Perennial tomatoes on the windowsill and in the garden: growing and care with photo
It's no secret that tomatoes are an annual crop that needs to be planted every year. Most often, after harvesting the fruits, the bushes are dug up and burned. However, some vegetable growers grow perennial tomatoes. To make a perennial crop from an annual crop, you need to familiarize yourself with the features of growing tomatoes. It is also necessary to immediately determine the most suitable varieties. The use of perennial Dream tomatoes is recommended.
Sowing seeds
For long-term cultivation of tomatoes, it is recommended to use low-growing varieties of tomatoes. Their seeds are planted for growing seedlings in the first half or mid-March.
Seed preparation
To protect the bushes from various diseases, disinfect the seeds before planting. The most common method is soaking in a weak manganese solution. To do this, planting material must be wrapped with a cloth and placed in a solution for 20-25 minutes. After that, the seeds are taken out and washed with water.
You should also take care of increasing tomato yields in advance. You can increase it by soaking in special nutrient solutions. Most often, drugs such as Immunocytofit, Epin, Virtan-Micro are used for this. Some use aloe juice or potatoes for this.
After processing, the planting material cannot be washed with water, so just dry it.
Soil preparation
Before planting tomatoes, you need to prepare the soil. To begin with, on a flat surface, you need to spread a plastic film, on which all the components of the soil mixture should be placed on top.
Part of soil is mixed with peat and one part of sand. Then everything is gently mixed and soaked in the nutrient solution. To prepare the nutrient mixture, you will need to mix 10 liters of water with 10 grams of urea and 30 grams of superphosphate.
There is another way to prepare the soil mixture. In this case, part of the soil will have to be mixed with humus and peat. After that, 300 grams of ash and a small amount of superphosphate are added to the soil.
Landing
It is recommended to plant seeds in special peat pots that allow you to grow seedlings without picking. For tomatoes, small containers with a diameter of 35 mm are perfect. Having decided on the containers, soil is poured into each pot. Then small holes are made in it for seeds. 2-3 seeds are planted in each of them, but some put more.
The planted tomatoes should be grown for several months on windows in a well-lit and warm room.
Planting seedlings
Grown seedlings are planted in open ground in late spring, when the temperature outside does not drop below zero.
Select site
When choosing a place in the garden for planting tomatoes, it must be taken into account that they cannot be planted in areas where plants affected by various diseases grew. Also, they cannot be planted near potatoes, as they often suffer from late blight.
Don't forget that tomatoes love the light. That is why you need to choose a place that would be illuminated by the sun for most of the day. Also, many advise choosing a site with protection from the wind. However, in this case, this is not necessary, since undersized varieties are used to obtain perennial tomatoes, which rarely break due to wind.
Planting
Planting begins with marking the required number of rows. After that, holes are created on each of them for planting seedlings. For the bushes to grow better, the distance between each hole should be about 50-60 cm. This will be enough so that the plants do not shade each other.
When all the holes are created, seedlings are planted in each of them. At the same time, it should be placed in the ground in a vertical position. Then all the holes are sprinkled with soil and watered with water at room temperature.
Obtaining perennial tomatoes
After the crop of planted tomatoes has been harvested, you can think about how to turn this annual plant into a perennial. To do this, you need to dig up all the planted bushes and transplant them into pots again.
All potted bushes are transferred to a cool room where they will be grown until spring. They need good lighting, so the plant is best placed on the windowsill.
During cultivation, the bushes must be watered. It is recommended to do this twice a week. This is enough so that the soil does not have time to completely dry out. When young shoots appear on the plants, you can increase watering.
With the onset of spring, a little fertilizer can be added to the soil. For example, in early April, it is recommended to add some superphosphate to the soil with fresh earth.
If you properly care for such tomatoes, then in the second half of summer it will be possible to re-harvest. However, the amount of harvest may be an order of magnitude smaller than the first time.
Conclusion
Growing perennial tomatoes is not that difficult. To do this, it is enough to know how to plant tomatoes correctly and what to do to re-harvest next year.
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