Tomato - the most important culture with many useful properties. With the onset of warm days, you want to quickly get a harvest to please yourself and your loved ones with fresh tomatoes from the garden. It is for this reason that most gardeners are trying to start seedling early or run to the market for the finished one when it is time to plant it. But this does not necessarily do, because May is the right time for sowing seeds in open ground.
How to choose planting time
On sale you can find a lot of varieties. They are divided into four large groups:
- hybrid (crop matures
- after 85 days);
- early (3 months);
- mid-season (up to 100 days);
- late (4 months).
Different periods of yield suggest a different approach: the longer the term of ripening, the later the time for planting is chosen.
The nuances that need attention
In the southern regions it is customary to sow vegetables from the second half of April to the beginning of May.. This is explained by the fact that frost at this time does not happen. You can safely leave the plant in the open field.
The hot southern climate has another advantage: here you can combine late and early varieties, and both of them grow well and give a bountiful harvest. Moreover, even late ripening crops are quietly grown by seedless method..
REFERENCE. Mid-season and late tomatoes are versatile, they grow well both in greenhouse conditions and in the garden, but are demanding for a stable level of heat and light. However, on sale you can find new hybrid species that are resistant to climate change.
The situation is more complicated in the more northern latitudes, where in the last month of spring weather surprises are possible. In some cases, plants have to be covered with a film to save them from a sudden cold snap.. Many gardeners prefer the greenhouse option, so it is safer and easier, because frost can ruin the seedlings, regardless of the variety.
ON A NOTE. It is believed that early tomatoes in this case is preferable. They adapt well to any light day, and even in adverse weather conditions you will have time to harvest a ripe crop.
Differences in sowing time varieties:
- the southern regions of the Russian Federation - from the last decade of April;
- central - from the tenth of May to the beginning of June;
- northern regions - from the second decade of May to mid-June.
ON A NOTE. If the cultivation of crops is planned in the greenhouse, the specified period shifts 2-3 weeks ago.
The main argument in favor of seedless growing
As a rule, seedlings begin to prepare for 1.5-2 months before planting in open ground. During this period, she suffers at least 2 shocks: hardening and change of environment (sending from the greenhouse soil to open beds). But quite often this is mixed with:
- picking, which is practiced more often by single-sowing of seeds;
- insufficiently accurate calculation of the time of readiness of seedlings that simply outgrow;
- long waiting with a bare root system (typical for purchased material).
This amount of stress invariably reflects on the speed of plant development, which eventually begins to bear fruit only 1.5-2.5 weeks earlier than those that grew from seeds right on an open garden bed, and on yields, which are usually less than the latter.
So you decide whether there is a candle long games with seedlings or financial investments in it. But those who returned to the seedless method of growing tomatoes "for themselves" rarely grow more than a dozen bushes for early salads on the windowsill - the rest of the tomato beds are formed by them immediately in the open ground.
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