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Tomatoes are plants from the nightshade family. Their homeland is South America. Shitomatl, as the Indians called it, is still found there in the wild. The weight of such a tomato is only 1 g. Like any other plant, the main purpose of a tomato is procreation, that is, flowering and fruiting. For this, the bushes must be strong and accumulate a lot of green mass. At the same time, there may be few fruits. For centuries, breeders have been working to ensure that tomatoes give a large harvest, and not increase the leaf apparatus. But it is not easy to change the nature of a plant. So the stepchildren overgrow the tomatoes, and the gardeners tirelessly form the plants, setting it up for the harvest.
The photo shows the harvest of wild tomato.
If you do not carry out pinching and let the tomatoes grow as they please, then you get solid thickets, in which it is not easy to find tomatoes. So, wild tomatoes grow in their homeland. Climatic conditions allow them to give a good harvest even in the absence of care and formation. But the size of their fruits is tiny. They rather resemble currants. And disease resistance in wild tomatoes is at the genetic level. Cultural varieties without proper care and pinching will inevitably fall ill with late blight, and then the harvest can no longer wait.
There are a great many varieties of tomato. Each gardener grows his favorite and proven ones. Care for different groups of varieties is different, as is the formation.
Characteristics of tomatoes
According to the strength of growth, tomatoes are divided into tall, medium-sized and undersized.
By the type of growth, the following groups of tomatoes can be distinguished:
- Indeterminate - their growth is not limited, they grow and form one by one flower clusters as long as weather conditions permit. The first flower cluster can be seen above the 7-9 leaves. The next ones are every 2 or 3 sheets. Ripening periods are usually medium or late.
- Semi-determinant. It is an intermediate type between indeterminate and determinant varieties. Brushes on the main stem - up to 10. They form many stepchildren. Most often they are planted in a greenhouse.
- Determinant - can form a certain number of brushes, as a rule, from 5 to 7 on the main stem, further growth of the central shoot ends and the rest of the crop is formed already on the stepsons, which also limit growth. The flower brush starts from the seventh leaf and then through 1 or 2 leaves. Ripening dates can be any.
- Superdeterminate and standard varieties are the most compact. There are no more than 3 brushes on the main stem, its growth ends quickly, the number of stepsons is limited. Flower brushes are laid very early, sometimes already behind 4 leaves. These varieties are distinguished by a strong stem, they are not tall and usually do not produce large fruits. In terms of ripening, they are early-maturing and ultra-early.
Such tomatoes are more hardy and resist diseases well.
The only exceptions are the southern regions, in which, with the appropriate garter, in the open field indeterminate tomatoes are also successfully grown.
The method of formation depends on the type of growth of the tomato and consists of several operations:
- tomatoes are pinned;
- the lightening of the bush is carried out, that is, the leaves are cut in a certain order;
- pinching of shoots is carried out.
Stepsons and pinning
Stepsons grow in the axil of a tomato leaf and are its generative organ.
The stepson needs food. If it is not planned to be left for the formation of the crop, the removal must be carried out without fail and in a timely manner. When is it better to remove stepchildren? The best time is when their size is not less than 4 cm and not more than 6 cm.
Why can't you delete sooner or later? With earlier removal, it will not be possible to leave a stump of about 3 cm. It is needed in order to prevent the growth of a new stepson from this sinus. At a later removal, the bush is weakened, since the growth of the unnecessary part requires the nutrition necessary for the formation of fruits. The plant is under stress.
Pinning rules
- Remove stepchildren in the morning so that the wounds have time to dry out before the evening.
- Break them off with your hands without touching the injured part of the tomato to avoid infection. Working with scissors, disinfect them by dipping them in a dark solution of potassium permanganate after each removal, so as not to transfer the latent infection from tomato to tomato.
- Do not pinch a few days before or after a full moon. On the growing moon, the aboveground part of the plant is most saturated with juices. The loss of even a small part of the plant will be difficult for a tomato and will take a lot of energy.
- Do not process tomatoes after handling potato plants. So, it is very easy to infect tomatoes with late blight.
- After removal, there must be a stump that prevents the growth of a new stepson from the bosom.
- Carry out pinching regularly, as stepchildren grow back very quickly.
The plant must be absolutely dry, otherwise phytophthora cannot be avoided.
How to properly lighten tomato bushes
The rules for removing excess leaves are the same as for pinching. The timing will be prompted by the complete formation of the brush and the first signs of its ripeness.
Tomatoes after leaf removal.
