Tips For Growing Tomatoes

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

My favorite occupation and hobby is growing tomatoes. I have been collecting my huge collection for fifteen years. I have been professionally texting and exchanging seeds with the same enthusiastic people since I was twelve. It is with the help of the same "tomato fans" that I have varieties of tomatoes that I could not even dream of before.

I would like to convey special thanks to my colleagues: Anatoly Petrovich Korobko from Belarus, Petr Mikolaevich Oleksyuk from Ukraine and Evelina Fedorovna Grineva from Altai Territory. It is thanks to such people that the best of amateur selection is preserved. For us, it is no longer a novelty for us, for example, the huge fruits of tomatoes weighing two kilograms! Try to find such varieties in stores, you are unlikely to find.

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Sorry for the immodesty, but I will give one of the last reviews of my work. Here is what N. V. Akimova from the city of Saransk: “Igor Viktorovich, how beautiful and tasty the tomatoes have grown! Whoever we treated, everyone said: not only are there them, it's a pity to take them in your hands, so as not to spoil this beauty! And large fruits - we called them watermelons, you can't take your eyes off them! The fruits of tomatoes of excellent beauty and taste - all fresh, not a single speck.

They all fit their description. I already have a solid collection of these popular vegetables. Every year I plant about 1000 varieties of tomatoes, one - two bushes, depending on the value of the variety. The past season has shocked my family with an abundance of fruit. The abundant harvest was amazing, we have never had anything like this.

Dear Readers! If you want your harvest to be rich and varied, I suggest using some of my tips.

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I divide my tomatoes into groups:

1. "Large-fruited" (weighing 500 g);
2. “The most delicious” - here the focus is on sweetness, meatiness and juiciness;
3. "Super-yielding" (their name speaks for itself - I get from 7 to 20 kg of tomatoes from a bush);
4. "The best undersized" - these are varieties with a limited growth point - up to 120 cm high, with an excellent taste and yield;
5. "The best yellow bellies" - varieties with yellow, white, orange fruit color. It is in these fruits that the increased amount of provitamin A, which is a growth vitamin and is useful for children.

To some, this may seem laborious, they say, it is difficult to take care of such an assortment, but, as the saying goes: "You can't catch a fish from a pond without difficulty."

The beginning of the tomato season begins in January-February. Of course, in more northern regions this period should be shifted taking into account the climate and weather possibilities, but by the beginning of work you should have prepared the soil - preferably loose and light. It is good if it is composed of rotted foliage, meadow sod, peat and small sawdust. Cups or cut plastic bottles used for seedlings should have two holes at the bottom. Fill them up to half with soil and water them lightly.

We sign the container, indicating the name of the variety (for these purposes, adhesive tape is sold in stationery - a price tag, it is very convenient to use it). We plant the seeds in two or three pieces in each cup, slightly pressing them into the ground, and sprinkle them with soil a little on top (layer no more than 1 cm) and cover with foil. After 3-10 days, shoots appear, and the main thing here is not to miss the moment and not let the small stalk stretch out. We remove the film and extend the daylight hours to 12-15 hours using energy-saving light lamps.

When the first two leaves appear on the tomato, carefully water it and press the plant down to the ground. Press down - this means that we gently lower the elongated stem with our finger down to the cotyledon leaves, to the ground. Even if there are 2-3 plants in the container, they do not interfere with each other. Then I leave two strong plants in a glass before planting in the ground, and remove the third. Everything goes according to the picking principle, when we transplant the plant into another container.

Sediment of the plant is carried out so that the first leaves are barely visible from the ground. With this simple action, we save time without resorting to the laborious picking process (transferring from a small container to a more spacious one). As the plant grows, pour the soil into cups and spray the seedlings with growth stimulants (for example, "Epin") once a week. Before planting seedlings in open ground or in a greenhouse, it must be bathed well in a solution of Fitosporin or Abiga-Peak preparations (diluted according to the instructions).

It is these drugs that will help to cope with a serious tomato disease - late blight, which can cause huge damage to the crop. If you protect the plants during the growing season, the bushes will not dry out, and you will get a healthy and very large harvest. Fitosporin is produced on the basis of biological components, and it can be used until the fruit becomes red.

These two drugs helped me in 2011 to go through the entire tomato season painlessly. If you use their solutions, alternating every 7-14 days, then you will not be afraid of any diseases.

Before planting tomatoes in the ground - in trenches or holes - add a pinch of carbamide. This nitrogen fertilizer helps tomatoes grow faster. Water the planted plant only at the root (never over the leaves). A mandatory procedure for growing tomatoes is pinching.

On the main stem, from each bud located in the leaf axil, a lateral shoot grows - a stepson. It is the operation to remove them that is called pinching. The stepsons need to be cut off or cut to the first flower cluster, then the harvest will pleasantly surprise you. Tall varieties and many undersized varieties need a garter of plants to a stake with a height of 1-2 m (in greenhouses, a garter to a twine is used), you can use two stakes per plant with a distance of 20-40 cm. It all depends on your capabilities, imagination and abilities.

If you decide to do this, collect your seeds from the tomatoes that have grown on the second cluster, leaving 1-2 fruits there. Select the best large fruits for seeds. Having chosen seeds from a tomato, leave them in their own juice in a bowl for 12-24 hours, then rinse them through a sieve in running water and spread them on thick paper until they dry completely, not forgetting to write the name of the variety. Using all these simple tricks, you will grow your tomatoes in abundance.

And to all gardeners who want to get some of my favorite tomatoes, I will send a catalog of my best collection of southern Russia, which, in addition to tomatoes, contains seeds and seedlings of remontant strawberries (giant berries weighing 50-100 g), raspberries. I will offer rare varieties of potatoes that are not to the taste of the Colorado potato beetle, sweet and hot peppers weighing 500 g each, hybrids of over-yielding cucumbers and garlic. I will answer all letters if there is an envelope with your return address. Write to the address: 356240, Stavropol Territory, Mikhailovsk, p. Teplichny, st. Konstantinov, 4 sq. 2 - Kostenko Igor Viktorovich.

I wish you all the best in the new season!