Feeding tomato seedlings - at home, using folk remedies, so that they are strong

Although tomatoes do not remove too many nutrients from the soil, they need to be fed, especially at the initial stage of development. It is better to use drugs of chemical origin - all the elements are balanced, they are safe with the correct dosage, and they act quickly.

Feeding tomato seedlings at home exclusively with folk remedies is difficult to implement. But there are fans of their craft who manage to do everything right here too, bring the crop to planting in the ground and get a good harvest.

When seedlings need feeding

Healthy tomato seedlings need two feedings:

the first is done 7-10 days after picking the tomatoes;
a week later they carry out the second one.

Before this, if the seeds were planted in purchased soil, the tomatoes did not need fertilizer. Additional fertilizing with a complete mineral complex or some individual element is carried out when the crop shows signs of starvation or is lagging behind in development.

The agronorm of tomatoes is N+P+K=58, proportions are 36:19:45. Botanists and experienced gardeners, just looking at these numbers, will say that the crop needs nutrition with high doses of phosphorus, moderate doses of potassium, and a very small amount of nitrogen. But this is for adult tomatoes.

Young people primarily need nitrates. They are the building material for plant tissues. Again, in reasonable quantities. If nitrogen is not dosed, the seedlings will stretch out, lie on the ground, and become infected with blackleg.

Before feeding tomatoes, you need to know what nutrients they need:

nitrogen is responsible for the growth of green mass and participates in photosynthesis;
phosphorus is the most important macronutrient for tomatoes, it is needed for flowering and fruiting, prevents the ovaries from falling off;
the main task of potassium is the formation, development, and strengthening of the root system;
if there is a lack of calcium, nutrients are poorly absorbed, even with excess content in the soil they may not be distributed correctly;
microelements also play an important role, their deficiency leads to deformation and discoloration of leaves and fruits, various diseases, developmental delays, as a result - a decrease in yield and early death of bushes.

The functions of macro- and microelements are not limited to this. The above description is very simplified, and is intended solely for understanding the importance of a particular component for the life of the plant.

Common types

Nettle infusion

To prepare the infusion, you need to collect young nettle leaves. They contain a large concentration of unspent nitrogen, potassium and iron.
The container is filled 2/3 with nettles and filled with water, but not to the very edge.
Cover with a lid and leave in a warm place for 7-10 days.
After the required time 1 liter. The infusion is diluted in 10 liters of water.
The resulting solution is watered at the roots of tomatoes at the rate of 1-2 liters per plant.

Fertilizing with nettle infusion should not be done frequently . Maximum of two feedings per month.

We invite you to watch a video about it. how to prepare fertilizer for tomatoes from nettles:

Serum

Natural whey can be used for both seedlings and adult plants.

To prepare the solution you need:

Take 1 liter of dairy product and 20 drops of iodine, mix with 10 liters of water.
Stir and feed the tomatoes at the rate of 1 liter of product per adult bush.

Ash, iodine, ammonia

To feed tomatoes with ash, you need:
Water the beds with tomatoes with the resulting solution. Simply pour undissolved ash under the plants.
You can use the ash for foliar feeding. For this:
After this, let it sit for five hours, increase the volume of liquid to ten liters and add a small amount of liquid soap so that the fertilizer sticks better to the leaves.
The solution needs to be filtered and sprayed onto the tomato tops.
With the help of iodine, you can not only speed up the ripening of fruits, but also save tomatoes from late blight. For this:
The resulting liquid is poured over the tomatoes at the rate of 2 liters per plant.
Ammonia, being a nitrogenous substance, perfectly promotes the development of plants.
An alcohol solution created with my own hands removes the painful yellowness of the leaves, because when the crop lacks nitrogen, the production of chlorophyll slows down. The universal solution is easy to prepare.
For this:
1. Mix 50 ml of ammonia with 4 liters of water and water the plant at the root.
You can also feed tomatoes with chicken droppings. This fertilizer is fast-acting and contains a lot of nitrogen and phosphorus.

