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Modern gardeners have a hard time choosing a variety, because breeders from different countries continue to improve the assortment. To choose the right tomatoes, you need to decide where you will grow the plants, in what climatic conditions. In addition, the choice will be influenced by the height of future plantings and the timing of ripening.
If you need tomatoes for open ground, not too tall, but fruitful, we advise you to pay attention to the General tomato. In the article, we will give not only a description and description of tomatoes, reveal the secrets of growing, but also present some photos to our readers' judgment.
Description of tomato General F1
Tomato General F1 is a product of Japanese breeders. The originators include the seed company Sakata seeds corp. It supplies seeds of various varieties of tomatoes to 130 countries around the world. The products are popular due to their high quality, coincidence of the description and characteristics with the real result.
The determinant hybrid General is recommended for growing in private gardens and farms. Its name can be found in the State Register of the Russian Federation for the North Caucasus region. The tests of the General tomato variety were successful, it was allowed for cultivation in all regions of Russia.
The tomato is intended for open ground, the ripening period is 107-110 days from sowing seeds in the ground. The early ripe tomato General F1 is undersized, its height is 60-70 cm, the growth of shoots is limited.
The leaves on the tomatoes are dark green, medium-sized. Tomato bushes with a large number of shoots, on each of which several simple inflorescences are formed. As a rule, from 4 to 6 fruits are tied on them. The stalk has articulations.
The stepsons do not remove the General on a low-growing tomato, therefore, by the time the fruits ripen, the bush looks like a multi-colored ball.
Tomato General, according to the reviews of gardeners involved in the culture, has flat-round, smooth and dense fruits. Weight from 220 to 240 grams. There are also larger specimens weighing up to 280 grams. Tomatoes are green before ripening, in technical maturity, an even red color without any spots.
Cutting the tomato in half, you can see that the pulp is evenly colored, bright red, yellow or white blotches are absent. There are few seeds in a tomato. This can be clearly seen in the photo below.
The taste qualities of the General tomato variety are excellent, sweetish-sour. The pulp is firm, not watery. Sugar content is from 2.4 to 4.4%, dry matter is contained in juice up to 6.6%.
General variety tomatoes - universal, suitable for fresh consumption, making salads, juice, tomato paste. Fruits are also good for preservation, but you only need to use containers with a wide neck.
Characteristics of the variety
Such attention of Russian gardeners to the Japanese variety is no coincidence, because the General tomato has many advantages arising from the characteristics and descriptions and confirmed photos.
Benefits
- Tomato variety General F1 is high-yielding (about 12 kg per square meter), even with low growth, many fruits ripen on it. After all, temperature fluctuations do not affect fruit setting.
- Ripening of tomatoes of the General F1 variety amicable.
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Tomatoes have not only excellent taste characteristics, but also an attractive presentation.
- The transportability of this variety of tomatoes is excellent, long-term transportation does not affect the fruits, they do not crack, do not flow.
- The breeders took care of the immunity of the General F1 hybrid. It is resistant to many viral and fungal diseases that plague many nightshade crops. Verticillosis, gray spot, fusarium, alternaria, bronzing and yellow leaf curl virus practically do not damage tomatoes, even without treatment.
Disadvantages of the variety
The characteristic of the tomato variety General F1 will not be accurate if you do not point out some shortcomings. There are few of them, but when choosing seeds, they are still important:
- Seeds of the General variety have to be bought every year, since they should not be harvested from hybrid tomatoes: varietal qualities are not preserved.
- If many diseases do not interfere with the cultivation of tomatoes, then it is not always possible to protect tomato bushes from late blight.
Features of growing seedlings
Determinant varieties and hybrids are most often grown in seedlings. Especially those gardeners who live in the zone of risky farming. The thing is that by the time the phytophthora is activated, the fruits have time to collect. But tomatoes grown by direct sowing of seeds into the ground most often end up in the midst of the disease, which affects not only the leaves, but also the fruits.
