Top dressing tomatoes in the open field

After planting in open ground, tomatoes need feeding. Timely applied fertilization contributes to the development of seedlings, as well as the correct formation of the root system. Any plant needs fertile soil, as well as nutrients that must be contained in this very soil. However, not all soils are rich in mineral trace elements. Therefore, feeding a tomato is considered a prerequisite for the normal development of seedlings. Let's say in advance that tomatoes are very demanding on soil fertility. However, everything needs to be done on time, and, lastly, do not overdo it with fertilizers. After all, surplus can harm.

Top dressing tomato: soil fertility

For growing seedlings, the fertility of the land is considered an important point. The soil must contain many trace elements. Therefore, summer residents recommend preparing the soil for planting tomatoes in the fall or early spring.

Top dressing tomato: choose a place

Tomatoes, like any other cultivated plant, need to choose the right place to grow. The area where you plan to plant this crop should be well lit, and the sun's rays should touch the ground for at least six hours a day. The site should be well ventilated, but tomatoes still do not like drafts. The soil should be well moistened and fertile, and the temperature regime should be stable. Observing the crop rotation, it is advisable to plant tomatoes in the place where various legumes and cucumbers previously grew. After potatoes, it is advisable to grow tomatoes only after a couple of years. The soil should have a good structure and the groundwater should not be too deep. If we talk about the direction of the beds, then it is advisable to arrange them not from north to south, from west to east, this will allow the earth to evenly warm up as the sun rises. Remember that tomatoes are very fond of warmth and light. Keep in mind that tomatoes love well-drained soil. But in swampy areas, it is better not to plant tomatoes. Maintain a distance between the beds, they should not be too far apart. The fact is that it will be difficult for you to care for such beds, but the weeds will grow in free space more than intensively. But also do not allow plants to be too close to each other when planting, as their root systems will intertwine, which means that the seedlings and the adult plant will lack nutrients. When laying the beds, remember that the plants will grow, and you need to take care of the future illumination of the site in advance. In cool climates, it is best to plant tomatoes on high slopes, so they will be closer to the sun, and therefore to the warmth and light, which are so necessary for these plants to develop.

Preparing the land

In the fall, it is advisable to dig up the soil at the site of future plantings. This is best done with one shovel bayonet. Organic fertilizers, manure, compost or drainage can be applied to the soil immediately. Remember, tomatoes don't like acidic soils. Tomatoes are quite sensitive to soil acidity levels. Therefore, it is best for you to test the soil using a litmus test, which is sold in specialized agricultural stores. Remember that tomatoes grow well at acidity levels between 6.2 and 6.8 pH.If sorrel or cinquefoil had previously grown on the site, this indicates that the acidity in the soil is increased. Therefore, you should not buy a litmus test either. In order to lower the acidity in the soil, you need to add chalk or wood ash to the ground in the fall. Moreover, one square meter should not be made more than 300 or 400 grams of these mixtures. However, this must be done at a rate depending on the level of soil acidification. You can prepare the soil in early spring. However, you should not bring in non-decomposed humus or manure, which contains elements harmful to the soil. In the spring, you should also loosen the topsoil with one shovel bayonet. Before loosening, you can add additional mineral fertilizers to the ground. Then the top layer of the soil must be leveled, and then the holes must be made. Depending on the variety of tomatoes, the depth of the planting holes should also be chosen. However, remember about the high growth of plants. Depending on how high a particular tomato variety can grow, the desired distance between the plants should be formed.

We fertilize after disembarkation

Female hands planting tomato seedlings in the ground

It is recommended to apply the first fertilizer no earlier than 10 or 14 days after the young plants dive into open ground. After that, with a frequency of 2 weeks, you need to feed the tomato. However, this should only be done as needed. If your seedlings are healthy and strong, there is no need to fertilize the soil. Remember: when diving plants, they especially need care and feeding. Also, when preparing the soil, the first fertilizers should be applied before planting seedlings. During the spring-summer season, tomatoes are usually fed three or four times, but soils with a low content of trace elements and nutrients should be fertilized more often.

