How to get a good harvest of tomatoes when planted outdoors?

If we are not talking about the southern regions, but, for example, about the Urals, the Leningrad region or Siberia, then growing tomatoes even in greenhouses sometimes causes a lot of problems, not to mention planting in open ground. Nevertheless, some vegetable growers succeed in this quite successfully even against the background of a constantly deteriorating climate. To get a good harvest, you need to know some secrets of growing tomatoes in these conditions.

Site selection and soil preparation

Tomatoes are photophilous, but do not like direct sunlight, so a garden bed slightly shaded by a fruit tree or a greenhouse would be an ideal place for them. It is highly desirable that there are no drafts.

Good predecessors for tomatoes are onions, cucumbers, carrots, and planting after potatoes is fraught with infection with various diseases such as late blight.

Growing tomatoes outdoors makes it easier to prepare the soil as healthy, strong roots will find their own nourishment. Before planting, it is important not only to ensure that the necessary fertilizers are applied, but also to normalize the acidity, as well as the structure of the earth. Otherwise, the bushes, even against the background of timely feeding, will hurt and wither. A soil pH test is available from specialized stores. The ideal range for tomatoes is 6 to 7.

Advice

To reduce the acidity of the soil, lime is added (half a kilo per 1 m²), and sulfur is used to increase (in the same proportions).

Planting tomatoes in the same place for 2 years in a row is not recommended, but not everyone has the opportunity to change the location. In such cases, it is useful to reclaim the soil in the fall. This requires:

1. dig up, remove all plant residues from the soil;
2. apply fertilizers to the depth of the shovel bayonet: bird droppings, peat, humus, compost or potassium salt, superphosphate;
3. sow in the beds rye, white mustard or others siderates;
4. spill with a humic solution (this will help activate the beneficial microflora).

Advice

You should not bury unripe compost in the soil, as this will attract not only worms, but also the wireworm larva, which can damage the roots of young tomato seedlings.

Pre-winter soil cultivation will get rid of weeds and late blight, as well as provide oxygen saturation. In the spring, all seedlings of green manure are buried in the ground. White mustard saturates the soil well with phosphorus, which tomatoes love very much. You can also apply fertilizers (calculated per 1 m ²):

• 1 kg of bird droppings;
• 1.5 kg of ash;
• 20-25 g of ammonium sulfate.

Mineral additives for tomatoes:

• 55 g superphosphate;
• 20 g of ammonium nitrate;
• 15 g of potassium chloride.

Advice

In order to avoid oversaturation of the soil with individual elements, you can order a detailed soil analysis in a special laboratory. Tomatoes are better undernourished than over-fertilized.

It is not recommended to add manure to the soil, because tomatoes love it and will begin to "fatten": all the power will go to building up the green mass, the tops will twist in a ring, and the yield will be small.

In the southern regions, there is usually no problem with warming up the soil, but, for example, in the Urals, Siberia or the Leningrad region, frosts and cold weather can last until summer. Any black material, if they cover the tomato planting site approximately in mid-May, will significantly speed up the process.

Ridges for tomatoes are formed about a week before transplanting. It is advisable to stick to the direction from north to south.The height must be at least 20 cm.

Advice

Before planting tomatoes (2 weeks before), it is recommended to spill the soil with a solution of copper sulfate.

Cooking ratio: 1 tablespoon in a 10 liter bucket of water.

Consumption: 10 l per 10 m²... This measure will disinfect the soil.

Landing technique

In the southern regions, tomatoes can be planted in open ground in May, but in the Urals, in Siberia, in the Leningrad Region, tomatoes are planted in June. If the spring is warm, then it is possible on the 1st. Landmark - blossoming leaves on birches. Some gardeners first transfer the seedlings to the greenhouse, waiting for the temperature to stabilize. But usually the weather lets down, return frosts are possible up to the 10th. Ideally, tomato seedlings should temper a few days before planting: take out for the day in the air, and if the temperature permits, then leave it outside overnight.

Before planting, it is useful to spray the seedlings with a solution of the "Fitosporin-M" preparation for the prevention of fungal diseases. Subsequently, you should regularly water and spray tomatoes with it once every 2 weeks. You can also carry out processing on the sheet "Epinom". This non-toxic natural adaptogen will help young tomatoes cope with unfavorable weather, temperature changes in June, and accelerate growth.

