We save tomato seedlings before planting in the garden

How to keep tomato seedlings before planting and grow them correctly? This question worries every summer resident.

To determine if the seedlings are of good quality, examine their appearance. The leaves and stems of future tomatoes should look firm, healthy, and have a natural green tint.

Typically, seedlings are ready to plant about 1.5 months after sowing the seeds. Healthy seedlings have 4 to 6 full leaves. Their height is approximately 25 cm.

When to pick?

Sow tomato seeds in as many quantities as possible in spacious wooden boxes. After the sprouts sprout, choose those that have the healthiest appearance (large and strong). Selected seedlings must be planted in separate containers (boxes, pots, containers).

This method gives summer residents the opportunity to grow only good tomatoes. The sprouts in individual containers have an additional area for them to develop normally.

A pick must be made when the seedlings have at least one or two small leaves. Seedlings should be watered sparingly and dug up after a few hours. In this case, the roots are cut off by about one third. Tomato sprouts are carefully planted in a personal container.

How to prevent overgrowth of seedlings?

You need to try so that the tomato seedlings do not outgrow in any case. This is due to the fact that the roots of large shoots develop too much and the soil that is in the pot or plastic cup will no longer be enough for the seedlings. As a result, the gardener will receive frail and strongly elongated tomato seedlings instead of healthy and strong ones.

The reasons for the overgrowth of seedlings are different.

1. There was a delay in the timing of planting in the ground due to a prolonged winter or too cold spring.
2. Tomato seedlings were watered and fertilized abundantly.
3. There was not enough sunlight on the windowsills.

Such an unpleasant situation for summer residents can be prevented with several simple methods.

1. During the pick, part of the root mass is specially cut to prevent overgrowth.
2. Growth regulator applied to tomatoes.
3. The seeds are planted a little later than usual.

These methods will help prevent the tomatoes from overgrowing.

What to do with overgrown seedlings?

Don't worry if the tomato seedlings are slightly overgrown. Experienced gardeners are advised to adhere to the following methods.

1. Stop watering the seedlings and place the containers in a cool place.
2. When transplanted into a greenhouse or open ground, the lower part of the stem is placed under the ground. Such manipulations with the plant will shorten its length, and new roots will begin to move away from the stem.
3. Large branches are cut off from the shoot, rooted and then planted.

Such methods will help to grow a good harvest of tomatoes without any problems.

Proper watering is very important!

Tomato seedlings are best watered with filtered or settled water at room temperature. You can use melt water for these purposes, if there is no doubt about its harmlessness and quality. Each of the containers for planting seedlings should have drainage holes through which excess water will drain.

As for the frequency of watering, it will depend on many factors. The main ones are soil composition and weather. Typically, seedlings are watered from several times a day to once every seven days.

Advice

Watering can be done both in the morning and in the evening. But still the second way is preferable. It is advisable to do this at a time when there is no strong sun.

Correct use of peat tablet

Peat tablet is a rounded pressed mass of peat, having a diameter of about 8 cm and a thickness of 2.5 cm. In addition, such a product has a not too deep recess in the base. The advantage of such a tool is that the finished form and structure of the raw material from which the tablet is made helps the air to penetrate perfectly inside, to the roots, and nourish the seedlings. Among other things, the composition of such a tablet is balanced and does not require additional delivery of nutritional components.

Before you start using the tablet as directed, it must be laid out on a pallet with the base in which there is a depression. Water is poured into this recess (it must be at room temperature). After half an hour, the tablet will greatly increase in size and take on a cylindrical shape.

A small amount of seeds is placed in the recess of such a moistened cylinder and covered with humus on top. Next, greenhouse conditions are created for the tablet with the future tomato. To do this, they put it in a plastic or glass structure (for example, a wire cap covered with plastic wrap, or an aquarium turned upside down). After the seedlings grow and put down small roots, the plantings are planted directly in a cylinder of peat in a greenhouse or open ground.

How to properly preserve tomato seedlings?

If you need to leave for a while, and the seedlings need to be grown further, then the plantings can be easily saved without resorting to anyone's help. Water to seeds and sprouts can be supplied through the drip "thread" path known to many summer residents. In this case, a large container is filled with water and carried to each seedling along a thread of wool. The container should be placed above the level of the boxes with future tomatoes.

Another good method is a hydrogel - acrylamide, which manufacturers produce in the form of small granules or powder. It perfectly absorbs liquid, while increasing in size several times.

The hydrogel is usually added to the soil prior to planting, and then the seedlings are planted. It should be remembered that if you add dry granules and then water, the hydrogel swells greatly and all the soil will fall out of the containers. Therefore, experienced summer residents add the already pre-watered hydrogel to the ground. The advantages of this material are that it can be used to reduce the number of watering by up to 5-6 times. In addition, the soil structure will be much better.

Following these simple tips, every gardener will be able to grow a good harvest of tomatoes on his site. And ripe fruits will delight all summer.