Growing tomatoes on your garden, you may face the question of whether to dive them.
Why dive tomatoes?
Proper tomato picking helps identify the strongest and most promising seedlings in order to later transplant them for growing in more comfortable conditions. Weak and sick seedlings are rejected at the same time.
How to pick up tomatoes?
Tomato seedlings can be dived when the first two leaves appear on the seedlings. Earlier or, conversely, late (when there were 3-4 leaves) picking tomatoes seedlings can cause tomatoes to become ill and will be prone to frequent diseases .
The procedure for diving tomatoes is as follows:
- Approximately two hours before the start of the pick, seedlings in containers should be watered. So the clods of earth with roots will be better separated from the bulk. It is advisable not to touch the stem itself and the leaves, since the temperature of the human fingers is much higher than the temperature of the seedlings. If you take the stem with your hands, then the plant can experience stress from such a high temperature. If necessary, it is better to use cloth gloves.
- Next, we prepare pots of small size and planting soil (a mixture of turf, peat and sand), the temperature of which should be kept at 20 degrees. To avoid spoilage of seedlings, water the soil in pots with a weak solution of potassium permanganate.
- Carefully remove the seedlings from the ground with a small wooden spatula, toothpick or any other medium-sized object.
- In the pot with the ground finger, make a small hole about 5 cm deep.
- Pour water into the hole.
- Without hurrying we plant a seedling in the hole. Cotyledon leaves should be above the ground.
- After planting, compact the earth with your finger.
- We place seedlings in a shaded place.
- Once or twice a week, watered.
Once the seedlings have taken root the seedlings must be rearranged to a sunny place. It is also important to periodically ventilate indoors to season tomatoes. The optimum ambient temperature is 15-18 degrees.
Top dressing of tomatoes after picking
After you decide to make a pickling tomato, you need to make fertilizer. They will help to strengthen the root system and will promote more active growth of tomatoes.
Do the dressing twice:
- 10-15 days after the picks;
- 2-3 weeks after the first fertilizing.
Any mineral complex fertilizer containing superphosphate, urea and potassium sulfate can be used.
After feeding, you must water the seedlings to wash away the remaining fertilizer. After watering, a slight loosening of the soil is carried out. As a result of properly conducted pickings, you will receive seedlings of tomatoes with a powerful root system, which means that later you will have beautiful and large tomatoes with excellent taste.