One of the most unpretentious varieties is the tomato Shuttle. It contains many vitamins, beneficial trace elements. This is a unique variety, characterized by unpretentiousness and ease of cultivation. It is not particularly demanding on care, grows well in open ground, tolerates cold well and gives stable yields. The shuttle was bred by I. Kondratyeva with a group of co-authors, the originator of the variety is the Research Institute.
Tomato description
Tomato Shuttle is an early ripe variety that is easy to grow even for an inexperienced gardener. The plant is standard, up to sixty centimeters high, with a limited type of growth. The fruits of the tomato Shuttle are small, weighing up to seventy grams. The first harvest is taken one hundred days after sowing.
The shuttle produces beautiful elongated tomatoes with a small nose, deep red. From one square meter of plantings, you can collect up to seven kilograms of fruit.
According to reviews, tomato Shuttle gives stable high yields. Due to the simplicity of agricultural technology and versatilityuse, the variety is appreciated by summer residents throughout the country.
Dignity of the variety
Tomato Shuttle has a lot of advantages over other varieties. It is characterized by high resistance to phytophthora, the possibility of growing in film greenhouses, excellent cold resistance, which allows growing tomatoes in regions with an unfavorable climate.
The advantage of the variety is its excellent transportability and long-term keeping quality of fruits.
Seed preparation
Before sowing, seeds should be pretreated. Usually potassium permanganate is used for this.
Tomato seeds are soaked for several minutes in a pink solution of the drug. This procedure helps to avoid outbreaks of various fungal infections, including blackleg.
To activate the growth energy, you can soak the seeds in a growth stimulator.
Some summer residents use a solution of hydrogen peroxide to treat seeds. To prepare it, take three grams of the solution and dilute them in one hundred grams of water. The composition is heated to forty degrees. Seeds are aged in it for ten minutes, after which they are sent for germination.
Sowing seedlings
Tomato variety Shuttle is grown in seedlings. The recommended sowing periods are mid-March, although the dates may be shifted up or down. In order to decide exactly when you need to sow a tomato for seedlings, sixty-seven days should be subtracted from the date of the approximate landing on a permanent place. Why exactly 67 days?
From the moment of sowing, a week passes untilappearance of the first shoots. The age of seedlings is counted from the date of emergence of seedlings, and not from the moment of sowing seedlings. This is due to the fact that there are varieties that germinate for three or more weeks. Therefore, it is customary to use calculations from the moment of germination.
For sowing seedlings, they use either ready-made soil for tomato seedlings or their own substrate prepared on the basis of peat, humus, sand.
Tomato seeds are sown in seedling boxes to a depth of no more than a centimeter, then the container is placed in a warm, bright place. Before germination, be sure to ensure that the top layer of soil does not dry out.
After the appearance of three true leaves, the seedlings dive into separate containers. From the tenth day, the plants begin to feed. To do this, use complex fertilizers for seedlings. It can be "Agricolla", "Biogumus" and others.
Seedling care
When growing Shuttle tomatoes, it is necessary to monitor the moisture level of the substrate. This is best done with a spray bottle.
Boxes with seedlings are kept at a temperature not lower than 22 degrees. After germination, the boxes are moved to a cool place where the temperature does not exceed nineteen degrees during the day.
Planting seedlings in the ground
To increase the yield of tomato Shuttle, you need to choose the right substrate for planting. A highly nutritious loose earth is best suited, capable of providing good oxygen access to the roots. To prepare the composition, two parts of humus are taken, part of the chernozem, a littlesand. To improve the quality of the soil, a little vermiculite is added to it.
Before planting, seedlings are hardened off. To do this, the boxes are taken out to the balcony or veranda for 1-2 hours, gradually increasing the time. Seedlings are planted in a permanent place when the soil warms up to a temperature of twelve degrees.
According to reviews, tomato Shuttle can be planted closer to each other than bushes of other varieties: the distance should be at least thirty centimeters. Immediately next to each plant, a stake is driven in, to which the plant will be tied.
Irrigation
According to the characteristics, the tomato Shuttle is a fairly productive variety that gives the best results if the rules of agricultural technology, especially irrigation, are observed. In the first three days after planting seedlings in a permanent place, our grandmothers also cast three dawns. This method helps plants to take root faster. After that, water the tomatoes as the top layer dries. Particular attention is paid to the plant during the period of fruit formation, otherwise the ovaries will begin to fall off. While the tomatoes are pouring, they must be thoroughly watered. And from the moment they begin to ripen, they begin to reduce the amount of watering to prevent cracking of the fruits.
In the period from planting to the beginning of ripeness, watering is carried out in such a way that the soil is soaked to a depth of at least twenty centimeters. Usually Shuttle is watered once a week at the rate of three buckets per square meter.
Feeding tomatoes
The description of the Shuttle tomato says that this variety must be periodicallyfeed. This is usually done once every two weeks. The first top dressing is carried out fourteen days after planting the seedlings. Further fertilizers are applied every seven days. To do this, use mineral or organic fertilizers. Up to a liter of solution is needed per plant.
Some summer residents carry out only three top dressings per season according to the following scheme:
- First feeding two weeks after transplanting.
- The second is held during the flowering period.
- The third feeding is carried out after the first harvest.
Pests and diseases
Shuttle is a fairly resistant plant that tolerates even the most adverse weather conditions. However, even it can be damaged by various diseases and pests.
The most common diseases include late blight. It affects all plants and is accompanied by the appearance of brown spots on the trunk, leaves, fruits. Also, bushes can be damaged by anthracnose, which is indicated by black spots throughout the plant.
To protect against these diseases, it is necessary to observe a crop rotation, as well as carry out preventive treatment of bushes with fungicides, remove fallen leaves, weeds, and harvest fruits in a timely manner.
Of the pests of tomatoes, the Colorado potato beetle most often affects. Before fruiting, plants can be treated with special preparations. From the moment the tomatoes are poured, the beetle is harvested by hand. During this period, bushes can only be treated with soapy solutions.
Advantages and disadvantages of the variety
According to summer residents, the Chelnok variety has only one drawback - it is an unsaturated tomato taste. No other shortcomings were found by summer residents.
The positive characteristics of Shuttle include the following:
- High cold resistance. Shuttle can be planted in early spring in a greenhouse for an early harvest. Many people pick fruits together with the melting snow, delighting themselves and their loved ones with homemade tomatoes.
- Long-term storage. Usually, the muzzles do not last long, but the Shuttle is able to maintain its qualities for a long time.
- Easy to grow. There is no need to create special growing conditions for Shuttle. It is quite enough to simply follow simple rules, thanks to which you can get good, stable crops.
- Does not require shaping. The small sizes of the bushes do not require shaping due to their low growth.
Harvesting can be done within three months from the moment the seedlings are planted in the ground. The plant is characterized by the fact that it bears fruit for quite a long time - until frost.
You can collect unripe tomatoes. If they are placed in a sunny place, they will ripen.
