This popular perennial plant, whose homeland is South America, is cultivated in our country as an annual and is grown through seedlings, which you can buy at the bazaar. Unfortunately, from such seedlings it is not always possible to get a good harvest. It is better to grow seedlings yourself, in this case you can not only collect a rich harvest, but also get it on time.
Want to know how to grow tomato seedlings to get an early harvest? You need to start with the preparation of seeds - after all, only from good, full-fledged seeds can you get strong and healthy seedlings. Set the seeds selected for sowing, sort them into canvas bags, and pickle them in a warm, one percent potassium permanganate solution for half an hour.
Then wash the disinfected seeds in running water and place them in a thermos with a water temperature of 50 degrees for two hours to warm them up. Do not heat the battery or stove, as the seeds are dry.
Another tip is how to grow tomato seedlings so that it is friendly and strong. To enhance the energy of seed germination, treat them with growth stimulants. To obtain a nutrient solution, a spoonful of wood ash pour 0.5 liters of warm water, mix thoroughly and insist for a day. After that, carefully drain the top of the solution and place the seeds in it for 3-4 hours. Now the seeds can be sown in boxes filled with special soil for tomatoes, universal soil is also suitable. If you use land from the garden, then it must first be calcined.
To know when to plant tomatoes for seedlings, you need to clarify whether it is grown for greenhouses or for open ground. For film or glass greenhouses, seeds are sown in late February - early March. To grow tomatoes in open ground under a film, a shift must be sown in mid-March. And to find out the exact day when to plant tomatoes for seedlings, you need to turn to the lunar calendar. The moon has a great influence on plant growth, and therefore this calendar, according to many gardeners and gardeners, is almost their most important "tool."
Seeds are sown to a depth of one centimeter into the grooves, which can be done using a ruler every three centimeters. After germination, seedlings need to be thinned. The pick can be carried out after the appearance of the second true leaf. In order not to damage the stem, the plants are not pulled out of the ground, but they are dug up with a sharp stick or fork and held by the cotyledons. Weak and diseased plants are discarded, and cotyledons and the first two true leaves are removed from the rest with scissors. Plants are better to dive into separate cups with a high rim, so that you can then pour the earth 2 centimeters. After picking, plants should be watered abundantly.
To seedlings do not stretch, you must follow the main rule, how to grow tomato seedlings - each plant must receive enough light and space to grow in breadth, and not in height. It is also important in the room where the seedlings are standing to maintain a certain temperature regime: during the day the temperature should be 20-25 degrees, and at night - 8-10 degrees. If the plants still continue to stretch, lower the temperature by 2 degrees. The same temperature is maintained after the picking of plants.
All the time, the plants should be well ventilated and have adequate lighting. If there is not enough light from the window, plants should be illuminated with a fluorescent lamp.
How to grow tomato seedlings so that in a month it would have a pencil-thick stem? For this, seedlings need to be fed several times. The following question begs: how to feed tomato seedlings? The first time to feed seedlings on a bucket of water take 5 grams of ammonium nitrate, 40 grams of superphosphate and 12 grams of potassium chloride. After a week, a second top dressing is carried out, after a week - a third. Each time the dose must be doubled. At the same time, it must be remembered that if special soil purchased at the store is used to grow seedlings, then feeding may not be necessary.
For the fourth time, you need to take 10 grams of nitrate, 40 grams of superphosphate and 80 grams of potassium chloride into a bucket of water. How to feed tomato seedlings, if it grows weakly or vice versa, is there excessive growth? To stimulate the growth of seedlings, add more nitrate to the dressing, and to slow the growth, increase the dose of potassium and phosphorus fertilizers.