Growing Tomatoes In Low Greenhouses. Part 2

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

Read part 1. ← Growing tomatoes in low greenhouses in the North-West

Greenhouse installation

So, we stick the arcs with a step of about 70 cm to a depth of 20 cm. At a distance of about a meter from the end arcs, planks are obliquely driven into the ground, followed by pegs. We attach long rods to the arcs in their upper part with soft wire. The thick ends of the rods should be directed towards the ends of the greenhouse.

We take a long nail, bite off its cap, flatten the rod and stick the nail to the middle of the length into the end of the rod. Then we take a piece of a thicker rod, having a length equal to the distance from the end of the rod to the board, put it on a nail, bend it and push it against the board. The greenhouse frame is ready.

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Then we cover it with a film (three meters wide is just enough, and its length, as we have already noted, is 8 meters). We tie the ends of the film and tie to the pegs. We put drinking water cylinders on both sides of the film, half filled. Such a greenhouse is very wind-resistant, and at the same time it is very easy to ventilate it - we untie the film from the pegs, twist it and fasten it with linen clothespins on the end arcs.

And when the sun warms up, you can open the greenhouses in general: remove the cylinders from one side and throw the film over to the other side. This is a matter of a few minutes. In such a greenhouse, both the air and the earth warm up much faster than in a high one. In mid-May, when the soil at a depth of 10 cm warms up to 12 … 13 ° C, you can already plant seedlings. I do the marking of the seats as follows: first, I stick the twigs along the middle line every 60 cm, then along the two extreme lines between the twigs of the middle row. Maybe for some gardeners this planting will seem thickened, but practice shows that this is not so.

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Planting seedlings in the garden

The preparation of the landing sites is as follows: I bring two scoops of sand, a teaspoon of superphosphate, a tablespoon of ash (preferably) and a handful of dry sleeping tea to the landing site. All this is thoroughly mixed with the earth. I have been harvesting dry tea tea all winter - it is dried in a herring tin over a radiator. I would like to say a few words about the role of this sleeping tea. Firstly, the tea leaves, swelling, loosen the soil, increasing its air permeability, secondly, they accumulate moisture, and, thirdly, even in sleeping tea there are many substances useful for plants.

Sleep tea can be considered as micronutrient fertilizer. I put the bags with seedlings in a bowl of water (its temperature is 18 … 20 ° С) until the clod of earth in the bag is completely saturated with moisture. Then I turn the bag over, crumple it slightly, and it can easily be removed from the clod of earth. If not removed, it must be cut. You can see that the whole lump is riddled with roots. I carefully plant the seedlings in the ground, while the top of the clod of earth should be about 1 cm below ground level, but no more.

Why? The fact is that all the life and work of the roots occurs mainly in the uppermost, heated layer of the earth. They feel good in this layer. In the fall, when you have to pull out the fertile bushes, it is clearly visible that the root system of all bushes is located mainly horizontally, the roots do not go into the deep cold layers of the soil. After planting, the seedlings are not watered. There is quite enough moisture in the coma of the seedling soil, and with watering the air permeability of the soil decreases.

You need to drive a peg near each bush. Its height is almost to the arc. After two weeks, the seedlings will not be recognized. It grows, as they say, by leaps and bounds - getting ready for flowering. In a low greenhouse, she is warm, even if the sun begins to warm. Then the cylinders from the east side are removed, the film is thrown over the arcs, and the tomatoes grow in open ground. Tomatoes are very fond of direct sunlight. Of course, in normal weather, greenhouses should be closed at night. Only if there is an abnormal heat, as in the summer of 2010, the greenhouses can be left open around the clock.

Frost protection

The signs of possible frost are known: calm, clear weather, a sharp cold snap in the evening. To protect the tomatoes from frost, you should stick several arcs (you have four spare ones) along the length of the greenhouse to a depth of about 15 cm and stretch the second film (the cheapest, 100 microns), and then rearrange the pressure cylinders onto the outer film. The air gap between the films will create a "second frame" effect and the tomatoes will not be damaged. In the morning, when the sun warms up, all this must be removed before the next (God forbid!) Freeze.

