Tips for caring for tomato seedlings

Cooking earthen substrate and seedlings

Seedling care is a rather painstaking task that requires a lot of time and effort. In order to grow healthy seedlings, it is necessary to take into account a significant number of factors, from the ambient temperature to the presence of the necessary microorganisms in the soil. Caring for tomato seedlings begins with the preparation of fertile soil.

It is much easier to buy ready-made seedlings, but nevertheless, many gardeners prefer to grow seedlings on their own. Plants that are properly grown at home bring a rich harvest. In addition, caring for seedlings is simply interesting, and self-cultivation of seedlings will bring pleasure to lovers of gardening.

Preparing the soil in which you will plant tomato seeds should be started early. In particular, if you are going to use "live" soil from your own beds - it can take up to three weeks to make it suitable for planting.

If you are confident in your own abilities, prepare an earthen substrate at home. The mixture in which tomato seeds are planted is called classic and consists of equal parts of garden soil, humus, black peat / compost and river sand.

When using the soil from your garden, do not forget that it should be free of insects or toxic substances. It is necessary to steam the soil in advance so that its microflora has time to recover by the time of sowing the seeds.

For beginner gardeners, it will be preferable to purchase a ready-made earthen substrate. Specialized shops sell soils that have already been enriched with all the nutrients. Unlike those prepared on their own, purchased soils do not require special care and do not need to be steamed and "fed" with additives.

When choosing a container in which tomato seeds will sprout, keep in mind that its height should not be less than 10 cm. For such purposes, both special pallets and plastic boxes and "pots" from ordinary bottles with a cut top are suitable. Fill the container with the substrate 5-6 hours before sowing and moisturize abundantly. Elite tomato seeds do not need special preparation for sowing. For processing simple varieties, prepare a weak solution of potassium permanganate and dip a bag of seeds in it for a few minutes. Then rinse them with warm water.

Growing tips

Seedling care is a rather painstaking task that requires a lot of time and effort. In order to grow healthy seedlings, it is necessary to take into account a significant number of factors, from the ambient temperature to the presence of the necessary microorganisms in the soil.

During the first week after sowing, the container with seeds should be covered with foil or covered with a transparent cap. Make sure that the ambient temperature is approximately +25 degrees. Seedlings will appear 5-6 days after sowing. When the seeds germinate, remove the film from the container and focus on creating favorable conditions for the seedlings. As you can see, no special care is required.

After germination of seeds, you need to reduce the temperature in the room to + 17-19 degrees, and also take care of the lighting necessary for light-loving tomatoes. Tomato seedlings need a day of light lasting from 12 to 14 hours. If there is not enough natural light, use fluorescent lamps. Over time, they can be left on for a whole day.  

At first, full watering of crops is not performed, otherwise the root system will develop worse than the aboveground part. Spray the soil only with boiled or settled water, to which you can add a couple of drops of potassium permanganate. The liquid temperature should be 20-25 degrees. Otherwise, the risk increases that your plants will pick up the so-called "black leg" - in this case, it will be almost impossible to save the seedlings.

Until the leaves appear, water the seedlings no more than once a week. In the future, make sure that the water moistens only the root and does not get into large quantities on the aboveground part.

About picking and hardening

A pick is simply a transplant of plants with a sufficiently strong and overgrown root system. If more than two weeks have passed since the leaves appeared, start preparing for picking seedlings. It's a painstaking process, but a couple of tips will help reduce the risk of plant damage.

• Take care of new containers in advance. Its dimensions should exceed the volume of the previous one, at least 5 times.
• You do not need to excessively moisten the ground before diving - this will help to gently get the seedling along with the earthy clod.
• After transplanting, the tomatoes should rest for 1-2 days in a shaded place.
• Do not feel sorry for frail seedlings and after a dive, cut them off at the root. This will contribute to their better development in the future.

To prepare plants for transplanting into open ground, you need to thoroughly harden them. For this, the seedlings are taken out into a cool room and left there for 15-20 minutes. A glazed loggia is perfect for such purposes if the outside air temperature is above 10 degrees.

The hardening process lasts an average of 10-12 days. For the first few days, do not allow plants to be exposed to direct sunlight or a draft for a long time. Only when the hardening period comes to an end and the seedlings get stronger, you can leave them by an open window even overnight.

Gardener mistakes

Excessive heat or too much watering may not be the best way to affect the results of your efforts. Compared to other crops, tomato seedlings are quite unpretentious and are able to survive in not the most favorable conditions. However, overlooking the important features of caring for tomato seedlings, we run the risk of getting weak plants with a poorly developed root system and fragile leaves.

• Seedlings need to be watered only as the topsoil dries up. The abundance of moisture is one of the main factors causing the "black leg" that terrifies gardeners so much.
• Trying to plant as many seeds as possible in one container, gardeners make the second mistake. Seeds planted too often will grow slowly and interfere with each other. In addition, it increases the risk of spreading disease. Try to plant the seeds so that their leaves do not touch in the future and each seedling gets enough sunlight.
• Many words have been said about the benefits of fertilizers, but an excessive amount of them certainly will not translate into quality. Novice gardeners sometimes overfeed their "offspring" with various additives, which poisons them, making them frail. Use nitrogen supplements with extreme caution. Do not go to the other extreme, ignoring unnatural changes in leaf color or other symptoms of diseases.
• If the container with seedlings is on the windowsill, take care of the cleanliness of the glass. Remember the love of tomato seedlings for sunlight.
• You will significantly improve the quality of seedlings by carefully observing the timing of the seeding, hardening and diving procedures. For the convenience of gardeners, a memo with calculations of approximate terms is printed on the packages with seeds. In addition, similar tables can be found on the Internet or in gardening magazines.

Video "Proper care of tomato seedlings"

Practical advice on caring for tomato seedlings from germination to picking.