Growing tomatoes at home: tips

The specifics of home growing

Why choose tomatoes for experimental cultivation in winter? Firstly, it is not so difficult, we will tell you the nuances of the process, and you will see for yourself. Secondly, the plant has a decorative appearance, so it will please the eye and will not let you forget about the summer. Thirdly, tomatoes planted in September will delight you with a harvest on New Year’s Eve, and it’s so nice to serve fresh tomatoes to the table, surprising your friends and relatives with their excellent taste. Therefore, we discard all doubts and create a mini-garden with tomatoes at home.

Home cultivation of tomatoes has its own specific features, starting with the selection of a place and ending with care. You will not be able to grow vegetables on a window or balcony of any variety.

• It is important not to forget that your garden will be in a limited space, so we will immediately exclude sweeping tall varieties.
• Tomato seeds are not suitable for greenhouses, because their root system develops well, and at home they may simply not have enough food, and the plant that you spent so much work on may die, and please you with fruits.
• In order for tomatoes to give an excellent harvest and ripen well in winter, it is worth choosing varieties with medium-sized fruits. Cherry tomatoes are ideal for home growing – small neat tomatoes with excellent taste, decorative fruits and the bush itself. Moreover, it is a fairly productive variety, despite its diminutiveness.
• In winter, daylight hours will be much shorter than in the summer months, therefore, it is advisable to consider additional lighting for your future garden, put vegetables on the windowsill from the south or southwest side. With a lack of light, the tomato stem will begin to stretch and develop poorly. If you are going to grow cherry on the balcony in the summer, then this question will not be in front of you.

What will be required

Growing a tomato at home will require some preparation from you. At the initial stage, for landing you will need:

• Seeds for seedlings of tomatoes
• Container for growing
• Prepared soil
• Complex of fertilizers to grow an excellent crop.

So, decide to start with the seeds. We advise you to take Pinocchio cherry cherry for a sample. How good are these tomatoes? They are unpretentious in care, have an excellent exterior, so they will look great on the windowsill. The bushes reach a height of only 20-35 centimeters, so they will not need additional support. The plant is especially beautiful when fruits are formed on it, which can be quite a lot on the bush. Pinocchio has an excellent yield. Each seedling is ready to give up to 1,5 kg of cherry tomatoes. With all the unpretentious care in winter, tomatoes are recommended to be highlighted for an additional couple of hours. This variety is very resistant to traditional vegetable diseases. Pinocchio perfectly tolerates high humidity, but does not tolerate the accumulation of moisture on the leaves, so watering with a spray bottle should be excluded.

Any container for growing cherry is suitable. It can be a box, a flower pot or a cut plastic bottle. By the way, many prefer the latter, because. in transparent containers it is easier to monitor soil moisture and regulate watering.

All tomatoes feel great and develop in fertile soil. The soil is preferred loose and slightly acidic. Ready-made mixtures can be purchased at specialized stores or you can cook on your own. To do this, take the land from the garden, but not in the place where the tomatoes were planted, and dry it. We prepare the soil mixture at the rate of earth + humus + peat in equal parts, a little ash, sand and a few grams of phosphate fertilizers are added to them for the full development of the stem and root system.

Growing stages

Even novice gardeners can grow healthy tomatoes and get a good harvest from each bush. The main thing is to follow the rules for growing and caring for tomatoes.

Before placing Pinocchio seeds in the ground, they must be disinfected and germinated. Pre-sort the planting material from the purchased bag, visually evaluating its quality, remove damaged or rotten seeds. You need to make a weak solution of potassium permanganate (2 g per glass of warm water) and soak the seeds in it for about 15-20 minutes. After that, the fabric is soaked, future cherry tomatoes are placed in it, covered and put in a warm place for several days until the grains hatch.

Further, the process can go in two ways: the seeds are sown in containers with soil for growing seedlings, or 1-2 seeds are immediately placed in prepared pots for further growth of the tomato. Both methods are correct and give the same result. In the first case, you can evaluate the germination of seeds, select the strongest plants, and then take care of their care. In the second case, you are immediately engaged in cultivation, without damaging the plants by transplanting.

When growing seedlings, the grains are buried shallowly – approximately 1-2 cm, retreating from the holes by 3 cm, when planted in a separate container, the depth is the same. Then we cover the pot with a transparent film and try to set it in a warm place. After the emergence of seedlings, it is worth placing the container with tomatoes closer to the light source, i.e. transfer to the windowsill, and do not forget to remove the film. The temperature in the room is desirable not to fall below +16 degrees. Water the tomatoes during this period not too abundantly, waiting for the top layer of the earth to dry out. Excess moisture should not be allowed.

When 1-2 true leaves appear, the seedlings swoop down, and after about 4-5 weeks the plants are so strong that they can be transplanted into permanent growth containers. You can grow cherry tomatoes successfully in a box, just give each bush more space for development. Therefore, planting tomatoes is at a distance of 30-35 cm from each other. So they get enough light, moisture and fertilizer. For other containers, the rule applies: one plant per pot. After transplanting, water with warm water.

With further care, watering is carried out no more than 2 times a week. Watering is recommended in the morning, abundantly moistening the entire layer of soil. In the box, try to pour not on the stem, but around it. It is important to know that you can not spray the leaves of seedlings, because. the plant can get sick and die.

Tomatoes respond well to top dressing. The first time this can be done at the time of landing on a permanent “place of residence” with organic fertilizers. Then it is worth feeding the plants during the fruiting period 1 time in 10-12 days, but with mineral fertilizers.

To grow tomatoes and get fruits, the bushes need to be shaken periodically when flowers appear. This way you will achieve better pollination. When fruits appear on the bushes, no matter how pleasing they are to your eye, regularly pick off the ripe ones from the brush, this will lead to a more abundant harvest.

It is also worth noting that after harvesting, the Pinocchio variety will lose its decorative effect and gradually wither. Do not be sad that your care for the plant was insufficient, just the bush has served its purpose, so replace it with a younger seedling.

Video “How to grow tomatoes on the windowsill”

On the recording, Oktyabrina Ganichkina talks about how you can grow good healthy tomatoes on your windowsill, loggia or balcony.