Stepping

It must be carried out very carefully so that the forces of the tomato bush are not sprayed. Around June 20, during the flowering of the second and third brushes, tomatoes should be sprayed with the Novosil ripening accelerator according to the instructions for the preparation. Other stimulants can be used, but this should be tried.

Watering

If the weather is rainy, watering is very rare. In the summer of 2009, I watered tomatoes three times, of which once - with the addition of chicken manure infusion - 1 liter per watering can. If there is no litter, it can be replaced with Uniflor-growth. In the abnormally hot summer of 2010, I watered tomatoes every 3-4 days - I poured one watering can on four bushes - at the root.

Removing flowers

Already on July 18-20, you need to cut off all the flowers. All the same, the tomatoes that have set from them will remain green, and we do not need green fruits. Only on the bushes of the Red Riding Hood variety can flowers be cut off later, so that in September there are mature tomatoes from the bush. And until July 20, the weakest buds on the brushes must be removed. And also the last two buds on the back of each hand. As the fruit ripens, the lower leaves must also be torn off. The fruits will feed the leaves above the brush.

Protection against late blight

In order to avoid late blight diseases, tomato plants should be sprayed with an infusion of garlic - 50 g of chopped cloves of garlic per 2 liters of water, leave for two days, then filter. Proven by experience - there will be no disease. This should be done weekly after the temperature drops below 8 ° C in the morning, especially during cold autumn fogs.

At the end of August, the tomatoes must be tucked up. At the same time, small roots break off, the fruits cease to increase in size and quickly turn red.

Pest control

In the cool summer of 2009, there was an invasion of tomato bushes by snails and slugs. Many pods were damaged, some were almost completely eaten. It is said that to combat these pests, some gardeners water the soil around the greenhouse with a strong salt solution. Then the slugs do not fall on the tomato bushes. But I did not check such recommendations, because last summer, due to the heat, these pests were not on the site.

In 2009, my greenhouse stood until September 20 (there were no frosts then), 95% of the fruits turned red, last season I cut flowers on the bushes on July 15 - too early, so on September 3 I removed the last red tomato. All the bushes were brown, withered, fully yielded the entire crop in red fruits, although June was cool and almost without sun. We ate plenty of tomatoes, and we rolled up part of the harvest in six three-liter cans. At first, my neighbors did not pay attention to my discreet greenhouses, but in mid-August, when the bushes were literally covered with red tomatoes, they stopped and asked: what kind of tomato did I plant?

Tomato varieties

Which varieties are suitable for this technology? Of course, determinant, undersized, 80-90 cm high, no more. There are many such varieties now. Based on personal experience, I can recommend the following varieties:

1. Superearly, low-standard varieties Beta or Boney MM. They should be planted on the eastern line of the greenhouse, then they will not block the bushes from the sun in the middle line. These varieties produce the very first red fruits. But these varieties are low-yielding. Perhaps there are more yielding low-standard varieties, for example, I heard good reviews about the Ranetochka and Antoshka varieties - they give early fruits and in large quantities, and the second litter is yellow fruits.

2. Semi-determinant variety Baltic. It produces many large fruits - 200-250 g each (the largest weighed 350 g), but it grows above the greenhouse, so you need to stick U-shaped frames into the ground and bend the upper stem under the film.

3. Variety Anyuta. It ripens later than others, but gives quite a lot of large fruits.

4. Variety Pink Andromeda. Delicious fruits.

5. Red Riding Hood variety - produces many medium-sized tomatoes, ideal for canning.

It should also be noted that such a greenhouse every 2-3 years can be easily moved to another place, because growing tomatoes for more than three years in one place is not recommended.

Of course, the summer of 2010 was abnormal, I don’t remember such a long period of "African heat" (although we did not have a drought), but in the mid-Petersburg summer, this technology will make it possible to get a decent harvest of red tomatoes. Of course, this technology also has disadvantages. The main one is that it is desirable that the tomatoes are constantly looked after: hot - open the greenhouse; it got colder in the evening - they closed it. But since these operations are very simple and require a minimum of time, you can negotiate with your neighbors to do it in your absence. But you will eat tomatoes from the bush for almost two months, and you will preserve part of your crop for the winter in jars.