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Many gardeners prefer to grow varieties of large-fruited tomatoes. One of them is the Eagle Heart tomato. Pink tomatoes, distinguished by excellent taste, large fruits, are winning more and more hearts. One tomato is enough for a salad for the whole family. Fruits are used most often for these purposes.
Pink-cheeked tomatoes can be canned, just need wide-mouthed containers. And what an amazingly thick and tasty tomato juice is obtained from Eagle Heart tomatoes! Any housewife will find use for large and fragrant fruits.
Variety description
To understand what an Eagle Heart tomato is, a characteristic and description of the variety is necessary. We will share this information with our readers.
Bush description
Tomato refers to mid-season indeterminate varieties with unlimited growth. The height of plants in greenhouse conditions reaches 180 cm. When grown outdoors, it is slightly lower.
In the Eagle Heart tomato, this can be seen in the photo, the stem is powerful, thick with a large number of medium light green leaf blades.
Tomato throws out flower stalks with whitish-yellow inconspicuous flowers. On a simple brush, as a rule, up to 7 flowers. The first brush on the tomatoes of this variety appears above the seventh leaf, then every two. And not all flowers will become fruits. It’s all about the large size of the Eagle Heart tomato. Most often, 3-4 tomatoes hang on the brushes. On the first brushes it happens a little more (see photo).
Features of the fruit
Fruits of large sizes sometimes up to 800-1000 grams (on the lower inflorescences). Tomatoes resemble a rounded heart in shape, for which they got their name. The tip of the pink-scarlet fruit is slightly elongated.
The Eagle Heart tomato, according to the description, reviews of gardeners and consumers, is distinguished by its fleshy pulp, sugary at the break. The fruits are juicy, there are few seed chambers.
Although tomatoes have a dense skin, which prevents cracking, it is not rough. The taste of tomatoes of the Eagle Heart variety is rich, truly tomato, there is more sugar in the fruits than acids.
Characteristics
In order to appreciate Eagle Heart tomatoes, let’s dwell on the characteristics. Like any plant, this variety has its advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages
- Tomatoes are mid-ripening, fruiting is stretched, which is very convenient. The first fruits ripen in the greenhouse earlier than other varieties.
- Judging by the description, reviews of gardeners, posted photos, the yield of Eagle Heart tomato is excellent. As a rule, from 8 to 13 kg of delicious large fruits are harvested per square meter. It should be borne in mind that only 2 bushes are planted on the square. Subject to all the norms of agricultural technology and proper care, the yield of tomatoes can be higher.
- The fruits are perfectly transported, do not crack due to the dense skin.
- Tomatoes retain their presentation and taste for more than 3 months.
- The variety is resistant to many diseases of nightshade crops, in particular, to late blight, gray and brown rot, mosaics and Alternaria.
- Tomatoes perfectly tolerate, with virtually no loss of yield, temperature fluctuations.
- Since this is a variety and not a hybrid, you can get your own seeds.
Disadvantages
Not to say that the Eagle Heart tomato variety has some drawbacks would be dishonest towards gardeners. Although there are not so many of them, we will not be silent:
- Growing tomatoes of this variety requires nutritious soil.
- Tall and heavily leafy tomatoes must be pinched and tied up throughout the growing season.
Most likely, it is difficult for beginners to deal with this variety of tomatoes if there is not enough knowledge on agricultural technology and care for nightshade crops.
Cultivation and care
Tomatoes Eagle heart, judging by the description and characteristics, mid-season ripening. That is why, in order to get a decent harvest, you need to get good seedlings.
How to grow seedlings
Obtaining tomato seedlings is a long-term and laborious process. The fact is that the seeds need to be sown 60 days before planting in a permanent place in a greenhouse or open ground. Experienced gardeners sow seeds in the last decade of March or the first week of April. Tomatoes from the first days of life must grow in special conditions.
Seeding containers and soil
Tomato Eagle heart prefers fertile, light, breathable soil. You can use for sowing ready-made soils designed specifically for growing vegetable crops. But many gardeners prepare the soil on their own. In this case, in addition to soddy land, humus or compost (peat), you need to add wood ash. This is not only nutrition, but also the prevention of blackleg tomato disease.
As landing containers, boxes with sides of at least 6 cm or containers are used. They, like the soil, need to be treated with boiling water, dissolving a few crystals of potassium permanganate. You can also use boric acid.
Cooking seeds
- Often they sell substandard tomato seeds, so germination is weak. In order not to waste time, it is advisable to check the seed. To do this, dilute a 5% salt solution and lower the seeds into it. Feeble, immature specimens will emerge. The remaining seeds (at the bottom) are washed in clean water.
- Then they can be processed in fresh aloe juice or a pink solution of potassium permanganate. If you have growth stimulants, then you need to soak the seed for half a day in this solution.
- Treated seeds are dried to flowability.
Sowing and caring for seedlings
- Grooves are made in the soil at a distance of 3 cm, into which tomato seeds are laid out in increments of 2 to 3 cm. Embedding to a depth of no more than 1 cm. The containers must be placed in a bright and warm place, up to +25 degrees.
- With the advent of the first sprouts, the air temperature is slightly reduced so that small tomatoes do not stretch. At night, up to 10 degrees, in the daytime – no more than 15 degrees. But the lighting should be excellent throughout the entire period of growing seedlings. Tomato seedlings of this variety should be watered moderately as the top clod of earth dries up.
- When 2-3 true leaves appear on Eagle Heart tomatoes, a pick is carried out. It is necessary for building a powerful root system with tomatoes. Nutrient soil is poured into separate containers and treated in the same way as before sowing seeds.
Care in permanent soil
Tomatoes are transplanted to a permanent place in late May or early June, depending on the climatic characteristics of the region. The land is prepared in advance in a greenhouse or open field. The wells are poured with boiling water with potassium permanganate, complex fertilizers are added.
Form tomatoes in 1 or 2 stalks. Immediately after planting, they are tied to a reliable support. In the future, the procedure is repeated many times as the bush grows. Subsequently, heavy brushes will have to be tied up.
Further care of the variety consists in watering, feeding. As a rule, complex mineral fertilizers are used to feed tomatoes, as well as an infusion of mullein, chicken manure or green fertilizer from mowed herbs.
It is necessary to water the tomatoes of the Eagle Heart variety with warm water so that the plants do not slow down growth and do not shed their ovaries. Harvest fruits of tomatoes as they ripen. It is not necessary to wait for complete redness: brown fruits ripen perfectly.
Diseases
As follows from the characteristics and description of Eagle Heart tomatoes, plants are resistant to many diseases. But preventive measures should not be neglected. It is necessary to start work already in the pre-sowing period when cultivating the soil and seeds.
At the seedling stage and during further care, tomato bushes are sprayed with Fitosporin, a light solution of potassium permanganate, iodine, or preparations containing copper. Such measures prevent the appearance of late blight, Fusarium wilt and other diseases characteristic of nightshade crops.
Not only Eagle Heart tomatoes attract gardeners, but also the Eagle’s Beak variety:
