Tomato seedling on the windowsill: how to properly plant and grow and how often to water?

Tomatoes are one of the favorite crops of gardeners. Unpretentious plant that produces any crop with any care. Growing seedlings in a residential environment is not such a difficult task.

With a careful approach and consistent action, as well as (which is not unimportant) with little money spent, the summer season will delight you with a rich harvest of fruits.

Further in the article we will describe how to correctly determine the time for sowing seeds at home and prepare a good soil for these purposes.

Preparing to grow healthy tomatoes in the apartment

Let's start with the place. It does not need much, so the window will do. The south window will be ideal, since it is possible to grow tomatoes without illumination. But other parts of the world do not interfere with healthy, fruitful shoots. To dark windows add screens of foil or white cardboard from the side of the room. Residents of the northern regions, or owners of high spreading trees in front of the windows, also should not be upset. In such cases, the sun should be replaced with a fluorescent lamp.

Light day for seedlings should be 10-12 hours. There is a fairly large selection of lighting for this type of plant. The phyto-lamp Solntsedar D-20 is able to replace your seedlings with sunlight. With the help of phyto-lighting plants, seedlings are grown in rooms without windows. This lamp is designed for 50,000 hours of operation with a power consumption of 20 W.

To maintain and adjust the temperature for tomatoes during the growth period, we offer the following option.

1. Separate the window from the room with polyethylene.
2. By means of a window leaf it is easy to regulate temperature.
3. Be sure to install a thermometer. At different stages, tomato pets need a certain temperature.

To maintain the humidity during the heating season, it is enough to spray the seedlings 1-2 times a day., or use electric air humidifiers. You can also go great-grandmother's way. Put a basin of water under the battery, or hang a wet towel on the battery. Who is more like it.

How to determine the timing of sowing seeds at home?

Temporary recommendations for sowing seeds - from the end of winter, namely from mid-February to the end of March. It depends on which latitudes (southern or northern) the gardener lives in. Planting seeds depends on the time of planting in the ground. From this day we subtract 55-65 days. Add another week if you plan to grow with a pick. This will be the seed planting day. For example: if disembarkation is planned on June 1, then sowing of seeds is made on the 20th of March.

Seeds should be chosen from those varieties that are perfectly adapted to the conditions of your region. Can be purchased at the store, paying for shelf life and package integrity. And you can use your proven, prepared in advance.

1. Carefully sort the seeds, remove substandard (dry, split, moldy).
2. For a better start, the seeds should be awakened, give a vital impulse.
3. To begin with, they are disinfected. To do this, placed in a 1% solution of manganese for 20 minutes. The solution is made at the rate of 1 gram per half glass of water.
4. To accelerate ripening, sow seeds in a solution of wood ash — the source of trace elements and growth stimulants — before sowing (for two days leave a tablespoonful of ash 0.5 liters of ash).
5. Immerse the seeds wrapped in a gauze bag for 4-5 hours into the solution.
6. Seeds are decontaminated, impregnated with microelements, ready for germination.

The coated or granulated seeds in a protective nutrient sheath of an organic-mineral nutrient mixture are soaked and are not subject to additional soaking. Sow such seeds dry in the ground.

To wake up a seed, you need moisture, oxygen and heat.. To do this, wrap the seeds in a wet gauze on a saucer, and hide it in a plastic bag. We set for 2-3 days in a warm place, from about 22-28 degrees. Create a microworld seed.

Suitable capacity

In stores a large selection of products for seedlings. Peat seed tablets, peat cassettes and plastic cellular pallets, peat and plastic pots. But for sowing seeds, ordinary plastic containers or milk cartons will be suitable, in which you must make holes along the perimeter for water flow.

For seedlings after picking, cardboard or plastic egg packs, plastic cups are suitable. The main thing is that they are not very small in relation to the seedlings, and not too large.

How to cook a good soil?

To improve the quality of seedlings, the soil should contain all the nutrients and trace elements necessary for the plant in the right proportion. Overabundance or lack of trace elements is harmful to plants. The soil is selected loose, light, porous and pH-neutral. Also should treat the soil from pathogens and fungithat are detrimental to our young seedlings.

There is a very large selection of soil mixtures for sale both for vegetable crops in general and for tomatoes in particular. Before you buy a primer, check out its composition. Ideally, several varieties of soil should be present in the soil mixture.

Below is a table with recipes for self-preparation of the soil. Also, it will help to understand the finished soil mixtures. What should be in the composition and what should not be there. Recipes soil mixture for self-preparation. Numbers indicate any measures that you will use to measure: buckets, cups, etc.

We offer to watch a video on how to prepare the soil for seedlings:

How to plant step by step?

2-3 days after soaking the seeds appear sprouts. It's time to sow. Sprouted seedlings are grown with and without picking, sowing seeds immediately in pots. But at the same time, a large area is involved and more often they choose to grow with a pick. Before planting seeds, the soil must be sieved.

1. Fill the soil mixture with a height of at least 10 cm. If we sow with a pick, 6cm is enough.
2. Pour warm water.
3. We make grooves in 3-4 cm depth up to 1 cm. In 1-2 cm we lay out the seeds in them.
4. Fall asleep and moisten the grooves. If the planting package is small, simply spread the seeds on the surface in rows, sprinkle with earth 1cm thick and moisten.
5. For sowing, select those seeds that sprouted.
6. Packed in a plastic bag or covered with glass and set in a warm place 25-27 degrees.
7. It is necessary to monitor the humidity, but not to flood.

We offer to see how to plant tomato seedlings:

The emergence of shoots and picks

The period of emergence of shoots is three to four days.. Do not miss the moment and immediately put on the light. Limited access to light, high temperature and high humidity lead to stretching of the seedlings. Such a plant will be thinner and weaker, and therefore less fruitful. Further, within 4 days we observe the temperature regime: in the daytime 12-15 degrees, at night 9-12 degrees. On day 5, we increase the daily temperature to 23–25 degrees, at night from 12 to 14. For this, the option with polyethylene and window leaves will do.

For a uniform development of the shoots, it is necessary to periodically substitute the sun to different sides of the seedlings. Otherwise, they all bent in one direction.

The period from seedling sprouting to picking (phase of seedlings) takes 20 days. In this period, seedlings really need additional phosphorus, as they do not absorb it well from the ground. With a lack of phosphorus seedlings slow down in growth and their leaves become purple in color. Without ashes in this case can not do. Nitrogen nutrition of seedlings in this phase is reduced to a minimum.

Especially often do not need to water, it must be done as the soil dries. Do not allow the soil to dry out. When watering try not to fall on the plants with water.

When there are two true leaves, we begin to prepare for the pick. Since the root system grows and intertwines with neighboring seedlings, it is not worth tightening with a pick. In order to transplant a seedling with a lump of soil, the soil should be watered the day before the procedure. Prepare the container in advance.

1. We take pots or bags for seedlings of approximately 0.5 liters.
2. Pour the soil on 2/3 and make the hole. Only strong, correctly developed saplings are subject to change.
3. Carefully remove the sapling with a lump of earth, trying not to damage the roots, and transfer the seedling to the pot.
4. The seedling is buried a little more than it grew before transplanting 2 cm.
5. We soil the ground around the seedling, and then, holding it, water it. So the soil will more closely surround the damaged roots.

Some people pinch down the central root when picking in order to better develop the side roots. Others believe that when picking, so the roots are damaged, which is stressful for the plant and avoid it.

So, the seedlings are transplanted into separate pots, where they will grow and grow stronger before transplanting to the ground.

We offer to watch a video with a detailed description of the process of emergence of seedlings of tomatoes and its picking:

Diseases

Why does tomato seedlings wither, turn yellow, dry or die, and what to do in these cases? Why seedlings stretch or outgrow, and also what to do so that they do not stretch? Here is some types of seedling diseases:

What if the seedlings on the windowsill suddenly bloomed? Relocate flowering seedlings to a colder place, remove only wilted or double flowers. To keep growth experienced gardeners do not recommend. But for the future give such advice. After picking on day 10, pour the seedlings with onion peel infusion. This infusion will gain strength trunk and slow growth in height. The infusion is done as follows: they fill a one-liter jar with onion peel, pour boiling water over it. After cooling, the infusion is poured and diluted with water 1: 5.

We offer to watch a video about seedling diseases:

Watch the video: Tomatoes: Growing Indoor Tomatoes Year Round - on How to Grow a Garden with Scarlett (April 2024).