In any season, you can buy fresh vegetables and fruits in the store, but their taste does not always correspond to the high price. You can grow greens, cucumbers and tomatoes on a windowsill in winter; even novice gardeners are quite capable of this task. Don’t take on complex tasks right away; start with a few bushes of one short and hardy variety. When you gain experience, you can cover the room with long vines with colorful fruits.
The easiest way
If you have never worked with the soil, then preparing seeds, watching over young shoots like a small child will be too tiring, and you will have to wait a very long time for tasty fruits. Just thinking about growing and picking seedlings, lighting, and problems with pollination gives up. That's why green onions, dill and are grown on windowsills by many families, and vegetable crops only a few are planted. If you are afraid of difficulties, there is a simpler and faster method.
In August or September, cut the shoots from that part of the tomato bush where there are already fruit clusters. Choose a plant with medium-sized fruits. Place the cut in water; you can add a root formation stimulator to the liquid. When the roots begin to appear, plant the shoots in boxes or pots with fertile soil. You need to care for such plantings like adult plants; the bush from the shoot will develop quickly, and you will soon enjoy delicious tomatoes.
Because for open ground and indoor cultivation bred different varieties, you will not get a rich harvest from your stepson. This method is good for beginners: during the first winter you will learn how to care for adult bushes, and in the next season you will master growing from seeds. If not summer cottage, you can also plant tomatoes in the room or on the balcony in the warmer months. Then you won’t have to buy vegetables pumped with chemicals; your garden will supply your family with vitamins all year round.
Don't go wrong with the choice of variety
When growing tomatoes indoors, difficulties arise that are unfamiliar to summer residents who work only with open ground or greenhouses. Breeders take these features into account when breeding indoor varieties. A novice gardener may not pay attention to whether there is an inscription on the package that tomatoes can be grown indoors or on the balcony.
If you take plants intended only for open ground, various problems may arise:
- a powerful root system requires a large volume of soil;
- a tall, heavy bush can knock over a pot;
- There are no pollinating insects indoors.
For indoor growing, it is advisable to choose dwarf varieties or standard hybrids. They are compact and do not take up much space. If necessary, the pot can be easily moved to another window.
- "Oak";
- "Pygmy";
- "Balcony miracle";
- "Bonsai";
- "Little Red Riding Hood";
- "Room Surprise";
- "Leopold".
You can buy the varieties most suitable for home growing, but the seeds may not germinate, and all the work done will be in vain. To prevent empty boxes with single weak sprouts from ruining your mood, check the quality in advance seed material. You can wrap 10 grains from each bag in a damp cloth and keep them warm for several hours. Look how many seeds have swelled and are ready to send out roots - that’s how many plants you’ll get from a dozen seeds.
Good soil is important for harvest
To grow tomatoes at home, you can purchase special soil or soil for seedlings. It is believed that the soil is supplied for sale completely ready for filling into boxes. You can take the manufacturers' word for it, but it's better not to take risks. Go through all the soil, crush the dense lumps, and see if there are large granules of fertilizer in the soil. Only when the entire mass becomes fine, crumbly and homogeneous can it be used for planting and growing any crops.
To grow strong bushes, you can prepare the soil yourself. Take 5 parts garden soil and rotted compost, 2 parts sand and 1 part peat. For each bucket of mixture, add a handful of ash and matchbox and potassium sulfate.
Any soil is inhabited by harmful microorganisms, fungi, and insect larvae. Both yours and purchased soil need to be baked in the oven to destroy the infection. Don't forget to also disinfect containers, tools and gloves.
Before putting soil into pots and boxes, make sure that the drainage holes of the containers allow moisture to pass through well. Place a layer of gravel at the bottom, then fill it with soil. It is better not to compact the soil with your hands or special tools– you will not be able to calculate the effort correctly. Spill the soil with water, and it will lie down on its own. There are techniques for growing vegetables in a small amount of soil or in one nutrient solution. You can try the hydroponic method, but tomatoes will absorb a lot of fertilizer. Healthy foods can only be obtained from natural soil.
