A simple tomato, commonly grown for food, is quite common on the home windowsill. Tomatoes very effectively set off the interior of the house. At the same time, you can use this plant for its intended purpose - to collect fruits from it for culinary purposes.
Small-fruited varieties are suitable for breeding at home. Such as Pear pink, Sweet, Kid, Large cream. There are many methods of growing tomatoes. This article will discuss the most common technique that has proven itself on the good side.
How to grow tomatoes on a windowsill
Sowing seeds should be done at the end of January. A small container is filled with peat. And the prepared seeds are planted in this peat. Lightly watered with lukewarm water, covered with film or glass on top and placed in a warm place. A week later, at a temperature of 22-24 degrees, the first shoots will appear. Watering is done once a week, just a little.
As soon as sprouts appear, you need to look for a cooler place where the temperature does not exceed 17 degrees. This is done so that the sprouts do not grow, but strengthen the root system. When the first leaves appear, the sprouts should be transplanted. Pots with a volume of 0.5 liters are taken, filled with a mixture of peat and humus.
Drainage should not be forgotten. At the bottom, you need to put several pieces of expanded clay (not construction!). As soon as the seedlings take root and grow, you will need a fluorescent lamp, preferably 80 watts. It must be placed on top, at a distance of 30 cm from the tops of the seedlings. Until the beginning of March, inclusively, young tomatoes need 6 hours of illumination daily. For watering, brew weak tea, barely yellow. The tea leaves themselves are used as mulch.
When the first inflorescences appear (this usually happens at the end of March), you need to transfer (transplant together with the old clod of earth) into containers (plastic buckets) with a volume of 3-5 liters and tie it to a support. After the frost stops, in May, you can move them to fresh air (loggia, balcony). But if you leave them on the windowsill, in the company of other flowers, they will feel good too.
On the 8-10th day of transplantation, stepchildren (processes in the leaf axils) will begin to appear. They must be removed, as they take nutrients from the plant. Young stepsons are removed easily. If time is lost and the stepsons have hardened, they must be removed with scissors, leaving about a centimeter. If you break off the hardened stepson, a wound will form that will heal for a long time (if it heals at all). By the way, removing stepchildren will also add beauty to the plant, and at the same time increase the yield. You also need to remove the lower leaves when they begin to die off.
The tomato, like the currant, produces branches, strewn with fruits. On each branch of tomatoes, about 16 small fruits grow, 1 cm in diameter. Taste qualities correspond to ordinary, “street” tomatoes. Can be used in salads and hot dishes.
From history ... At the beginning of the 16th century, the Spaniards brought the tomato from South America. For a long time, the tomato was considered deadly poisonous. Because of this, a historical curiosity even occurred. In 1776, George Washington wanted to be killed by his own cook, who cooked meat in tomato sauce.Washington appreciated the dish, but for the cook the story ended in tears - he committed suicide, fearing retribution. South American natives called this plant - tomatil. Hence the modern name. Also, the tomato was called "love apple" ("pom d'amur" - hence "tomato").
Tomatoes were planted solely for beauty. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, tomatoes were nevertheless recognized as a vegetable crop, and they appeared on the shelves of Paris. Only after that, already recognized as edible, the tomatoes go with the settlers to their historical homeland - America.
