It takes a lot of effort to grow tomatoes in a greenhouse. These plants require constant care, from sowing seedlings to the last harvest. Beginning summer residents often face difficulties. To get a big harvest, you need to know the rules for growing tomatoes in a greenhouse.
Types of tomatoes
All varieties of tomatoes for growing in a greenhouse are divided by type of growth into:
- Indeterminate. These include all plants that have unlimited growth of the main stem. If you plant such a variety in a heated greenhouse and provide it with proper care, as well as properly shaping, it will bear fruit throughout the year. As a rule, such varieties are formed into one stem, removing all side shoots, as they reduce the number of planted flower clusters.
- Semi-determinant. These varieties grow constantly, but may permanently stop growing whenunfavorable conditions. Usually such varieties are formed in two stems.
- Determinant. This type includes varieties that stop growing after reaching a certain size or after laying five flower brushes. Different species relate differently to the formation process. Superearly can not stepchild at all. Some varieties require the removal of excess sprouts. Most often, determinant varieties are grown in the northern regions. Such tomatoes can be formed into two or three stems, leaving up to seven brushes with fruits on each bush. More fruits of the plant are rarely pulled.
- Stamps. A novelty among tomatoes is boles. They are characterized by high stems, a tree-like structure. Stamps do not stepchild and do not tie up: they have minimal care. Most often, these varieties are grown in heated greenhouses, as they are able to produce crops for several years.
The first steps to success are seeds
In the greenhouse it is necessary to plant special varieties of tomatoes intended specifically for growing in greenhouses. Before sowing seeds for seedlings, they are processed. This helps increase plant resistance to various diseases.
Potassium permanganate is used for seed treatment: a solution is made from the powder, taking half a gram of potassium permanganate in a glass of water. Seeds are placed on gauze and dipped in the prepared product. They are left there for twenty minutes. Then pulled out and washed under running water.
This treatment helps accelerate seed germination, and also enhances plant resistance to various speciesdiseases.
Hardening has a good effect on seeds. There are many ways to harden seeds: each gardener has his own. Among them, the simplest is to lay a layer of snow on top of the crops (about a centimeter). With this hardening option, the seeds are moistened, and immune defenses are activated in them.
Preparing the ground
To grow tomatoes with a large yield in a greenhouse, you need to properly grow seedlings. To obtain strong plants, it is necessary to properly prepare the soil. This can be a ready-made substrate offered in stores, or you can make the mixture yourself. It will require humus, peat, sod land, taken in equal parts. Be sure to disinfect the composition by calcining in the oven or scalding with boiling water. Fertilizers are certainly added: fifty grams of wood ash is added to five kilograms of the mixture, five grams of phosphorus-potassium fertilizers. To lighten the substrate, a liter of coarse disinfected sand is added to it.
Sowing
The finished soil is poured into seedling boxes. Grooves are made between rows, maintaining a distance of six centimeters. The distance between seeds should be at least two centimeters. If you sow plants more often, then the seedlings that will be in the center will begin to stretch due to lack of light.
Seeds are sown in holes to a depth of about one centimeter. You can simply spread them out along the groove of the desired depth, and sprinkle with soil on top.
When growing tomatoes in a greenhouse frompolycarbonate grades are carefully selected. In such conditions, even the most capricious plants can be grown.
After sowing, the boxes are placed in a lighted warm place, where the temperature throughout the day does not fall below 22 degrees. Shoots will appear in a week.
Seedling care tips
To grow tomatoes in a polycarbonate greenhouse, you need to properly care for seedlings: the quantity and quality of the crop depends on this. The main task during the period of sprout growth is to ensure that the seedlings do not stretch, but gain strength.
After the appearance of sprouts, as soon as two true leaves form on them, they begin to accustom the plants to temperature changes. At the same time, the daytime temperature is reduced to 18 degrees, and the nighttime temperature is reduced to 15. Such conditions help to simulate natural conditions.
It is recommended to water the seedlings with warm water at a temperature of 20-22 degrees, while making sure that the droplets do not fall on the stems.
Before picking, the plants must be shed, allow the water to completely soak into the soil.
So that the seedlings do not stretch, the seedling boxes are turned over daily.
Seedling picking in separate containers is carried out when three true leaves appear. To do this, use the same earthen mixture as for sowing seeds. Two weeks after picking, the seedlings are fed. To do this, mix a tablespoon of phosphorus-potassium fertilizer and five to six granules of ammonium nitrate in a bucket of water. Watering is carried out at the rate of one hundred grams per oneplant. Tomatoes will grow in small containers for about a month.
What to do next with seedlings?
