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For 20 years, gardeners have been delighting gardeners with their productive tassels with bright red fruits, Leopold tomatoes. This hybrid is indulgent even to beginners in agriculture, like a kind cartoon cat: the plant has almost perfect genetic data. The bushes of these tomatoes are unpretentious, resistant to weather changes, high-yielding, and the fruits are beautiful and tasty.
Summer residents in the reviews share amazing impressions of these plants. It happens that they go into the greenhouse after a week of absence, and there, in the sunset rays of the July sun, like magic lamps, scarlet fruits hang on tomato bushes.
A persistent garden miracle – the Leopold f1 tomato was created by the breeding company Gavrish and entered into the register in 1998. Designed for the third light zone, although hobbyists grow these tomatoes in areas with less solar intensity.
Hybrid Benefits
According to the reviews of everyone who planted the Leopold tomato, only merits can be noted at the bush itself and at the fruits. And if someone changed it on their site for some other variety of tomatoes, then only yielding to the desire to discover something new from the vast and diverse world of tomatoes.
- Tomato bushes are small, compact;
- Plants are cold-resistant;
- High resistance of bushes to diseases;
- Tomato fruits ripen together;
- High yield of the plant;
- The fruits are transportable and stored indoors for a long time;
- Beautiful appearance of a tomato: a nice rounded shape and a bright shade of the fruit.
Characteristics
Powerful tomato bushes Leopold – determinate, 70-80 cm, stop growing after the formation of 5-6 flower brushes on the plant. In greenhouses, growing on nutritious soil, tomato bushes can rise up to 1 m. Plants of these tomatoes may not be pinched. But when the stepchildren are removed, the yield will be significant.
Plants of this hybrid do not require special care for themselves. The bushes have phenomenal resistance to major tomato diseases. And if we add resistance to decreasing positive temperatures to this characteristic property, it is quite clear why the Leopold hybrid is truly a godsend for beginner gardeners. Even without adhering to all the rules of agricultural technology, but simply by watering and weeding the beds, you can get a sufficient harvest.
A hybrid of early ripening tomatoes tested by gardeners. Leopold tomato bushes grow well in greenhouses, under film or non-woven cover in the middle climatic zone and in open gardens. The plant will give a stable harvest of fruits – up to 3-4 kg per bush, which are suitable for fresh consumption and for various preparations. These tomatoes are valued for early and friendly ripening, high marketability of attractive fruits, and their excellent taste.
Description of the plant
Tomato varieties Leopold are erect, low plants of medium branching. The hybrid bushes have slightly wrinkled, glossy dark green leaves, medium internodes. The laying of the first inflorescence occurs above the 6-8th leaf, and then the brushes appear after 1-2 leaves. The inflorescences of this plant are simple, with a weak crease. The brush bears from four to six to eight fruits.
Rounded, smooth fruits, with a flat base, in the ripening phase are distinguished by a bright red color. The immature berries of this tomato are light green; as they ripen, the green spot on top becomes less pronounced. The ripe fruit has juicy pulp – dense, fleshy and sugary. The same dense and skin, but not rough. The taste is pleasant, sweet and sour, characteristic of tomatoes. The fruit carries 3-4 seed chambers. The berries of the hybrid do not suffer from hollowness.
The weight of the Leopold hybrid fruit ranges from 80 to 100 g. With good care, individual fruits can weigh 150 grams. From one square meter, six to eight kilograms of juicy vitamin tomato products are obtained. The fruits of the Leopold tomato hybrid are uniform, neat. Tomatoes are suitable for canning whole.
Growing a hybrid
Like all tomatoes, the Leopold hybrid is grown through seedlings. Tomato seeds of this variety are sown in March. Young plants can be transferred to the greenhouse in May, to the open ground – in June. Harvest, respectively, begins to be harvested from the bushes at the end of July and in August.
Seed and soil preparation
Before sowing, purchased tomato seeds are disinfected, unless they are processed by the manufacturer. The grains are placed in a pink solution of potassium permanganate for half an hour. They can be soaked for two hours in the Epin preparation, which stimulates germination.
Seeds are laid out to a depth of 1-1,5 cm in containers or in separate containers, which are widely offered in the distribution network. You can also purchase special soil for Leopold tomato seedlings, where all the necessary trace elements are balanced. The soil is prepared on its own from peat and humus – 1: 1, a 1-liter jar of sawdust and 1,5 cups of wood ash are added to a bucket of such a mixture. Instead of sawdust, vermiculite or other drainage material is also used.
Care of seedlings
As soon as tomato sprouts begin to appear, the air temperature is reduced to 160 C so they don’t stretch too fast. A week later, for strong green young tomatoes, you need to raise the air temperature to 20-230 C and maintain until the age of one month.
- During this period, tomato seedlings need enough lighting. If the air temperature is high and there is little light, the stems of plants will stretch out in search of the sun and weaken. Seedlings are comfortable on a light windowsill, but it is necessary to turn the container once a day so that the plants stand evenly and do not lean towards the light;
- Leopold f1 tomato seedlings are watered moderately so that the soil is slightly moist;
- When the first two true leaves grow, young tomatoes dive, pinching the central root. Now the plant’s root system will develop horizontally, choosing the necessary elements that are in the upper, most nutritious soil layer;
- Two weeks after picking, the plants are fed. For 10 liters of water, take 30 g of double superphosphate and potassium nitrate. The same top dressing is given to tomatoes again after 15 days.
Garden troubles
Hardened seedlings of Leopold tomatoes are planted in open ground at the end of May or in the first decade of June. In greenhouses, these tomatoes can grow from the beginning of May. Conventional film shelters are suitable for a hybrid and in regions where summers are short and cold.
Planting, watering, hilling
If, for some reason, tomato seedlings were not transferred to a permanent place in time and outgrew – the bushes are tall, inflorescences appeared, it is necessary to plant it in a special way.
- Small plants are planted so that the seedling stands straight and straight. Overgrown tomato bushes in the hole are placed obliquely. Tomatoes have a lot of vitality and will put out roots along the entire length of the stem if it comes into contact with the ground. Thus, the plant tries to get more nutrition;
- In the early days, tomato plants are watered every day under the root with warm water. Each bush needs at least half a liter of water. Watering is carried out in the evening so that the moisture does not evaporate too quickly. After the tomato plants get stronger, they are watered 1-2 times a week, taking into account weather conditions. Necessarily tomatoes need watering before hilling, during flowering, after top dressing, during the formation of fruits;
- 10 days after planting, tomato bushes spud. This agricultural technique contributes to the formation of additional roots in the plant. After 15 days, hilling is repeated.
Plant nutrition
The first time, two weeks after planting, Leopold tomatoes are fertilized with organic matter. Water one liter per bush: mullein diluted 1:5 or bird droppings – 1:15.
When the ovaries begin to form, the hybrid is fed only with mineral fertilizers. They mostly affect the formation of fruits than organic ones, which mainly contribute to the set of green mass.
stem formation
One central stem of Leopold tomatoes is kept in the greenhouse, and two or three stems can be left in the open ground – for a lush bush. The last brushes remove or cut off excess flowers for more friendly fruiting. The lower leaves are also removed.
Early maturing bushes of the hybrid go away from late blight, resistant to Fusarium, Cladosporiosis, mosaic.
These hybrids give ovaries in different weather. And the gardener who plants early and undemanding tomato plants will not be mistaken.
