Each gardener wants to grow high-yielding tomatoes that require minimal maintenance. These include shuttle tomatoes. We will talk about its cultivation and the nuances of caring for this variety in this article.

Grade description

This variety is ideal for beginner gardeners, because it:

• high yielding;
• does not require much care;
• fruits can be kept fresh for a long time;
• juicy tomatoes with a sweet aftertaste;
• Shuttle tomatoes are suitable for cultivation both in the open field, and in the greenhouse.

Advantages and disadvantages

• Tomatoes of this variety have such advantages:
• ultra-ripe tomatoes;
• they do not need garter and stepsoning;
• the fruits have a thick skin that protects them from cracking;
• they are resistant to low temperatures;
• fruiting lasts until the frost;
• tomatoes are not demanding in care and easy to grow, so they are ideal for beginners;
• they are universal in application;
• the fruits also tolerate long transport.

• There are some disadvantages of this variety:
• in taste, these tomatoes are inferior to other large-fruited varieties;
• Tomatoes have an average resistance to diseases, so they should be regularly prevented.

Sowing seeds for seedlings

To get the largest possible crop, tomatoes are recommended to be grown in seedlings.

Optimal timing

Tomatoes are sown on seedlings in late February or early March. From the beginning to mid-May they are planted in the garden.

Did you know? There are more than 10 thousand different varieties of tomatoes. The diameter of the smallest fruits is less than 2 cm. The weight of the largest tomatoes exceeds 1.5 kg.

Soil mix

Properly prepared soil mixture is the key to the rapid growth of seedlings. Pay particular attention to this stage of growing tomatoes. Mix humus, chernozem and sand in a ratio of 2: 1: 1. Add vermiculite, if desired, then disinfect the soil: it can contain a lot of bacteria. The best way is to calcine it. Pour the ground with boiled water. Then put it on a baking sheet. Keep in the oven at 90 ° for half an hour.

Capacity for growing

You can grow seedlings in any container. Individual cups and peat tablets are perfect. The most common method of growing tomatoes is to plant them in boxes. The container for seedlings must be disinfected before use, doused with boiling water or wiped with any disinfectant.

Important! Growth stimulators for tomatoes can be used if desired. Before sowing, it is very good to hold the seeds in the ready-made Kornevin solution for 6 hours. The stimulator will provide quick shoots of plants.

Seed preparation

Before sowing, disinfect the seeds in a heated solution of water with hydrogen peroxide (3 ml of peroxide per 100 ml of water). They must be held in it for 10 minutes. Next, the seeds must be laid out on a wet cloth so that they do not touch. Put them in a plastic container and cover with a film, leaving a small hole for air. It is recommended to remove the film several times a day for a couple of minutes so that the seeds are well ventilated.

Sowing seeds

To prevent the development of sprouted tomatoes, nothing must be observed when sowing them, the correct depth and distance between the seeds. So, if you grow seedlings in separate cups, put 2-3 seeds in each of them to a depth of 1 cm. Before this, the earth needs to be moistened a little.

When growing seedlings in boxes, you need to adhere to a different scheme. Fill more than half of the tank with soil, slightly water it. Next, make small grooves with a depth of 1-2 cm at a distance of 7 cm. Put seeds in the grooves at a distance of 2-3 cm from each other. Sprinkle them with a layer of earth 1.5–2 cm.

Important! When the length of the cotyledon leaf reaches 0.5 cm, the plants are picked.

Seedling Care

The box with the seeds sown is covered with a film and placed in a warm place with a temperature of +25 ° C and more. After the emergence of seedlings, the film is removed, and seedlings are put in a place with a lower temperature for a week (+16 ° C in the daytime and +13 ° C at night). After a week, the seedlings are again placed in a place with a higher temperature (+19 ° C).

Tomatoes are very fond of light, so after the appearance of the first shoots, a box of tomatoes must be put in a sunny place. If the weather is cloudy, the room with seedlings must be illuminated with electric lamps. Also provide good ventilation. But watch out for drafts. Otherwise, the plants will fall ill.You need to water the seedlings when you notice that the soil begins to dry. It is better to do this with a spray gun. If water is poured directly under the roots, the soil can be washed away. To prevent plant growth from slowing down, use room temperature water. 10-12 days after the pick, you can start feeding tomatoes. It is better to use Nitrofoska or Kristalin according to the instructions.

Seedling hardening

Two weeks before the seedlings are planted, they begin to temper them, so that they gradually get used to the ambient temperature. To do this, the container with seedlings is taken out onto the street first for half an hour, gradually increasing the residence time to 1.5 hours.

Planting seedlings in a permanent place

The period from the beginning to the middle of May is the most suitable for planting seedlings in a permanent place. Choose a cloudy day or evening for this process when it is no longer hot outside. In this case, the soil temperature should reach +12 ° C. Before planting, water the tomatoes well so that the dry earth does not crumble from their roots.