As soon as there are six leaves on the plant, they dive again, but in a container of a larger diameter. Double transplanting is important when growing tomato seedlings in a greenhouse. It helps the root system develop better and prevents stretching. Two weeks after the second picking, the plants are fed. To do this, prepare a solution of 20 grams of phosphorus-potassium fertilizers dissolved in a bucket of water. Watered at the rate of 200 grams per plant.
In April, seedlings begin to harden. If by this time the temperature outside during the day rises to 12 degrees, then hardening is carried out on a balcony or unheated veranda. When hardening, be sure to keep the soil moist.
Three days before planting the seedlings in the greenhouse, the two lower leaves are removed from her. This will prevent diseases, and also allow the plants to get more air and provide light access to the stems and all inflorescences.
Seedlings are considered successful if their height is about 30 centimeters, there are about ten formed and well-developed leaves on the stem, and there is also at least one inflorescence.
Planting seedlings
To get a good harvest, you must follow the rules for growing tomatoes in a greenhouse. This design protects plants from the negative effects of the weather, and also provides good ventilation.
When planting seedlings, it is important to maintain a distancebetween plants. For undersized varieties, the distance should be at least half a meter. Tall varieties are recommended to be planted in a checkerboard pattern.
Tomatoes love slightly clayey soil that can retain moisture for a long time. Sandy soil mixed with peat is able to retain water for a long time. In order for plants to grow and develop normally, they need nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus and some other trace elements.
The greenhouse is being prepared for planting seedlings five days before the start of work. This procedure begins with the disinfection of the greenhouse itself. The easiest way to do this is to treat the greenhouse with a sulfur checker. In this case, the doors and vents must be closed. A day later, the greenhouse is ventilated, and only after that you can proceed to the preparation of the beds.
Greenhouse ridges are best done high, so they warm up faster and better. The height depends on the ability of the gardener to cover the volume with soil. Planting and care when growing tomatoes in a greenhouse requires the correct composition of the substrate. To do this, humus is added to clay or loamy soil at the rate of one bucket per square meter of beds, as well as peat in a volume of five liters. Be sure to bring a bucket of sod land per square meter, half a bucket of coarse sand.
Add a spoonful of potassium, two spoons of phosphorus per square meter to the resulting substrate, mix everything well. Before planting seedlings, the soil is disinfected by spilling it with a solution of potassium permanganate: one gram of the powder is diluted in a bucket of water with a temperature of 60 degrees.
Seedlings are carefully removed from the container so as not to damage the rootsand the trunk, and planted in the hole. After two weeks, the tomatoes are tied up.
The technology of growing tomatoes in a greenhouse involves maintaining a space of half a meter between plants. If you make it larger, then the bushes will begin to actively grow in breadth, reducing the number of fruits. Because of this, the gardener will have to carry out stepsoning more often, causing severe stress on the plant.
Care: basic rules
In the case of growing tomatoes in a polycarbonate greenhouse, planting and care are important components for a high yield. Plants need:
- Timely garter. The first procedure is carried out approximately ten days after planting the seedlings.
- Pollination. Early plantings may require additional pollination. To do this, you just need to slightly shake the bushes. This is done early in the morning.
- Water. A feature of growing tomatoes in a greenhouse is rare but plentiful watering. It is recommended to water the plants once a week. Changes in soil moisture have a positive effect on productivity. When the fruits begin to ripen, the number of waterings is increased to twice a week, while the amount of water is reduced. It is important that the soil remains semi-dry.
- Feeding. Plants love to be fed on time. When planting seedlings, fertilizers were applied to the soil, so it is important to monitor the condition of the plants. The first feeding is carried out at the stage of fruit ripening. During this period, complex fertilizer is applied on the sheet.
- Hilling. When small white tubercles appear at the bottom of the stem, this isa signal for the need to carry out hilling. Such growths indicate that the plant cannot cope with the needs of the aerial part in nutrients and the bush needs help. He begins to grow additional roots.
Root top dressing
Root top dressing plays a special role in the cultivation of tomatoes. They start with adherence to landing patterns. This is a necessary rule in which the root system can develop normally, and the plant will receive all the necessary nutrients without rivalry with another bush.
During the cultivation of tomatoes, up to four top dressings are carried out for the entire growing season. The first - three to four weeks after planting seedlings. To do this, prepare a solution from:
- 500 grams of mullein (liquid) or take two tablespoons of liquid complex fertilizer;
- tablespoon of nitrophosphate;
- buckets of water.