How to sow seeds correctly?
In rare cases, it is possible to keep tomatoes collected at the dacha fresh until the New Year. From the end of December until summer, tomatoes can only be purchased in the store. If you need fruits winter period, sow the seeds in 2 stages: the beginning of October and the end of November. When the first plantings finish bearing fruit, the second batch of bushes will grow. If you want to harvest from the windowsill all year round, add 2 more sowings: in February and at the end of March.
If you have not checked the seeds for germination, before sowing, dissolve a tablespoon of salt in a glass of water and throw the grains into the liquid. Drowned specimens can be sown, but those that float are not suitable for this purpose. To keep the seedlings strong and pain-free, place the seed for 20 minutes in a weak solution of potassium permanganate, and then treat it with a growth stimulator. After this, you can wrap the grains in a damp cloth and leave them in a warm place until they hatch.
Seedlings do not like crowded conditions. Sow the grains no closer than 2 cm from one another. After sowing, sprinkle the seeds with a 2 cm thick layer of soil, lightly tamp and cover with film. Before emergence, keep the plantings at a temperature of about +23⁰ C, it is advisable that the bottom of the boxes is also heated. In about a week, the cotyledon leaves will appear, and the young plants will require different conditions.
It is convenient to grow seedlings in a special greenhouse for the windowsill. When choosing a model, give preference to a design that provides bottom heating.
Caring for young plantings
When the shoots appear, the temperature should be reduced to +20⁰ C. If the room is cool, leave them under the film, but do not forget to ventilate them daily. During this period, the greatest danger is posed by the plant, which can destroy all the plants in a few days. The pathogen loves high humidity, low temperature and stagnant air. Provide your pets the right conditions And good care so that the fungus does not start in the home garden.
Plants need light, but bright sun can burn the leaves. On a clear day, shade them with tulle or a paper screen. Don't let the soil dry out, but don't water it too often or too much. The soil surface should always be slightly moist, then the root system will be comfortable and the fungus will not settle on the plantings.
Chlorine is harmful to tomatoes, so it is better to use rain or melt water for watering. If you take the liquid from the tap, let it sit for about a week.
When the second true leaf appears, the seedlings can be fed with microelements. Dilute the solution at half the concentration recommended by the instructions and water the plantings. The work must be carried out in cloudy weather or the boxes must be temporarily moved to north window. It is not advisable to pour the nutrient composition onto dry soil - water the plants and feed them after a couple of hours.
How to grow strong seedlings?
It is necessary when the third true leaf develops. Take plastic glasses volume of 200 ml and allocate a separate container for each bush. It is better not to use peat pots: warm room They either dry out or crack from moisture. Transparent vessels are also undesirable: in the light, the earthen lump will grow with moss on all sides.
There is no need to water the plantings with nutrient solutions for the first three weeks. The injured root system must take root and begin to work at full strength. After this, feed the seedlings twice a month with a complex fertilizer that contains manganese. Leyte nutrient solutions carefully around the stem so that the splashes do not fall on the green parts of the plants.
When the roots fill the entire volume of the glass, a transplant to permanent place. Containers and pots for them must have a volume of at least 3 liters, and for tall varieties and 5 liters may not be enough. The day before transplanting, water the soil well so that the moisture saturates the soil well overnight. Easier to extract from wet soil root system without injuring the processes.
Caring for mature plants
Too thick greens are harmful to tomatoes even open beds, and on a windowsill in a small volume of soil this rule is especially important. If you are growing tall bushes, leave only one of the strongest stems. Varieties average size can be allowed to grow into 2 trunks; dwarf tomatoes do not need to be formed. Remove the lower leaves in a timely manner - these shoots do not bring any benefit, and require a lot of nutrients.
In winter, daylight hours are too short, because of this the bushes grow elongated and do not set fruit well. Solving this problem is not difficult: install fluorescent lamps over the plantings and turn them on in the morning and evening. Tomatoes grow and develop best if daylight lasts from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. For growing indoors or in a winter greenhouse, it is recommended to use self-pollinating varieties, but if you help the tomatoes, the fruits will begin to set more actively. You can “tickle” the flowers with a soft brush, or you can gently shake each bush.
