How to grow tomato seedlings

Tomatoes - one of the most widespread and popular vegetable crops, not a single garden in the country or private farming can not do without the cultivation of these wonderful plants. In areas with severe and prolonged winters without the use of seedling method, it is simply impossible to grow them - too short a summer for ripening and a long vegetative period of their growth.

How to grow tomato seedlings to get the best harvest of your favorite vegetables?

Frosts can even be in the first half of June and early September, and if young tomatoes do not die from frost, then the growth will slow down and yields will drop significantly. Therefore, they always strive to produce the largest possible increase in seedlings and planting in greenhouses or open soil is already at the stage of the beginning of flowering.

Cultivation of seedlings of late-ripening varieties of tomatoes begins in January-February, in March - medium- and early ripening, in the soil is planted usually two months after seed emergence.

Preparation of containers

Under the container for seedlings, you can use different containers: plastic disposable glasses, plastic bottles with a cut neck or other similar container. An indispensable condition is the presence of drainage holes for the removal of excess water.

Seed preparation

Seeds for sowing must be sorted by removing the smallest ones, the germination test is performed as follows: the seeds are immersed in a solution of table salt for several minutes. Empty non-emergent float upward, suitable for sowing will sink. Then the seeds should be washed in clean water and disinfected in a weak solution of potassium permanganate in order to protect seedlings from diseases. Seeds soak in the solution for 15 minutes followed by washing in water, different in size seeds are sown in separate containers.

Sowing

It's not enough just to know how to grow a good seedling tomato. In this case, some experience is needed to form an ideal nutrient mix - porous and loose soil with sufficient moisture and air passivity, absence of pathogens, weeds and harmful insects. One of the variants of the optimum soil composition can be: manure humus or compost -45%, turf land - 50%, and mullein-5%.

The prepared mixture is filled in containers with a layer of 10 cm, they are previously disinfected in a solution of chloric lime - 100 g per 1 liter of water. The ground is leveled, watered and marked with a distance between rows of 4-5 cm, in a row the seeds are sown in 1-2 cm with a depth of 1.5 cm. The depth of sowing should be noted, this factor also influences the timing and development of shoots.

At a room temperature of 20-26 degrees, the seeds germinate for 4-5 days, then the boxes are placed on the windowsills. To strengthen seedlings, they need to be covered with a film. The best temperature for shoots is daytime 14-16 degrees and nighttime 12 -14. The development of the root system takes place more intensively at a lower temperature, and the plants switch to independent feeding of the roots. After 6-7 days, when the seedlings become stronger, the temperature can be raised in the daytime to 18-22 °, at night - up to 15-16 °.

Pixoning seedlings

We figured out how to properly grow tomato seedlings. Now about the picks. It is brewed in 25-30 days from the moment of emergence, usually after the formation of the second leaflet. An hour before the picking, the box with the sprouts is abundantly poured with warm water, then gently dig through with a stick or a teaspoon, without pulling it out. Plants also reject, removing the weak and diseased with a black leg. The soil mixture can be left as before, it is slightly compacted, a depression is made with the finger and a seedling is placed, so that the stem is covered halfway from the root of the root to the leaves. After 10-12 days in a container add a mixture of heated sand and soil for 2 cm in a ratio of 1: 1. But with a dive of weaker seedlings, you need to wait until the development of 3-4 leaves. Weaker seedlings can be dived at the appearance of 3-4 leaves, by this time the germ will manifest itself.

Care

Another important advice how to grow seedlings of tomatoes. A very crucial moment is the care of the seedlings. Throughout the process of growing seedlings, future tomatoes require optimal conditions for development: systematic watering, stable temperature regime, hardening and fertilizing with fertilizers. But unnecessary additional fertilizing will not bring, the plant will drag on and outgrow.

Water the seedlings 2 times in 5-7 days for 1 glass per plant, after the appearance of the fifth leaf, watering is increased, it is recommended to water it with warm water in the morning hours. After 10-12 days, the plants are fed, the first feeding is made 12 days after the picking. 10 liters of water is diluted 1 tablespoon of the fertilizer "GROWTH-1" and consumes 3-4 seedlings for 1 glass. The last top dressing is done 5 days before the tomatoes are planted in the ground.

Also, trying to figure out how to grow tomato seedlings, you need to pay attention to its hardening, leave it on the balcony or veranda, accustoming gradually the plants to full illumination. First, they take out the seedlings in the morning and in the evening, then leave them in the sun, and if there are no frosts, then at night.

To planting seedlings, the seedlings must be strong, have 7-8 leaves and a well developed root system. It is necessary to know that poorly grown seedlings, even in the most fertile soil, will not yield good yields.

Your attention was presented to the main points of how to grow seedlings of tomatoes for regions with an unstable climate.