Tomatoes - one of the most beloved, popular vegetables on our table, which we surround with care and attention at all stages of growth - before planting in the garden, greenhouse or greenhouse. Do I need tomatoes swoop? The opinion of the majority of gardeners tends to a positive answer. How, when diving tomatoes, you will learn from this article.
- What is
- picking Tomato seedling - how to swoop?
- Caring for tomato seedlings after picking
- Additional questions about picking
- Can I not pick my tomato seedlings?
- What should I do if a tomato seedling is stretched out before a pick?
To bring the time of fruiting closer, to make the bushes of seedlings stronger, gardeners use an effective agrotechnical technique - a pick.
What is
picking After the tomatoes have given the first two or three full-fledged leaves, it is time to swoop down - to replant the bushes into a larger container. This method allows the seedlings to form a stronger root system, prevents stretching, allows you to get a harvest early. When diving, the root of the plant is deepened, this allows the formation of new side roots.
With a competent pick, weak specimens are rejected, and promising seedlings are seated in separate pots for subsequent development.
Usually, tomato seeds are sowed by the end of the calendar winter( February or early March).If you have done everything correctly in advance: you sowed the seeds, took into account the requirements for lighting, watering, changing temperatures during the day or night, then it is time for picks.
содерж to content ↑Tomato seedling - how to dive?
After a certain time after the emergence of shoots it becomes clear which sprouts are weaker. They should be removed so that they do not pull the vital forces from the strong brethren. After about a month, the plants will gain strength, they will have the first real leaves - this will serve as a signal - you can begin to swoop down. 
For several hours, tomato seedlings need to be watered properly, the water temperature should not be below + 20 ° C.New containers for seedlings( cups, pots, special shapes) should not be very large, approximately 8 × 8 or 10 × 10 cm in diameter.
If these are not special containers, then they need to be prepared in advance, for example, poke the bottom of the pot several times so that the water does not stagnate. 
Then you need to fill in with prepared soil, press the ground a little, make indentations. If you have potassium permanganate at home, you can make a slightly pink solution and pour it on the soil before planting. In the absence of potassium permanganate, simply moisten the well with water at room temperature — this will have a positive effect on the survival rate of the tomatoes.
How do tomatoes swoop, if they were initially sown, grew all together? In order to gently, comfortably remove the tomato bush from the ground, you can take a sharply sharpened wooden stick or a small fork, and then carefully remove the sprout along with the earthy bundle. 
If it does not work with a lump, then at least do not shake off the ground from the roots. 
Take care not to damage the roots, try to keep your hands less in contact with the green part of the seedling. Tender tomato sprouts are very sensitive. Contact of human hands( skin temperature) with a stem or leaflets can cause stress, as a result of which the plant can become sick. Try to keep the plant for the part of the stem, which is located closer to the root, or, better yet, for the lump of earth with the root.
I know that some gardeners remove cotyledon leaves before picking.
I tried differently. Predominantly removed cotyledon leaves, if the seedlings stretched out,
, and the plant had to be buried during a picking in order to slightly delay growth.
How do tomato seedlings dive, if it was previously grown in individual molds or cups? Here the only difference is in the process of extracting the earthy coma together with the germ. It is much easier to extract a lump from separate molds, for example, by rolling over. To do this, a day and a half before the picking, the seedlings stop watering, the ground dries out a little and when turning the mold upside down, the seedling with the ground falls out freely. He can be helped by pressing lightly on the bottom of the container, the stem with the leaves itself is passed between the fingers. This method is also good because the roots of the plant are not injured during the process.
Tomatoes how to pick, if the root system was formed differently? Properly formed roots should be approximately the same in size, in their structure resemble a fluffy tangle. Such roots do not need to be pinched or too deeply embedded in the soil - there will be enough penetration to the level of cotyledon leaves. After that you should gently press the ground around the sprout. Too deep burial has a negative effect on the further growth of the bush, as it will spend all its energy on the formation of new roots.
If one of the roots is developed more actively than the others, it should be slightly shortened - pinch approximately 1-1.5 cm. If you damaged this main tap root when removing the seedling, then you should not worry much. Favorable development of the urinary system is the main condition for the tomatoes; when the bush is transplanted to a permanent place of residence, the roots of the plant will deepen exactly as they need( down or to the sides).
