How to germinate tomato seeds correctly before planting seedlings?

Presowing processing of seed material allows you to improve the quality of seedlings and get a faster harvest in the future. Those who prefer to germinate tomato seeds for seedlings do so in order to get seedlings quickly. You can skip the calibration step, revealing the viability of the planting material at the stage of germination.

Selecting seeds for planting

Before you start sowing seeds, you need to decide on the choice of variety. Varietal varieties of tomatoes are divided into groups depending on the following indicators:

• ripening time;
• growing method;
• destination of fruits.

The variety must necessarily be zoned, that is, suitable for the climatic conditions of the growing region. Experienced gardeners acquire several varieties of tomatoes at once.

• The superearly varieties are distinguished by accelerated fruiting times, but have an ordinary taste.
• After 1.5 weeks, early tomatoes ripen, mainly used for salads.
• The most popular are mid-season varieties, they provide the bulk of the crop.
• Late tomatoes are usually grown for long-term storage.

You can grow tomatoes in a greenhouse and in the open field. Mid-season and mid-late varieties are often grown without shelter. Experts recommend hybrids for planting in open ground, which give abundant yields, are resistant to diseases and the vagaries of the weather.

In greenhouses, plants are protected from adverse weather conditions, which is why early tomatoes are usually grown here.

According to the purpose, tomato varieties are divided into salad, for whole-fruit canning and universal.

• Tomatoes intended for salads have juicy fleshy and sweet pulp, large size.
• The fruit grown for canning is usually small, oval in shape, with firm flesh and thick skin.
• All-purpose tomatoes combine excellent taste and canning parameters.

It is better to buy planting material in large garden centers or specialized stores, giving preference to a well-known seed manufacturer:

• "Aelita",
• "Sedek"
• "Russian seeds",
• "Gavrish",
• "Biotechnics",
• "Semko".

It is the right choice of variety that will help to avoid disappointment and get a good harvest.

Presowing preparation

Before planting tomatoes for seedlings at home, pre-sowing seed treatment is required. For seed purchased in a store, this step is not necessary, the manufacturer has taken care of this in advance. If the seeds were bought on the market or taken from self-grown fruits, they need to be prepared for sowing.

Preparation is carried out in several stages:

1. Calibration. The procedure allows to determine the number of empty and defective seeds before sowing and get rid of them. To prepare a saline solution, add a teaspoon of salt to 1 glass of water. The seed is soaked in salt water. Floated seeds are not suitable for planting, they can be thrown away. And the seeds that have sunk to the bottom of the container are washed in water and proceed to the next step.
2. Disinfection. It can be carried out using a 3% solution of hydrogen peroxide, 1% solution of potassium permanganate or a solution of the drug "Fitosporin-M", prepared according to the instructions. The soaking time is 15–20 minutes.After this treatment, the seeds also need to be washed. The procedure helps to destroy viruses, bacteria, and fungal spores present in the planting material.
3. Soaking in solutions of growth stimulants. This technique is used to accelerate the growth of seedlings and strengthen their immunity. In the future, the plants are less sick, better withstand adverse conditions. The most effective stimulating drugs are Zircon, Energen, NV-101, Epin-extra.

Slightly less popular preparatory procedures are bubbling, heating, hardening. It is quite possible to do without them, provided that the seeds are of high quality.

In those cases when the summer resident is late with sowing and it is required to get seedlings as soon as possible, seed germination is used.

How to carry out germination correctly?

If it is decided to germinate tomato seeds before planting, you can skip the calibration procedure, but it is desirable to disinfect the planting material and soak it in a stimulating solution.

To carry out the manipulation correctly, the seeds are not completely immersed in water, but laid out on a damp cloth or a piece of foam rubber folded in several layers.

When they are in water for more than 18 hours, the seeds will die, since when they swell, they need oxygen.

From above you need to cover the seeds with a damp cloth. The fabric must be periodically moistened, making sure that it does not dry out. The container with seeds is placed in a warm place and waited for the moment of pecking. The process can take different time. The number of days it takes for sprouts to appear depends on the quality of the seeds and the temperature in the house.

