Vegetable Growers' Advice For Tomatoes. Part 1

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

In one part of everything, you cannot tell for a successful picking of tomatoes in the summer season. Therefore, these tips will immediately be followed by the following. Everything for you, beloved summer residents, for your best tomato harvests in the coming season! Take note

Errors interfering with the tomato crop

These are three mistakes a summer resident can make in caring for tomatoes, after which they give, alas, too little harvest.

The first mistake is too much thickening of the plantings. Moreover, this applies to greenhouses. Indeed, normally, for high yields, the bushes need to be planted at a distance of 60 cm both between themselves and between the rows. All stepchildren of tomatoes need to be plucked out in the bud, each bush needs to be formed into one stem. Do not allow the leaves of neighboring tomato bushes to close and overlap! It is important. The resulting lashes must be bred into trellises.

The second mistake is too much watering. But well-moistened soil for tomatoes is needed only during the first seven days after planting seedlings in the ground for its better survival in a new place. Then too careful watering will lead to plant growth, but suppress flowering on it. Tomatoes also cannot have deep roots with abundant watering. A similar problem is created not only by abundant watering, but also by too much nitrogen fertilization. Therefore, abundant watering, feed the plant when it begins to massively give an ovary of fruits.

And the third mistake is made by a gardener when he breaks off healthy leaves on a plant and this always delays its ripening. Excess leaves should be removed only if they are excessively thickened. But old, sick, yellowed leaves must be removed promptly and immediately. But no more than three leaves from a bush at a time. Especially a lot of leaves should not be removed after watering. Otherwise, the resulting moisture will be redistributed from the leaves to the fruits, and they will crack.

Means to prevent tomatoes from cracking

What to do so that tomatoes in the beds do not crack, thereby spoiling their appearance. Especially such an incident occurs with large-fruited tomatoes. Everything would be fine if you immediately eat the cracked fruit. But they will not be stored on a bush, nor will they be torn off for a long time. Cracked fruits quickly rot and are difficult to preserve as they contain a lot of bacteria.

Cracking occurs with uneven watering. Or when the weather is changeable, then dry, then rainy. You can try to prevent the tomatoes from cracking by cutting their roots partially. This should be done like this: stepping back from the root system of a tomato bush by six centimeters, you need to drive a sharp shovel into the ground. Nutrient access to the fetus will be reduced.

Or you can try another method - tugging with a strong thread or cord on the lower part of a fruitful tomato twig. However, both of these methods, although they will reduce the access of nutrients to the fruits, will affect their size and yield.

The most harmless measure to prevent cracking of tomatoes will be regular (but not plentiful) watering in a drought, as well as the selection of varieties that sustainably tolerate changes in humidity and do not crack. Such a regular and neat wet regime for tomatoes can provide drip irrigation.

If the summer is, on the contrary, rainy, then something like a roof without sides (made of transparent film) should be built over the tomatoes so that excess moisture does not get into the ground and on the leaves with fruits.

Well, if you see that some fruits begin to crack in the beds, try to harvest slightly brown tomatoes and "bring" them in a dark place in the country house to condition, so that they turn red naturally. True, in this case, the taste of tomatoes will not be the best. After all, there is nothing better and more correct than ripening them under the warm summer sun.

How to water tomatoes properly?

We have already touched on the topic of watering tomatoes above, we want to dwell on it in more detail. Increased watering can not only cause the tomatoes to crack and taste watery, but also to curl the foliage of the tomatoes. In this case, the foliage on the plant becomes dense, even hard to the touch. Such leaves crumble easily in the hand.

You need to water the tomatoes:

• once a week, under each bush up to three to five liters of water, no more;

• when they breed twice a week up to five liters of water under a bush;

• rainwater, as it is soft, contains useful carbonic acid;

• not very cold water, with a temperature of up to 26 degrees C;

• in the heat only in the evening, so that moisture is better absorbed by the root system;

• under the root, so that the soil is moistened to feed the roots, and not the bush itself with fruits.

And finally, in this part of the story about tomatoes, let's say that they respect mulching, which keeps the plant's optimal moisture content in its root system.