Feeding tomatoes after planting in the ground

Growing tomatoes, we want to get a high yield, tasty fruits and spend a minimum of effort. Often we only take from the earth, giving nothing in return, and then we hope either for luck, or for the eternal “maybe”. But tomatoes do not grow by themselves without labor, knowledge of agricultural technology, dressings and treatments. You can’t bargain with nature, as soon as the earth gives up the accumulated supply of nutrients, crops fall, and tomatoes become tasteless.

Tomato is a demanding crop. There should not be a lot of dressings, they need to be given wisely – if you thoughtlessly pour fertilizers under the root, you can not get a good harvest or ruin it completely. Tomatoes need different nutrients at different stages of development. Today we will tell you how to feed the tomatoes after planting in the ground.

Did vegetables grow before without fertilizing?

You can often hear that everything used to grow without top dressing, of course. Our ancestors did not subscribe to newspapers, did not have the Internet, did not read smart books, but somehow managed to feed the whole of Europe.

Only people for some reason forget that earlier peasant families cultivated the land from generation to generation, traditions and competent work on it were instilled in them from childhood. The culture of agriculture was high, no random work was carried out. In addition, the land was cultivated without heavy equipment, it was always fertilized with organic matter.

Yes, our ancestors did without chemical fertilizers, but in peasant farms there was always an excess of manure, then they used firewood exclusively, and food was not cooked on a gas stove. Everything went to the fields and gardens to fertilize the soil – manure, ash, fallen leaves. From nearby forests, ravines, rivers or marshes, clay, sand, bottom silt, peat, and chalk were brought. Everything was used by our wise predecessors.

Why supplements are needed

All tomatoes grown in gardens and fields of large farms are varieties and hybrids created by people specifically to obtain marketable products. In the wild, they do not grow and without human help simply will not survive. In one year, cultivated tomatoes must germinate from a seed, grow, bloom, set and give fruit.

In addition, we want to remove not one or two tomatoes from a bush, but a full-fledged crop, which in central Our Country in open ground can reach 5-10 kg per bush. And this is on average, usually a little less fruit is obtained from undersized tomatoes, and more from tall tomatoes grown on a trellis or in greenhouses.

For flowering and fruit ripening, tomatoes need nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, trace elements. It is clear that a tomato will not be able to take so many nutrients from the soil. Timely, correct application of fertilizers improves soil fertility, increases the yield and quality of tomatoes.

• Nitrogen participates in the formation and development of the tomato at all stages of life. It is needed for photosynthesis, but it plays the greatest role in building up the green mass of tomatoes immediately after planting. A lack of nitrogen affects the yield of a tomato, and an excess leads to the accumulation of nitrates in the pulp.
• Phosphorus it is especially important for flowering and fruiting of tomatoes, with its shortage, flowers and ovaries crumble. Thanks to this element, tomato ripening occurs faster, the fruits grow large, have an intense color. Tomatoes that are not deficient in phosphorus are less likely to get sick.
• potassium tomato has the greatest influence on the development of the root system. If it is weak, then it simply cannot deliver moisture and nutrients to other parts of the tomatoes. The lack of potash fertilizers makes tomatoes painful, and their fruits are small.
• Trace Elements do not play a decisive role in the life of tomatoes, which are, in fact, perennial plants, but are grown as annuals. Their shortage for the season simply does not have time to become critical. But trace elements significantly affect the resistance of tomatoes to diseases and the quality of the fruit. With their shortage, the tomato gets sick, the fruits crack, taste and commercial qualities fall. The indestructible phytophthora, which has bothered everyone, is a lack of copper, and its treatment with copper-containing preparations by and large eliminates the deficiency of this element.

How to fertilize tomatoes

Tomatoes are big fans of phosphorus. They are able to bear fruit for a long time. The first tomatoes in the southern regions appear in mid-June, and the latter, in the absence of phytophthora and good care, simply do not have time to ripen before frost. On one tomato at the same time there are flowers, ovaries and ripe fruits. Not surprisingly, tomato nutrition requires a lot of phosphorus.

Tomato seedlings are fed 2-3 times before planting in the ground. The first time, about 10 days after picking, with fertilizers for seedlings in a low concentration, the second – a week later with the same special dressings or a solution of a teaspoon of azofoska in 10 liters of water. During this period, tomatoes need nitrogen. With the normal development of seedlings, a tomato is no longer fertilized before transplanting.

