Growing tomato seedlings without land
Growing tomato seedlings without soil is a fun way to grow tomatoes. This is not only economical, but also beneficial for the plants themselves. We will consider a detailed description of the method in the article.
Growing tomato seedlings without land
Method characteristic
Growing tomato seedlings without soil has advantages and disadvantages.
Benefits
Saving space. With landless germination, space is significantly saved and there is no need to purchase containers for growing seedlings. So, to get about a hundred young seedlings, only half of the window sill is required.
Disease resistance. Tomatoes grown in this way develop strong immunity to diseases, especially blackleg. This is due to the fact that most of the causative agents of infectious and fungal diseases are in the soil. If the disinfection of seeds and soil is improperly carried out, young seedlings are infected, and cultivation without land allows this to be avoided.
Young seedlings grown with a landless cultivation method take root better when they are subsequently transplanted into soil.
This method is simple, it ensures rapid growth of seedlings and does not require complex care of young plants. It is easy enough to care for the plants, they do not need watering. In addition to this, there is no dirt inherent in earthworks under normal conditions.
Almost all young seedlings, when grown without soil, survive to the stage of picking, which is carried out not at once for all asthenia, but in stages. They make a dive as the seedlings are pulled out, and those seeds that have not yet stretched out enough remain further untouched until the right moment.
Tatiana Orlova (Candidate of Agricultural Sciences):
This method can be compared to growing a tomato hydroponically. In all large industrial greenhouses, tomatoes are grown not in soil (land mixture), but in an inert substrate - mineral wool or cocovite. At the same time, the substrate itself is completely devoid of nutrients, they are given to plants with irrigation water in the form of solutions.
Germination. Young seedlings can be grown without land even from expired seed material, because the germination rates of this method are higher than those of conventional germination.
disadvantages
- this method is not very suitable for light-loving tomato varieties, it slows down their growth,
- in some cases, excessive stretching of the plant in the stem is noted, while at the same time the inferior development of their root system.
Tatiana Orlova (Candidate of Agricultural Sciences):
This method can be recommended only for short-term growing of seedlings. The fact is that in the seeds themselves there is a small supply of nutrition in the form of carbohydrates and seedlings survive without soil only due to it. The duration of keeping seedlings without soil is no more than 7-8 days.
Growing in a bottle
There are several ways to grow tomatoes without soil, one of which is using a plastic bottle instead of the usual container and toilet paper instead of a substrate. In this method, there are two options for growing - vertical (in rolls) and horizontal (in halves of bottles).
Vertical way
For vertical germination of tomato seeds for seedlings, you will need:
- roll of toilet paper,
- seed material,
- cosmetic tweezers,
- plastic bottles that can be replaced with plastic cups or plastic mayonnaise buckets,
- rubber,
- construction substrate used for laying the laminate, polyethylene can be used instead,
- pallet or container,
- plastic bags.
Technology
Bottles need to be prepared for use
Initially, containers are prepared where the seeds will be folded, for which the top with a neck is cut off from a plastic bottle, receiving a glass.
The construction substrate is cut into strips 20-25cm wide and 50-70cm long. on each of them you will need to lay out 3-4 layers of toilet paper, each of which is sprayed with water.
For the convenience of spraying paper layers, use a spray bottle.
Seeds are laid out with tweezers one by one at a distance of about 2 cm from the bottom and 5-6 cm between them. The laid out seed is covered with another 3-4 layers of toilet paper, which are also sprayed with water. Such a tape is rolled up into a tube so that it does not turn out to be tight, and fixed with an elastic band. They put such a roll in a plastic container vertically.
It is important not to mix up the top and bottom of the roll so that the seeds are at the top. To do this, you can make a mark on paper.
Each container is covered with plastic wrap from above, having previously made holes in it for air circulation. This creates a greenhouse effect for the seeds. Each container is filled with water to a level so as not to touch the seeds (up to 1.5 cm) and placed in a tray in a sufficiently lightened place. Already for 4-7 days, you can expect the first shoots.
Horizontal way
It differs from the previous one in that plastic bottles are cut lengthwise into halves. Toilet paper torn into small pieces is placed in each and sprinkled with water. The seeds are laid out in containers at a distance of 2-3 cm, covered with another layer and again abundantly sprayed with water.
Growing in sawdust
Sawdust can be used instead of toilet paper for the landless growing of tomato seedlings. The disadvantage of this sowing method is the need to disinfect sawdust, for which they are soaked in a weakly concentrated potassium permanganate for 15-20 minutes, then they are poured with boiling water and left to swell.
Technology
Decontaminated sawdust is stacked in a container with a layer of 15 cm. In them, seeds are sown to a depth of 1.5-2.0 cm, maintaining a distance of 40-40 cm between them. Crops are abundantly sprayed with water and covered with plastic wrap or glass, placed in a warm, well-lit place.
Care features
When growing tomato seedlings without land, caring for young seedlings is minimized: only heat and sun, no watering. At the initial stage, soil is not needed for plants. The need to plant tomatoes in the ground arises at the picking stage, when the cotyledon leaves develop, and the need for fertilization - for the appearance of the first shoots.
Top dressing
Initially, seedlings grown without land can be fed by adding humic acid to the water in containers with sprouts. The second feeding will be required at the first leaflet that appears.
Picking
It is possible to dive grown seedlings with 2-3 formed leaves. To this end, rolls are unrolled, doing this with the utmost care so as not to damage the roots. Tomato seedlings separated from paper can be planted in separate containers with soil mixture, rejecting weak plants.Undeveloped sprouts are left in paper rolls for their further growth and subsequent planting.