The finished solution is applied under the root at the rate of one liter per plant. Two weeks later, another top dressing is introduced, prepared from a tablespoon of organic fertilizer and a teaspoon of potash fertilizer, taken in a bucket of water. The composition is applied under the root at the rate of one liter per plant. The third feeding is carried out ten days after the second. For it, use wood ash (two tablespoons) or a tablespoon of superphosphate. The agent is dissolved in a bucket of water: consumption - five liters per square meter. If you follow all the rules of cultivation, then the tomatoes will thank you with a high yield andactive growth.
Shaping a bush
Growing and caring for tomatoes in a greenhouse comes down to the formation of bushes. This is a rather time-consuming procedure, during which you cannot make mistakes. Each plant type has its own shaping methods.
Shaping undersized tomatoes
When growing cucumbers, tomatoes in a greenhouse in winter and at other times of the year, it is important to follow the formation technology. She has her own characteristics:
- In early maturing varieties, side shoots can be left alone. Usually they have time to bear fruit before the moment when the bush begins to grow. The small and compact size of the bush makes it easy to care for.
- For plants ripening on the 90th day and later, it is recommended to remove stepchildren. This is a simple procedure: all side branches break out two centimeters above the point where they leave the main stem. Stepping is carried out once a week, in the morning, in dry weather. The plant is carried in one or two stems. If tomatoes are grown in a greenhouse in winter, it is better to leave only one stem. When grown in the warm season, two stems can be left, and all side branches are removed.
- To provoke branching into two stems, you need to pinch the main stem - the growing point. Further pinching is carried out according to the general rules, removing all side shoots.
Formation of indeterminate varieties
How to grow indeterminate type tomatoes in a greenhouse? This type includes tomatoes with unlimited growth. Forof such plants, the single-stem method of cultivation is considered ideal. Most often, tall tomatoes are formed in one stem. This option improves the ventilation of plants, as well as providing light to the entire bush. In tall varieties, all side shoots are removed.
There is another method that involves leaving one flower branch on the first stepchildren, which helps to get a bigger harvest. With this scheme, it is important to ensure that there are at least two leaves after each brush, otherwise the circulation of nutrients will be disturbed and all the fruits will dry out.
For the best productivity and protection of plants from infection from the ground, it is necessary to remove the lower leaves to the brush with fruits. As soon as the tomatoes pour on the brush, the leaves are removed to the next brush.
To avoid stress, remove no more than three leaves at a time.
Staging Rules
Growing tomatoes in a greenhouse, it is recommended to form them strictly according to the rules:
- Break off leaves and stepchildren only in the early morning. This is necessary so that the wounds on the branches have time to tighten and dry by the evening.
- If it is not possible to remove leaves and stepchildren in the morning, then this is best done in warm, sunny weather, without rain. Wounds must be treated with a solution of potassium permanganate. This technique helps protect plants from infection.
- It is necessary to remove only those stepchildren who have reached five centimeters in length.
Poor he alth of plants
When growing cucumbers in a greenhouse,tomatoes, dill in winter, as well as at other times of the year, it is necessary to monitor the general condition of the plants.
Tomatoes have the following problems:
- Active growth of green mass. It is observed with very strong growth, thickening of the stem, staining of the foliage in a dark green color. At first glance, it may seem that the plant is he althy, but experienced gardeners know that such “fattening” bushes do not give a good harvest. The reason for active growth lies in the lack of light and excess nitrogen. To correct this situation, it is necessary to stop watering for a week, raising the temperature in the greenhouse by two degrees. Flowers must be hand pollinated. To reduce nitrogen levels, a solution of superphosphate is added to the soil at the rate of 1 liter of solution per plant (three tablespoons are diluted in a bucket of water).
- Falling flowers, fruits. With a negative microclimate, tomatoes shed flowers and fruits. Also, this phenomenon may indicate insufficient watering. To fix this, it is recommended to treat the plants with the "Ovary" or "Bud" preparation, and ventilate the greenhouse.
- Fruits do not pour. If fruits do not pour on the second and subsequent brushes, then this indicates a lack of strength in the plant. To fix this, you need to harvest the first bunch, even if they are not ripe. It also helps to reduce the air temperature to seventeen degrees, airing the greenhouse, and abundant watering.
When growing plants in a greenhouse, it is important to monitor the light transmissionpolycarbonate, and also try not to plant tall plants near the structure, as they can create a shadow. In hot, dry, windy weather, dust settles on the greenhouse, blocking the penetration of sunlight. For normal growth of tomatoes, it is necessary to periodically wash the greenhouse. It is also important to monitor the microclimate inside the room; to regulate the level of humidity and temperature, the greenhouse is ventilated. When nighttime temperatures are kept at a mark of at least twenty degrees, you can always leave the windows open.