Important! Seedlings are planted to a depth equal to the height of the container in which the tomato grew before planting. The distance between the grooves should be 30–35 cm. For 1 square. m plant 4 bushes.

How to care

Consider the basic recommendations for caring for shuttle tomatoes.

Watering

The level of tomato yield depends on compliance with regular watering. The amount of water depends on how quickly the plant takes root immediately after transplanting. Particular attention should be paid to watering during the formation of ovaries on plants. From the lack of moisture, they simply fall off. The amount of water for irrigation needs to be regulated.Between the time of planting the plants in open soil and until the formation of the ovaries, you need to use so much water so that it moistens the soil 25 cm in depth. During flowering and fruiting, the soil should be wetted by about 30 cm. It is recommended to water this variety in the evening, when there is no heat. Otherwise, burns will appear on the leaves of tomatoes. Watering should be done with water at room temperature, so as not to harm the plant.

Important! Water the tomatoes of this variety directly under the root every 7–10 days. In extreme heat, increase watering to 2–3 times a week. m use approximately 30 liters of water.

Top dressing

To increase the yield of tomatoes, they are periodically fed. The first time this is done 12 days after planting in open ground, then every 10-12 days. For one adult plant, count up to 1 liter of mineral or organic fertilizers.

Tomatoes can be fertilized with such means, depending on your preferences:

1. Ammonium nitrate (10 g per 5 liters of water). To enhance the effect, you can add 2 tbsp. l ashes.
2. Superphosphate. You can pour 10-15 g of fertilizer in each well when planting seedlings on the bed.
3. Potassium sulfate. They are sprinkled with a bed before planting seedlings with a calculation of 20 g per 1 sq. m
4. Poultry Litter (10 g per bucket of water). This is a very strong fertilizer, so in no case do not put a large amount of litter, as it can burn the roots of the plant.
5. Herbal infusion. Grind grass (preferably nettle), fill it with a third of the container and fill it with water. Insist 2 weeks in a dark place. Strain the finished solution, dilute with water in a ratio of 1: 5 before use.
6. Ashes. Use it in a dry form, sprinkling on top of a small layer of earth.
7. Ready-made fertilizers purchased at the store. Suitable, for example, vermicompost biohumus, Peaks supercompost, Sober up, Reliable compost. Use them according to the instructions.

Stepson

Since tomatoes are stunted, they do not need to be chopped.

Soil care

Proper soil care is required. First of all, regularly weed the bed with tomatoes. On the weeds, in the first place, many bacteria gather that spread tomato diseases. They also prevent sunlight from entering plants.

Tomatoes of this variety need regular loosening of the soil. It provides air access to the roots of the plant. The first loosening is carried out to a depth of 12 cm, and the next - to 5 cm. From the moment the seedlings are planted in a permanent place and until the end of fruiting, the soil must be loosened 4 times.

Did you know? Tomatoes perfectly cheer up due to the content in them «hormones of happiness» serotonin.

To preserve moisture, the soil must be mulched. The ideal option is to use dried grass. To do this, lay it on a weathered bed with a layer of 7 cm. The grass should not touch the stem so that it does not begin to rot. Gradually, under the influence of various bacteria, the layer of grass will decrease. Then it needs to be reported yet.

Also, tomatoes should be regularly spud. Thanks to this procedure, a lot of oxygen enters the soil. Moisture accumulates in the grooves that remain on the bed after hilling, which is very good for the growth and fruiting of tomatoes. Especially in hilling need undersized varieties of tomatoes, to which Shuttle belongs. Hilling should be carried out for the first time 10 days after transplanting. Next - every 20 days.

Bush tying

Due to their low height, tomatoes do not need a garter. An additional support to the plants will be the earth, sprinkled to the bush during hilling.

Preventative treatment

Shuttle tomatoes are prone to such diseases:

• late blight;
• powdery mildew;
• Anthracnose and others.

Insecticides can help get rid of pests, which you can buy at any agricultural store. Use them according to the instructions. Also effective is a soap solution. You can cook it like this:

1. Laundry soap grate.
2. Dissolve it in a glass of water.
3. Pour into a container with 10 liters of water.
4. Spray tomatoes thoroughly.

Harvesting

Harvest from tomatoes. The shuttle is harvested 3–3.5 months after planting seedlings in the garden. Many gardeners collect fruits that are not ripened and put them in a sunny place, turning the opposite sides to the sun so that they turn red. Make sure that the fruits do not overripe. In this form, they will not be stored.As you can see, this tomato variety is the dream of any gardener. Many positive qualities distinguish these tomatoes from other varieties, so grow them and enjoy the results of their work!