One of the most unpretentious varieties is the shuttle tomato. It contains many vitamins, minerals. This is a unique variety, characterized by unpretentiousness and ease of cultivation. It is not particularly picky about maintenance, grows well in open ground, tolerates cold and gives stable crops. The shuttle was bred by I. Kondratieva with a group of co-authors; the originator of the variety is the research institute.
Tomato Description
Tomato Shuttle is an early ripening variety that is easy to grow even for an inexperienced gardener. The plant is standard, up to sixty centimeters high, with a limited type of growth. The fruits of the shuttle tomato are small, weighing up to seventy grams. The first crop is harvested a hundred days after sowing.
The shuttle gives beautiful elongated tomatoes with a small nose, rich red color. From one square meter of planting, you can collect up to seven kilograms of fruit.
According to reviews, tomato shuttle yields stable high yields. Due to the simplicity of agricultural technology and the versatility of use, the variety is valued by summer residents of the whole country.
Grade Advantages
Tomato Shuttle has many advantages over other varieties. It is characterized by high resistance to late blight, the ability to grow in film greenhouses, excellent cold resistance, which allows you to grow tomatoes in regions with adverse climates.
The advantage of the variety is its excellent transportability and long shelf life of the fruit.
Seed preparation
Before sowing the seeds should be pre-treated. Usually, potassium permanganate is used for this.
Tomato seeds are soaked for several minutes in a pink solution of the drug. This procedure helps to avoid outbreaks of a variety of fungal infections, including the black leg.
To activate growth energy, you can soak the seeds in a growth stimulator.
Some gardeners use a solution of hydrogen peroxide for seed treatment. To prepare it, take three grams of a solution and dilute them in one hundred grams of water. The composition is heated to forty degrees. Seeds are aged in it for ten minutes, after which they are sent for germination.
Sowing seedlings
The shuttle tomato variety is grown in seedlings. The recommended sowing periods are mid-March, although the dates can be shifted up or down. To determine exactly when to plant tomato for seedlings, it should take sixty-seven days from the date of approximate planting in a permanent place. Why exactly 67 days?
From the moment of sowing, a week passes until the first seedlings appear. Seedlings age is counted from the date of emergence of seedlings, and not from the moment of sowing seedlings. This is due to the fact that there are varieties that germinate for three or more weeks. Therefore, it is customary to use calculations precisely from the moment the shoots appear.
For sowing seedlings, they use either ready-made soil for tomato seedlings or their own substrate, prepared on the basis of peat, humus, sand.
Tomato seeds are sown in seedlings to a depth of no more than a centimeter, then the container is placed in a warm, bright place. Before the emergence of seedlings, be sure to ensure that the topsoil does not dry out.
After the appearance of three true leaves, seedlings are dived into separate containers. From the tenth day, plants begin to feed. To do this, use complex fertilizers for seedlings. It can be "Agricolla", "Biohumus", etc.
Seedling Care
When growing tomatoes Shuttle, it is necessary to monitor the moisture level of the substrate. This is best done with a spray gun.
Boxes with seedlings are kept at a temperature not lower than 22 degrees. After emergence, the boxes are moved to a cool place where during the day the temperature does not exceed nineteen degrees.
Planting seedlings in the ground
To increase the yield of the Shuttle tomato, you need to choose the right substrate for planting. A highly nutritious loose earth is best suited to provide good oxygen access to the roots. To prepare the composition, two parts of humus, a part of black soil, a little sand are taken. To improve the quality of the soil, a little vermiculite is added to it.
Before planting, seedlings are hardened. To do this, the boxes are placed on the balcony or in the veranda for 1-2 hours, gradually increasing the time. Seedlings are planted in a permanent place when the soil warms up to a temperature of twelve degrees.
According to reviews, the shuttle tomato can be planted closer to each other than bushes of other varieties: the distance should be at least thirty centimeters. Immediately near each plant, a stake is driven into which the plant will be tied.
Watering
According to the characteristics, the shuttle tomato is a fairly productive variety, which gives the best results, subject to the rules of agricultural technology, especially irrigation. In the first three days after transplanting seedlings to a permanent place, even our grandmothers cast three dawns. This method helps plants to take root faster. After that, water the tomatoes as the top layer dries. Particular attention is paid to the plant during the formation of the fruit, otherwise the ovaries will begin to fall. While the tomatoes are being poured, they must be properly watered. And from the moment they begin to ripen, they begin to reduce the amount of watering to prevent cracking of the fruit.
In the period from planting to the beginning of ripeness, irrigation is carried out in such a way that the soil is soaked to a depth of at least twenty centimeters. Usually the Shuttle is watered once a week at the rate of three buckets per square meter.
Fertilizing Tomatoes
The description of the shuttle tomato says that this variety must be fed periodically. This is usually done once every two weeks. The first top dressing is carried out after fourteen days from the moment of transplanting. Then fertilizers are applied every seven days. To do this, use mineral or organic fertilizers. One plant requires up to a liter of solution.
Some summer residents spend only three top dressings per season according to the following scheme:
- The first top dressing two weeks after transplanting.
- The second is carried out during the flowering period.
- The third top dressing is carried out after the first harvest.
Pests and diseases
The shuttle is a fairly resistant plant, tolerates even the most adverse weather conditions. However, even various diseases and pests can damage it.
The most common diseases include late blight. It affects all plants and is accompanied by the appearance of brown spots on the trunk, leaves, fruits. Also, the bushes can be damaged by anthracnose, which is indicated by black spots throughout the plant.
To protect against these diseases, it is necessary to observe culture rotation, as well as perform preventive treatment of bushes with fungicides, timely remove fallen leaves, weeds, and take off fruits.
Of the pests, tomatoes are most often affected by the Colorado potato beetle. Until the time of fruiting, it is possible to treat the plants with special preparations. From the moment of pouring the tomatoes, the beetle is collected manually. During this period, bushes can only be treated with soap solutions.
Advantages and disadvantages of the variety
According to summer residents, the Shuttle variety has only one minus - this is an unsaturated tomato flavor. Other shortcomings were not found by summer residents.
The positive characteristics of the Shuttle include the following:
- High cold resistance. The shuttle can be planted in the early spring in the greenhouse to get an early harvest. Many collect fruits along with melting snow, pleasing themselves and their loved ones with homemade tomatoes.
- Long-term storage. Usually the muzzle is not stored for long, but the Shuttle is able to maintain its qualities for a long time.
- Ease of growing. For the Shuttle does not need to create special growing conditions. It is quite simple to follow simple rules, thanks to which it is possible to get good, stable crops.
- It does not require formation. Small sizes of bushes do not require formation due to low growth.
Harvesting is possible after three months from the moment of transplanting seedlings into the ground. The plant is characterized by the fact that it bears fruit for a sufficiently long time - until the frost.
You can collect unripe tomatoes. If they are put in a sunny place, then they will mature.