When growing nightshade vegetables (potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers) on their plots, experienced gardeners must take into account the specific mineral nutrition of these plants. The introduction of additional doses of macro- and microelements after transplanting tomato seedlings to a permanent place in the form of root and leaf fertilizers effectively prevents mineral starvation of seedlings and helps increase productivity.
It is especially important at the beginning of the growing season to improve the nutrition of plants living in closed ground conditions, for example, in a greenhouse or greenhouse. What substances should be present in nutrient solutions intended for watering bushes at the root before the formation of ovaries on the bushes? And how to prepare the first healthy fertilizer for tomatoes planted at home?
In the first 7-10 days after transfer to the beds, when the tomatoes go through the adaptation process and overcome the “transshipment” stress, they are not fed or watered.Organic and mineral fertilizers applied during pre-sowing cultivation, as well as water poured into the holes during planting (at least 3 liters per bush), are sufficient for seedlings to take root.
But after the period of engraftment in a new place, the tomatoes must be “pampered” with increased doses of phosphorus, which activates the development of the underground part of the bushes, as well as a small amount of nitrogen, which stimulates the growth of the leaf apparatus. You should not be overly carried away with nitrogen fertilizing when growing tomatoes, since excess doses of this substance lead to “fatification” of the plants, when huge leaf plates form on the bushes, and the beginning of fruiting is pushed back to a later date.
Modern fertilizers for feeding tomatoes
The easiest way is to purchase ready-made professional fertilizers with a high phosphorus content, for example, “Plantafol 10.54.10” or “Kristalon yellow 13:40:13”, and prepare nutrient solutions from them, according to the manufacturer’s recommendations. In such products, all components are in the form of chelates. In addition, they contain microelements that increase the effectiveness of the procedures.
No less useful for tomatoes are specialized fertilizers intended for nightshade crops: “Sudarushka. Tomato”, “Baby Tomato”, “OMU for tomatoes, eggplants and peppers” or “Zdraven for tomatoes and peppers”. These preparations are designed in such a way that, after being added to the soil, tomatoes do not lack mineral and organic compounds at all stages of the growing season.
Two Home Remedies for Fertilizing Tomatoes
However, in order to save money, many summer residents prefer to use time-tested, cheap mineral mono fertilizers on their plots: urea (urea) and superphosphate, or prepare the fertilizer themselves using weeds and ash.
Budget mineral fertilizing of tomatoes with nitrogen and phosphorus salts
First you need to prepare an extract from double superphosphate. To do this, 100 g of mineral fertilizer (about 5 tablespoons) is poured into a glass container with a liter of boiling water, mixed thoroughly and left for a day.
Before use, drain the infused whitish water from the jar, being careful not to disturb the cloudy sediment at the bottom. As a result of the manipulations, about 800 ml of phosphorus stock solution is obtained.
This amount is used for 40 liters of clean water, that is, 1 glass of concentrate for each bucket of water. Additionally, the fertilizer is enriched with urea at the rate of 20 g or 1 tbsp. l. for every 10 liters of water.
Nutrient fluid consumption is 0.5 liters for each plant. The seedlings are poured under the roots on damp soil, trying to ensure that the solution remains in the hole and does not flow into the rows. As a result, to fertilize a plantation of 320 tomato bushes you will need only 100 g of superphosphate and 80 g of urea, which, you see, is inexpensive.
It should be noted that in the future, fertilizers with a minimum content of nitrogen compounds are used for tomatoes. The only exception is feeding with calcium nitrate, which is carried out to prevent blossom end rot of fruits during hilling of bushes.
Free garden fertilizer based on weeds, grass and wood ash
The addition of vermicompost by watering the roots with a solution of fermented infusion of grass improves the nutrition of tomatoes and creates favorable conditions for the development of beneficial soil microflora. Since ash, in addition to phosphorus salts, contains calcium, which deoxidizes the soil, potassium, which stimulates the development of fruiting organs, and a complex of microelements involved in all the vital processes of photosynthesis of tomatoes, fertilizing with ash is a valuable way to increase crop productivity.
To prepare an organic solution saturated with nitrogen and vermicompost, you will need a bucket of any unseeded weeds or grass clipped from the lawn. A plastic container with a volume of about 12 liters is filled 4/5 with the vegetative mass of plants, not compacting the raw materials too much, and then filled with water, leaving at least 5 cm to the edge of the bucket. The container, loosely covered with a lid, is exposed to the sun or taken to the far corner of the area for the decomposition of greenery – for 7-14 days, remembering to stir the infusion daily with a wooden stick.
The fermentation (cooking) time of the fertilizer depends on the ambient temperature. The readiness of the concentrate is determined by the absence of a foam cap on the surface of the foul-smelling, cloudy brown-green liquid. The strained biological fertilizer is diluted with clean water (without chlorine) in a ratio of 1:4.
A few days before fertilizing, an ash infusion is prepared separately. To do this, pour two liters of sifted plant ash into a bucket of water, and then leave at room temperature for at least 72 hours, stirring daily.
For each bucket of diluted fermented herbal infusion, add 1 liter of mother ash concentrate. The aqueous extract from the ashes does not need to be filtered; it is enough just to shake the liquid vigorously before use.The consumption of green fertilizer with ash, prepared according to the recipe, for tomatoes is 0.7 liters for each seedling.
Since weeds weeded in the garden and vegetable garden, as well as grass cut from the lawn, are completely free raw materials, valuable green fertilizer with humic acids, nitrogen, phosphorus and other macro- and microelements allows you to save on the purchase of mineral fertilizers. The same statement is true in relation to the ash obtained as a result of burning plant debris on the site or the ash remaining after frying kebabs.
May your work caring for tomatoes growing in beds, greenhouses and greenhouses always be a joy, and may the plants thank you every year with record harvests of juicy fruits!
