Every tomato growing farmer likes to have a fertile and a huge harvest. At the end of the growing process he would feel more happy with the yield . So today, let us look into some smart and scientifically bound tips to have healthy tomato plants allowing you to yield a huge tomato harvest.
Tomatoes are generally the main veggie that numerous new planters develop from seeds. To improve your prosperity and accomplish a healthy gathering, let us get familiar with a couple of stunts to follow in the growing beginning from the seedling until reaping time.
The tips that we discuss here can be applied to any tomato variety that you grow whether determinate or indeterminate types.
01. SEED PLANTING TIPS
Tomato is an easy growth that can be germinated through seeds or through tomatoes itself. You can use small containers or seed trays in planting seeds. Once the seeds germinate and grow into little plants, you can select the best healthy plants and replant them. You can use small 4×6 inch pots in replanting the selected little plants.
STRENGTHENING THE ROOT SYSTEM
The principal tip you should follow here in the early development stage, during or after the transplant. the tip is to reinforce the root system of the young plant. A strong root system will keep the plant stronger and healthier. This will likewise make the plant more ailment safe and liable for the quality and amount of the harvest. At this stage, you should include a little measure of phosphorous to assist the plant with creating more stronger roots. The best one is the natural rock phosphate. Here you should include a teaspoon for each seedling. On the off chance that you can’t discover it, at that point you can utilize steamed bone meal powder as well.
02. THE FINAL TRANSPLANT
When the planted seedlings grow just about 8 to 10 inches, then you can conduct the final transplant. The final transplant is the final place where the plant is going to live for the rest of its life. This can be the ground or pots. If you are planning to do the final transplant on the ground, you must maintain at least 1 to 2 feet spacing between the plants. in the case you wish to transplant them in containers, then you must select large containers that are at least 15 inches in size. If you are going to select a larger container, the better results will appear.
In the final transplanting process, you must add 1 to 2 tablespoons of organic rock phosphate into the dug hole where you are going to sit the young plant. The added phosphate must be in direct contact with the root system of the plant. Here also you can use finely powdered steamed bone meal as a remedy. The provided source of phosphorous at this stage will be sufficient for the entire growth process of the plant.
When sitting the plant in the ground or on pots, you must plant it as deeper as you can. As the tomato stem comprises a larger number of tiny hairs that can become roots, you must plant as deeper as you can by removing the leaves appearing at the bottom of the plant. This will help to generate a stronger root system which will be much useful in better production.
03. STAKING THE PLANT
This is the step where you must support the tomato plant. As the tomato stem is so tender and it can be broken easily if not supported. Staking will support to maintain a steady plant to achieve a better harvest. There are several ways to stake the tomato plant. You can use quality tomato cages and it will be more advantageous as it will grant the support for the plant to stay erect. You can make your own trellis using sticks or you can use string supporters in helping the plant. The most simpler and the easiest way is tying up the plant with the wooden sticks.
04. PRUNING AND SUCKERS
This is another significant stunt to perform extraordinary outcomes and to forestall disease conditions. Tomato suckers are the developments that show up in the intersection between the stem and the branches of a tomato plant. It is basic to eliminate these suckers to redirect the nutritional supplement for the plant development measure. Mainly for the development of the main stem and its branches. Your plant may have more fruits in the event that you let the suckers to develop. However, tomatoes will be a lot of littler in size. Generally, the pruning of lower branches too is recommended especially for the indeterminate varieties of tomato plants. But this can be recommended indeterminate varieties too. The fundamental explanation for this is to keep up great airflow which can forestall numerous disease conditions that might be bound to cause. Another stunt that you can apply here is eliminating older leaves or branches from the base of the plant as the plant becomes taller.
05. PROVIDING SUNLIGHT
Tomato plants love to be in full direct sunlight constantly for in any event 6-8 hours. So whether you are growing tomatoes on the ground or in the pot like containers, you should pick a spot where the plants have more access to the most extreme measure of sunlight.
06. WATERING
Tomato plants love to be in damp soil since the seedling stage. When in doubt, you may need to water them day by day, and relying upon the temperature, you sometimes should water them even twice or more. You additionally should head the moist soil with dried leaves or a comparable garnish, for example, straw or grass clippings to forestall water evaporation and to forestall weed development. So in the event that you are watering the plants once every day, you should make a point to water them thoroughly and deeply so that the deeper roots will also be fully hydrated. Deficient watering can bring about poor absorption or uptake and poor supplement of nutrients to the various parts of the plant. So if the transportation issues happen inside the plant because of the absence of the necessary measure of water, at that point rotten end tomatoes will be the conclusive outcome. This is the aftereffect of the lacking gracefully of calcium alongside the water. So appropriate watering is a lot of imperative to keep up a stronger plant to accomplish an extraordinary reap.
07. SOIL AND FERTILIZER
You can utilize your standard well-depleting fertilized soil for a container planting with at any rate 30% of compost, 30% of nursery soil, and another 30% of cocopeat in addition to some 10% different compositions like bonemeal, neem powder, perlite, vermiculite, etc.
Likewise including natural rock phosphate is so significant as we have talked about above. At that point, you can include some disintegrated dairy animals compost or vermicompost to cover the topsoil once in a week or 15 days. As another choice, you additionally can add seaweed zyme granules or liquid seaweed extract. You can likewise foliar splash Epsom salt simply like blending 1 teaspoon for every litre of water once in 15 days. The most significant thing is ensuring that the soil isn’t calcium lacking. On the off chance that so you may include a wellspring of calcium into the soil.
08. POLLINATION
The best and simplest thing is encouraging pollinators. Here you can encourage beneficial insects like honey bees and butterflies to encourage pollination and fruit formation. It is not recommended to use chemical pesticides as they can kill or drive away these useful insects. But you must protect your beautiful fruits from birds.
09. PESTICIDES
There is a group of common tomato pests available. They include tomato hornworms, cutworms, aphids, whiteflies, caterpillars, slugs and snails.
Also tomato plant can cause some viral disease conditions too. A plant with a strong root system is a strong disease-resistant plant. So such a plant will never have these type of diseases. If your plant is caused by viral diseases, you must remove that plant from others and so it will be helpful to protect other plants from causing the disease.
In these cases, you must use a proper insecticide or pesticide in accordance with the problem your plants have. So as we all know that prevention is better than cure, we can use some immunity-boosting methods to apply in tomato plants. The best thing you can simply use is to spray neem oil weekly into the plants. You also can add one teaspoon of baking soda too in the neem mix. As neem is a natural product it will not act harmfully on you too. It is better to avoid artificial chemicals
10. SETTING COMPANION PLANTS
Some plants can be planted as companion plants with your cultivation to prevent pests. You can plant parsley, basil, garlic, cilantro, marigolds and many others. So planting these type of plants may avoid many pest attacks to your main cultivation.