We invite you to watch a video on how to prepare fertilizers for tomatoes from iodine:

We also suggest looking at how to prepare fertilizer for tomatoes from ash:

Video on how to prepare fertilizer for tomatoes from ammonia:

Signs of nutrient deficiency in seedlings

When caring for seedlings, the lack of nutrients can be determined visually:

Yellowing of leaves can be caused by either too much or too little nitrogen. If they become lighter and lose turgor, starting from the lower ones, it means there are not enough nitrates. The rapid growth of tomatoes is caused by excess nitrogen.
The reverse side of the leaves and shoots acquire a purple (anthocyanin) hue due to a lack of phosphorus (see photo). But not only. Perhaps the seedlings are cold, or there is not enough light, you just need to increase the temperature in the room or place it closer to the window.
Drying of the leaves, starting from the edges, are clear signs of potassium starvation.
Yellow spots on vegetative organs are most likely caused by calcium deficiency. But before watering the seedlings with additional doses of fertilizers, it is necessary to exclude diseases and the appearance of pests.
Yellowing of leaves between the veins is an iron deficiency.
Seedlings wither with sufficient watering - possibly due to a lack of copper. But first you need to prevent waterlogging of the soil. By the way, a deficiency of this element subsequently provokes the disease late blight.

It is best for beginning gardeners to determine the lack of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. Micronutrient deficiencies usually appear in later stages.

Conditions required for successful cultivation of peppers and tomatoes

Tomatoes and peppers belong to the same family - Solanaceae. They originate from the hot, dry regions of Central and South America. Their requirements for growing conditions are largely similar, but there are significant differences. Let's take a closer look at this. After all, in order to grow a healthy plant, you need to know its needs.

Temperature

Here both cultures have similar preferences. Tomatoes and peppers love warm weather without sudden temperature fluctuations throughout the day. They do not like heat above 35-36 degrees, long-term cold temperatures below 12-16 degrees, although they can tolerate a short-term drop in temperature without pain.

Seedlings need to be kept warm, because at low temperatures their development is suspended and the absorption of nutrients is reduced.

Lighting

Tomatoes need long daylight hours of at least 12 hours; they do not like cloudy weather. Seedlings need additional lighting, because their development occurs at a time of year when daylight hours are short and the weather does not indulge in sunny days.

Pepper is a short-day plant; it needs light no more than 8 hours a day. But seedlings also need additional lighting. Subsequently, we will plant the pepper in the ground so that it receives sunlight only for part of the day, otherwise we will not get a full harvest.

Watering, air humidity

Peppers and tomatoes really don’t like overwatering or cold water. Moreover, pepper is a real sissy in this sense - watering with water with a temperature below 20 degrees can cause problems. Tomatoes, if watered unevenly, will produce a crop with cracked fruits. Moreover, tomatoes do not tolerate high air humidity - it promotes the development of late blight.

Feeding and fertilizers

Tomatoes and peppers do not tolerate much fertilizer from the soil, and peppers are potassium lovers, and tomatoes are phosphorus lovers. Both plants do not like fresh manure and high doses of nitrogen.

Priming

Tomatoes and peppers prefer loose, air- and water-permeable soil, moderately fertile, with a neutral reaction. Tomatoes can grow in slightly acidic soil. Both plants cannot tolerate dense loams or acidic soils.

Picking, depth, planting density

This is where the characteristics of peppers and tomatoes are fully demonstrated. Tomatoes like:

Frequent transplants - if the roots are damaged, they quickly recover and grow even more;
In-depth planting - part of the tomato stem, buried in the ground, becomes overgrown with adventitious roots, increasing the plant’s feeding area;
Free planting - plants should be well blown by the wind, this prevents the development of late blight.

Now let's look at what peppers DO NOT like:

Frequent transplants - damaged roots take a very long time to recover, the plant’s development stops;
Deep planting - part of the stem that is underground may rot and the plant will die;
Free planting - for fruits to ripen successfully, they must be in light shade, which is facilitated by a slightly thickened planting.

How to feed tomato seedlings

Feeding tomato seedlings at home is a responsible operation. In order for it to be strong and viable, and subsequently produce a rich harvest, fertilizers must be dosed very carefully. Nutrients cannot be washed out from the root area of the seedlings during watering and move to other layers of the soil, and their excess is much worse than their deficiency.

Without fear, you can only give scheduled feedings. In other cases, when it seems that tomatoes are lacking one or another element, it is first better to rule out other reasons step by step:

adjust watering;
place a thermometer nearby and monitor the temperature throughout the day;
eliminate drafts, including checking for cracks in the frames and on the window sill;
properly illuminate the seedlings - you cannot do this in fits and starts; tomatoes must have a dormant period when they remain in complete darkness for at least 6 hours a day, consecutively.

To get good seedlings, all nutrients must be balanced.

Even experienced gardeners cannot correctly calculate the doses of fertilizers and their proportions when using folk remedies. Therefore, it is recommended to give mineral fertilizers as the main fertilizers. And folk methods are used, if development is going wrong, as an additional means.

