Is it possible to grow tomatoes from stepchildren. Growing tomatoes from stepchildren. The main secret of success

All gardeners know that hybrid tomato seeds are very expensive, especially well-known manufacturers. It is no secret that such tomato plants are more productive than varietal ones.

But, I think, any gardener will agree that tomatoes of varietal tomatoes are more tasty, and not hybrid ones. Therefore, both varieties and hybrids are usually grown on the site. For example, I plant several plants of hybrid tomatoes in my greenhouse. Their fruits are mainly used for canning. I give preference to cocktail tomatoes for the size of their fruits - they are not large, but not small either, almost all the fruits in the brush ripen at the same time. Their peel is dense, even if you do not pick them in time, they do not crack, and can hang for a long time. And most importantly, they are easy to preserve.

grow up cocktail tomatoes in my greenhouse (from cellular polycarbonate) until frost - I do not limit their growth, like all other tomato plants in the second half of July. I noticed that such tomatoes feel good in cool weather, both in spring and autumn. This year, at the beginning of October, red tomatoes are still hanging in our greenhouse.

Cocktail tomato plants have one drawback - they give a lot of stepchildren, so you need to monitor them constantly, removing stepchildren in time, otherwise a continuous forest grows. I leave stepsons only at the top of the plants in early September, in order to get cuttings for winter storage later.

I save planting material of these hybrid tomatoes in the winter at home. The tomato plant is a liana, it can grow indefinitely, so I harvest cuttings(the top of the plant and stepchildren) in the fall before frost, unless of course the plants are affected by late blight, by the way, cocktail tomatoes are resistant to it. Encouraged me to method of preserving planting material infinitely expensive seeds of hybrids with very low germination. For example, in 2013 I bought the seeds of hybrid cocktail tomatoes for 100 rubles - there were five seeds in the bag - and not a single one sprouted. I think that many gardeners, and especially pensioners, cannot afford such a luxury, so the tomato hybrid you like can be saved in the winter. It won't take much effort. In addition, in early spring, the preserved cuttings can also be propagated. At first it was an experiment, it justified itself and now it has entered my practice.

How do I do it? In late September or early October, before frost, I cut the stepsons and tops of tomato plants for winter storage. On such a handle there should be 3-4 leaves (they are small) and a stem 10-15 cm long. I try to cut off those cuttings whose stem is thicker, they hibernate better. In addition, in the process of their growth during winter storage, the stem becomes thinner. If there are flowers on the stem, I cut them off. Tomatoes, of course, will appear on them and even ripen, but they will take away the strength from the cuttings. If you have a place on the windowsill, then you can try to cut more flowering cuttings, and then by the New Year, according to my method (in water), grow several dozen small red tomatoes.

I bring the cuttings home to a city apartment and put them in a glass jar with a wide neck in the brightest place on the windowsill. On each bank I write the name of the hybrid. You can’t put a lot of cuttings in a jar, they will be cramped, and they will fall out. Therefore, the cuttings in the jar should be spacious - I put no more than 5-6 pieces. It is better if they do not touch each other. 7-10 cm of the stem should be immersed in water.

After some time, roots will appear on the submerged stems, the stem will grow upward and become thinner. That is why it is better to cut cuttings with thick stems. The distance between the leaves on the stem during growth will increase due to lack of lighting. I don’t plant these cuttings in the ground, otherwise they will start growing, and there is already a short daylight hours outside, and many cuttings in pots cannot be placed on the windowsill.

In the first half of November, I cut off the upper part of each rooted cutting (approximately 15 cm) and again put it in boiled cold water, after washing the jar. I throw out the lower part of the plant with the roots. It is best to cut the cuttings on the day of the fetus according to the lunar sowing calendar. From this moment on, I put the cuttings on a seedling rack and begin to illuminate with fluorescent lamps for 12-14 hours. November-December is the most unfavorable time for plants due to the short daylight hours, and in many indoor plants, life processes freeze during this period. In addition, if you leave the cuttings on the windowsill, they will be cold from the windows (I do not seal them for the winter, because the apartment is very warm, and sometimes even hot).

