Can tomato seedlings be grown in peat pots?

To get seedlings of young tomatoes, peat cups are used. A variety of shapes and volumes allows you to grow any vegetable crop in them. A high-quality shell does not get wet, does not deform, and the root system of seedlings is less susceptible to injury during transplantation.

Choosing the best option

The composition of the cups includes:

• high-moor peat - 70%;
• wood pulp - 30%.

The proportions should not be violated, otherwise the tomato seedlings in peat cups will not develop fully. On the packaging, the manufacturer indicates the presence of possible stimulants and additives. Peat is an environmentally friendly material that does not contain pathogens and toxic substances.

The loose structure of peat cups promotes free air penetration to the roots of tomato seedlings. Pay attention to the thickness of the walls (no more than 1.5 mm), such cups take about 30 days to decompose.

Even a high-quality product has disadvantages:

1. The likelihood of hypothermia of the roots and the development of a fungus. Constant evaporation from the surface reduces the temperature of the soil.
2. The walls of the container sometimes become an "impenetrable" barrier. Tomato seedlings obtained in this way may lag slightly in development.
3. Peat is an oxidizing agent of the soil, such an environment prevents the assimilation of potassium, which is necessary for the growth of the stems.

Preparation of soil and planting material

In order for the shell to rewire faster underground, the container is impregnated with liquid mineral fertilizers, the walls can be additionally treated with a foundation. It is best to sow seeds dry to prevent mold. If there are doubts as to the quality of the material, then it is etched with diluted manganese or fungicide. Seeds can be germinated in soil extract. For this:

1. The earth is flooded with water.
2. Allow to settle for several hours.
3. Soak tomato seeds until sprouts appear.

A mixture for tomato seedlings in peat pots is prepared nutritious, any baking powder is added: vermiculite, coarse sand, sawdust. Connect the sod land with humus (1: 1). Pots can be filled with coconut substrate - for young tomatoes, this is a good source of nutrients. The soil, before sowing, is disinfected, kept in an oven or spilled with boiling water with potassium permanganate.

Agrotechnics of planting works

Growing tomato seedlings in peat cups lasts 55-60 days. Tomatoes for seedlings are sown according to the lunar calendar, choosing favorable days from January to March. The exact timing depends on the variety.

For planting tomato seeds, the smallest pressed peat blocks or common containers are suitable. On the surface of the soil, grooves are made with a depth of no more than 1.5 cm, they are sown one at a time, sometimes 2-3 pieces. Sprinkle on top with earth or vermiculite, then sprinkle tomato seeds from a spray bottle.

Germination temperature + 20 ... + 25 ° C. With this mode, tomato seeds will hatch in 5-6 days, if you increase the degrees to +30 ° C, then green "loops" will appear in 2-3 days. With mass shoots, the daytime temperature is lowered to + 20 ... + 22 ° C, night temperature to +16 ° C. This is necessary for the normal growth of seedlings. Negative factors during this period:

• too hot, unventilated room;
• lack of light (less than 12-15 hours);
• drafts.

With a lack of lighting, an excess of fertilizers and thickening - tomato seedlings in pots are pulled out of peat, the stems become thinner. The situation can be corrected by a dive, or by filling in the soil. Too dense planting is thinned out.

Seedling picking

Tomato seedlings dive into peat pots after the first pair of leaves appears. The taproot is pinched by 1/3, which stimulates the appearance of small suction roots. The temperature of the content is increased by 2-3 degrees. When the seedlings take root, they return to their previous regimes. In the early days, they are protected from direct sunlight and drafts.

Sometimes such cultivation of tomato seedlings in peat pots is practiced: several pieces are dived into one container at once. The stems are tightly (for accretion) pulled together with a thread. After the tip of the weaker one is removed, the result is one strong trunk with a powerful "double" root system.

Possible diseases during this period:

1. Yellow lower leaves - a symptom of a lack of nutrients (nitrogen), light or starting with a "black leg", brown spot.
2. Decay of stems, the appearance of mold - overflow or infectious diseases.

In block containers, make sure that the roots do not grow into adjacent compartments. Single peat pots with tomato seedlings are wrapped in dark plastic wrap. This helps to prevent drying out of the earth, prevents the crystallization of water salts under the influence of the sun, which poses a danger to the roots.