↑ to the content ↑Care of the seedlings of tomatoes after picking
After picking out, tomato seedlings need to be placed where they will be hidden from direct sunlight. The daytime temperature should be + 20..23 ° C, night - + 15..17 ° C.After 4-5 days, the seedlings can be irrigated from a spray bottle or sprinkled with water at room temperature. Previously, you can not moisturize, as the roots, looking for moisture, begin to stretch, respectively, to grow stronger. As soon as you see that the shoots have fallen asleep, taken root in a new place, they can be brought to the light. 
After 10-12 days, make a control inspection: if the seedlings of tomatoes acquired a juicy green color, they let out new leaves - the process was successful.
Spreading is done twice:
- 2 weeks after the pick,
- 3 weeks after the first fertilization.
Top dressing for tomato seedlings is important - they have a beneficial effect on the development of roots, growth and the formation of fruits. Complex mineral supplements that contain potassium sulfate, superphosphate, ammonium nitrate, and urea are suitable for these purposes. After feeding, seedlings must be poured with clean water( as if to wash off fertilizer), gently loosen the ground.
содерж to the content ↑Additional questions on the pick-up
↑ to the content ↑Is it possible not to dive the tomato seedlings?
The answer to this question will be positive - yes, you can. But at the same time, the sowing of seeds is performed about a month later( end of March-beginning of April).Sow either directly into the ground( in case of steady warm weather) or in greenhouse conditions. Pre-seeds are soaked for several hours, sown with a rare step - this is a seedless way of growing tomatoes.
Top dressing with urea or nitrophoska will favorably affect the general condition, development of bushes. When two full leaves( non-cotyledonous) appear, thin out the tomatoes - just pinch off weak shoots with a fingernail. After 3 days, the seedlings are fed with a solution of nitrate( 15 mg / 10 l of water), about 1 liter of fertilizer is poured under each bush. The second, potash-phosphorus top dressing is made before the fruits begin to increase their size.
You can also sow the seeds immediately in separate pots, and then transfer them to the soil in the garden after the transfer method, bypassing the pick picking process.
содерж to content ↑What should I do if a tomato seedling is stretched before picking?
Seedlings pulled out due to lack of light. This is a natural process, since all the plants are drawn to the sun. A similar phenomenon can also be observed when the bushes are planted too close( common tray, and not individual molds), they lack light, because they obscure it to each other.
Another reason is non-compliance with the temperature regime. To germinate seeds you need to be warm, but when the seedlings have already seen the light, the temperature must be lowered so that they do not actively grow until the moment of picking.
To remedy the situation, the tomatoes should be transplanted in boxes, having previously prepared the elongated grooves in the ground. Fertile soil should be mixed with humus, sand, before planting the tomatoes furrow itself must be watered with warm water. The seedling is laid along the groove, tilting the earthen clod with the roots at an angle of 45 degrees, while the roots lie, and the top is seen on the surface. The root system is gently covered with earth, then the rest of the plant.
Thus, new roots will grow on a stem embedded in the soil, it will straighten up, it will bear fruit normally, only a little later. The same method is used when planted bushes in open ground at a permanent place of growth. To give the horizontal direction of the bushes additionally used tying. Along the edges of the grooves set the supporting pins, between which the rope is tied, to which the stem is tied up neatly.
There is another method of "resuscitation" of sprawling seedlings: before diving, a sprouting pinch of an elongated top is done, done in such a way that a stem fragment of about 1 cm is left above the cotyledon leaves.to cotyledon leaves).From above on a pot put on a transparent plastic glass or strain a polyethylene film. After 7-10 days a new full leaf appears on the remaining stalk.
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We hope that after reading this information, you figured out why swooping down the tomatoes.
You may choose a non-seedling method of planting tomatoes or go without a pick picking up by planting the bushes extracted from the cups directly into the ground.
It all depends on your preferences, the time that you either have or not.
Sometimes, in order to strengthen the seedlings, to avoid pulling out the sprouts, gardeners use a double or even a triple pick, each time planting bushes into a large container.
In any case, now you know when diving tomatoes, we hope that the results of this method will be useful and will please you with a generous harvest.