Landing scheme

Regarding at what distance to plant tomatoes, there is a single recommendation - 70 * 70 cm with the square-nesting method (it is most convenient for tall types of tomatoes). However, in practice, the tomato planting scheme is largely determined by the variety. Currently, very miniature species have been bred that can be planted within a radius of 40 cm from each other.

Planting by the classical method is carried out in 2 rows, while different schemes are applied for each type of tomato.

• For the undersized, the average distance between the bushes is 30-35 cm, and between the rows - 40-50 cm.
• For tall and medium tomatoes, all parameters increase by 10 cm.

In some cases, a tape-nesting method of planting is used: furrows are cut for irrigation at a distance of 140 cm, and tomatoes are planted in 2 bushes per hole on both sides of them.

Hole preparation and disembarkation

If the fertilizer has already been applied to the soil, then nothing else needs to be added directly to the hole. It is advisable to shed it two days before planting tomatoes boric acid solution (the procedure is especially relevant for sandy loam infertile soils). Recipe: 1 g of boric acid is diluted in a liter of hot water and wait until it cools completely.

Some vegetable growers recommend putting a small fish on the bottom of the hole before planting, sprinkling it with earth. Tomatoes are very fond of such a top dressing, which provides them with potassium, magnesium, phosphorus and iron. But the hole must be made about 60 cm deep so that the cats do not dig the fish.

When planting tomatoes, the following technology is used.

• A deepening is made a little more than an earthen lump of a bush, watering is performed with warm water. In this case, it is advisable to use a fertilizer based on ultrahumate. Humic and fulvic acids in its composition convert nutrients in the soil into forms accessible to roots.
• If the seedlings are not elongated, then the stem is deepened into the hole by 2-3 cm.
• If the bush is overgrown and thin, then a small trench is dug, planting is done at an angle so that the plant can strengthen faster due to the growth of additional roots.

Advice

When planting early early ripening varieties of tomatoes, it should be borne in mind that strong deepening will slow down the appearance of the crop for 2-3 weeks, since the bush will grow new roots.

The soil around the freshly planted bush is slightly compacted, but not watered for two reasons:

• the resulting crust will prevent the roots from breathing;
• an unfilled root system will quickly straighten out in search of moisture.

The second watering is done about a week later with warm, settled water.

Unconventional growing methods

An alternative to the beds is to grow tomato bushes in various containers: a barrel, a large canister, even in ordinary buckets. This original method makes it possible to obtain large yields from one plant (30-50 kg of fruits) in a limited area. This result is explained by good heating of the roots, availability of nutrition. In both the barrel and the buckets, the focus is on a single tomato seedling that grows into a sprawling “tomato tree”.

In barrels

Tall hybrids of tomatoes with powerful stems and a developed root system are suitable for growing in a barrel. The farming technique is pretty simple.

• In a barrel (you can take an old, rusty one), about 15-20 holes are knocked out on the sides to provide oxygen to the roots, the bottom is cut out.
• At the very bottom, you need to put a 20-30 cm layer of urgas (organic fertilizer - a mixture of food waste and the preparation "Baikal EM1") and compost (mix in a 1: 1 ratio).
• Pour about half a bucket of fertile soil in the center.
• At the end of May, a strong seedling is planted in the prepared mixture in a spilled hole and covered with glass or film, which is removed in June.
• The bush is stepchild until the top appears over the edges of the barrel, all this time the nutritious soil mixture with compost is poured in portions. Over the summer, 20-30 brushes should form on the tomato.

It is not necessary to put urgas if the soil is nutritious. You can put compost directly into the hole.

Caring for the "tomato tree" is simple: on the sides of the barrel, two supports are driven in, onto which the brushes and branches of the tomato will be tied. Watering is done a couple of times a week, and after a month and a half the plant is fed with a mixture of compost and water (1: 4).

There is also an interesting agricultural technique for growing tomatoes in a barrel according to the Tarasov method, in which the yield of the bush reaches 70 kg. The bottom line is that a bag with a nutrient mixture is tied under each stepson, that is, additional independent bushes develop on one mother.

In buckets

Growing in buckets is done according to the same principle as in barrels, but the bottom can remain in place, then holes are knocked out at a height of 2-3 cm from it. You can fill it with soil in half with compost. One plant is planted in a watered hole. For growing in standard 10 L buckets, low-growing varieties of tomatoes are suitable.

Advice

When cultivating tomatoes in buckets, it is advisable to shade the container, but not wrap it with black material for this.