Tomato seedlings dived into peat pots are placed on a pallet, at a short distance from each other. Crowding will interfere with normal air exchange and aeration of the seedlings.

Seedling care and hardening

Seedlings of tomatoes in peat pots are dived in order to provide a larger area of ​​nutrition. Overgrowing tomatoes, in this way, are delayed in development. You can also stop growth by hardening.

With the appearance of the second pair of leaves, the seedlings are kept for 2.5 weeks at temperatures:

• daytime + 18 ... + 20 ° C;
• night + 8 ... + 10 ° C.

Then they return to the modes: + 14 ... + 16 ° C at night and + 20 ... + 22 ° C during the day. A few days before the transplant, they are put out on the street for the whole night. Hardened seedlings have short internodes, a strong pubescent stem, bluish-green foliage. You can plant such plants in the ridges 10 days earlier than usual.

Sowing tomatoes one at a time in a volume of 0.5 ml is impractical:

• the container takes up extra space;
• more time is required for leaving.

Tomatoes, unlike peppers and pumpkin seeds, tolerate a pick easily. After a few days, the seedlings start growing together. 7-10 days after the procedure, tomatoes in peat pots are fed with a liquid solution of mineral fertilizers.

Potted crops require frequent but low watering. Peat retains and retains moisture well, so they do it as carefully as possible. This method will help to avoid the appearance of mold and mildew. Bottom watering is convenient when the planting containers are temporarily placed in a tray with warm water.

Transplant to open ground

The grown tomato seedlings in peat pots are transplanted to a permanent place along with the container. Before planting tomatoes, the cups are poured abundantly with water. For the prevention of viral diseases, plants are sprayed with 1% Bordeaux liquid dilution.

Peat cups are deepened completely, sprinkling with soil by 2 cm. The soil in the near-stem circle is watered and mulched. Over the next few days, planting is closely monitored. A slight drying out of the soil layers will cause the walls of the undecomposed container to “wood”. An advanced crop with a lot of leaves will end up in a confined space.

For easier penetration of the roots, the bottom of the containers is carefully cut off. The walls can be cut or drilled with a sharp tool, but not completely removed.In the future, crops are watered strictly at the root, combining irrigation with the introduction of liquid fertilizers.

Healthy tomato seedlings in peat pots can be done by anyone, even a novice gardener.

Vegetable garden (vegetables)

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2017-01-04 Seedlings in peat pots. Photo: Organic Daily Post

You can buy peat pots and seedling cubes at any store or make your own. The advantages of peat pots are obvious: early harvest, ease of transportation, ease of planting in open ground, minimal stress for seedlings.

Seedlings grown in peat pots and cubes quickly take root and grow immediately after planting. It has been noticed that vegetables ripen 2-3 weeks earlier, if they did not hurt when transplanted into open ground.

Seeds are sown in peat pots or seedlings are dived. Usually two seeds are sown into the holes made by the nutrient mixture, then one seedling is left or one seedling is dived.

DIY peat potsBoil a pot!

There are many recipes for mixes for making nutritional cubes. At home, making cubes is easier and faster than pots. The size of the peat cubes depends on the crop being grown and on the materials at hand.

The main thing for all materials intended for the manufacture of cubes is that they must be healthy, free of diseases and pests, nutritious, breathable, absorb and retain moisture well. In addition, the resulting peat cubes must be strong.

The recipe for a mixture for peat cubes. Peat (turf, compost, humus, garden soil) is mixed with sand, stale sawdust or straw cutting, and then, so that the cube does not fall apart, mullein and water are added to the state of thick sour cream. If the soil is acidic, then add lime to the mixture, bringing the pH to 6.4-6.8.

The materials for making peat pots must be healthy. Photo: Countryside Network

All components are thoroughly mixed and poured into a greenhouse or box in a layer 7–9 cm thick. The box must first be covered with plastic wrap.

When the mixture dries, it is cut with a knife or metal plate in the longitudinal and transverse directions according to the size of the cubes you need. Then, in the center of the cubes, using pins with a diameter of 15–20 mm, holes are formed to a depth of 10–15 mm for sowing seeds and 25–30 mm for picking seedlings.

The size of a peat cube or pot depends on the crop being grown: for cabbage, 5 × 5 cm is enough, for tomatoes - 8 × 8 cm, for pumpkin crops - 10 × 10 cm or more.

