well as the so-called "ladies' fingers". I planted my seedlings in a greenhouse in a permanent place on April 28, using agrospan mulching material. So there are a lot of varieties in the beds, then near each bush of seedlings I install a tag with its name so as not to confuse.

On May 15, my tomatoes began to bloom together. From 11 to 13 o'clock, I went into the greenhouse and shook the bushes for better pollination, and also ventilated the greenhouse. During the growing season of tomatoes, I sprayed them with solutions of the preparations "Healthy Garden", "Ecoberin", phytosporin and humistar for tomatoes. Sprayed with "Bud" three times for better ovary formation. Since the past summer was very rainy, the plantings had to be sprayed several times with skim milk, diluted with water and once with zircon - soon after planting the seedlings.

I grow tomatoes in one stem, this harvest is enough for me, I even have to distribute too much, so I carefully and often remove all my stepchildren, and so that the bushes do not get sick, I burn the wounds with brilliant green or the "No wounds" remedy.

Favorite varieties and hybrids of tomatoes

Time goes by, the bushes develop, the fruits are poured, new leaves grow, new clusters are formed … And here comes the most interesting time to observe the development of fruits: how they grow in size, how many tomatoes are in the cluster, what shape they take. For example, the Zazimok F1 hybrid is covered with uniform fruits, the Red Buffalo F1 hybrid sets fewer fruits, but its size is striking - the mass of a mature tomato reaches up to 1 kilogram 850 grams!

There were six such fruits on a two-meter-high bush, and seven more tomatoes weighed 300-360 grams. Perhaps someone will think that such a hybrid should not be planted, that it is a barren crop, but I disagree with this opinion. One kind of such a bush is mesmerizing, because such red giants hang on it on a thick stalk that does not even bend under their weight. From the same series and hybrid Bugai F1. The only difference is in the shape of the fruit itself. And for the F1 Masterpiece hybrid, it is imperative to take pride of place in the greenhouse, it is also up to 1.5 meters high, the trunk is thick, the leaves are fleshy. There are only 4-5 brushes on it, but 4-5 fruits weighing from 1 to 1.5 kilograms are formed! Isn't that magic?

I have a special relationship with the Pink honey variety. Ten years ago, I bought a bush of this variety in the Meristema nursery, planted it separately under a shelter. Then he amazed me with his yield, endurance, disease resistance, and most importantly - the taste and size of the fruit. It was a masterpiece in the full sense of the word, you eat it - and you want it again, it melts like honey. And the keeping quality of the fruits is very good. Since then, I have definitely grown this variety, I take seeds from the ripe, largest fruits.

There are some more interesting varieties in my collection. Variety Jurmala - has a very beautiful, compact bush up to 1.5 meters high with red fruits weighing up to a kilogram. Variety Early Love - pink heart-shaped fruits, very large, it yields a large variety and, what is important, ripens quite early. Variety Yusupovsky.

First, it strikes a bush - it is frail, weakly leafy. But the harvest is also amazing - the fruits are heart-shaped, pink, weighing up to 500 g, there are also larger ones, and there are many of them, ripening already at the end of June. The seeds of the super-yielding variety Bull's Heart were brought from Italy, now I am getting mine. Its bush is two meters high, sometimes even higher, there are many brushes on it, the fruits are heart-shaped, pink-reddish, fleshy, they sparkle on the break, very tasty and impressive in size, weighing 600-900 grams, and even on the last brush.

The hybrids of Berdsky F1, Kerzhach F1 with large red fruits are very beautiful. I would especially like to mention the hybrid Sprut F1 with stable yields. The F1 Japanese crab with fruits of an unusual shape and impressive size is very interesting and tasty.

I also have bushes with large yellow fruits and orange ones - Temryuk Zero, Golden Brandy, Japanese Truffle, Persimmon, Sunny Bunny, Dandelion. There is a bush, the fruits on which begin to ripen from above, and not, as is customary, from below, from the first brush. A very unusual sight. Neighbors go on excursions to my greenhouse.

For winter preparations in jars I grow "ladies' fingers" of various varieties and hybrids: Lokomotiv, Salting delicacy, Uhazher, Cadet, Inkas, Buffalo Heart and others. I also slightly stepchild them so that there is no thickening. All my tomatoes ripen on the bushes, the fruiting is very long, even at the end of October I still shoot red fruits of excellent quality.

I love growing tomatoes, I carefully select their varieties and hybrids, test them for at least three seasons before deciding whether to leave in my collection or not. Last season the mulching material saved me from weeding, and the tomato bushes from competitors, I had to water less, because there was no such evaporation, the earth did not dry out, it was loose. Under the agrospan, thick and thin roots were visible, spreading in all directions. The plants grew strong with good green leaves, the fruits are all ripe on the bushes.

I used Agrospan mulching material on different crops, including cucumbers, and was pleased with the results. Even melons with watermelons were grown using this material, the result was impressive - the harvest ripened earlier than usual, and the fruits were larger. And this is a rainy summer! And I experimented here too - I got seeds from a melon bought in the city called "torpedo", I grew seedlings. And this southerner grew up in the Pskov region and matured, although the fruits were less than those of the originals.

In conclusion, I want to tell you about my apple tree, its unusual history. After all, this is my brainchild. I planted it with a seedling, as usual. In winter, it froze over, so the trunk had to be cut to living tissue. To prevent the plant from disappearing, I planted two cuttings of a columnar apple tree on its trunk. They both caught on. However, they do not grow like "columns", this apple tree is about 1.5 meters high. The most important thing is that the apple tree bears fruit every year. I collect 45 to 64 delicious, nutmeg-flavored apples.

Both cuttings took root, and it was a pity to remove one of them, so in my garden I got a beautiful, fluffy apple tree on a weak rootstock, which is more than eight years old. She is not sick with anything, has a lot of leaves, gives a stable harvest and decorates our garden, taking place next to a flower bed. It turns out very beautifully, especially in spring, when it blooms, and under it there are lilies of the valley. Summer turned out last year not very favorable for gardeners. But I, using high-quality seeds and planting material, covering materials and means of protection against diseases, was able to make the past season successful for myself. Of course, I also had to work hard, but when you do what you love, you don't notice fatigue.