Many summer residents ask themselves questions: how to pinch plants correctly, what are stepchildren and where are they located? Grassing tomatoes is not an easy task, especially for a beginner. This article will help you understand such a difficult process and find answers to all your questions.
Why do you need pinching
Stepchildren - these are additional shoots that extend from the main stem. Stepchildren appear as soon as the plant begins to bloom, and grow from the area of the leaf sinuses. These shoots also have leaves, flowers, and sometimes even small fruits are tied. A large number of stepchildren leads to a large number of ovaries, which is not always good for the plant itself.
If you do not carry out pinching, then a small bush of a plant will begin to resemble "thickets of the forest", and due to neglect of plantings, fungal diseases may occur, which are very difficult to remove. A large number of fruits leads to the fact that they will be small, and some varieties, due to the lack of pinching, may generally be late with fruiting.
Stealing is not an easy process and requires a responsible approach. If the work is not done correctly, then you can generally be left without a crop. Basically, the first stepchildren appear along with the first flower brush, they are considered the most powerful. All stepsons who will be located below the first must be removed. This rule is especially true for tomatoes growing in the open field. The pinching process itself primarily depends on the variety of tomatoes.
What tomatoes need to be pinned
- Determinant, as well as standard tomatoes lend themselves to pinching, but not all processes are removed. It is better to form such varieties into three or four stems, and sometimes gardeners generally refuse this process. But this applies only to these species.
- Medium-sized determinant tomatoes form in two stems. This means that only one, but the best, stepson is left. It is allowed to leave one more additional one, which will be like the third barrel, but no more.
- Indeterminate tomatoes. They are considered tall varieties that lay flower clusters, even when they have reached not small heights. Formation is usually carried out in one trunk and this means the removal of all stepsons.
How is the process of pinching tomatoes
There are two ways to delete stepchildren:
- Manual way - stepchildren break off with their hands to the side. The process is not complicated and does not require a lot of effort, but it does require attention.
- Mechanical method - stepchildren are cut with garden shears, which are pretreated in a solution of potassium permanganate. This treatment is recommended after each plant trimming.
When to cut off stepsons
It is recommended to pick tomatoes at least once or twice a week so that the stepchildren do not have time to take a large amount of nutrients from the plant. Do not be greedy and run your garden - all this can lead to a bad harvest. If the process of pinching is carried out at a time, then this can lead to illness and death of the tomato bush.
It is better to carry out picking up in the morning, in sunny weather.Then the wound will have time to heal during the day and the plant will come to life by the evening. If pinching fell on cloudy days, then fresh wounds should be sprinkled with ash. First of all, stepchildren break off on healthy and large bushes. It is better to pinch diseased plants on another day, so the risk of contamination of healthy plants is reduced.
If, after removing the stepson, a new process is formed in the same place, then the process is repeated. When stepsons are formed at the very bottom, when several brushes have long been formed, they are removed and the entire bush is carefully examined. It is also worth removing stepchildren that grow from a flower cluster, as this can lead to a delay in the fruiting of the main crop.
In addition to the pinching process, do not forget about the treatment of the bush from diseases that can completely deprive you of the harvest. Processing is carried out from late May to early June. It is also worth remembering for every gardener that there should not be a single leaf under a brush with not yet ripe tomatoes. It is necessary to remove the bottom sheets once a week. If this is not done, the plant will stagnate, and this will lead to loss of yield. Leaves need to be broken off to the side, not down. This pull-off prevents accidental peeling of the skin from the stem of the plant.