In mid-December, I shorten the cuttings again, cutting off the rooted part, and change the water. Cuttings from lack of sunlight become light green, but this is not scary.

After January 15, I plant several of the thinnest cuttings with small roots in small pots of earth so that they do not die after the next pruning, and continue to illuminate. But you can not do this, because the number of cuttings I had was prepared with a margin.

Once in the soil, these cuttings begin to grow, their stem thickens, and the leaves become darker. As soon as they grow up, I cut cuttings from them, root them in the same way in water, and the lower part of the plant gives stepchildren and continues to grow. These stepchildren are then also allowed to breed.

On a tomato that grows in a pot, I leave one stepson - it will be a continuation of the plant, which I will later transplant into a deep pot at least 14 cm high and 11.5 cm in diameter at the top of the pot. Moreover, when transplanting, I remove its lower leaves and deepen the stem to the lower left leaf in order to build up a good root system. This plant will be a safety net if suddenly, when planting seedlings in a greenhouse, tomatoes die due to recurrent frosts. You can not do this if there are enough preserved cuttings.

For the cuttings remaining on the rack, I cut the roots for the last time in early February, leaving their lower part longer, and root them in water for the last time. After the roots appear on the cuttings - this will be in the second half of February, I plant them in small pots or milk boxes, also removing 2-3 lower leaves and deepening the stem into the ground. As a result, most of the stem will grow a powerful root system. When planting, the roots should not be overgrown, no more than one centimeter long. With such small roots, the plant takes root better. Once finally in the ground, the tomato plant begins to quickly build up the root system. I remove emerging flowers. Until the end of February, these plants will still be on the backlit rack.

I prepare the land for all my seedlings in the fall. This is a mixture of sifted cucumber soil with sifted compost. In the spring I add a little coconut substrate, vermiculite, biohumus and a pinch of AVA fertilizer (powder) to it. I fill the pots with this mixture. In each of them I add the drug Gliocladin - one tablet in the center of the pot with earth: no smaller than one centimeter from the top of the pot. This is a new drug that has proven itself well. It suppresses the pathogenic microflora, highlighting the beneficial one. On top of the ground after planting the plant, I sprinkle 10-13 HB-101 peas.

At the end of February, I put seedlings in pots on the windowsill. I attach foil to the back of the plants so that they are lighter from the reflected light. After a week, the leaves darken and acquire the color of seeded seedlings of other varieties and newly acquired hybrids. As soon as the seedlings grow up, I remove the lower leaves and transplant it into a pot of larger diameter and deep, filling the stem with soil to the remaining leaves in order to build up a good root system.

I take care of the same as a normal seedling. I feed seedlings once a week with Ideal fertilizer (2 caps per liter of water), alternating top dressing with a solution of HB-101 (2 drops per liter of water) and Extrasol solution.

In early March, I take these seedlings to a glazed (but not insulated) balcony for hardening, as soon as the temperature there is not lower than + 8 ° C. How I harden seedlings of tomatoes and cucumbers, I will write in the next article.

I planted these hardened seedlings in the greenhouse on April 14, covering them with a white dense spunbond. The plants already had the first flower clusters. She has survived five return frosts, the most extreme of which dropped to -5°C. I want to say right away that the yield of plants obtained in the process of winter storage of cuttings did not decrease - they thanked with an excellent harvest, delighting with their fruits ripened in the bud until early October and even later.

I think this method will be appreciated by pensioners who count every penny.

Thanks to winter method of storing cuttings of hybrid tomatoes, you do not need to buy expensive seeds, sow them again and wait: they will sprout or not. Winter care for cuttings does not cause any particular problems: you need to wash the jars several times, change the water there and cut off the grown cuttings. And then timely plant them in pots with nutrient soil. By the way, in the same way, indoor tomatoes intended for growing on a windowsill can be made perennial. As a rule, these are undersized plants with small fruits.

