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When growing tomatoes in a greenhouse, plants are completely dependent on humans. What kind of soil will he place there, what will he add to it, how often and how abundantly will he water, as well as what top dressing and in what sequence he will carry out. The well-being of tomatoes, their flowering and fruiting, which means the quantity and quality of the crop that the gardener will receive, directly depends on all this. Naturally, everyone wants to get the maximum yield of tomatoes, but the quality of the fruit is no less important. Since with abundant application of mineral fertilizers it is quite possible to get a large number of tomatoes, but will they be healthy and tasty?
Recently, gardeners and summer residents are increasingly recalling old recipes that were used by our great-great-grandmothers, when such a variety of fertilizers and top dressings did not yet exist in abundance. But the vegetables were fine.
One of the most popular and easiest ways to keep tomatoes active is to use ordinary yeast as a top dressing. Moreover, feeding a tomato with yeast in a greenhouse can be used immediately for many purposes – to replenish nutrients, to stimulate active growth and fruiting, to prevent diseases and pests.
Yeast – a natural stimulant for tomatoes
Yeasts are living organisms with a rich mineral and organic composition. When they are introduced into the soil under favorable conditions, the yeast interacts with local microorganisms. As a result of the active activity of the latter, many nutrients, which were in an inert state for the time being, begin to be released and come to a state in which they can be easily absorbed by tomato plants. In particular, as a result of the activity of microorganisms, there is an active release of nitrogen and phosphorus – two main elements that are vital for development of tomatoes.
But the cost of yeast is disproportionately less, and therefore it is much more profitable to use them.
True, it follows from this that for good interaction, yeast needs the necessary amount of microorganisms in the soil. And they appear only with a sufficient content of organic matter in the soil. So, before planting tomatoes in the greenhouse, it is advisable to make sure that the soil in the greenhouse is saturated with organic matter. Usually, for these purposes, a bucket of compost or humus is added to one square meter of beds. This amount should be enough for the tomatoes for the whole season. In the future, after planting the seedlings, it is desirable to additionally mulch it with straw or sawdust. This will favorably affect the preservation of moisture in the ground, which will reduce the amount of watering. On the other hand, this organic matter will allow tomatoes to do without additional fertilizers in the future if yeast is used for top dressing.
But in this case, they also came up with a way out a long time ago: along with yeast top dressing or the next day after it, they add wood ash to the garden with tomatoes. It is a source of essential calcium and potassium, as well as many other trace elements.
Yeasts have another unique ability – when dissolved in water, they release substances that enhance the process of root growth several times. No wonder they are part of many modern root formation stimulants. This property also has a positive effect on the growth and development of tomatoes in a greenhouse when fed with yeast.
Summing up, we can say that yeast is a valuable substance for use as top dressing for tomatoes, because as a result of its application:
- You can observe the active growth of the aerial parts of tomatoes;
- The root system is growing;
- The composition of the soil under tomatoes improves qualitatively;
- Seedlings tolerate picking more easily and come to their senses faster;
- There is an increase in the number of ovaries and fruits. The period of their maturation is reduced;
- Tomatoes become more resistant to adverse weather conditions;
- Increases resistance to major diseases, primarily late blight.
In addition, the yeast does not contain any artificial additives, so you can guarantee an environmentally friendly crop. And for the price they are available to every gardener, which is not always the case with other fashionable fertilizers.
Application methods and recipes
Yeast feed can be prepared in several different ways. In addition, you can make it either by watering the tomatoes under the root, or by spraying the entire bushes (the so-called foliar top dressing). It is necessary to figure out when which procedure is best to carry out.
Watering under the root of tomatoes
In general, yeast dressing has such a beneficial effect on tomatoes that plants can be treated with a yeast solution already at the seedling stage. Of course, in the event that you yourself are engaged in its cultivation. The first time you can carefully shed the young sprouts when the first two true leaves are formed.
For this, the following solution is usually prepared:
Take 100 g of fresh yeast and dilute it in a liter of warm water. After insisting a little, add so much water that the volume of the final solution is 10 liters. If there are not so many seedlings of tomatoes, then the proportions can be reduced by 10 times, that is, dilute 10 grams of yeast in 100 ml of water and bring the volume to one liter.
If the solution begins to ferment, then it is better not to use it for seedlings. A similar recipe is more suitable for adult plants preparing for flowering or fruiting.
Feeding tomatoes with yeast at a very early stage helps tomato seedlings not stretch and grow strong, healthy stems.
The second time the seedlings can be fed a few days after planting it in a permanent place in the greenhouse. For this top dressing, you can use the first recipe, or you can use a more traditional one, which involves some yeast fermentation:
To prepare it, 1 kg of fresh yeast is kneaded and completely dissolved in five liters of warm water (heated up to about +50°C). The solution must be infused for a day or two. After you feel the characteristic smell of sourdough, the solution must be diluted with water at room temperature in a ratio of 1:10. For each bush of tomatoes, you can spend from 0,5 liters to one liter.
You can use another recipe with added sugar:
Dissolve 100 grams of fresh yeast and 100 grams of sugar in three liters of warm water, cover with a lid and place in any warm place for infusion. Before processing, it is necessary to dilute 200 grams of the resulting infusion in a 10-liter watering can with water and water the tomato bushes under the root, spending about one liter of liquid on each bush.
Of course, the use of live fresh yeast is more effective, but if for some reason you cannot use it, then dry yeast can also be used to feed tomatoes in a greenhouse.
In this case, it is enough to dilute 10 grams of yeast in 10 liters of warm water, add two tablespoons of sugar and insist from several hours to several days. The more mature tomato bushes you feed, the more time the yeast solution should be infused. The resulting infusion should also be diluted with water in a ratio of 1: 5 and watered with tomato bushes under the root.
Foliar top dressing
Spraying tomatoes with a yeast solution is mainly practiced not so much for feeding, but for protecting them from diseases and pests. The best preventive procedure to protect against late blight is to prepare the following solution:
In one liter of warm milk or whey, dilute 100 grams of yeast, leave for several hours, add water so that the final volume is 10 liters, and add 30 drops of iodine. Thoroughly spray the tomato bushes with the resulting solution. This procedure can be carried out twice per season: before flowering and before fruiting.
Rules for feeding tomatoes with yeast
In order for yeast fertilization to work as efficiently as possible, the following rules must be observed:
- Yeast works well only in warm conditions, in warm ground, but in greenhouses, suitable conditions are usually formed a month earlier than in open ground. Therefore, the first feeding with yeast can be carried out immediately after planting seedlings, at a soil temperature of at least +15°C.
- In a polycarbonate greenhouse, as a rule, higher temperatures are observed than in open ground, and all processes occur faster. Therefore, it is better to use a fresh yeast solution without insisting for the first top dressing of tomatoes.
- Do not get carried away feeding tomatoes with yeast. For one season, two or three procedures will be more than enough.
- Remember to add wood ash with every yeast top dressing. For 10 liters of solution, about 1 liter of ash is used. You can simply add one tablespoon of ash to a tomato bush.
There is nothing complicated in fertilizing tomatoes with yeast, but in terms of its effectiveness it is not inferior to mineral fertilizers.