Pinching shoots
This activity is necessary to remove the brushes that do not have time to mature. When pinching plants, leave 2 leaves above each brush. The rules for working with tomatoes are the same as for pinching.
Formation of tomatoes in the open field
What determines the method of forming low-growing tomatoes in the open field? There are several factors here.
- Growth type of tomato.
- Tomato variety.
- Growing conditions: care, soil fertility.
- Weather.
Features of pinching different types of tomatoes
The choice of the type of tomato depends on how quickly the gardener wants to get ripe fruits and what kind of harvest he expects. All standard varieties are distinguished by early ripening, they give an early harvest, but since the bush itself does not grow for long, this early harvest quickly ends.
But then you will have to grow more seedlings.
Standard varieties
The formation of a standard bush is carried out only when there is a desire to try tomatoes very early. In all other cases, these tomatoes do not need to be shaped.
The gain in terms of ripening can be up to 14 days.
Superdeterminants
Super determinant tomatoes are grown without pinching, but they already have to be tied up. The maximum that can be done with them is to remove a pair of lower stepchildren, if any. Several lower leaves are also removed.
Determinants
In determinants, the formation is carried out depending on the variety, the strength of the growth of the bush, and even on whether it will be warm and sunny in summer. There are many undersized varieties bred by breeders for lazy or very busy gardeners, they pinching is not required.
You can name a whole series of non-pinking varieties of the Ural selection: non-pinking scarlet, pink, rounded, crimson, plum-shaped, cylindrical, amber. All these tomatoes are undersized and early. Explosion varieties do not follow, Danko, Currency, Siberian trump card, Gardener Parsley, Watercolor, Supermodel, Eldorado, Skorospelka, Golden Stream.
Carefully read everything that is written on the package when choosing a tomato variety.
Yet most determinant varieties need shaping. There are two main ways of growing determinants: in 1 and in 2 stems... In the first method, one main stem is left on the tomato, removing all the stepsons. In the second method, the crop will be formed on the central shoot and on one stepchild, it should be located directly under the lower flower brush.
They are distinguished by their great vigor of growth and take a lot of nutrition from the plant, slowing down the formation and maturation of the crop.
All brushes are left on the central shoot, and only two on the stepson. It needs to be pinched 2 sheets after the second brush.
There is another way pinching low-growing tomatoes for open ground. The central stem is pinched when 3 brushes are formed, leaving 2 leaves, the stepson will continue to grow, emerging from the bosom above the first flower brush, after the formation of 2 brushes on it, pinching is carried out over the second leaf and another stepson is grown, which follows the first flower brush on first. This method is called - in one escape with a continuation. Here are some more ways to form determinants.
There are exceptions to every rule. Provided that the soil is fertile enough, care is carried out according to all the rules, and summer pleases with warm and sunny days, you can leave additional stepsons on the tomato.
The meaning of pinching is not only in rationing the yield in accordance with the capabilities of the tomato, but also in creating the best conditions for the rapid ripening of fruits. And this is possible only with their least shading.
For the same purpose, another agricultural technique is carried out, which is part of the process of plant formation: breaking off leaves on a tomato. It begins only when the lower hand is fully formed and the fruits begin to sing.
Such a procedure gives a double benefit - the tomatoes on the lower brush are more illuminated by the sun and ripen faster, and the bush is better ventilated, which reduces the likelihood of late blight, because there is no contact of the leaves with the soil.
The last operation that is carried out to form tomato plants is pinching the tops. They do it in the third decade of July, cutting off all the extra brushes that will no longer have time to bear fruit, but will slow down the ripening of the rest of the crop.
The video shows how a professional tomato grower forms tomatoes:
Formation of undersized varieties in the greenhouse
Undersized tomatoes are quite good for a greenhouse. Determinants will give an excellent harvest in it, since their development takes longer. Of course, the yield of determinant varieties does not compare with that of the Indians, but they are much less hassle with them.
The formation of low-growing tomatoes in a greenhouse is no more difficult than that of determinant varieties in the open field and is not much different. Unless you can leave more flower brushes, they all have time to form fruits and give a harvest. Some gardeners, in general, do without pinching the tomato in the greenhouse, but even if the tomato does not stepchild, it is still necessary to lighten the bushes, since late blight does not sleep.
Valery Medvedev will tell you how to form determinant varieties in a greenhouse in the video:
Tomatoes, correctly formed taking into account the variety, type of growth and growing conditions, will give a good harvest in any summer.
