How and how to speed up the ripening of tomatoes
In the northern regions, summer residents are trying to accelerate the ripening of tomatoes in order to have time to get a harvest before the first frost. This can be done in several ways. Let's consider each of them.
Ways to speed up the ripening of tomatoes
Stepping and pinching
To influence the formation of fruits and accelerate the ripening of tomatoes, the pinching procedure and pinching of excess lateral processes, which take a significant part of the useful elements from the plant, help. Multiple shoots inhibit the development and growth of vegetable crops and, as a result, delay the flowering and ripening of vegetables in the open field.
Stepping
You can carry out the pinching procedure to speed up the ripening of tomatoes according to one of the options:
- formation in 1 trunk, for which all lateral shoots in the leaf axils are cut off;
- formation in 2 trunks, when at the beginning of flowering, all lateral processes are removed with the exception of the only one located under the very first flower brush from above;
- the formation of 3 trunks, in which, together with the lateral processes under the first flower brush, one of the healthiest, powerful stepson remains on top, located just below, all other lateral shoots are cut off.
Topping
Pinching also helps tomatoes ripen earlier. This procedure consists in removing the upper part, where the fruitful shoot and flower clusters with not yet formed ovaries are located. As a result, the vegetable culture directs forces to the ripening of already set fruits.
Top dressing of tomatoes
Proper nutrition will help speed up the ripening period of tomatoes in open soil. Timely applied mineral fertilizers and spraying with special means are the key to quick ripening of fruits. Among the means and preparations that accelerate the harvest of tomatoes, the following are distinguished:
- Superphosphate. An extract from it with a concentration of 0.5% is sprayed on a vegetable crop at the very beginning of the tomato flowering stage;
- Hydrel. With this growth stimulant, plantings are sprayed once at the stage of already formed vegetables, approximately 1.5 months before the planned harvest.
- Bor. Tomatoes are watered and sprayed with boric acid in the case of a vegetable crop throwing off inflorescences or ovaries, which subsequently affects the ripening period of tomatoes.
- Iodine. Fertilizing tomatoes with iodine significantly reduces the ripening of tomatoes if it is carried out foliarly, spraying the foliage. For these purposes, a weak solution of 30-40 drops per 10 liters of water is suitable.
Tatiana Orlova (Candidate of Agricultural Sciences):
The superphosphate extract is used when the tomato plant has already set fruit, because hood treatment simply "burns" the leaves. This technique is also used by farmers to achieve the simultaneous ripening of all fruits by a certain time.
Food restriction
Some summer residents have recently begun to practice limiting the nutrition of the tomato crop in order to accelerate the process of fruit ripening.Gardeners practicing such techniques are sure that in conditions of limited nutrition, the vegetable crop experiences stress and accelerates development, including the ripening of fruits.
Incision
You can make the fruits ripen faster
A through cut is made in the trunk at a height of about 10-12 cm from the soil surface using a garden knife, in which a pre-prepared wooden plate 0.5 x 2 cm is placed. The rupture of the stem does not completely block the supply of food, but significantly reduces its volume.
Padding
At the same height, the stem is pulled with copper wire in the transverse direction. Such a constriction restricting power supply is fixed.
Trauma
The plant is slightly pulled out of the ground by the base of the trunk until a faint crunch of tearing thin roots is heard. The result of this manipulation is the dying off of a part of the root system and the restriction of the supply of food and water to the plant.
Replenishing
Ripening helps to speed up the ripening of tomatoes grown in open soil. In this case, such an event can be carried out both with a whole tomato bush, and with removed green tomatoes.
Tatiana Orlova (Candidate of Agricultural Sciences):
There are also special preparations that accelerate the ripening of fruits, for example, a stimulant for the ripening of tomato fruits "Dosrevatel". It allows you to harvest ripe fruits before the onset of frost in the fall or to get away from phytophthora by getting ripe fruits earlier.
Moving under the roof
When there are still many green vegetables left on the bushes, and the cold weather has already arrived, vegetables can ripen indoors right on the bushes. Tomato bushes are simply pulled out of the ground along with the root system and hung in a shed, greenhouse and other closed room for ripening.
With sufficient light, tomatoes ripen much faster than in a dark room, but in the dark their slow ripening occurs more evenly.
Harvesting green
Tomatoes not ripe on time are removed from the bushes and placed in a greenhouse or at home in one layer. To activate their ripening, several ripe red fruits are put into the total mass. Finished vegetables release ethylene, which helps speed up the ripening process.
