Growing Tomatoes: Preparing Greenhouses, Soil And Seedlings

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

Tomatoes in the garden

As you know, tomatoes, alas, do not belong to cold-resistant crops and therefore they do not at all like our Ural climate. The same applies to other regions and areas of our country located in a cool climate. Moreover, due to the rapid spread of various kinds of plant diseases, tomatoes grow worse and worse every year, and yields are getting lower.

For example, last summer, many of my neighbors were left practically without tomatoes, who had always previously received a good harvest of this crop. And in the markets of our city, private traders sold tomatoes in very limited quantities.

But all of July we had an unprecedented heat for the Urals. True, at the very beginning of August, it was abruptly replaced by cold weather (during the day it was about + 7 … + 8 ° C) with continuously drizzling rain. A week later, the heat returned, but the rain and cold did their dirty work, and most of the gardeners in our area had removed the tomatoes from their greenhouses by August 10 due to the widespread spread of diseases. If, at the same time, we recall that frosts in our country are stable until mid-June, which means that no one is in a hurry to plant tomatoes early, and many sow seeds for seedlings only in March, then it becomes clear why gardeners were left without a crop.

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I believe that everything could be different for them if my neighbors and other gardeners tried and planted tomato seedlings in greenhouses earlier, which would allow to lengthen the growing season. And, of course, if they fought tomato ailments at the proper level. Indeed, thanks to a rather long (by Ural standards) period of hot weather, the harvest could be simply fantastic. For example, I have grown more tomatoes than ever in my gardening life, and their processing has become a real work shift. Therefore, I now want to draw attention in this article to a number of nuances of tomato agricultural technology in difficult climatic conditions.

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Preparing greenhouses in advance is essential

Given the spring frosts, the chances of survival of tomatoes in greenhouses in case of early planting of seedlings not on warm soil, but simply in the soil left over from last season are zero. In this case, they will not be able to quickly build up the vegetative mass in the spring and begin the rapid formation of the crop. No, warm soil is indispensable here. If you plant seedlings on ordinary (not biofuel) ridges, then planting them in the early stages is impossible in principle.

The initial preparation of warm ridges - removal of old soil and filling trenches with various organic matter - is best done in the fall, and in the spring you just need to add fresh manure along with other organic residues, then achieve rapid heating of the soil. The options for the formation of such a warm soil can be very different, and this was repeatedly discussed on the pages of the magazine. When using manure as a basic heating component, it should be borne in mind that the layer of soil laid on top of it must be sufficient for the development of the root system in order to avoid its burns.

It is also important to correctly select the components of the biomass (I mean the ratio of nitrogen and carbon, dry and raw material and heating activity) so that this biomass starts burning very actively. What is it for? Not only because of the limited growing season, but also because the general layer of bulk soil in greenhouses is usually not large enough to be made due to the high labor intensity of this task. At the same time, the root system of tomatoes is powerful, and it occupies the ridges to their entire depth, which means that such a ratio of components must be achieved so that by the time the root system grows, the manure has already partially decomposed and does not harm the plant roots.

Memo for compiling warm soil

Material	C: N ratio
Manure compost	10: 1
Lawn grass	12-20: 1
Vegetable waste	13: 1
Fertilization with green mass of plants (legumes)	15-25: 1
Mixed garden waste	20: 1
Stable manure	20-30: 1
Reed	20-60: 1
Mixed kitchen waste	23: 1
Bark	35: 1
Foliage	40-50: 1
Pine and spruce bedding	50: 1
Straw	50-125: 1
Sawdust	500: 1

The biomass included in the "greenhouse cake" must necessarily combine carbon-rich plant residues (bark, sawdust) with nitrogen-rich materials such as manure, poultry droppings. Without this, it will not be possible to provide normal nutrition for microorganisms that decompose organic matter into elements convenient for plant nutrition. A carbon to nitrogen ratio of 20-30: 1 is considered ideal. A higher proportion of carbon slows down the decomposition process, and a lower proportion of it may lead to nitrogen losses.

In addition, there should be 4-5 times more dry material in biomass than raw material. Without this, the necessary air exchange cannot be ensured.

You should only bet on disease-resistant hybrids.

Given the degree of disease damage to plants and the fact that it is extremely difficult to fight them, it is better to give preference to hybrid seeds (the designation F1 always appears in the names of hybrids, which means first generation hybrids). The fact is that one of the main features of hybrids is their increased resistance to unfavorable weather factors and numerous diseases, which is extremely important for us. I will not list specific hybrids. Considering the utter arbitrariness that exists now in the field of Russian seed production, this is a thankless job. The only thing I can say is that for my greenhouses, by hook or by crook, I now procure seeds only from renowned Dutch companies such as Bejo.

Strong early seedlings are the basis of the harvest

It is not difficult to understand why many gardeners sow tomato seeds for seedlings in mid-March: there is not much space on the windowsill, the seedlings are not illuminated, and it is impossible to plant them early in greenhouses if they do not run on biofuel.

