The most popular mistakes when growing tomato seedlings: learning from other people's mistakes

To grow strong and healthy tomato seedlings, you need to know and follow certain rules for pre-sowing preparation, direct sowing and further care for seedlings before planting in the ground.

Most experienced summer residents, already taught by their own bitter experience, of course, know all these growing rules by heart (so to speak, like the back of their hand), while for beginners they may not seem so obvious, which can ultimately lead to all sorts of problems and troubles ...

Next, we will consider all the most common mistakes that beginner gardeners make when growing tomato seedlings.

The main mistakes when growing tomato seedlings at home

Lack of pre-sowing seed preparation

If you neglect the detailed procedure every year, then you should know that processing tomato seeds before planting can help you a lot at the initial stage, because is aimed at solving several important tasks:

• disinfection of planting material (more relevant for self-harvested seeds);

Including for the prevention of development black leg.

• increased germination;
• acceleration of germination;

For example, by preliminary germination seeds.

• hardening and strengthening the immunity of future plants.

By the way! The site already has detailed material about how and what to soak tomato seeds before sowing.

Unsuitable soil and planting container

Heavy (dense) soil sour easily, becoming a favorable environment for the emergence and spread of fungal diseases.

Note! The acidic soil is not suitable for growing tomato seedlings and almost all garden crops.

Therefore, you must purchase or prepare yourself light and loose (air- and moisture-permeable) soil of neutral acidity... It is in such soil that moisture will not stagnate.

Advice! A after picks it is highly advisable to place seedlings into fertile soil (if you don't want to feed).

As for the containers for planting, absolutely any (sour cream containers, plastic cups, food containers) will do. The main thing is that they are made drainage holes to drain excess water (or a drainage layer is poured at the bottom).

Neglecting soil disinfection or using garden soil

If you use land from your site (garden soil), then it is imperative to spend it disinfection (in general, even purchased land is better to cultivate). Namely, by steaming in the oven and / or spilling it with a fungicide, for example, a solution of potassium permanganate or Fitosporin. IN including, as an additional measure of protection after sowing the seeds, you can place a tablet of Glyocladin in the soil.

Contaminated soil can cause black leg seedling diseases.

Failure to comply with the sowing dates for seedlings

Everything is simple here:

• If late sowing seeds, then in a short summer (cool climate) you can simply lose most of the harvest due to too late fruiting.
• If you sow too early (for example, in February), then the seedlings will be stretch out due to too short daylight hours or maybe just outgrow if you do not have the opportunity to plant it in the ground.

And after planting, such an overgrown seedling will take root worse, and even its fruiting period will be delayed.

How to determine the optimal sowing time?

• First of all, you must start from the fact when in your region can be held planting seedlings in open ground (or greenhouse).
• Know the recommended seedling age (duration of its cultivation at home), in which it should be planted in the ground (as a rule, it depends on the ripening time of the variety).

Advice! The site already has a detailed article about how to choose the optimal timing for sowing tomato seeds for seedlings (including according to the lunar calendar for 2020).

Incorrect seeding: initial burial of seeds or thickening

Many novice summer residents make 2 main mistakes when planting tomato seeds directly: they sow them too deeply or too close to each other.

Important! Never water the garden after sowing the seeds, only before. Otherwise, the seeds will go deep.

As a result, due to excessive deepening, it takes much longer to wait for seedlings, or they do not appear at all.

The optimum sowing depth for tomato seeds is 1 cm (maximum 1.5).

And when the seedlings are thickened, the seedlings will certainly begin to stretch (becauseplants will shade each other, and they will lack light). The risk of developing fungal diseases will also increase (all the same black leg - the main scourge of tomato seedlings).

So you need to try initially do not thicken crops and / or if necessary thin out seedlings(or do timely pick).

Important! About, how to sow tomato seeds for seedlings correctly, detailed and shown in this material.

Violation of light and temperature conditions for keeping seedlings

The fact is that when excessively high air temperature and low light any seedlings begin to stretch.

