Which of the vegetable crops occupies a considerable place in your country, except potatoes and cucumbers? Most likely, this culture is tomato. But to get a good harvest, you need to know how to grow a strong seedling tomato and how to take care of it.
Seed selection
The choice of tomato varieties for seedlings is everyone's business, but it is better that the seeds are purchased, and not collected with their own hand with a favorite tomato. The fact is that modern tomato varieties are the result of breeding, and parental qualities are not transferred to the offspring. In other words, from a seed obtained from a large sweet tomato, a small sour tomato can grow.
Seed preparation
Growing the correct seedling tomato you need to start with the appropriate seed preparation. First, the test for the fullness - for 5 minutes, put the seeds in a 5% solution of table salt. The surfaced seeds are removed, lowered to the bottom - washed in running water. At the next stage, disinfection - the seeds should be held for 15 minutes in a 1% solution of potassium permanganate, and then rinse with running water. Next, the tomato seeds are soaked for a day. To do this, put them in a rag soaked in a stimulant solution (you can do without them by taking ordinary water) and leave in a warm (at least 20 ° C) place. The timing of these procedures is the first of March.
Preparation of earth and containers for seedlings
To grow a healthy seedling tomato, as in specialized firms, you need to properly prepare the earth mixture. We take in equal proportions peat or compost soil, turf ground and humus. From the garden beds or flower beds you can not take the land - seedlings can die. Add urea, superphosphate and potassium sulfate to the mixture, based on 1 teaspoon of each fertilizer per bucket of earth mix. If you do not have the desire or the opportunity to tinker with the preparation of the land, you can purchase the ready-made soil in the flower shop.
In the event that you prepare for planting the soil yourself, then the earth mixture should be heated in the oven for 20 minutes at a temperature of 100-115 ° C, for disinfection.
Initially, the seeds can be sown in large boxes. After the seedlings, you will need to transplant - each bush into a separate container. Many plant seedlings in packages from dairy products. This is a good option, but packets must be thoroughly rinsed so that the lactic acid bacteria do not damage the plants.
Planting seed tomato on seedlings
Having prepared the packaging, seeds and ground mixture, you can start planting tomato seeds on seedlings. The earth mixture is slightly moistened, poured into boxes, leveled and slightly compacted. We make grooves at a distance of 5-6 centimeters from each other. Depth of groove 1 cm. We water the grooves with a warm stimulator solution, in which the seeds were soaked. After sow seeds, placing them at a distance of 1.5-2 centimeters from each other. Sprinkle on top of the earth, without watering. Boxes are placed in a bright room with a temperature of 22-25 ° C. To accelerate the germination in the first five days, the boxes can be covered with plastic wrap, not forgetting to remove excess water and air every day.
How to care for tomato seedlings?
So, to grow a good seedling tomato, you need to take care of it properly. A care for seedlings is a timely irrigation, transplant and fertilizing, but everything in order.
You need to water the shoots a little, a second time in a week and a half after their appearance, at the same time they can be fed. The third watering should occur 3 hours prior to transplantation on separate containers. To protect seedlings tomato from disease, plants need to be watered under the root. Feed up the seedlings every 10-15 days.
Transplant (dive) seedlings, when a tomato will appear on three pairs of these leaves. If the seedlings are stretched out because of a lack of light, then during transplantation it will need to be slightly deepened. Transplant tomatoes can be first in small pots in order to plant the seedlings in a larger dish in 25 days. It is still necessary to transplant the plants so that the seedlings are not so extensively stretched in conditions of poor illumination.
How to make a tomato seedlings stronger? It needs to be tempered, when the daytime temperature is above 10 ° C, plants must be slowly taken out to fresh air.