Mineral fertilizers

Newly sprouted tomatoes have enough nutrients contained in the substrate. In the future, it is better to fertilize them with purchased preparations, and grow them in the ground without chemicals.

As a top dressing, you can use any complete mineral complex that is highly soluble in water. But it is still preferable to take fertilizer specifically designed for tomatoes and other nightshade crops, and strictly adhere to the instructions (Orton-Rassada tomatoes, Agricola, Sudarushka tomato, etc.).

If there are no instructions regarding seedlings, the drug must be dissolved by adding at least 2 times more water than for adult bushes.

The main motto of fertilizing absolutely all crops is that it is better to underfeed than to overfeed. Strict adherence to this rule allows you to avoid a lot of problems.

Folk remedies

Feeding tomato seedlings with folk remedies has advantages and disadvantages. Their main advantage is that all substances are easily absorbed.

Among the “homemade” fertilizers, there are those that saturate tomatoes with only one element, for example, ammonia. Then the dosage is easy to calculate.

But in ash, eggshells and other similar products, the percentage of one or another element cannot be determined without special analysis. This is their main drawback and danger.

Nitrogen source

For growth and to compensate for nitrogen deficiency, tomatoes can be fed with a weak solution of ammonia (ammonia). To do this, a teaspoon of the drug is diluted in a bucket of water.

You need to carefully ensure that no more ammonia gets into the container - if the dose is exceeded, it can burn the roots and aerial parts. The seedlings are watered over wet soil from a watering can with small holes, or sprayed. You can use a household spray bottle.

Source of potassium and trace elements

To keep the stems plump and the roots strong, the seedlings can be watered with an extract of wood ash. Coal or any other are not suitable. It is an invaluable source of potassium and trace elements. All types of ash contain little phosphorus (except for burnt remains of trees and coniferous shrubs), and traces of nitrogen.

Before watering the seedlings, a glass of ash is steamed in 8 liters of boiling water. They insist for a day. Strain, process the tomatoes and soil.

Ash can be sprinkled on the seedlings and the soil underneath them after an accidental overwatering, at the first signs of black leg on tomatoes. Or correct the situation when fleas appear.

Source of phosphorus

The only natural source of phosphorus suitable for feeding seedlings is the ash of conifers. So simply throwing away the tree after the New Year is an unacceptable waste. Otherwise, you will have to use a superphosphate extract.

Bone meal won't help. It is an excellent source of phosphorus, but is very slow acting. Bone meal should be used by scattering it on the garden bed in the previous season, under digging, and not on seedlings.

Source of calcium

The shells of 3-4 ordinary chicken eggs are crushed, pour 3 liters of water. Leave for 5-7 days. Seedlings can be watered over wet soil without additional dilution, simply by straining the solution.

Other means

Sleeping tea contains tannins. It can only be used on elongated seedlings in order to slow down the development of the rapidly growing stem. Of course, he will no longer become short and fat. But, if you notice the problem in time, it will not be so tall.

Iodine for tomatoes is not a fertilizer. It helps the crop absorb nutrients, especially nitrogen. Usually, after treatment with iodine, seedlings do not suffer from nitrate starvation, since they literally pull the element out of the soil, water and air.

The substance makes seedlings more resistant to pests and diseases and stimulates their own defenses. They become easier to care for.

Before planting in the ground, only one treatment with iodine is carried out, no earlier than a week after the first feeding of the picked seedlings. To do this, dissolve 1 drop of the drug in 3 liters of water. It is better to use a household spray bottle or watering can with a fine strainer. Moist soil and seedlings are only slightly moistened, as tender roots and leaves can be burned.

What fertilizers should not be used for seedlings?

These are any organic fertilizers that can rot: a solution of mullein or manure, water from meat, infusions of plant residues. True, it is possible to carry out their complete fermentation with EM preparations. But is it worth making such efforts when there are good balanced chemical fertilizers?

If you fertilize tomatoes with organic matter, at a minimum, there will be midges. In the worst case, pathogenic spores will manifest themselves, and pest larvae may even swarm in the soil. Such problems are successfully combated on adult tomatoes, but for seedlings it is detrimental.

It is not advisable to water tomato seedlings with yeast. This is a good fertilizer and stimulant in open ground or greenhouses, but experienced gardeners do not use them for small, immature plants due to the inability to accurately calculate the dose.