The composition of the mixture depends on the culture. Photo: Garden Club

Mixing compositions for peat cubes depending on the culture grown in them:

• For cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkin: decomposed low-lying peat - 5 hours, dung humus - 3 hours, sod land - 1 hour, fresh mullein - 1 hour. In the absence of peat, it can be replaced with leafy soil in the same amount.
• For cabbage, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers: decomposed peat - 7 hours, manure humus - 2 hours, sod land - 1 hour, fresh mullein - 1 hour.

Add 3 tbsp to a bucket of mixture. tablespoons of superphosphate, 1 teaspoon of potassium sulfate and ammonium nitrate, 0.5 cups of ash, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of chalk. When making pots for cabbage, the dose of chalk is doubled.

In all mixtures, as a loosening material, you can add stale sawdust from hardwood in the amount of one half-liter can per bucket of prepared mixture.

Too much mullein makes the cubes too dense and can become impervious to air and roots when the seedlings are planted outdoors.

Cups instead of potsCups can be used instead of pots

Instead of peat pots and cubes for growing seedlings at home, paper cups filled with nutrient mixture can be used. Cups are made on 0.5 and 0.25 liter bottles.

For this, paper (preferably newsprint) is cut to a size of 25 × 16 cm for larger cups and 20 × 12 cm for smaller ones.

The diameter of the glass will be 7 and 6 cm, respectively, and the height 10 and 8 cm.

Cups are made of two sheets of paper for strength. The bottle is wrapped with the first sheet at the marked height, and the second is applied so that its middle coincides with the seam of the first. Then the free part of the paper is folded over the bottom of the bottle. The cup is ready-made, durable and extremely cheap.

Cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkin are sown in larger cups and tomatoes and peppers are dived. All kinds of cabbage are sown in smaller cups.

The seedling cups are filled with a nutrient mixture consisting of organic components and mineral fertilizers. Mineral fertilizers, except for superphosphate and lime materials, are added in dissolved form, evenly distributing and mixing them with the entire mixture.

I wish you to grow healthy seedlings!

Each summer cottage season begins with the cultivation of seedlings. Everyone understands why this is done - you can significantly increase the growing season and get not only an earlier, but also a much larger harvest. On the territory of our country, there are regions in which heat-loving vegetables cannot be grown in any other way.

As the first stage of development passes, so will the subsequent ones continue - this is the law of nature. To improve the development of plants, many gardeners and gardeners use peat pots. How to use these little helpers? Should I buy them for growing seedlings? Consider the pros and cons of these cups.

What are they made of?

Before purchasing peat seedling pots, find out what they are made of. Such devices are made from peat, to which cardboard or wood is added. Most of all, gardeners praise cups with a basic substance ratio of 70% and an additive of 30%. Beware of low-quality goods, it happens that unscrupulous manufacturers increase the percentage of impurities, or even use only cheap cardboard at all. Before you buy agricultural machinery, read what is written on the packaging.

Environmental justifications

Peat products have many advantages over their counterparts made of plastic, paper or ceramics. For plants, this will be a real environmentally friendly home. The peat used for the production of containers for growing seedlings does not contain pathogenic microflora, there are no weed seeds. In such products, the content of harmful toxic substances, for example, heavy metals, benzopyrene and pesticide residues, is significantly lower. The concentration of such substances will be several times lower than the norms permissible in agriculture for growing plants and crops. Lightweight peat is safe for use, it does not contain pathogens of various diseases of vegetable and flower crops.

When choosing peat pots for growing seedlings, carefully examine them. For good quality products, the wall thickness should be one to one and a half millimeters. Such walls will be strong enough to last the entire period of plant development, but the roots of the seedlings will be able to develop unhindered. After planting in the soil, a high-quality pot will begin to decay quickly, thereby facilitating the work of cleaning the fields. The decay period for quality products lasts approximately 27-32 days.

Peat seedling pots. Pros of using

1. Due to the porous walls, the best air-water regime of the root layer is ensured. During planting in the ground, the plants freely let their roots through the walls and bottom.
2. Such containers do not contain pathogens and toxic substances, while they have high mechanical strength both in wet and dry conditions.
3. When planting seedlings together with a pot in the ground, the survival rate reaches almost 100%. Later, when decomposed, the pot will serve as fertilizer.
4. Due to the accelerated survival of seedlings, an earlier harvest is collected, mainly for this, seedlings are planted in peat pots.