With a limited volume of soil, plants constantly require feeding. Apply complex fertilizers twice a month. When choosing a composition, keep in mind that plants require nitrogen for the active development of green mass. When the fruits begin to set and fill, nitrates should be limited, but more potassium should be added. Will not harm adult plants foliar feeding, but for young seedlings you can pour solutions only at the root so that the drops do not fall on the leaves.
In a small amount of land, tomatoes will not be able to develop all the fruits that have formed on them. When the ovaries appear, leave no more than 5 of the strongest brushes on the bush, and the top and the rest fruit shoots cut off. As soon as the tomatoes on the window begin to turn pink, pick them and put them in a wooden box. In this case, the plant will have more strength to develop the remaining fruits.
Problems when growing tomatoes on a windowsill
Monitor your pets carefully and they will let you know if any problems arise. Sometimes an inexperienced gardener himself creates discomfort for the plants. Tomatoes grow well at a daytime temperature of about +22⁰ C and a night temperature of +17⁰ C. A thermometer in the middle of the room may show exactly these values, but on the window Sun rays When the bush is heated, the battery releases hot air currents. Yellow curled leaves indicate that the tomatoes are hot, and a bluish tint occurs when there is a sharp change in temperature from the wind from an open window or cold streams of air from unsealed window slits.
Tomatoes can wither due to improper watering. It is useless to moisturize frequently upper layer soil, because the roots take water from the depths. Water the plantings approximately once every 5 days, but generously so that the liquid appears in the pan.
The incorrect composition of fertilizers also immediately affects the appearance of plants.
- If there is a lack of nitrogen, the lower leaves turn yellow, and if there is a deficiency of calcium, the upper leaves will turn yellow.
- Wrinkled leaves indicate that you have overfed the plantings with calcium and this element does not allow them to absorb potassium.
- Leaves become thick and hard when the plant lacks sulfur.
- A yellow border around the edges of the leaf indicates a lack of magnesium.
Lettuce, as the earliest and most unpretentious green crop, has always been held in high esteem by gardeners. Spring planting Most gardeners usually start by sowing lettuce, parsley and radishes. Recently, the desire to healthy eating And big choice greens in supermarkets make gardeners wonder which of these plants can be grown in their beds? In this article we will talk about nine of the most interesting, in our opinion, varieties of salad.
Carrots happen various colors: orange, white, yellow, purple. Orange carrots contain beta-carotene and lycopene, yellow due to the presence of xanthophylls (lutein); White carrots have a lot of fiber, and purple ones contain anthocyanin, beta and alpha carotenes. But, as a rule, gardeners choose carrot varieties for sowing not by the color of the fruit, but by the timing of their ripening. About the best early, middle and late varieties we will tell you in this article.
Recommended enough easy recipe pie with a delicious filling of chicken and potatoes. Open Pie with chicken and potatoes - it's excellent hearty dish, which is suitable for a hearty snack, it is very convenient to take a couple of pieces of this pastry on the road. The pie is baked in the oven for one hour at 180 degrees. After that we put it on wooden surface, having previously released it from the mold. It is enough to slightly cool the baked goods and you can start tasting.
The long-awaited spring for many indoor plants is the period of the start of active growing season, and for the majority - the return of their decorative effect. While admiring the young leaves and emerging shoots, you should not forget that spring is also a great stress for all indoor plants. Sensitive to changes in conditions and universal, all indoor crops face much brighter lighting, changes in air humidity and temperature conditions.
You can easily prepare homemade Easter cake with cottage cheese and candied fruits, even without any pastry experience. You can bake Easter cake not only in a special form or in a paper mold. For your first culinary experiences (and not only) I advise you to take a small cast iron frying pan. Easter cake in a frying pan will not turn out as high as in a narrow pan, but it never burns and is always well baked inside! Cottage cheese dough made with yeast turns out airy and aromatic.
