How to pinch tomatoes: useful tips

Many amateur gardeners do not even know that tomatoes can be seedlings, because even without this operation they grow well in greenhouses and open beds. But how rich are the bushes with thick bushes weakened by numerous sprouts? Enough to make a salad and preserve a couple of cans of tomato juice. And if you remove the extra shoots? How to do it in order not to shock the bush? Why is this procedure so helpful?

Cattle or not

Tomatoes have enough light, water and the absence of pests to settle down on the garden and make the site owners happy with ripe fruits. When they receive additional nutrients in the form of mineral fertilizers, small processes are formed in the axils of the leaves extending from the main stem. Paceniks are actively developing, weakening the mother bush.They suck out juices and useful ingredients from the trunk and root system in order to build their own leaves and small fruits.

Tomatoes due to such processes become too thick and bulky, while the yield is reduced, because the plant spends energy on the greens, and not on the fruits. Paceniks make shrub sensitive to pests and diseases such as late blight. Sprouts can and should be cut off to protect the crop from excessive load, to accelerate the formation and ripening of large fruits.

If you leave the stepchildren in place, the tomatoes will produce a crop, but it will be small and scanty, and the bushes themselves will have to be constantly treated for insects, rot and use more fertilizer than for the treated specimens.

Choose the right time

Tip: During the flowering period, bushes are shaken before removing the stepsons, and only after that do they begin their main work. This small procedure will improve the process of pollination of neighboring bushes.

Weekly should inspect the beds and tear off the appeared stepsons, until they become too large. Removal of thick shoots is a shock for the mother bush, because of which the yield is reduced, and the plant itself can wither or weaken. Pysynki in greenhouse tomatoes are cut off after 6–8 days, and for crops that are in an open garden - after 10–12 days. The main thing is that the length of the process does not exceed 5 cm.

To get large tomatoes, and the harvest was rich, you will have to cut off or pick off extra education throughout the summer. The butchers are activated after the appearance of the first inflorescences, therefore during this period it is recommended to carefully examine the plants. How to distinguish a regular leaf from a dangerous sprout? The first originates from the main trunk, and the second comes out of the stalk sinuses.

Important: Some gardeners claim that they need to stick tomatoes only until August 1, when the fruits begin to ripen. They believe that further the plant spends all its strength to feed the future harvest, and new shoots do not harm the bush.The opinion is controversial and not always true, so it is better not to take risks and continue to care for tomatoes until the fall.

About varieties of tomatoes

Varieties are indeterminate and determinant. The first species are tall, so they leave one stem, in rare cases - two. The second grade gives an early harvest and is overgrown with a large amount of greenery. Determinant tomatoes sometimes do not need to stick, because they produce large berries without removing shoots. But if you remove the extra education, leaving only 2-3 stems, there will be more tomatoes. The first type of tomato is suitable for growing in open beds, and the second is well acclimatized in greenhouse conditions.

Indeterminate tomatoes carefully stepson, otherwise their crown becomes too large, blocking the rest of the plants and berries. It is desirable to lay the stem on the ground, leaving only the fruitful brush.

They work cautiously with the determinant varieties, because there is a risk of removing the desired shoot, which could turn into a growth tip. The fruitful brush is formed on it, and the fruits are fastened. In order not to spoil the bush, it is recommended to adhere to several recommendations:

1. To begin work with the definition of the main stepchild, which will later turn into a growth sprout.
2. Trim excess formations when they reach 4–5 cm, because then at the ends of the shoots the first signs of the brush appear.
3. If there is no certainty that the stepson needs to be removed, it is left. In the future, the sprout pinch, stopping growth.

There are several methods of planting tomatoes in the greenhouse, but the most simple and popular is chess. If the choice was made in its favor, only determinant tomatoes should grow in the second row. It is not necessary to grow this variety in the open ground, it will give a good harvest without breaking the shoots.

Cooking tool

It is possible to carry out removal of excess shoots by hands, but in this case it is highly likely to infect a shrub with some kind of infectious disease or fungus. To break off stepchildren should be in gloves, rubber or garden, carefully erasing the droplets of juice from your fingers, so it is advisable to take a dry clean rag.

Remove sprouts and scissors or pruners, but then the tool should be:

• well sharpened so that the blade does not “jam” the stem;
• clean, because in the open wound of the plant is easy to bring dirt or bacteria.

Together with scissors take a bottle or a jar with a disinfectant solution. Prepare the product from potassium permanganate or bleach. Enough 1-2% concentration. The tool is rinsed in the solution after each bush so that the juice does not get to another tomato.

We remove too much

Sprout take the index finger and thumb, slightly squeezing. Swing in opposite directions until it cracks and breaks. Carefully separate it from the mother bush, leaving a small stump 0.5–1.5 cm high to stop the growth of the stepson and prevent the appearance of a new one in the old place.

It seems that scissors will be faster? Having identified an unnecessary sprout, separate it from the bush with quick, sharp movements. The main thing is to have a neat cut without chewed edges, otherwise the wound will heal longer and the risk of infection of the plant will increase.

In one approach, you can remove up to 3 stepsons and lower sheets. If cut more, tomatoes weaken and wither. Therefore, it is recommended to stretch the work for about 7 - 10 days, starting with the largest shoots and gradually getting to the smallest.

Tip: Plants after the intervention need to "comfort" and support. In the morning the tomatoes stepchild, and then watered. In the evening or after 1-2 days, mineral or natural fertilizers are applied. Suitable diluted wood ash or feed, made from chicken manure. Then the sections will tighten faster, and the bushes will become stronger and begin to form the ovary.

Broken stepchildren immediately put in a basket or bucket and carried away from the garden. You can not leave the cut sprouts next to the bushes, otherwise rotting starts, and the disease spreads in the greenhouse or on the garden bed.

Recommendations

1. Passing tomatoes in the garden is recommended in dry, calm weather, so that a minimum of dust and dirt gets into the wound.
2. It is not necessary to remove extra shoots on some determinant or hybrid varieties. Manufacturers made sure that the crop gave the maximum yield with minimal care. Such information must indicate the bundle of seeds.
3. Together with the stepsons, you can also remove the lower leaves. They get a minimum of light, so they pull more nutrients from the bush than the top ones.The leaves are carefully cut as they ripen and gather fruit. The less greenery, the better the bush is ventilated. Cutting off the bottom sheets, the summer resident protects plants from fungus and phytophthora.

Passing tomatoes is much easier than it seems to novice gardeners. At first, the procedure takes a lot of time, but with the experience of movement it becomes automatic and fast. It is advised to remove excess sprouts from greenhouse tomatoes, and there is no unequivocal opinion about crops planted in open ground. Although if you want to get a truly royal harvest, it is advised not to be lazy and begin to form a bush as soon as the seedlings become stronger, and the first stepchildren appear.

Video: tomato pasynkovaya