Top dressing tomato: organic fertilizers

To fertilize the soil with organic matter, you should stock up on peat, compost, manure, humus. As a rule, organic matter is recommended to be applied 1 time, and in the later stages of plant development it is better to supply the earth with minerals. Organic fertilizers contribute to the growth of green mass. Therefore, during the period of fruit formation or flowering, organic matter is useless to tomatoes. Often gardeners use cow dung, namely, a liquid infusion prepared from it. This fertilizer contains a lot of nitrogen, so it is best to apply it before flowering. But you should be careful when feeding with cow dung, because they can simply burn tomatoes. Bird droppings are also used for feeding, because it also contains a lot of nitrogen. It, like cow dung, is mixed with water and applied at the root of the plant. It is not advisable to fertilize the soil with it in its pure form. Sometimes poultry manure and cow dung are mixed to form a complex organic fertilizer. Often minerals are also added to this mixture. Having looked carefully at your site, you can create an herbal infusion with your own hands, which is considered an excellent organic fertilizer for tomatoes. To prepare it, gardeners collect dandelion, quinoa, and other types of herbs. You need to chop the collected herbs and put them in a bucket. Then they need to be poured with water and let the infusion ferment well. You can add one type of herbs there, or use several. As we noted above, chamomile, dandelion, wood lice and quinoa are suitable for feeding tomatoes. After the infusion has fermented for ten days, it must be diluted with clean water until a light brown liquid is obtained, this is necessary in order to maintain the desired concentration of substances. Sometimes manure, chalk or minerals bought in a specialized agricultural store are added to this infusion. Just do not exceed the concentration in the preparation of the infusion, because this can harm the seedlings. After that, you can water the plants. Tomatoes are often fed with coffee grounds and yeast.Sometimes potato peelings are laid in the planting holes in the fall, which decompose by spring and enrich the soil with nutrients. Coffee grounds contain a lot of phosphorus, magnesium and nitrogen, as well as other beneficial trace elements. Coffee grounds do not affect the acidity of the soil, so it is used on almost any type of soil. Usually, coffee grounds are sprinkled on top of the soil, and then carefully covered up, loosening the ground, after which the tomatoes are watered with clean water. This is necessary so that the particles of coffee grounds reach the root system of plants, enrich the soil with the necessary microelements. Sometimes compost is made with the addition of coffee grounds. To do this, take one part of dried foliage and straw and two parts of coffee grounds. These substrates are mixed and laid in the ground in order to re-crush the compost. In a little less than a month, the fertilizer is ready. Interestingly, coffee grounds have a beneficial effect on the reproduction of earthworms, and the latter, in turn, have a beneficial effect on the structure of the soil, since they saturate it with oxygen. In order to feed tomatoes, regular yeast is often used. They contain many minerals and nutrients, and are also considered excellent growth stimulants. In addition, after fermentation, the yeast emits special gases that increase the temperature of the soil, so tomatoes also develop well after applying this top dressing. This organic matter is best used only in warm weather, because the yeast itself needs heat to start the fermentation process. In order to prepare a yeast dressing, you need to dilute 200 grams of yeast in a liter of lukewarm water and add a few spoonfuls of sugar in order to speed up the fermentation process. When a lot of bubbles begin to form on the surface, you can start applying the fertilizer. You will need to dilute the resulting mixture in a certain amount of water and pour the resulting concentrate over the tomatoes. From yeast, tomatoes grow faster and form ovaries. But remember that you don't need to use this organic fertilizer more than three times a year. All organic matter is rich in useful minerals and vitamins, and such feeding is also considered an excellent stimulant for plant growth.

Top dressing tomato: mineral fertilizers

Tomatoes are very fond of many trace elements. Therefore, in order for the plants to develop well, it is necessary to apply mineral fertilizers in a timely manner. Moreover, it is important to remember that mineral fertilizers are usually applied at the later stages of plant development. You can buy a special mineral complex from a specialty store. Among them, gardeners use the Universal, Solution, Kemira and others most effectively. In order to apply these mineral fertilizers, you need to read the instructions. You can also make your own mineral fertilizer if you purchase different minerals and combine them. In fact, this feeding option will cost a lot less than expensive ready-made formulations. Tomatoes are fed both by foliar and root methods. If you want to feed tomatoes with mineral complexes, then we can talk about the following mixtures. Nitroammofosk is a small gray granules that contain many trace elements in the most balanced form. This fertilizer can be used to feed tomatoes in the open field. But the fertilizer price will please you pleasantly, as it is very low in comparison with other complex mineral fertilizers. The Kemira wagon is also suitable for many varieties of tomatoes. Usually it is used for root dressing, and at all stages of plant development. Typically, this fertilizer is applied in an amount of 150 milligrams per square meter. Fertilizer must be embedded in the soil around the tomatoes and then watered.Thus, the fertilizer will penetrate to the lower layers of the root system. Fertilizer of the Universal type contains a large amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and other minerals. It is added in a small amount to the water and watered over the plants. In dry form, they are not embedded in the soil. The solution is also good for tomatoes. It, like a station wagon, is dissolved in water.

Foliar dressing

You can also feed the plants simply by spraying the outer part of the seedlings. Usually, tomato leaves are sprayed every ten days. In order to produce foliar top dressing of a tomato, both ready-made minerals purchased from specialized agricultural stores and folk remedies are used. Such feeding, both compensates for the deficiencies of trace elements and nutrients, and protects tomatoes from various pests and diseases. Before tomatoes bloom, they are often sprayed with urea, in order to prepare this solution you need to add one teaspoon of urea to ten liters of water. The resulting solution should be sprayed on the top of the plants. When tomatoes begin to bloom actively and form ovaries, it is recommended to use superphosphate for foliar dressing. One teaspoon of superphosphate must also be diluted in a bucket of water and sprayed on the plants. Complex feeding of tomatoes is also often carried out. To do this, dilute one teaspoon of urea, boric acid and copper sulfate in ten liters of water, and then spray the tomatoes. In the very early stages of plants, a boric acid solution is often used, which protects the seedlings from many pests. Often a mixture of iodine, water and milk is used for foliar feeding. In order to prepare this unusual fertilizer, you need to put a little iodine in half a bucket of water and add 500 grams of milk. After that, the plants can also be sprayed.

Outcome

Tomatoes are considered to be very demanding plants. They are very fond of warmth and light, moisture. In order to get a good harvest, you need to properly grow the seedlings, then dive them correctly into the open ground and properly care for them until the first shoots are obtained. When growing tomatoes, you should also remember about the fertility of the soil. If the land is poor in the content of nutrients and trace elements, then feeding the tomato will be done more than once a season. However, don't overdo your fertilization. The fact is that, for example, from an excess of nitrogen, the green mass begins to rage, but the fruits are rarely formed. Therefore, you will enjoy thick stems and voluminous green leaves, but you will not wait for tasty tomatoes. The introduction of any type of fertilizer should be on time and in the right amount. Tomatoes are fed with mineral, organic and complex fertilizers. Moreover, many organics are made independently, mixing iodine, milk, wood ash and other natural residues. Remember that it is organic fertilizers that are the safest, but you also cannot do without mineral fertilizers. Tomatoes can be effectively fed both root and foliar. But only by using a whole range of agrotechnical measures with the use of different dressings, you can get a good and plentiful harvest of tasty and ripe vegetables. Watch your plants carefully and feed them in time so that they will delight you in the future with their fruits.