Cocktail tomatoes (photo) planting, care and varieties
Cultivation of cocktail tomatoes - name and description of varieties and care
Fashion for cocktail tomatoes came almost after the fashion for cherry tomatoes. Their dignity is high decorativeness, good yield and, most importantly, nondecreasing fruits with a strong, non-sticky skin.
Cherry tomatoes are known to every vegetable gardener. They do not have large fruits of mass 15-30 g, mostly round in shape (although there are also mini-creams, mini-fingers, mini-pears and minicaps). But tomatoes with slightly larger fruits weighing from 40 g to 60 g of various shapes and colors are called cocktail tomatoes. The size of tomatoes is very convenient: you can take it for work, and put it on the table as a buffet meal. They are also appropriate in salads, and for whole-fruit canning and freezing are simply irreplaceable: this size allows you to compactly place the fruits in a jar and in a freezer box.
Inflorescences of a characteristic shape give beauty to the plant - long and unbranched, symmetrical, strong, although varieties with a complex branched inflorescence are also found. From 16 to 20 fruits are formed on each, and normalization is not required.
By the way, do not think that small-fruited tomatoes are not very productive. For example, the yield of the mid-term indeterminate variety Cartridge (suitable for open ground in southern regions, to the north it is better to plant in greenhouses) under film shelter reaches 9,7 kg / sq. m. m. Fruit elegant, cylindrical, red, weight 30-50
IMPORTANT. Fruits of cocktail tomatoes ripen within the same inflorescence almost simultaneously, which is important when harvesting whole brushes.
Requirements for the quality of the fruit of cocktail tomatoes are quite high. They should be uniformly and densely colored, strong, uniform in shape and size in the inflorescence and in no case cracked.
By type of growth Cocktail tomatoes are often indeterminate (tall), but there are also determinant varieties - eg, Striped flight, growing to 1-1,5 m. Its fruits are very elegant - chocolate-maroon balls with pronounced green stripes, each weighing 30-40 g, and up to 30 tomatoes can form in a long inflorescence. Medium-sized varieties are convenient, bear fruit abundantly in the open ground.
Agricultural technology for cocktail varieties and hybrids is traditional. They, like other tomatoes, are grown through seedlings, which allows you to create the necessary race for the early harvest in the development of plants. Optimum terms of sowing-beginning-middle of March. At this time, the lighting conditions are already good enough to get quality seedlings. Sowing at an earlier time is not practical.
The substrate needs porous and moisture-consuming, it is convenient to use a ready-made substrate based on peat, and it is better not to use pure peat without additives. Seeds in boxes are laid to a depth of 1 cm, leaving between them a distance of 1,5-2 cm, falling asleep with a moistened sifted substrate to a depth of grooves or slightly less.
Covered with a film container with seeds are kept indoors at a temperature of 24-26 °, and after the appearance of the first shoots, the shelter is removed, rearranging the boxes to light. The temperature is reduced to 19-22 °, and the plants are watered as the soil dries up.
IMPORTANT. If the cotyledons remained on the seedling, it is likely that the seeds were not sown well. If this does happen, you should moisten the cotyledons from the spray gun and gently peel off the peel.
Diving tomatoes when the first real leaf appears, using larger diameter cassettes or individual pots. After the plants have taken root, the first top dressing is carried out with water-soluble fertilizers, the following fertilizing takes place once in 7-10 days. It is permissible and constantly watered plants with a weak solution of mineral fertilizers. Good results are the addition to humic fertilizers of humates.
The essential point is a sufficient amount of light. So, when closing leaves, arrange the pots wider. A common problem is drawing seedlings. For prevention, watering is limited in advance and the temperature in the room is reduced (to 16-18 ° during the day and 14-16 ° at night).
See also: Varieties of black tomatoes - photo, name, description
Cocktail tomatoes: planting and care
The soil in the garden where the tomato will grow all season should be fertile, rich in humus. For 1 square. 150-160 g of complex mineral fertilizers are required (at the same time, only 60-70% is applied for the main tillage, and the rest of the fertilizer - in the form of top dressing during the growing season). It should be remembered that the main part of nitrogen and phosphorus is consumed by tomatoes before the fruiting phase, but the highest potassium consumption is during fruit formation, filling and ripening of fruits.
IMPORTANT. To reduce the fragility of stems and leaves when transplanting to a permanent place is possible, if you stop watering for 1-2 a day before.
By the time of planting, the age of the seedlings should be about 45 days. Planting scheme (depending on the variety) -40 × 60 or 50 × 60 cm. Overgrown, elongated plants are immediately tied up. The use of growth regulators has a positive effect on survival after planting, increases early productivity, and reduces damage by gray rot.
Cocktail tomatoes need regular pinching - removing lateral shoots that appear from the leaf sinuses. In this case, the total yield increases, because the stepson draws on himself part of the plastic substances and complicates the formation of the crop on the main stem. The indeterminate varieties in the greenhouse form into one stem, the semi-determinant and determinant ones — into 2-3 stems.
Every 10-14 days plants, being guided by their condition, are fed with complex mineral fertilizers with the addition of humates. In August, tall varieties are plucked about 40 days before the planned end of vegetation. Despite the small size, the fruit of the cocktail tomatoes is formed about 40 days. Therefore, when estimating the last harvest, the 6-9 inflorescence is left on the plant and the main stem is pricked, leaving the 2 leaf above the last inflorescence. Resistance to diseases depends on the variety. So, for example, is relatively resistant to cladosporium (and also Fusarium and TMV) early and very decorative indeterminate Galapagos. Its egg-shaped bright red glossy fruit weighing 35 g is collected in a brush up to 20 pieces, while the yield from one plant can reach 3,5 kg. However, when growing it is better not to allow the formation of droplet moisture on plants.
Time-tested variety Chio-chio-san is also resistant to VTM. This is a mid-season index recommended for greenhouses and open ground. A distinctive feature of the variety is a huge branched brush on which 50 or more pink plum-like fruits with an excellent dessert taste are formed. Productivity of one plant is up to 4 kg.
Tomato is a hygrophilous plant. Its powerful root system allows it to be extracted, but plants consume water very sparingly. They consume the greatest amount of water during the period of ripening and fruiting, as well as during the period of fruit loading.
See also: Cultivation of dwarf varieties of tomatoes and cherry tomatoes in a greenhouse.
IMPORTANT. The introduction of compost into the ground reduces the water consumption and allows to reduce the water consumption.
IMPORTANT. Do not abuse organic and nitrogen fertilizers during the season. Otherwise, the tomato can start to fat, forming a lot of leaves with minimal or complete absence of fruits.
© Author: M. VASILIEVA, agronomist-consultant of Gavrish Group of Companies
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