It was noticed that the fruits of tomatoes in buckets do not crack, have a dense structure, and are not watery. Plants are not afraid of slugs and other pests, the risk of infection with late blight is reduced. Such tomatoes begin to bear fruit as early as June, and end at the end of September. Other care, except for garter and watering, is not required.

There is another very original, but scientifically based agricultural technique: growing tomatoes in barrels or buckets with their roots upside down. This method is unacceptable for tall tomatoes. The essence of the method: a hole about 8 cm in diameter is cut in buckets or barrels at the bottom, the containers are hung on a solid support. A seedling is threaded into the hole, the roots are sprinkled with a nutrient mixture for 5 cm, then a layer of compost, then again the soil. And so put in layers to the top. Such tomatoes in buckets look very original and bring a high yield. Care consists in watering and 1-2 dressings per season.

Advice

You can sow herbs on top in buckets. This will keep the soil from drying out.

the area is very limited. Ampel tomatoes can be planted even on the balcony and in just 50 days you can get a harvest. The fruits are small (20-30 g), but subject to agricultural technology, there will be a lot of them.

Ampel tomatoes of the cold-resistant Talisman variety (fruits 40-80 g) can be grown without problems in the Urals or Siberia. Seedlings are planted at the end of May or in June, and in case of frost, the containers are covered or brought into the room.

Ampel tomatoes will grow well in a soil mixture of the following components (in equal proportions):

• sod land;
• peat;
• humus.

Useful to add ash and potassium sulfate, and spill the well with Fitosporin-M before planting. Ampel varieties do not tolerate waterlogging, therefore, a drainage layer must be placed on the bottom of the container.

The technique of growing tomatoes in separate containers removes the question of how far to plant tomatoes, and also greatly facilitates care.

Popular varieties for open ground

Not only in specialized stores, but also on the shelves of hypermarkets, a wide selection of tomato seeds is presented today. All of them are mostly zoned, and many are suitable for planting in open ground. For the southern regions, the spectrum is almost unlimited, but for the Leningrad region and the northern regions of Russia, where summer is colder and rainy from year to year, species resistant to fungal diseases and unfavorable weather conditions should be selected.

Here is a brief description of varieties suitable for open ground.

Medium height (40-60 cm)

• "White filling". Frost-resistant, reaches a height of 50 cm. Fruits appear on the hundredth day after the first shoots. "White filling" is determinant, that is, growth stops after the ovary of a certain number of fetal brushes. Stealing is not required. The weight of the "White filling" variety is from 90 to 120 g.
• "Sanka" ("Sanya"). Early ripening (about 80 days before harvest) and unpretentious. Forms bushes about 50 cm. Fruits are small (80 g), but there are many of them. Variety "Sanka" refers to determinant, all care consists in tying and several dressings. Tomato "Sanka" is zoned for planting in open ground in the Central Black Earth region, but, according to reviews, it also ripens well in the Moscow region and even in Siberia.
• "Persimmon". Large fruits (200-300 g) are yellow. There is a positive experience of growing in the open field in the Urals. "Persimmon" is a mid-season variety. When planted without shelter, it reaches 70 cm in height. "Persimmon" has a significant drawback - in a humid summer, there is a high probability of fungal diseases.
• "Gina". Mid-season variety. Fruits from 180 to 250 g in weight with a very dense skin. The “Gina” tomato is resistant to fusarium and verticillary wilting.
• "Red sun". An early ripening hybrid, fruit weight from 85 to 120 g. In the soil "Krasno Solnyshko" grows up to 60 cm. The tomato is resistant to tobacco mosaic virus and Alternaria. The “Red Sun” was bred specifically for planting in open beds, so it can be safely planted even in Siberia.

