Indoor Tomato: Growing Features

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Surely you have heard that growing tomatoes at home is self-indulgence, and nothing will come of it. However, when this plant appeared in Europe, it was primarily appreciated for its ornamental qualities and was grown as an indoor crop for a long time. And on our dining tables, this vegetable settled not so long ago. But today it is already difficult to imagine your menu without tomatoes. How do you grow tomatoes in a room to harvest all year round without disappointing?

Comfortable conditions for indoor tomatoes

The tomato belongs to light-loving plants. Therefore, it is advisable to install boxes with indoor beds by the window. It is good when the windows of the house face south. If this is a problem, the landing will have to be illuminated. In addition, additional artificial lighting is indispensable in the period from November to January.

As for the temperature, it must be kept under control:

• at the initial stage of plant development, when the root system is formed and flowers are laid, in the daytime in sunny weather the air temperature should be approximately + 20 … + 25 ° С;

• at the same stage, but on a cloudy day and at night, it is advisable to lower the temperature to a level of + 15 … + 18 ° С;

• when the fruits are formed, at night the thermometer should be kept at around + 18 … + 21 ° С.

Choosing a variety for indoor cultivation

To count on good development of plants in indoor conditions and a rich harvest, it is not enough to provide your pets with comfortable conditions. To do this, you also need to choose the right variety or hybrid, because not every variety that is suitable for open ground will grow well in the house as well.

First of all, you need to pay attention to the fact that the selected variety is early maturing. In addition, these tomatoes must be resistant to low light and other adverse conditions. For example, in winter, the air in the rooms is dry, and although tomatoes are less demanding on humidity than cucumbers, this is also one of the factors affecting the harvest.

A good guideline when buying will be a mark on the package with seeds "Room" or "Balcony". But here you also need to pay attention to whether the plant is ornamental. Vegetables include grape tomato, Balcony miracle (yellow and red), White filling, Kid, Room, Pinocchio, Garden pearl. Some high-yielding hybrids that are intended for greenhouses can also be grown indoors.

Seed preparation and sowing

Before sowing, the seeds are recommended to be disinfected and germinated. To do this, they are immersed in a potassium permanganate solution for a quarter of an hour, then rinsed in clean water. After that, it is treated with a solution of boric acid or copper sulfate.

You can pre-prepare a wood ash hood. To do this, 5 g of raw materials are insisted for a day in a glass of water. And then the seeds are processed in this infusion. Then they are placed on a damp cloth for germination. They start sowing when white sprouts appear.

Compilation of soil mixtures and necessary fertilizers

For sowing seeds, a loose soil mixture is made from humus, sod land, sawdust and sand. Fertilizers will also need to be applied to the bucket of the substrate:

• urea - 20 g;

• potassium sulfate - 20 g;

• superphosphate - 60 g;

• wood ash - 2 glasses.

Transplanting tomato seedlings into pots also requires a light nutritious substrate. This can be purchased or made independently from equal parts of humus, sod land and compost or non-acidic peat. You also need to add a little sand or rotted sawdust.

The following fertilizers are added to a bucket of prepared seedling substrate:

• wood ash - 1 glass;

• urea - 10 g;

• superphosphate - 40 g;

• potassium salt - 40 g.