The sprouts hatch unevenly. This must be monitored, keeping the planting soil at the ready in order to immediately start sowing. It is necessary to plant when the length of the sprout is equal to the length of the seed itself. Those that have not yet hatched are left for further germination.

Planting process

For growing tomato seedlings in room conditions, soil and containers for seedlings are prepared in advance. The sowing process is simple and quick, but it requires compliance with some nuances.

Soil requirements

It is better to use purchased land intended specifically for planting tomatoes: when compiling such a mixture, all the needs of the crop have already been taken into account. You can also use a universal seedling soil.

For reasons of economy, you can make up the soil mixture yourself. To do this you need to take:

• 2 pieces of garden land;
• 1 part peat;
• 1 part humus.

If the soil is too dense, you can add river sand, vermiculite or some sawdust to it. To increase fertility, wood ash is added to the soil and spilled with a solution of potassium sulfate, superphosphate and carbamide, using the proportions recommended by the manufacturer.

Self-made soil mixture must be disinfected by steaming in the oven. Purchased soil does not require fertilization and disinfection, it has already passed all the necessary preparation during production.

Seedling containers

For growing tomato seedlings from seeds, any 200 ml containers are suitable. These can be commercial pots, plastic and peat cups, cut juice and milk bottles, purchased cassettes. You can also plant seedlings in a common container. At the initial stage of seedling growth, this is not of fundamental importance. The main thing is that the container is clean.

Before planting, you need to disinfect the containers by holding them in a saturated solution of potassium permanganate for about half an hour.

The container must have drainage holes. In addition, a layer of fine expanded clay is laid on the bottom to protect the delicate roots from decay as a result of accidental stagnation of water.

Sowing procedure

The soil is laid on the drainage layer, lightly tamped and watered. Further actions depend on the type of container used:

1. When sowing in a common container, grooves with a depth of 15 mm are cut on the soil surface at a distance of 5 cm from each other. In separate cups, 3 small holes 15 mm deep are made with a pencil, one seedling is sown in each. In the future, one strong seedling is left, and weaker plants are removed.
2. The depressions are slightly moistened with warm water or a weak fertilizer solution.
3. Seeds are laid out in the grooves with a step of 3 cm. One seed is placed in the holes.
4. Crops are sprinkled with loose earth and sprayed with a spray bottle.
5. Top containers are covered with glass or transparent film to create an optimal microclimate.

Containers with seedlings are placed in a warm place and the temperature is maintained at + 23–25 ° C until shoots appear. If necessary, the soil is lightly sprayed and the plantings are aired daily for 15 minutes.

Seedling care

As soon as the sprouts have appeared above the surface of the ground, the shelter is removed. The temperature of the content at this moment must be lowered to +18 ° C during the day and +13 ° C at night so that the seedlings do not stretch out. After a week, it will be possible to return to the previous temperature values.

Watering is carried out in the morning, the water should be settled, have room temperature or be slightly warmer. Water the tomato seedlings 1 time in 5-7 days with sufficient water. Moisture should completely wet the earthen lump. At first, it is more convenient to water seedlings from a syringe or a small syringe.

With early sowing (February-early March), the seedlings are illuminated with a fluorescent lamp for 2 hours in the morning and evening. In cloudy weather, the lighting is not turned off all day. So that the seedlings do not bend, they are regularly turned to the window with the opposite side. From the second half of March, the backlight can no longer be used.

Seedlings dive when 2-3 true leaves appear: in order for the plants to develop, they need to increase the volume of the pot. After three weeks, a re-pick is carried out in a larger container. Elongated seedlings are deepened during transplantation, later they will grow additional roots. Before planting in the ground, the seedlings must be hardened.

Presowing seed germination can only be beneficial. We should not forget about the other stages of the preparation of planting material. All of them in the complex allow you to get strong healthy tomato bushes, which will give a high-quality harvest in a shorter time.