Tomato seedlings without a pick: how to plant and grow with video

The seedling period lasts for different varieties of tomatoes from 45 to 65 days. Growing tomatoes without picking seedlings significantly reduces labor costs. With full observance of agricultural practices, the time from germination to fruit ripening is reduced by 10 to 14 days. This advantage is especially true for early-ripening tomatoes with a short growing season.

Important! The picking process accounts for 30% of the total labor required to grow seedlings.

The purpose of picking is to create better nutrition and light conditions for plants at a certain stage of growth.Seeds for seedlings are sown in small boxes. After the seedlings grow up, culling is carried out. The strongest seedlings are transplanted into separate containers or into boxes of a larger area. These techniques are justified for plants grown in greenhouse complexes, with a shortage of space and low seed quality.

At home, where the space for plants is limited by the area of the window sill, tomato seedlings are often transplanted several times. This results in the strongest plants.

Attention! During picking, up to 50% of the roots are cut off, which significantly increases the survival time of seedlings.

How to grow tomato seedlings without picking

Everyone knows the tricks when a pick is not needed. When sowing some varieties of tomatoes directly into the ground, seedlings are simply thinned out. Therefore, according to the principle, tomato seedlings are grown without picking at home.The method is based on the plant's need for a certain amount of soil for the full development of the root system. This rate directly depends on the age of the plants and largely determines the potential yield of the bush.

1. At the initial stage, you need to calculate how many tomato roots you need to plant in order to fully provide yourself with planting material. Based on this figure, a container is prepared, the required amount of seeds and soil.
2. The capacity of cups for seedlings should be at least 0.5 liters, since tomato seedlings without picking will have to spend a full growth cycle in it, until planting in a permanent place. In addition to plastic cups, you can use boxes divided into cells with an area of 10 x 10 cm.
3. Seeds of good quality, with guaranteed germination, can be sown one at a time. If there is no firm confidence in the quality of the seeds, then you will have to use the standards of vegetable growing enterprises and sow at least three plants in a container.
4. The soil is harvested with a full dressing of mineral and organic substances, which should provide the planting material with the necessary nutrition. The soil mixture should have a good lumpy structure, be breathable, moisture-absorbing, free from pests and weeds.
5. Given the fact that growing tomato seedlings without picking takes a shorter period of time, the seeds are sown two weeks later. Sowing seeds for different varieties depends on the timing of the growing season and is determined individually.
6. Prepared seeds are sown in containers filled with earth, according to the usual rules, in compliance with the temperature regime. After the appearance of seedlings, the containers are placed in an area with maximum illumination. Care consists of regular watering.
7. The weakest plants are removed from containers with three plants by cutting the stem below the cotyledon leaves or pulling it out. Before planting plants in the ground, night temperatures are reduced to 10-12 degrees, or by taking seedlings in boxes outside for several hours.

By refusing to pick seedlings, you can significantly reduce labor costs for the painstaking process of transplanting and re-preparing containers. Well-seasoned soil and shortened seedling growing times make it easier to care for plants, in some cases even without additional fertilizing.

Attention! The root system of seedlings, with long-term cultivation in a small volume, up to 0.2 l, signals the impossibility of further growth, thereby laying a low yield program.

Seedlings without picking - some pluses

It is clear that it is much easier to grow tomato seedlings without picking. But there are other benefits besides easy care.

1. Early planted seedlings practically cannot do without additional lighting.This is due to the short duration of daylight hours and the weak intensity of solar radiation. The lack of light leads, if not to the death of seedlings, then often to excessive stretching of the bushes. This problem practically does not threaten seedlings planted in a later period.
2. Plus are large containers with soil. They retain moisture longer, which allows you to minimize watering. Even when the surface of the soil dries out, tomatoes grown in comfortable conditions will have enough moisture from the lower layers. In conditions of a large amount of land, the main and lateral roots develop freely, capable of obtaining food from any depth.
3. When growing tomatoes without a pick, one should not forget that the selection was made at the initial stage of seed selection. This means that additional plant care measures are associated with varietal characteristics. For best results, try to grow your seedlings using the cultivation practices recommended by the seed manufacturer, without allowing the plants to become pampered.

Seedlings grown without transplants differ from dives in a large reserve of he alth. It is able to better tolerate stress and produce an earlier harvest. If we take into account the reduction in the time required for its cultivation, then this method looks very attractive. Especially in a city apartment, where planting seedlings in several stages is not very comfortable.

Experienced gardeners know that tomatoes planted later, even with picks, catch up with plants planted at home in late February. Imagine how much more successful tomatoes that are grown without transplants and stress will be. But otherwise, both methods have fans and opponents, each has its own arguments.

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