It is also interesting because its fruits (pumpkins) are used for food by young, not ripe ones (greens). This means you don’t have to wait for the harvest to ripen, and from late spring to autumn you can have fresh vegetables on your menu. In your garden beds, it is better to grow varieties and hybrids of zucchini that are resistant to disease and change. weather conditions. This eliminates unwanted treatments and allows you to get a harvest in any weather. It is these varieties of zucchini that will be discussed in this article.
IN middle lane April is the time when the first flowering of plants in gardens and parks begins. The constant soloists of the spring that has come into its own are the bulbous primroses. But also among ornamental shrubs you can find those that will delight you with fragrant flowers, enlivening the still inconspicuous garden. The main riot of beautifully flowering ornamental shrubs occurs in the month of May, and most of them, as a rule, bloom in mid-May.
Salad “Uzbekistan” with green radish, boiled meat and eggs - a classic dish of Uzbek cuisine, known to many since the times of the USSR. In any Uzbek restaurant you could order this simple but very tasty salad with meat and radish as an appetizer. If you have never cooked this dish before, I advise you to try it - you will like it and fall into the category of favorites! You can diversify the taste a little and add finely chopped cilantro, parsley and a pod of red chili pepper.
They offer us this great amount different preparations, which, at times, can even cause confusion in the matter of choosing one fertilizer or another. experienced summer resident. In this article, we invite the reader to get acquainted with OMU - a complex granular organomineral fertilizer of prolonged action, which compares favorably with other modern complex fertilizers. Why are WMD better food, which you can offer your plants, and how does it work?
The group of medicinal plants that have a general calming (sedative) effect includes a large number of aromatic herbs and shrubs. At correct use teas and infusions from these plants help cope with stressful situations, improve mood, eliminate or reduce nervous overexcitation. In this article we will talk about nine of the most interesting, in our opinion, medicinal plants, which without special labor can be grown on site.
Fragrance is not the most important feature and is not at all associated with orchids. But for some species and individual varieties, the smell is a significant addition to their main “image”. Favorite sweets, confectionery and spicy aromas are not uncommon among orchids. Vanilla aromas or more original spices in the scent notes give a delightful bright flowers even more exotic. And you can choose spicy fragrant orchids from both popular and rare species.
Easy pear and nut muffins - sweet, juicy and delicious! The birthplace of muffins is considered to be Great Britain and America. In England, such cupcakes are made from butter yeast dough, in America from buttery yeast-free dough, which is loosened using baking soda or baking powder, or both. The basic muffin recipe looks something like this: 200 g flour, 200 ml milk or kefir, 100 g eggs, 100 g butter, baking powder and soda.
What do you need to get good harvest potatoes? Many gardeners will say - good seed material, fertile soil, timely watering and fertilizing. But there is one negative factor, which can significantly reduce the potato yield, despite the fulfillment of the above conditions - weeds. On plantations overgrown with weeds, it is not possible to obtain a rich potato harvest, and repeated weeding is one of the most labor-intensive procedures in caring for the crop.
Some of the summer residents are lucky and they acquire an estate with several mature spreading trees that create shade and cozy corners. But ours new dacha there were practically no such plantings. And the half-empty area behind the chain-link mesh turned out to be completely open to prying eyes. That's why this came about interesting design, which meets the specific requirements of our family. I think our experience in constructing multifunctional plant supports will be interesting to you too.
Today we will talk about the annual variety “Amore Mio”. In 2016, petunia "Amore Mio Orange" received a gold medal from the International Association of Breeders, Sellers and Manufacturers flower crops. The plant grows up to 25 cm in height. Bush appearance resembles a ball that is densely strewn with bright fragrant flowers up to 6 cm in diameter. Does not set seeds. Petunia "Amore Mio" is used for vertical and horizontal gardening.
In order for indoor tomato bushes to delight you with tasty, healthy and, most importantly, environmentally friendly fruits for a long time, the plants need to create suitable conditions for successful growth and fruiting. It is important to consider many points - from the choice of soil and seeds to garter and additional lighting in winter. So, let's look at all the intricacies of how to grow tomatoes on a window.