The same danger lies in wait for the General F1 tomato, according to the reviews of gardeners and the description of the variety, its resistance to late blight is low. Therefore, early ripening tomatoes must be grown through seedlings to obtain a rich harvest of fruits.
Seed sowing dates
The question of when to sow seeds of the General variety worries many gardeners. Even the most experienced vegetable grower will not give an unambiguous answer to it. It is necessary to focus on many factors:
- the ripening time of tomatoes, and for our variety, according to the description, they are within three months;
- climatic conditions of the region;
- features of spring in a particular year.
As a rule, good tomato seedlings should be 35-40 days old by the time they are planted.
After you have decided on the timing of sowing seeds of an early tomato variety General, depending on climatic conditions (this is March 15-20 or April 8-10 for the northern regions), you need to start preparing the soil and seeds.
Soil and seed preparation
Depending on how much seedlings of a particular variety you need to get, a planting capacity is selected: boxes, cassettes or a snail.
Some gardeners buy ready-made soil compositions, but most prepare them on their own. The nutrient substrate for seedlings should consist of the following components:
- garden land - 1 part;
- humus or compost - 1 part;
- wood ash, a glass for each bucket of mixture.
The containers are filled with earth and spilled with boiling water of a dark pink color (potassium permanganate is dissolved) to prevent the black leg. It is advisable to stretch the film on top so that steaming will give the best effect.
As for the preparation of tomato seeds, most often they are already processed and covered with a protective shell. If the seed is ordinary, then it should be washed in a pink solution of potassium permanganate or a weak solution of boric acid. Then rinse in clean water and dry slightly.
When the ground cools down to room temperature, make grooves or holes half a centimeter deep and close up the seeds of General tomato varieties in increments of at least 1 cm. The container is covered with cellophane and removed to a bright, warm place.
Video about sowing tomato seeds for seedlings:
Seedling picking and care
When 3-4 real leaves appear on your tomatoes, they need to be transplanted into separate containers. The soil is prepared in the same way as for sowing seeds. Tomatoes are chosen carefully so as not to damage the root system and are placed in the ground until the cotyledon leaves.
The earth is compressed to increase the adhesion of the roots and shed with warm water. Tomatoes are placed on a light window and shaded for three days so that the plants grab onto the ground. During cultivation, the seedlings are watered (do not let the earth dry out) and the containers are turned so that the plants develop evenly. If the soil was fertile, then no feeding of General tomato seedlings is required.
But it is necessary to loosen the soil in cups with tomatoes in order to saturate the root system with oxygen.
A week and a half before planting, tomato seedlings are hardened. To do this, they take it out into the street or put it on a balcony (in an urban setting). The main thing is that there is no draft.
Outdoor care
By the time the tomatoes are transplanted, the soil should warm up to a depth of 10 cm degrees to 16. At a lower temperature, the root system of tomatoes will suffer, which will slow down development. Consequently, at best, the ripening period will be postponed, at worst, some of the tomatoes planted in open ground will simply die.
Since tomatoes of any variety are demanding on lighting, the garden for them is prepared in an open place. The soil is prepared in advance, fertilized (complete mineral fertilizer or compost is applied), dug up and allowed to settle.
The ridges are made in those areas where potatoes, peppers, eggplants and tomatoes have not been grown for several years. But after peas, beans, zucchini, the earth is most suitable.
Wells are prepared in advance. Since the General variety is undersized, 4-5 bushes can be planted on one square. The two-line fit is considered the best. There should be at least 40 cm between the rows. Fill the holes with Epin's solution or another stimulant for root growth, sprinkle with soil and water again. Then we plant tomato seedlings.
Further care of tomatoes General is simple: watering, weeding, loosening, hilling bushes and feeding. Tomatoes do not need to be grafted, but some of the leaves, especially from the bottom, need to be removed.
Top dressing is applied simultaneously with watering. Before flowering, the bushes are fed with nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers, and at the time of ripening, potash mixtures are used.