How to use? General requirements for the use of peat pots

1. The containers are filled with a slightly moistened nutrient soil, slightly crushed. After that, planting of seedlings in peat pots begins. You can sow seeds, plant bulbs, cuttings or seedlings.
2. Place prepared cups on pallets, pesos, plastic wrap, gravel or soil.
3. Seedlings should be watered frequently to keep the soil moist.
4. Peat pots must not be allowed to dry out. How to use them correctly? Wrap plastic wrap around each unit to prevent drying out. Otherwise, the salt contained in the earth may crystallize and, in concentrated form, pose a danger to delicate seedlings.
5. When the plants grow, the pots should be placed freer to increase illumination and aeration. In addition, a more spacious arrangement prevents intertwining of the root systems of neighboring plants.
6. Growing seedlings in peat pots ends with planting in the ground. There is no need to dig up the plants; plant them directly with the old container.

Seedlings of zucchini, cucumbers, pumpkin, eggplant, squash

Seedlings of these crops do not like transplanting. For the plants to take root, take peat pots for growing. How do I use them? What size is preferable?

For seedlings of cucumbers intended for planting in protected ground, pots with a diameter of 11 cm are suitable. The duration of cultivation is approximately 30 days. How to plant in peat pots? One sprouted seed is sown in one glass.

If vegetables are to be planted in open ground, then for seedlings of zucchini, squash and cucumbers, containers with a diameter of 8 cm should be chosen, 11 cm is better for pumpkin. Seeds are germinated and planted one in each pot. Planting depth 1 cm. Cucumbers can be planted in 2 pieces in one container.

On average, pumpkin seedlings will be ready in 20 days, and the rest of the vegetables in a month. You yourself will be able to calculate the optimal planting time.

The finished pots are placed on pallets tightly to each other, watered thoroughly and left in a warm place, where the temperature is maintained at 25-30 degrees until shoots appear. When yellow-green sprouts appear, the temperature should be reduced to 20-22 degrees. This temperature regime is maintained for 2-3 days.

Watering

Water the cucumber seedlings with warm water heated to 25-30 degrees. If there is cold watering, the plants can get sick or even die.

Hardening

To prevent plant diseases after transplanting into the ground, they are hardened - 7-10 days before planting - they often ventilate the premises, lower the temperature to 15 degrees, and less often watered.

Landing in open ground

The prepared plants are planted in the soil directly in the pots. Some gardeners break the cups before planting or pull out the seedlings along with an earthen clod. You can do that too. However, gardeners who used peat pots for growing seedlings leave the following reviews about planting - they believe that it is better to make holes in the containers first. When decaying, the cups will nourish the plant, helping to get a large harvest.

Seedling cabbage

In March, cabbage is sown in special boxes. After the seedlings appear, they dive, and planting begins in peat pots. Cups with a diameter of about 7 cm are suitable. You can use round specimens or peat blocks, in which there are 6 cells at once. At the end of April, you can start planting in open ground.

Lettuce seedlings

Seedlings of lettuce for planting in greenhouses are prepared with a pick of seedlings in pots. Suitable pots measuring 50x50 mm or, as they are also called, peat cells. After about a month, the seedlings will be ready for planting in a greenhouse or greenhouse.

The roots of many plants can penetrate the bottom and walls of peat cups. However, most gardeners do not wait for this - they are guided by the size of the aboveground part of the seedlings.

Experienced gardeners say that if, before planting, you immerse the peat pots in warm water until the release of air bubbles from the walls stops, then the soggy walls and bottom will not create obstacles and will be easily processed by soil inhabitants.

Disadvantages of peat pots

1. Not all plants tolerate the acidic environment inherent in peat. Some manufacturers add special mineral fertilizers to the composition of products, as well as lime and chalk, which reduce acidity.
2. Mandatory frequent watering is required.
3. Evaporation from the surface of the pots, the water greatly cools the soil, as a result of which the root system develops much worse.
4. Some plants cannot break through the peat walls; they have to be removed from the containers during transplantation.
5. Mold often appears on low-quality pots, the walls collapse
6. The high cost of peat cups, especially when growing large volumes of seedlings.

Unfortunately, some unscrupulous manufacturers give out pots made of ordinary cardboard for high-quality peat products. Gardeners complain that sometimes in the fall, when digging a plot, they find undecomposed pots with remnants of roots.

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