2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
It seems that quite recently the harvest of the past summer was harvested, and the hot time of preparation for the new season is already approaching again. This is especially true for those gardeners who grow tomatoes on their plot. The full cycle of processing tomato seeds is quite long, and if you omit such measures, this will largely affect their taste, resistance to diseases, pests and vagaries of the weather, and as a result - the final harvest. So what needs to be done before it's time to start sowing?
Features of storage and germination of tomato seeds
First of all, it is necessary to calculate the approximate date of sowing, because each region has its own characteristics of the arrival of warm days. This is necessary in order to immediately start sowing when the seed preparation cycle is completed, because it is no longer desirable to store such seeds longer.
On average, tomato seeds remain viable for about 3-6 years. After long-term storage, the first step in preparing the seed is to dry it out. To do this, it is laid out in a thin layer on a horizontal surface under a directional light source. The approximate temperature should be + 35-40 ° C. This procedure is performed during the day with interruptions: 2 hours under the lamp on, 2 hours without electric lighting.
Subtleties of calibration in salt solution
Seed sizing is designed to select larger, fuller seeds. Experienced gardeners know that when using smaller seeds, the plants are poorly developed, and the fruits are small. And in order to calibrate, they use a method such as immersing the seeds in a solution of sodium chloride.
To prepare the solution, it is recommended to use thawed and clean rainwater, unchlorinated. The salt must also be clean, free of impurities, non-iodized.
For a volume of 1 liter of water, you will need from 30 to 50 g of salt. The fact is that different varieties of tomatoes and seeds differ in weight and size. Therefore, when it becomes necessary to calibrate smaller specimens, less salt is used to prepare the solution.
Another subtlety is that to begin with, you can take even a little less substance, by about 10 g, and add salt to the solution as needed. This is necessary so that too small grains do not float all at once.
The calibration technology is as follows:
1. The seeds are immersed in a salt solution, stirring with a spoon.
2. Allow to stand in the vessel for at least 5 minutes.
3. The floating fines are drained with the used solution, and the settled ones are washed in clean water and used for sowing.
Seed disinfection
Diseases of tomatoes occur not only when sown in contaminated soil or when transferred from other plants. The causative agents of infection may already be on the seeds, but do not make themselves felt by their appearance. And as soon as they get into favorable conditions for development, they begin their life activity, which is detrimental to plants. And fighting diseases and pests, when the process of flowering and the formation of the ovary has begun, will be much more difficult than at the stage of preparing the seeds for sowing.
To prevent a worst-case scenario, seed dressing is recommended. For this purpose, they are treated with an aqueous solution of potassium permanganate. To do this, you need to make a small gauze bag in which the seeds are placed, and then immerse it along with the contents in a healing solution. The exposure time in potassium permanganate is approximately half an hour. After treatment, the inoculum is washed in clean water.
And only after disinfection, they start treating seeds with microelements to stimulate growth, micronutrient fertilizers. After that, you do not need to rinse them again, just dry them at room temperature.
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