Seed selection
Not all tomato varieties are suitable for indoor growing. Experts recommend early-ripening varieties with small or medium-sized fruits for growing on windowsills and loggias. Large tomatoes take longer to ripen and require more space. It is important that the selected tomato variety is a self-pollinating hybrid and produces low-growing bushes. The varieties “Balcony Miracle”, “Minibel” and “Sweet Bunch” are ideal for growing indoor tomatoes.
Preparing soil and containers
Before growing tomatoes in the window, take care of the soil in which the tomato bushes will grow.
To plant tomatoes, prepare the soil by mixing vermicompost with coconut fiber in a ratio of 1:2. Suitable for growing indoor tomatoes ordinary pots for house plants with a volume of 3-4 liters.
Experts recommend planting tomatoes in 2 stages: first germinate the seeds in small containers(plastic cups), and then transplant the strongest seedlings into a permanent large pot. This procedure is called picking.
Preparing seeds for planting
Before planting seedlings, preliminary antibacterial treatment is carried out and seeds are selected for quality. To do this, the seeds are dipped in a warm manganese solution of medium strength for 2-3 hours. After the specified time, the condition of the seeds is assessed and those that have sunk to the bottom are selected for planting. Floating seeds most often have very low germination. The seeds selected from potassium permanganate are allowed to dry by placing them on a cotton cloth.
Growing seedlings
The home garden provides us with limited space, so it is especially important here to select strong and beautiful tomato bushes for planting. We will tell you how to grow tomatoes on a window from pre-sprouted seedlings.
Seeds prepared for planting are planted in 100 ml plastic cups. Containers for seedlings are filled earth mixture not completely, leaving 2 cm to the edge.
Place 4-5 seeds in each cup, sprinkle with a 1-1.5 cm layer of soil, and then water. The first shoots appear in 1.5-2 weeks. It is better to water the seedlings using a spray bottle. Until the shoots appear, keep the seedlings in a bag.
Among the sprouted seedlings, the 2 strongest are selected, the rest are pulled out. A week later, another thinning is carried out, leaving in each glass one, the most beautiful and strongest, seedling.
Replanting and pinching
Tomato seedlings need to be transplanted into permanent large pots. It can be done 3-4 weeks after germination.
To replant the seedling, carefully turn the glass over, holding it young plant two fingers. With the second hand they pull a plastic cup up. A lump of earth remains in the hand, taking the shape of a cup.
An earthen ball with a seedling is inserted into a pre-prepared large pot and topped up required quantity soil to cotyledon leaves. The transplanted seedlings are watered.
So that the tomatoes do not stretch upward, but look like a bush, after the appearance of several true leaves, the top of the plant pinch - remove the top shoot. After pinching, the bush will more actively produce side shoots.
How to grow tomatoes on a window
Watering is of primary importance in caring for indoor tomatoes. The intensity of watering depends on the time of year and the stage of plant development.
During the first month, it is important not to over-water the seedlings in order to avoid such undesirable consequences of excessive watering as blackleg. Young seedlings need to be watered moderately but regularly. Tomato bushes also require moderate watering in winter, when the plants are not exposed to heat and sun.
It is necessary to increase the intensity of watering from the beginning of March, and in the summer it is especially important to prevent the soil from drying out. Summer watering should be daily, supplemented by regular evening spraying of tomato bushes.
A grown tomato bush should be tied to a stable support. Tomatoes growing near a window should be rotated slightly around their axis every day to avoid curvature of the bushes reaching towards the light source. IN winter time tomatoes need additional lighting with fluorescent lamps.
For successful pollination flowering bush shake the tomatoes gently every day.
Without fertilizing, tomato bushes bearing fruit at home quickly deplete the soil. It is recommended to fertilize tomatoes with Agrolife and Rostom once every 2-3 weeks according to the instructions.
The first harvest can be expected 3-4 months after germination of the seedlings. Tomato bushes can bear fruit for several years if, as they grow, they are transplanted into larger pots (this can be done with plants without flowers and fruits), adding fertile soil.