Weakened seedlings with thin elongated stems are much more easily affected by various fungal diseases.

Reduced content temperature together with high humidity and may even lead to black leg tomato seedling disease.

And also, at a low soil temperature (below +12 degrees), plants begin to worse absorb phosphorus, which is why their leaves turn purple (they also say "turn blue").

For full growth and development of tomato seedlings, it takes 12 hours daylight hours.

If you do not have the opportunity to place seedlings on a light (southern) windowsill, but there is only northern, then you will definitely need illuminate seedlings.

As for the temperature conditions for growing seedlings, then during the day it should be about + 22-26 degrees, and at night - + 14-18 degrees.

Temperature differences promote hardening plants. Therefore, it is very important to do so (for example, opening the window and closing the window with a curtain) so that the daytime and nighttime temperatures differ by at least 4-8 degrees.

Violation of watering rules

Excessive waterlogging of the topsoil in combination with low ground temperature ("Cold and humid") are the main (favorable) conditions for emergence and development black leg.

Waterlogged soil, insufficient illumination and high temperature also lead to pulling seedlings.

Watering rules for tomato seedlings:

• Watering needs to be watered only after the top layer of the substrate has dried, avoiding overflow and drying of the roots.
• Water for irrigation must be warm or at least room temperature, in advance defended (or filtered).
• Moisten carefully, only the soil, avoiding moisture on foliage.
• Watering should be infrequent, but abundant (the entire earthen lump must have time to be saturated with water).

Important! At the bottom of the planting container, there must be drainage holes (or a drainage layer), otherwise you cannot avoid stagnation of moisture.

Lack of nutrition (lack of feeding)

The seedling soil must contain all the necessary nutrients (macro- and microelements) for the successful development of the plant. At the same time, they can either be immediately laid in the soil, or given to the plant as it grows along with liquid dressings.

So, as a rule, before picking, the seedlings are not fed at all, since all the necessary nutrition for initial germination and growth is in the seeds themselves and in the soil, and even if you initially plant in a poor nutrient mixture.

But after the pick, the further need for fertilizing entirely depends on the soil used:

• If fertile soil, then, most likely, no feeding seedlingsare not required.
• If you transplanted seedlings in insufficient nutrient soilthen you you can't do without top dressing.

Moreover, top dressing simply needs to be done if the appearance of the seedlings clearly hints that the plant lacks some macro- or microelements. As a rule, a lack of nutrition leads to a change in the color of the foliage and even the stems:

• Most often, seedling leaves turn yellow.

By the way! About, what to do if tomato seedlings start to turn yellowand you cannot define the disease, read in this material.

• Acquire purple tint.

Advice! The site has a separate article about why the leaves of tomatoes turned purple.

By the way! The site has a detailed article about when and how to feed tomato seedlings.

Untimely picking

You should not delay picking tomatoes, otherwise, in tight containers, young plants will begin to lack space and food (including light), which means that the seedlings will stretch out and wither.

It is optimal to pick tomato seedlings when they have 2 true leaves each.

In general, the main goal of picking is to stimulate the gradual development of the root system (including its best branching).

By the way! Due to the deepening of the seedlings to the cotyledons, the active formation of adventitious (lateral) roots begins.

Also, timely picking can prevent root entanglement in seedlings growing in a common container.

Advice! More about when and how to dive tomato seedlings correctly, read in this separate article.

Lack of hardening before planting in the ground

7-14 days before planting tomato seedlings in a permanent place to the greenhouse or even more so in open ground it is recommended to harden it, namely to begin to gradually take out the seedlings to the balcony or greenhouse. This is necessary so that the "home" seedlings, which had previously grown in comfortable "greenhouse" conditions, adapted to more severe external (street) conditions and quickly took root after planting in the ground.

Take note of all the most common mistakes described above that arise in the process of growing tomato seedlings in order to protect yourself from possible failures in the future.