How to determine seed quality

Most seeds can remain viable longer than stated on the package, provided, of course, that the correct storage conditions are met. Deadlines may be missed for various reasons, the main of which are: Low quality; Failure to comply with germination temperature conditions.

Sowing balsam seeds for seedlings

Sowing strawberry seeds for seedlings

Planting seedlings in open ground

Germination is easy to determine by germination in small containers on a damp cloth or a layer of dense hemp, on which a certain number of seeds are placed. The fabric is kept moist, creating greenhouse conditions, taking into account the ratio of sprouted units to their total number.

How to feed tomato seedlings

In order for seedlings to grow healthy, they need to be fed correctly:

It is better to give a smaller dose of fertilizer than a larger one;
fertilizing is carried out in the morning, on a damp substrate;
all drugs must be thoroughly dissolved in water;
temperature of liquid fertilizers – from 22 to 25° C;
Use filtered or settled water.

It is imperative to fertilize tomato seedlings. It is important not to overdo it and maintain a balance of nutrients. It is better if the main fertilizers are mineral, and folk remedies are used only as auxiliary ones.

When to feed

Experienced gardeners recommend feeding tomato seedlings for the first time a week after picking. But once again I would like to note that if the tomatoes are plump, healthy and green, they have enough nutrition and do not need to apply fertilizer.

If you decide to feed your seedlings, first water them with plain water so as not to burn the roots with feeding.

A word about water

Many gardeners know the importance of water for plant development. But not everyone knows that improper watering leads to disease and death of vegetables.

Experienced vegetable growers always have a supply of rainwater on their site, because it is healthier than well or tap water. To collect it, place a barrel under the drain, and next to it, just below it, another one, connecting it to the first tray for overflow. Watering with cold water causes stress in plants, so water from barrels, heated in warm weather, is especially useful when watering cucumbers, peppers, and eggplants. To better preserve moisture in the plantings, some time after watering, loosen the beds.

One of my favorite vegetables, cucumber, has a reputation for being sissy. For watering it requires warm (22-25 degrees) water. At air temperatures below +15 degrees, watering cucumbers is not recommended. In this case, loosening is carried out to a depth of 5-6 cm. When watered with cold water, the cucumbers stop growing, the set fruits fall off, and root rot occurs. They love sprinkling watering, but only in hot weather in the evening.

Tomato seedlings planted in the ground or greenhouse prefer rare but abundant watering. In greenhouses, high humidity should not be allowed, which not only promotes fungal diseases, but also reduces fruit set. Tomatoes need ventilation and watering at the root. Sudden temperature changes negatively affect flowering, fruit set and ripening.

Peppers and eggplants, like true southerners, are less demanding on moisture. However, irregular and insufficient watering can lead to the appearance of blossom end rot. In this case, ugly-shaped fruits are formed.

The queen of the garden - cabbage - requires a large amount of water to fill the heads of cabbage. When planting seedlings, I usually water at least a liter per plant in the first month, and then increase the dose to 5 liters. If your leaves turn bluish when watering, this indicates excess moisture. Sprinkler watering of cabbage is done in the morning and late evening. During the day, this can cause leaf scorch. For good plant growth, I prefer to water the cabbage 4 times a week.

Zucchini loves fertile soil and a sunny place. Thickened plantings reduce fruit set. In recent years, to plant zucchini, I have been making a small flowerbed, in which I place several buckets of humus, form a hole and place two seeds of three different varieties of zucchini in it. I water it 3 times a week on hot days. At the beginning of August, early zucchini appears, and until mid-September it is possible to collect up to 25–30 pieces from the flowerbed.

A winter with little snow will still affect the summer. If you want to get a good harvest, if possible, stock up on water at the end of spring and properly water your vegetable plants.

Source

Use Silk in the correct proportion

Step 1. Read the instructions
Buy the product at a gardening store. Price – 60 rub. for 1.5 ml. The composition is non-toxic and safe for humans.

Carefully study the information on the packaging . There are all the proportions and conditions for preparing the composition

Stage 2. Treat the seeds before planting
Spread the seeds in an even layer. You can use paper, fabric or just a flat surface.

Prepare a solution at the rate of 0.5 ml per 3 liters of water . Spray the seeds generously.

Dry and plant as usual

Stage 3. Treat the planted plants
Prepare the solution. Add 0.5 ml to 3 liters of boiled water. facilities.

Treat seedlings before flowering begins . Repeat the process every 8-10 days. Stop spraying 2 weeks before harvesting tomatoes.