In addition to tomatoes, you can use them for salads or herbs for tea or seasonings.
As practice shows, you can easily make such a mini-vegetable garden at home, on your windowsill. Experienced gardeners manage to grow on ordinary closed balcony not only tasty and aromatic tomatoes, but also various herbs, peppers, lettuce, lemons, tangerines, pineapples and more. If you also want to join those who easily grow various vegetables and fruits in winter, then carefully read all the tips collected for you.
Apartment window sills – enough a good place for growing tomatoes. As practice shows, varieties with small tomatoes take root well in ordinary apartments, regardless of the height of the house and other indicators. Dwarf varieties have proven themselves best with this home growing, so it makes sense to take them for such purposes. Specialized stores sell bags of seeds that indicate that they are recommended for “pot” growing - these are tomatoes for window sills.
You can choose tomatoes by taste, color (pink or bright red), and also by shape - round, oblong or very small. Some varieties ( Cherry, Mascot) can be grown in hanging planters, in which hanging flowers grow. If you decide to start growing tomatoes in winter, then you will need to sow the seeds to obtain high-quality seedlings in July or August.
Features of planting indoor tomatoes
So, in the summer, starting from the second month, you can start sowing. You will need light and preferably fertile soil for your balcony or windowsill - specialized stores will have everything you need. Tomato seeds just need to be covered with soil and the soil moistened with a spray bottle. Constantly maintain humidity and keep the trays with future seedlings warm - within a week or two the first sprouts will appear.
They need a lot of light, a moderate amount of moisture and very little nitrogen fertilizer to grow.
The next stage is to pick up the already grown seedlings. Sprouts with two or three true leaves are considered mature. For picking, you need to prepare separate containers, for example, flower pots. In principle, you can grow indoor tomatoes using the seedless method. But it is believed that the first method produces stronger seedlings with a powerful root system. Considering that this crop loves a lot of light, it is advisable to prepare a fluorescent lamp for the seedlings, especially if you sowed the seeds in winter. After all, even if there is direct winter sunlight, it will not be enough for seedlings on the window.
Regular watering is required. As soon as you see that the top layer of soil has begun to dry out, you immediately need to add a little warm, settled water. If you decide to grow tomatoes in pots, then you need to water them even more often. At the same time, the crop does not tolerate excessive air humidity, so it is not advisable to leave tomato seedlings in a damp room.
Don’t forget about fertilizing - fertilizers are necessary for the soil and after diving. The best care option is to feed the tomatoes every 14–15 days. To do this, you will need complex mineral or organic fertilizers.
Growing tomatoes on an apartment window sill or balcony at home in winter has its own characteristics - for example, for hanging varieties hanging in flower pots, it is necessary to remove the shoots. These small shoots are removed so that the plant bears fruit better. If we're talking about about dwarf seedlings, then in this case there is no need to prune the stepsons.
Homemade tomatoes - growing on the balcony
If there is a sufficiently large volume of soil on the balcony, it is still possible to plant some large and tall varieties at home. The same tomato Bull's heart or varieties Carlson, White filling. But best option for growing tomatoes on a windowsill or small balcony, as we have already noted - varieties up to 25–35 centimeters high.
So we advise you to take such beautiful and juicy varieties as Japanese indoor, Balcony miracle, Oak, and Ruby. All of them can give you a wonderful harvest on your balcony. This has been proven by many amateur gardeners through their experiments at home. So growing ripe tomatoes on a windowsill in winter is a reality! In winter, the taste of fresh homemade tomatoes will delight you.
Selection work is ongoing and has resulted in many hybrid varieties tomatoes suitable for growing in a flower pot. They are distinguished by unpretentiousness and productivity.
A huge advantage of such cultivation is year-round, knowing the ripening time, you can easily get a harvest just in time for the New Year's table. The main thing is to choose the right variety.
The disadvantages of growing tomatoes this way include limited plantings, especially if the window sills in the apartment are not wide and, of course, home harvests will differ in volume from those collected from open ground plants.