Tall

• "Round dance". Early ripening variety. In the open field it reaches a height of more than 2 m. The fruits of the Round Dance tomato are small (5-10 g), but very sweet, ripen together.
• "De Barao". Tall bushes that need to be tied up have excellent yields both in greenhouses and in the open field. There are several types of fruit that differ in color. "De Barao" black for open ground in the Leningrad region, Siberia or the Urals is not recommended, because it ripens late. Red and yellow ("Tsarsky" and "Golden") are cold-resistant, with dry and warm autumn, you can remove the fruits until frost. The root system is very powerful, therefore it is necessary to water at the rate of 2 buckets of water every 4 days (in hot weather). "De Barao" is formed in 1-2 stems, pinching - as needed. The last watering is in mid-August, all existing inflorescences are removed.
• Blagovest F1, Verlioka and Bull's Heart. The bushes are tall (up to 2 m), pinching is necessary to form in 2 stems. Blagovest F1, Verlioka and Bull's Heart can grow outdoors, but the yield will be lower than in a greenhouse. For colder regions, landing on unprotected beds is not recommended. In these varieties, it is necessary to tie up not only the trunk itself, but also the clusters with fruits. "Blagovest F1" - early maturing, like "Verlioka", resistant to major diseases. "Bull's Heart" - mid-season.Variety "black" is less resistant to diseases, it is not intended for open ground in the northern regions.
• Mahitos. These are tall (up to 2 m) powerful hybrids that can easily adapt to open ground. "Makhitos" is not afraid of cladosporium, nematode, tobacco mosaic virus. Watering should be dosed, otherwise the bush will begin to "fatten". The fruits of the Mahitos variety are large (230-400 g), so the brushes need to be tied up.

Low-growing (up to 40 cm)

• "Broody". Neither pinching nor garter is required. Fruits 80-150 g, hiding behind the leaves. "Klusha" gives a yield of about 1 kg per bush. However, there are complaints - there are frequent cases of cracking of fruits in the region of the stalk.
• Pinocchio. Low-growing variety, like "Klusha". Outdoors, it is more bushy and fertile. Pinocchio can even be planted in flower beds for decoration. There are many fruits, but they are slightly larger than cherries. "Pinocchio" needs minimal care: only watering, tying up and removing stepchildren is not necessary.
• "Silver Spruce". This shaggy bush, although not one of the tall ones, is too sprawling, so it is necessary to tie it up. "Silver Spruce" produces oval fruits, up to 30 pieces per plant. The variety is very responsive to feeding. Silver spruce is planted at the rate of 2-3 bushes per 1m².
• Pink Bush. Early maturing Japanese hybrid, resistant to diseases and sunburn. In open ground in Siberia or the Leningrad region, "Pink Bush" is planted according to the scheme of 4-6 bushes per 1m², since it does not grow in this climate (30-35 cm). Caring for the Pink Bush variety after planting is simple: pinching is not necessary, only feeding and watering.
• "Dubok". This variety, like Gina, is well suited for open ground. "Dubok" is early ripening, it is distinguished by abundant harvests (fruits 90-130 g). Forms chunky bushes that can be grown even at home. In open ground "Dubok" is planted in June according to the scheme 60 * 40 cm.

It is recommended to plant several varieties at once and observe which ones are optimal for a particular area.

Care

Caring for tomatoes in the open field is easier than in a greenhouse, since watering is partly taken over by the rains, and a developed root system can itself provide food for the plant. It is important to provide high-quality bushes. For this purpose, for medium-sized varieties, 10 cm from the hole, immediately upon planting, a support is installed - pegs of 50-80 cm, and for tall varieties it is better to build trellises. The garter is made under the fruit brush.

As for pinching, low-growing varieties usually do not need this procedure; in the southern regions, you can also leave a branchy bush. But in Siberia, in the Urals or in the North-West region, it is better to form a plant of 1-2 stems.

The first feeding is done 12-14 days after planting in the ground - with a solution of chicken manure in water in a ratio of 1:20. Then, once every 10 days, mineral fertilizers are applied: 60 g of nitrophoska per 10 liters of water.

Disease prevention and yield increase

Tomatoes in the open field are also susceptible to various fungal and viral diseases, as in greenhouses, so they need regular processing. As a prophylaxis for phytophthora, spraying with Bordeaux liquid or boric acid solution is carried out. The first treatment is after disembarkation, then - weekly.

A solution of boric acid can also be used as a top dressing, because with a lack of boron, the tomato drops flowers without setting fruit. The first spraying of tomatoes with a boric acid solution is performed before flowering, the second - during mass flowering, the third - at the beginning of the appearance of ovaries. You can feed not on the sheet, but at the root.

If you know how to properly plant tomatoes in the ground and provide them with nutrition, then you will get a good harvest even in cool regions. The main mistakes when growing tomatoes in the open air are the wrong choice of varieties, neglect of disease prevention and feeding.

It makes sense to plant several species at once, the characteristics of which correspond to the conditions of a particular area. You can use various growing methods to increase the yield and accelerate the ripening of tomatoes: in buckets, wooden tubs, barrels. The ampelous varieties in hanging pots are also noteworthy. With this approach, there will be many fruits with different ripeness and taste.