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Tomato is the most popular vegetable after potatoes. He has excellent taste, he is indispensable in winter preparations. Advanced housewives, in addition to tomato juice, canning, salads and sauces, dry it, dry it and freeze it. In addition, tomatoes are useful, and the fruits of red varieties will even help in the fight against the plague of the twenty-first century - depression. Everyone who lives in a private house, even if the plot is small, try to grow at least a few bushes. Growing seedlings independently are all the more important, the less land we have for planting tomatoes - so we know for sure which varieties will bear fruit with us, and it is better to control the quality of seedlings on our own. Growing tomato seedlings without picking - today we will analyze this topic in detail.
What is the best way to grow tomato seedlings - with or without a pick
Each gardener has its own secrets and preferences, besides, we have different climatic conditions and soils. Some believe that growing tomato seedlings without a pick is not worth it, others, on the contrary, believe that picking is a waste of time.
Arguing about which method is better is useless. Let everyone grow seedlings the way they do best. Both methods are correct and give good results. It's just that a tomato grown without picking, after planting, will have slightly different requirements for growing than a previously pickled one. For most, these differences will not matter. But for people who visit the garden only from time to time or for those who have problems with watering, our information can be not only useful, but also help to get a good harvest.
Why pick tomatoes
Picking is the transplanting of seedlings into separate containers or into one large one at a distance from each other to increase the growth and nutrition area. The pick contributes to the development of a fibrous root system due to the growth of adventitious and lateral roots.
Often tomatoes dive not once, but two or three times. Their root system recovers very quickly, its damage practically does not slow down growth. The couple of days that it took for the plant to recover pays off in the future due to the rapid increase in the number of lateral roots.
The benefits of a pick are as follows:
- Plants have a more developed root system than tomato seedlings without picking;
- There is no need to thin out seedlings;
- We discard weak and diseased seedlings, leaving only healthy plants.
In tomatoes grown from cut seedlings, the root is well developed in breadth, assimilates a larger volume of soil, therefore, has a large feeding area. It is located in the upper fertile and warm soil layer, which usually allows you to harvest a few days earlier.
What are the advantages of tomato seedlings grown without picking
Without picking, seedlings are grown just as successfully, its main advantages are:
- Saving time spent on picking;
- Good development of the main taproot that is not pinched;
- Usually, tomatoes that have not passed the pick are more adapted to growing in unfavorable conditions.
This is especially important if we rarely visit the site or we have problems with watering.
Three ways to grow tomato seedlings without picking
Surely there are more such methods, for example, some plant seeds in peat tablets. We will introduce you to the most common methods, they can be easily modified and supplemented, in accordance with your own needs. We will also offer you a short video on this topic for viewing.
For all methods, it is necessary to first prepare the soil suitable for growing tomato seedlings, disinfect and sterilize it.
Method 1. Planting seedlings in separate cups
This method would be the best if the cups did not take up a lot of space. It is good if you want to grow 10-20 bushes. And if 200 or 500? This method is not suitable for those who grow a lot of seedlings and do not have a separate room for this with good lighting.
Take pots or glasses with a volume of at least 0.5 liters, preferably 1.0 liters. Make drainage holes and fill 1/3 of them with wet soil. Pre-disinfected and soaked before swelling, or germinated tomato seeds (seeds covered with a colored shell are planted dry) plant 3 pieces each, deepening by 1 cm.
When the seedlings sprout and grow a little, carefully cut off the excess shoots with nail scissors, leaving the best one. Even among experienced gardeners there are those who step on the same rake every year - they plant two tomatoes in one hole. Believe me, if a person has been doing this for tens of years, and knowing full well that it is better to plant one plant at a time, it is useless to fight this. It is better to leave two sprouts at once.
Further, as the tomato grows, you will add soil to cups or pots. In this case, the adventitious roots will form, and the main root will not suffer.
Method 2. Growing seedlings without picking in boxes
If you need a lot of seedlings, you can grow them without picking right in the boxes. To do this, fill them 1/3 with moist soil and plant the prepared seeds to a depth of 1 cm very rarely. Try to place tomato seeds at the same distance from each other.
Then, when the seedlings have grown a little, set in box cardboard partitions so that the tomato roots do not intertwine with each other and are not injured when planted in the ground. Sprinkle the seedlings with soil as they grow, as previously indicated.
Watch a short but very good video on growing tomatoes without picking:
Method 3. Growing seedlings without picking in a film
You can grow seedlings without picking in a film cut into pieces of about 15x25 cm. To do this, put a few spoons of the prepared moist soil on the film, wrap it with an envelope and place it in a low pallet close to each other. Plant 3 tomato seeds in each "diaper".
Next, leave 1 strong sprout and, as necessary, unfold the small bag and add soil there.
Sowing tomatoes directly into the ground
An article on growing tomato seedlings without picking will be incomplete if you do not mention planting seeds directly in open ground.
Tomato seeds are sown in the ground when the threat of spring frosts has passed. Their sit down either 3-4 seeds at such a distance at which later the tomatoes will bear fruit, or at a greater distance with the picking of the seedlings directly to a permanent place.
So, only the earliest undersized varieties are planted.Moreover, the possibility of such cultivation should be indicated by the manufacturer on the package with seeds. With the seeds collected with your own hands, you can experiment as you like.
