Growing tomatoes has a reputation for being difficult and challenging. Let the following guide convince you of the opposite. This is how you grow tomatoes yourself - without a green thumb.
Breeding and transplanting made easy
Cultivation by sowing starts in March on the sunny windowsill. After soaking the seeds in water or chamomile tea for a few hours, they are sown in poor soil. The light germinators receive a wafer-thin layer of sand or earth in order to be very gently moistened. Spoiled with warm temperatures of 20 to 24 degrees Celsius, they germinate within 10 to 14 days.
So that the seedlings do not wither, they move to a cooler and at the same time brighter place. The plantlets are pricked out as soon as the second pair of leaves appear. Carefully transplanted into individual pots with nutritious soil, growth is now progressing rapidly. In this phase, the seedlings must neither dry out nor be drowned. They don't tolerate full sun yet.
Plant and care professionally
After the cold days around the ice saints, it's time to go outside. In the sunny location, bedding soil and tub substrate are enriched with compost. Plant the young tomatoes so deep that the soil reaches the lower leaves. Keep in mind a planting distance of 60-80 centimeters. A climbing aid supports upright, stable growth right from the start. The main care factors are:
- water regularly without wetting the foliage
- Fertilize organically every 14 days from the second week
- Pinch off superfluous side shoots every few days throughout the season
- Competitive instincts erupt towards the stem at the base
- tie long tendrils permanently to the climbing aids
- Repeatedly mulch within 10 centimeters of the root collar
Reliable rain protection is of central importance. If there is no space for tomatoes in the greenhouse, cover the plants with a tomato house or a special hood. Otherwise there is a risk of late blight infestation with every rain shower.
Pollinate in the greenhouse and on the windowsill
Busy bumblebees and bees cannot get to the flowers of tomato plants in closed rooms to act there as pollinators. The hobby gardener takes over this function. Immediately after flowering, the plants are shaken at noon. Alternatively, stroke the flowers with a brush so that the pollen for fertilization is distributed.
tips and tricks
Don't throw away spent parts of tomatoes. Dried and burned, they turn into an excellent fertilizer for next year's crop. The ash is particularly rich in potassium. Tomato plants need this nutrient even more urgently than nitrogen, because it promotes fruit formation.