Preparing the soil for planting tomatoes should be done in advance. First, you need to decide on a location.
Although tomatoes are heat-loving, they do not like direct sunlight and drafts. In addition, the planting sequence should be taken into account.
Tomatoes will not yield a good harvest in the same place without fertilizing. The best place for them will be a plot where carrots, onions or cucumbers grew last year, says Anastasia Kovrizhnykh .
It is recommended to prepare the site in the fall. The soil is dug up and fertilized, mature compost or manure is added.
During the winter and spring periods, the applied fertilizer is evenly distributed in the soil after spring floods. A week before planting, it is necessary to treat the soil with a solution of copper sulfate at the rate of one tablespoon per 10 liters of water.
Planting in open ground
Before planting, holes are prepared for the plants in advance and watered. After the water has completely absorbed, the planting process begins.
Tomatoes are planted in several rows at a distance of about 30 cm between plants and 50–60 cm between rows.
Initially, it is not worth planting the seedlings too deep and it is better to plant them lying down. When planting, 10-15 cm of the plant remains above the ground surface, the rest is covered with earth.
In this case, the root of one plant should be directed under the stem of another, forming a continuous row.
Planting lying down has certain advantages over the usual method. Stems buried in the ground form new roots, thereby improving the plant's nutrition and, accordingly, its fertility.
Even though almost the entire plant will be buried, over time it will catch up and outstrip other seedlings planted standing up.
To develop the root system of seedlings, every 2-3 weeks the bed is loosened to a depth of 10 cm. This allows water to penetrate the soil more easily, and the roots to consume oxygen. Along with loosening, weeding of the rows is also carried out.
After the plants have grown, they need to be hilled up similarly to potatoes. It is better to water tomatoes at the root, mainly in the evening. These plants like abundant but rare watering. Sprinkling tomatoes is not recommended, as it provokes the shedding of inflorescences and, as a result, a decrease in yield.
Fertilizing the soil
It is recommended to apply fertilizers to the soil no more than 4-5 times per season. After 15 days, fertilizers from solutions of mullein or bird droppings with the addition of wood ash are applied to the soil.
As a rule, this procedure occurs at the time when buds begin to form and therefore has a positive effect on the formation of fruits.
10 days after the appearance of 2-3 brushes on the bushes, it is recommended to use organic complex mineral fertilizers at the rate of 1 liter per bush.
The preparation of such a solution is carried out by mixing one tablespoon of fertilizer in 10-12 liters of water. When the first fruits ripen, mineral fertilizers are applied again at no more than 500 ml per bush.
After another 15 days, it is recommended to add industrial fertilizers containing superphosphate to the soil at a rate of 4 liters of solution per square meter.
Previously, we reported on what you should not feed raspberries with .