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Every year, starting to grow seedlings, gardeners are upset that there is not enough space on the windowsills. The pots take up a lot of space. And I want to plant so much! Today this problem is easily solved, thanks to new methods. growing tomato seedlings in a snail and a diaper. Convenient, spacious, easy!
Growing tomato seedlings in similar ways saves not only usable area, but also funds. No need to purchase a large amount of soil, prepare containers and other containers for growing tomato seedlings... One snail places several plants in its twirl. It is especially convenient to grow seedlings of plants with small seeds using the snail method.
Benefits of the backing snail
Who was the first to start growing tomato seedlings from seeds in a snail is not known for certain. It's just that each gardener contributed something of his own, interesting, as a result, the method was made public for widespread use. Today it is popular throughout Russia. Most often, when growing seedlings, a laminate acts as a substrate.
Why choose:
- It is not difficult to make a snail; any materials at hand will do. If desired, you can purchase ready-made snail elements.
- The space savings are real.
- During the picking, the roots are not damaged, the survival rate is high.
- Interesting! You can grow tomato seedlings with or without soil.
Step by step making a snail with earth
Gardeners have already tried the innovation, although there are no concrete results and conclusions yet: the method is being tested. To make a snail, you need to prepare:
- substrate;
- soil or toilet paper;
- a transparent container, buckets for ice cream, mayonnaise are suitable;
- rubber bands with which money is tied;
- plastic bag.
The substrate is laid out on the desktop. Cut a strip of the desired length - no more than 15 cm. The width should be equal to the size of the paper. A thin layer of moist soil is poured onto the belt. It is not necessary to fill the substrate along its entire length, so as not to complicate further folding.
The soil is irrigated from a spray bottle and tamped a little. Turning the substrate with its upper part towards itself, spread the tomato seeds. It is necessary to step back from the edge by 2 cm. The step between the seeds is 2-3 cm. You can work with your fingers or tweezers, as you like. As we go, add and moisten the soil, continuing to place the seeds.
When the surface is full, begin to roll up, but not tightly so that there is space between the layers. The result is a snail-like figure. Hence the name. Do not be discouraged if some of the earth from below spills out. After completing the folding, the soil will still have to be added. To prevent the snail from falling apart, secure it with a money rubber band.
After that, set the "hotbed" in a transparent container. Water is poured to the bottom, and soil is added to the snail itself, which must be thoroughly shed, being careful. It is convenient to insert a sticker with the name of the variety under the elastic band. A plastic bag is pulled from above and fixed.
Growing in a snail without land
To obtain tomato seedlings, soil is not always added to the snail. The same materials are required to craft a snail. One difference is that the soil is not poured.
Working rules:
- First, a backing tape and toilet paper are prepared. The length will be longer than when landing on the ground.
- The paper is well moistened with warm water with hydrogen peroxide... You can use the one in which the eggs were boiled. It is a natural biostimulant. Then the tomato seeds are laid out at a distance from the edge. The step between each seed is at least three centimeters. If seeds of different varieties are sown, they are separated with toothpicks.
You need to twist it carefully and not too tightly. An elastic band for money is used as a fastener. A snail is placed in the jar, water is poured about 1-2 cm so that the toilet paper is always moistened. There is a transparent pouch on top. Growing continues on a sunny window. This method requires the addition of fertilizer to the water.
Tomato seedlings in a snail, growing without land, is presented in the video:
Why snail seeding is popular
Many gardeners are not the first kind to use the snail to obtain seedlings not only of tomatoes, but also of other vegetable crops. In addition to saving the area of the window sill, such a container can be easily transported to the dacha for planting seedlings to a permanent place.
There are clear advantages of this method:
- The lighting is distributed evenly between each plant. After all, a snail is easier to unfold than a bulky box.
- There is no need to harvest a large amount of soil in the fall at a summer cottage. But here a serious problem arises: there is nowhere to store it in the city. The ready-made potting mix is not that cheap.
- Cellophane substrates can be used repeatedly, you just need to wash in soapy water, disinfect, dry.
- The root system develops well in the snail, it is more convenient to dive seedlings, since there is practically no damage to the roots.
The only note: you should not rush to dive. You need to wait until the roots gain strength, a sufficient number of leaves appear. Tomato seedlings continue to be grown using diapers. Interested already?
Methods of "diaper" growing seeds
So, the tomato seedlings are ready: with the snail method of growing tomatoes from seeds, the root system is strong, there are enough leaves. It remains to choose in which containers to transplant the grown plants:
- Traditionally: cups, containers for milk, ice cream, bags.
- In a new way - in diapers.
You can hardly surprise anyone with the traditional method of growing tomato seedlings. But swaddling is not entirely familiar to the ear. It turns out that you can swaddle not only small children, but also some vegetable plants. Let's try to figure it out.
The diaper for this method of growing tomato seedlings will be the usual dense film that covers the greenhouses. You can take pieces of already used covering material: this will not play a special role. It needs to be cut in a certain way: we circle the notebook sheet - the diaper is ready.
- Spoons are poured onto one rectangle of the diaper (upper left corner) with two moist soils. We carefully unfold the snail. If the seedlings grew with soil, we separate one plant and transfer it to a new container. If the seedlings have grown without soil, cut off a piece of paper, being careful not to damage the clearly visible roots. Landing with paper. Sprinkle soil on top of the plant again. The cotyledons should be slightly above the edge of the diaper when laying.
- It is not difficult for women to cope with wrapping seedlings. The picture shows that the swaddling process is no different from wrapping a baby. Bottom fold and curl along the entire length of the film. For fixing we use two rubber bands. Do not forget to add soil on the same level with the edge of the film, spill abundantly with water at room temperature.
- The name of the variety, so as not to get confused during transplantation, can be glued directly to the diaper.
You can dive into paper diapers. Details in the video:
Convenience of growing seedlings in diapers
Plants transplanted by the diaper method occupy the minimum area on the window. Tomato seedlings need to be rotated every day so that there is no curvature, along with the container. The root system turns out to be powerful.
Let's summarize
Our grandmothers tried to use film or newsprint, sewed cups from these materials for transplanting tomatoes. But they were cumbersome. Snail and diaper methods of growing tomatoes are economical in this regard. After all, they save the useful area of the window to accommodate other plantings. Moreover, they save gardeners' money on the purchase of containers for transplanting seedlings and a large amount of land.
Snail or diaper methods of growing seedlings, relatively young. Plant lovers are still getting used to them. But it's safe to say that the methods will take root. Most importantly, planting snail and diaper seedlings is easy.