But this approach to business in harsh climatic conditions is deliberately wrong. Of course, it is easier to do without preparing greenhouse ridges. Honestly, in the fall, my neighbors have been looking at me with bewilderment for three decades. They do not understand: why is it necessary to squirm, pulling the soil out of the greenhouse, and then re-form it from grass, hay, leaves, etc.). And most of them do not want to do lighting for seedlings, because it's such a hassle! But then, when our family is already putting tomato blanks on the conveyor (I'm not talking about eating fresh tomatoes), everyone around them looks with envy at our tomato plants, strewn with fruits. After all, all the neighbors have tomatoes still in bloom. But, apparently, such is the strange Russian psychology …

However, back to the topic. Only an early strong seedling of tomatoes is able to start forming a crop after planting in an accelerated time. Getting these seedlings is not easy. It is necessary to sow early (I usually sow at the end of the first decade of February) and provide first the seeds, and then the young seedlings with the ideal conditions for their development. Here everything comes into play: all sorts of stimulants, very fertile soil, mandatory supplementary lighting of plants, etc. etc.

To begin with, the seeds are necessarily treated with the most effective stimulants available before sowing. Today these are Mival Agro, Ecogel, Ambiol and Emistim (I personally prefer Mival Agro), which, subject to strict adherence to dosages, provide noticeably better results than, for example, the already familiar Epin. Their use increases seed germination, increases their resistance to unfavorable growing conditions, and further increases productivity and improves the quality of products.

Further, the sowing technology is important - the best results are obtained by sowing seeds on a substrate with a hydrogel. Here it is preferable to use a mixture of fertile soil with a hydrogel saturated with fertilizers, or to sow in a mixture of a hydrogel with agrovermiculite, perlite and sawdust. The introduction of a hydrogel into the soil eliminates the problem of strict control of soil moisture, since the gel granules are saturated with moisture and retain excess water, while the plants are always provided with moisture in the required amount. True, do not think that you will not have to water the plants at all - you will have to, but much less often.

What does the use of a hydrogel for seedlings give, besides reducing your own labor costs when watering? In practice, a lot: it is possible to avoid drying out or excessive waterlogging of the substrate, and, therefore, plant stresses associated with this. In addition, the granules retain up to 40% of fertilizers - this is guaranteed to provide the seedlings with nutrition throughout their development. This means that there will be no developmental delays associated with a lack of nutrition. As a result, the plants will develop very quickly. It is also worth noting the fact that when using a hydrogel, plants completely painlessly transfer the process of transplanting into large containers, which is difficult to do without when growing seedlings. Moreover,the use of loose soils with hydrogel in combination with such modern stimulants as "Mival Agro" allows you to achieve extraordinary bushiness and size of the root system, which further ensures the formation of very strong and vigorous plants that can form a large harvest.

Hydrogel Memo

Hydrogels are polymers that can absorb large amounts of water and minerals. They are non-toxic and decompose in the soil in about five years. In dry form, aqueous polymers are whitish or yellowish crystals (depending on the manufacturer). When soaked in water (or in a fertilizer solution), these polymers are saturated with water and turn into beautiful translucent soft crystals resembling jelly in appearance. The amount of water and nutrients they absorb (water-soluble fertilizers) is large - 1 g of dry preparation absorbs about 180-200 ml of water. It takes about 45-60 minutes for the dry preparation to saturate with water. After saturation with water, the hydrogel is carefully thrown into a colander so that excess moisture is added to the glass. Then it is simply added to the soil mixture - about 200 ml of the finished gel per 1 liter of soil.

In the role of a substrate with a hydrogel, you can simply use a mixture of a hydrogel with agrovermiculite, however, in my opinion, the best results are provided by a mixture of hydrogel, agrovermiculite, perlite and sawdust (in a ratio of about 3: 3: 3: 2). In this case, the components are mixed with the already swollen hydrogel. In this case, you can use only a medium or large fraction of the hydrogel (that is, fragments from 2 to 10 mm), since the mixture should be loose (but not falling apart - the use of smaller fragments will lead to a dense "porridge", which is unacceptable. the option of mixing the hydrogel with soil - in this case, all fractions are used, including even the smallest particles.

And finally, let's talk about supplementing the seedlings. It is difficult to explain why this technique is still used by few gardeners. I understand: before, we had to build a system of such lighting ourselves, and this required a lot of technical knowledge and effort, and then all the details had to be obtained in a variety of ways. A similar system twenty-five years ago was built for me by my brother, and, by the way, it serves faithfully with us to this day. But today, after all, everything is simpler: the corresponding equipment, if desired, can be purchased in the store, and to connect it it is not at all necessary to be a technical specialist.

It is impossible to grow high-quality seedlings without supplementary lighting in an apartment, since the duration of daylight hours in spring (and even more so at the end of February, when the first seedlings of tomatoes appear) is clearly insufficient for them even on sunny days. It's not worth talking about cloudy days. Under such conditions, seedlings grow weak and elongated (if at all) even on sunny windows in our region. It is clear that there is no need to count on a large harvest from it in the future.

Remark for supplementary lighting

Tomatoes (as well as peppers, eggplants and other thermophilic crops) are short-day plants. However, the duration of this short day should be approximately 12 hours, which in our latitudes can only dream of, especially in February. Fluorescent lamps are most effective for illuminating seedlings, as they are more durable and economical to operate and emit more natural light. In addition, it is easy to find long lamps on the market, which makes it easy to uniformly illuminate a relatively large area of space. In my opinion, it is most reasonable to combine several lamps into one common lamp. The number of lamps in the luminaire can be different (3-4-5, etc.) and depends on the size of the illuminated area.

At the very beginning of the season (that is, immediately after germination, when the plants are still very small), the lamp is suspended so as to be at a minimum distance from the plants. Then, as the seedlings grow, it rises higher.

Read the next part. Planting tomato seedlings and caring for it →