How to feed tomato seedlings if the leaves turn pale

Do you want to have strong and healthy tomato seedlings? Provide her with proper care, timely apply the appropriate feeding.

What does care include?

For seedlings of capricious tomatoes, it is necessary to create favorable conditions.

• They are very demanding on temperature conditions: they do not like either heat or cold. During the day for seedlings, it is advisable to maintain room temperature (from 18 to 23 degrees), at night - not lower than 15 degrees.
• Before planting in open ground, it is advisable to harden tomato seedlings so that it can more easily withstand the temperature drop. Two weeks before planting in the ground, you can begin to open the window for a short while in the daytime and at night. If it becomes warm outside the window, more than 12 degrees, you can take the seedlings to the balcony for a short time. Gradually, the time spent outdoors is brought to 12 hours.
• Humidity is also a very important factor for the development of young seedlings. Moreover, the soil should be sufficiently moist, while tomatoes like dry air. To maintain the desired moisture level, tomato seedlings must be properly watered. At first - not enough, only when all the seedlings grow. Then watering is carried out every 1-2 weeks. The water should be warm, the temperature is not lower than twenty degrees. Before watering, the water must be defended. It is better to pour it under the roots of tomatoes, and not on the leaves. You cannot overdo it with soil moisture, the roots will begin to rot. Especially if there is no hole in the seedling container for water drainage.
• Tomato seedlings need a lot of light. Even at night it is necessary to illuminate them with special lamps. During the day, the seedlings should be on the sunny side of the house.
• To saturate the roots of seedlings with oxygen, the soil must be loosened. It is important to do this carefully, with a stick, without damaging the root system.
• When about two weeks have passed, tomato seedlings should be dive... Move the seedlings into larger pots so that they can develop normally further. This should be done together with a lump of earth, without touching the roots.
• To prevent a young tomato from dying from pests, it is necessary to treat it with special insecticides at the first appearance of parasites.
• Prevention of viral diseases is also important. For this, the leaves are sprayed with skim milk (a liter of water per 100 g of milk).
• A prerequisite for the normal development and growth of tomatoes is top dressing. It can be root (watering) and foliar (leaf spraying).

More about feeding seedlings

It is better to feed tomato seedlings often, but in small quantities. The most suitable time of day for this is morning or evening. The amount of dressing may vary depending on the specific growing conditions. But there must be necessarily two fertilization, after which it is additionally fertilized as needed. At the same time, it is important to keep an eye on the plants all the time: their appearance will tell you whether they need feeding and which one.

Initially, all the necessary nutrients must be introduced into the soil where the tomato seedlings will grow. The first time you need to feed the plants will be when two or three leaves appear. This feeding requires nitrogen. Why? It helps greenery develop. But exceeding the application rate can lead to the accumulation of nitrates. Water solution urea (a tablespoon per 10 liters of water) seedlings should be watered at the root.

The second feeding of tomatoes should take place after seven days. For this it is taken nitrophoska (tablespoon per liter of water).

Good for fertilizing seedlings with compost or other organic fertilizing.They must be poured into a container with seedlings.

Foliar dressing is also important for young tomatoes. The method is very easy to use. The solution is simple to prepare: a tablespoon of superphosphate is dissolved in well heated water (one liter in volume). Then it is infused for a day, after which the pale half of the solution must be poured out and more water added in the amount of nine liters. Place the resulting liquid in a sprayer and process the leaf surface of the tomatoes.

Causes of seedling leaves blanching

Why does the surface of the leaves turn pale? There may be several reasons.

1. Excessive watering of the plant.
2. Tomato seedlings do not have enough heat.
3. Lack of oxygen.
4. This is how the lack of light manifests itself.
5. With an overabundance of light, the leaves will be light green and then turn yellow.
6. There is not enough room for young tomatoes to develop normally.
7. The roots are damaged or there are problems with their nutrition due to a sharp temperature drop or errors during transplantation.
8. The seedlings are deficient in trace elements.

Troubleshooting Tips

• If the reason is waterlogging of seedlings, the number and volume of irrigation should be limited.
• Do not let the tomato seedlings freeze; if necessary, cover them with foil.
• To avoid oxygen starvation, do not allow the earth to harden around the roots, loosen it in time.
• The lack of light is solved by additional lighting. To artificially prolong the daylight hours, the lamps must be used at least six hours a day.
• If the leaves turn light green or turn yellow due to excessive lighting, create the possibility of a normal rest for the seedlings at night without additional light. Also, don't forget about feeding.
• A plant transplanted from a tight container on time will immediately feel better.
• Do you know for sure that the leaves turn pale due to problems with the root system? So, don't rush to do anything. Why? The tomato itself will cope with this problem after a while.

Eliminating nutrient deficiencies is only possible by applying the correct fertilizer.

What elements are missing in yellowing seedlings?

• We need nitrogen. In this case leaves turn yellow below, the leaves are small, poorly developed. Reddish streaks are visible on the yellowed leaf. When dosed nitrogen fertilization the green coloration will return to the plant.
• Possibly not enough potassium. Submit potash fertilizerotherwise inflorescences and ovaries will be scarce in the future.
• Lack of zinc or boron manifests itself in the appearance of yellow specks and curling of leaves.
• Iron deficiency is common. The leaves become thin, turn white, wither and hang down.
• The edges of the leaves are twisted, the leaves themselves turn white, fall off. Why? Not enough calcium.

Advice

To feed tomato seedlings, buy the appropriate formulations from the store or prepare one yourself. Irrigation solution: superphosphate - 35 g, urea - 5 g, water - 10 liters.

The most important rule when growing tomatoes is to constantly monitor the seedlings. Why should you do this? Having studied the possible causes of the appearance of yellowness and pallor, one can easily diagnose by the characteristic external signs. Remove the cause of the ailment, and the leaves of the seedlings will turn green again.

Careful attention and timely feeding with the necessary nutrients will help your seedlings grow strong and have healthy leaves.