Mineral feed

When planting a tomato, a handful of ash is poured into the hole and a tablespoon of superphosphate is added. Approximately two weeks later, when the seedlings take root and grow, they make the first top dressing of tomatoes in the ground. Dissolve in 10 liters of water:

• phosphorus – 10 g;
• nitrogen – 10 g;
• potassium – 20 g

and watered 0,5 liters under a tomato bush.

At the next top dressing of the tomato, which needs to be carried out after 2 weeks, take:

• nitrogen – 25 g;
• phosphorus – 40 g;
• potassium – 15 g;
• magnesium – 10 g,
• dissolve in 10 liters of water and pour 0,5 liters under the bush.

In the summer, when tomatoes begin to ripen, it is important to feed them every 2 weeks with nutrient solutions consisting of safe ingredients. Ash infusion proved to be very good, it is an invaluable source of potassium, phosphorus and calcium – exactly those elements that tomatoes need during their ripening period. There is little nitrogen there, but it is no longer needed in large quantities. Prepare the infusion as follows:

1. 1,5 liters of ash pour 5 liters of boiling water.
2. When the solution has cooled, add up to 10 liters.
3. Add a vial of iodine, 10 g of boric acid.
4. Insist for a day.
5. Dissolve 1 liter of infusion in a bucket of water and pour 1 liter under a bush of tomatoes.

This cocktail will not only feed the tomatoes, but also, due to the presence of iodine in it, will serve as a prevention of late blight.

Foliar top dressing

Often, foliar top dressing of tomatoes is called fast, they act directly on the leaf and the result is visible literally the next day. They can be carried out every 10-15 days and, if necessary, combined with tomato treatments for pests and diseases.

You can spray tomatoes on the leaf with the same fertilizer that you pour under the root. It is very good to add a tomato to a bottle with a working solution for foliar feeding:

• an ampoule of epin or zircon are biologically pure immunostimulants that are practically safe for humans and bees. Their action on tomatoes can be compared with the action of vitamins on humans;
• humate, humisol or other humic preparation.

Environmentally friendly supplements

Now more and more gardeners are trying to apply organic farming methods on their plot. Growing tomatoes makes it possible to get by with environmentally friendly, chemical-free fertilizers, especially in the fruiting phase. Tomatoes do not like fresh manure, but their fermented infusion is treated very favorably. It is prepared simply:

• 1 bucket of manure is poured with a bucket of water, we insist for a week;
• Dilute 1 liter of infusion in a bucket of water;
• Pour 1 liter of diluted infusion under each tomato bush.

Not all summer residents have access to manure. It doesn’t matter, herbal infusion is an equally valuable fertilizer for tomatoes. Fill the largest container in the area to the top with weeds and plant debris, close, leave for 8-10 days. Dilute 1:5 with water and use tomato for feeding.

You can prepare a universal balm for tomatoes. It will require:

• 200 liter capacity;
• 2 liters of ash;
• 4-5 buckets of green nettles.

All this is filled with water and infused for 2 weeks. One liter of balm feeds a bush of tomatoes. If you do not have such a large container, reduce the ingredients proportionally.

General rules for feeding tomatoes

The best result is given by complex top dressing of tomatoes. To achieve the best result and not harm the plant, you need to remember a few simple rules:

• Better to underfeed tomatoes than overfeed.
• Tomato seedlings planted in the ground need to be fed when the temperature exceeds 15 degrees; at a lower temperature, nutrients are simply not absorbed.
• Fertilize tomatoes under the root in the late afternoon.
• foliar top dressing of tomatoes is carried out early in the morning in calm, dry weather. It is desirable to finish them before 10 o’clock in the morning.
• Do not use pesticides during the flowering or fruiting period of a tomato, unless absolutely necessary. Try to process tomatoes with folk remedies.
• It is best to combine root top dressing with watering, and foliar top dressing with treatments for pests and diseases.

We offer you to watch a video that tells how to feed the tomatoes after planting:

Signs of a lack of batteries

Sometimes we do everything right, but tomatoes grow poorly and bear fruit. It seems that there are no pests, the disease cannot be determined, and the tomato bush is clearly suffering. This may be caused by a lack of some kind of battery. We will teach you to determine which one by external signs.

Conclusion

We told you how to feed tomatoes after planting in the ground, gave advice on the use of mineral and organic fertilizers. We hope you found the article helpful. Good luck and good harvest!