Preparatory activities: growing correctly
How to choose a place?
It doesn’t matter which side the window faces, you will still be able to get a harvest. Hybrids intended for growing on windowsills are adapted to short daylight hours and lack of sunlight.
Tomato is a heat-loving plant, so the temperature near the bushes should be maintained at +22-25 degrees during the day and not lower than +15 degrees in the evening. Tomatoes are also demanding of air humidity. Especially when winter version growing, when heating radiators dry out the air very much, which can cause plant disease. The air in the room needs to be humidified regularly.
Special varieties
Standard and hanging varieties are suitable for window beds. Such plants do not exceed 35-45 centimeters in height. Best options:
Micron NK
Refers to dwarf varieties, does not grow above fifteen centimeters. The fruits are sweet - yellow or red, weighing no more than twelve grams. The health of the plant is absolutely independent of the length of daylight hours.
Pinocchio
The bush is compact, the fruits are sweet, round, weighing twenty grams. If the seeds are sown after the twentieth of September, the first harvest can be harvested by the New Year.
Bullfinch
An ultra-early variety, a compact standard plant, 30-40 cm high. It does not shoot, the fruits are red and round.
Important! Potted tomatoes can bear fruit for five years, gradually reducing the intensity. The bushes bear fruit most abundantly in the first two to three years.
Pot
For growing miniature tomatoes, a regular one is quite suitable. flower pot , made of plastic. When choosing a diameter, you need to focus on the size of an adult plant.
Priming
For planting potted tomatoes, both a ready-made store-bought substrate and a soil mixture prepared independently are suitable. To do this you will need:
- humus – 50%;
- chernozem – 45%;
- sand – 5%;
How to plant at home: technology from A to Z
Seeds
- It is best to purchase planting material in a store to be sure of its quality and compliance with the stated characteristics.
- Before planting, you need to sort out empty grains that are not able to sprout. To do this, they need to be immersed in water for ten minutes. salt water and substandard seeds will float, while healthy ones will sink to the bottom.
- Next, the seeds are soaked in a solution of potassium permanganate for half an hour to develop immunity to late blight in future plants.
- After all procedures, the seeds are placed in a damp cloth.
- After the spouts of the sprouts have appeared, the grains are sown in the ground, deepened by a centimeter, keeping an interval of three centimeters.
- The soil is lightly compacted, the container is covered with plastic film and put in a warm place until shoots appear. You need to make small holes in the film for air circulation.
- In a week the shoots will appear. It is necessary to ensure that the soil is always moderately moist.
Seedlings
Step-by-step instructions for caring for indoor crops
Watering and fertilizers
Potted tomatoes respond very gratefully to watering. Soil moisture promotes healthy growth, healthy ovary formation and fruit ripening. Watering is carried out twice a week, without touching the stems. By the beginning of flowering, watering is stopped and resumed only with the appearance of ovaries.
Three weeks after the picking was carried out, special mineral fertilizers. Tomatoes need to be fed at intervals of two weeks, applying fertilizer on the second day after watering.
Trimming and pinching, pinching
It is necessary to remove shoots, formed in the axils of the leaves, that is, pinching. This is necessary for the proper formation of the plant. Stepchildren that are not removed in time lead to thickening, take away nutrients and reduce the yield of tomatoes.
Reference! After the main ovaries have formed, you need to pinch the top, and cut off the lower leaves, which have withered during the growth process.
Supports, hanging
Varieties suitable for growing on a windowsill do not have branching, they have a stable trunk, so they do not need a garter. If such a need nevertheless arises, then a peg is carefully stuck into the ground so as not to damage the roots, and the branches are attached to it.
Diseases and pests
Growing tomatoes on a windowsill is an opportunity to harvest fragrant fruits, not only in spring or summer, but all year round. This is a fascinating activity that brings great pleasure even to those who previously considered themselves far from the topic of gardening. After reading the article, you learned when to plant tomatoes and what varieties to choose to get a bountiful harvest.
Useful video
We invite you to watch a video of growing tomatoes on a windowsill: