Hello dear readers!
I don’t know a gardener who doesn’t plant tomatoes; everyone loves them and I’m no exception. Today I will tell you about my tomatoes in the greenhouse, how I fought with tomato tops and how to use tomato tops in my summer cottage in the form of fertilizer.
I’ll tell you about ways to use tomato tops, from mulching, using them as liquid fertilizer and ending with preparing an infusion of tomato tops against pests.
Having successfully planted the tomato seedlings in the greenhouse, I went on vacation for two weeks, leaving them under the supervision of my mother. At the end of my vacation, the next weekend I went to the village to look at my favorite tomatoes, and when I saw them, my surprise knew no bounds :)) The tomatoes grew taller than my height and looked like an overgrown jungle.
Something urgently needs to be done with them, because the tomato shoots didn’t break off at all, naturally everything was overgrown. Here I turned into a hairdresser-gardener, taking scissors in my hands, putting on a long-sleeve shirt and tying a scarf, I went to the greenhouse.
Why so many devices, you ask :) The fact is that I had to dive into the very thick of the tomato, and when cutting and touching the tomato seedlings, the whole plant releases juice, which is then difficult to wash off and can cause skin allergies.
Having started a vigorous “haircut” of the tomato bushes, spending more than three hours on hairdressing services, all the bushes were cut, tied up, the lower trunk of all the bushes was freed from leaves, where a gap had appeared, thus the tomatoes were put in order. As a result of the haircut, I was rewarded with two bags of cut tomato tops. What should we do with it? Good question! I couldn’t bring myself to throw it away.
"Green manure
In just a couple of weeks, you can get an infusion for fertilizing from tomato tops, which is used in the garden as a nitrogenous fertilizer.
To do this, the container for preparing the fertilizer (usually a small barrel) is filled 75% with green mass, consisting of tomato tops and various weeds. In this case, tomato tops should be about 25% of the green mass. Then the container is filled with water and tightly covered with film. Note! To prepare this fertilizer, you cannot use tomato tops affected by diseases.
After 10-14 days, when the fertilizer has infused, it can be used. To do this, it is diluted with water in a ratio of 1 to 10 and poured under the roots of the plants.
Ash fertilizer
Every summer resident knows that one of the most valuable natural fertilizers is wood, and especially grass ash. It serves as a rich source of potassium, as well as other various micro- and macroelements, incredibly useful for feeding cultivated plants. An additional advantage of this method of producing natural fertilizer is the ability to use even diseased plants.
- To obtain a more or less noticeable volume of ash, it makes sense to burn only whole tomato bushes harvested from the beds at the end of the season.
- Before burning, the tops should be pre-dried.
- Dry tomato stems and leaves can be disposed of in any fireproof container.
- You can apply ash fertilizer in dry form when digging the soil or directly into the holes when planting vegetable plants. In addition, ash is often used in the form of infusions.
Important! The finished ash can be stored indefinitely, provided that it is carefully protected from moisture. Otherwise, ash fertilizer quickly loses its effectiveness.
Pest control solution
The tops can also be used for pest control. The fact is that it contains a poisonous glycoside - solanine, which helps destroy aphids, Colorado potato beetles, carrot flies and many other harmful insects.
To prepare such a solution, you need to pour 4 kg of tomato tops into 10 liters of water and let it brew for several hours. After this, the resulting solution must be boiled over low heat. When the broth has cooled, it is diluted with water in a ratio of 1 to 4.
Advice. Some gardeners recommend adding a little soap to the solution.
After the solution is ready, it is used to spray the affected plants. Treatment is carried out once every 5-7 days before and after flowering.
Note! An overly concentrated solution will not benefit the plants. Also, contaminated tops should not be used to prepare the solution.
Absorber of unpleasant odors
Knowledgeable gardeners have long used the property of tomato tops to absorb unpleasant odors to neutralize the dubious “aromas” of the country toilet. In addition to direct air deodorization, this method has several additional advantages:
- recycling of green mass;
- saving money on the purchase of special medications;
- no harm to the environment;
- reduction in the number of annoying insects.
To obtain a noticeable effect, tomato tops should be added to the toilet regularly every 7-10 days.
Product Matrix: Tomatoes