Every year, cutting off extra stepsons from a tomato, I regret throwing away the shoots. Usually only one flange can be left on one seedling. Otherwise, the plant will use all its strength to grow leaves and additional shoots, while there will be few fruits. My mother sometimes does not throw away her stepchildren, but plants them on a separate bed.

This year, I also decided to plant cut seedlings in open ground, in those places where radishes used to grow and on free land. And also in a greenhouse (rather a film greenhouse in the height of a person) - to the place where pre-spring seedlings of cabbage grew before.

pruning tomato

Why do you need to trim tomatoes?

• In the greenhouse there is not enough light and oxygen for all the plants. As a result, the tomatoes wither, the leaves turn yellow, the appearance of the ovary decreases.
• A large number of shoots interferes with the growth and ripening of ready-made tomatoes.
• Our greenhouse is very small and all these thickets of tomato simply do not fit indoors.

By mid-June, we already have a real jungle in both beds. Tall black De barao and yellow De barao were planted in the greenhouse. All plants are torn up, wide leaves cover the sunlight. Stepchildren on the main tomatoes in just a couple of weeks reach a size of 10-15 cm.

Thickets of tomatoes in the greenhouse

All shoots are subject to pruning - from bottom to top. At the same time, I also remove large leaves so as not to reduce the amount of light in the greenhouse.

There are a lot of cut stepchildren, more than five dozen. I select a couple of dozen of the largest, strongest, with thick stems. I make sure that there are no pests on the plants, the skin is whole, without diseases, yellowing and spots. It is not advisable to plant stepchildren with flowers, they take root worse and grow more slowly.

I do not process the stump and the tip of the stepchildren, I leave the cut clean. But my mother suggests dipping stepchildren in a solution of potassium permanganate or treating the tips of the stems with furatsilin. They have had a greenhouse for a long time, several years. There are a lot of different diseases, to avoid their development, you need to disinfect tomatoes.

Stepchildren for landing

Planting stepchildren in a greenhouse

Pruning and planting should be done in the evening, when it is no longer hot. It is desirable that there is no fog on this day. If it's raining outside, it's even better. I perform the planting of stepchildren in several stages:

1. Land for planting is cleared of weeds, loosened.
2. I plant only four stepsons in the greenhouse, respectively, I dig four holes. Not deep, three centimeters deep.
3. The distance between the pits is 20-30 cm.
4. I pour water into the pits, a little, so that the soil becomes wet.
5. I put a stepson and sprinkle with earth. No need to wait until the plant takes root in a glass of water or nutrient soil. Landing is done on the day of pruning.
6. I firmly press the ground near the seedling. No more watering on this day.

Landing in the ground

Immediately after planting, the plants look very beautiful, as if they grew there. Even in the morning, stepchildren do not have time to wither. Now they only need to be looked after, as for ordinary tomato seedlings planted in the ground:

• Stepchildren are watered every day. Water should be poured carefully so as not to wash the ground.
• It is possible to weed and loosen the earth in a week, in seven days the plants take root and hold well in the ground.
• Do not be afraid that the first days of the plant look lethargic. They will not die, absolutely all flans take root.
• Pay attention to the condition of the leaves of tomatoes, treat them for diseases in a timely manner.

The next day, a week later, two weeks later

Within a week, the stepchildren look stronger, begin to grow. After two weeks, the tomatoes have grown enough and even began to bloom. Since these are tall varieties, it is important to provide them with support. Please note that stepchildren themselves rarely let out additional shoots, so caring for them is easier than for seedling tomatoes.

Planting pasniki in open ground

Planting stepchildren in open ground is also carried out on the day of pruning extra shoots. It is advisable to choose a not very hot period so that the soil is damp. The hotter and drier it is outside, the longer the stepchildren will take root. Even cold snaps are not as negative as the lack of moisture.

In open ground, I planted a lot of stepchildren, at different points in the garden. Examples can be seen near carrots. The staging is the same as when planting in a greenhouse:

• We dig holes. In open ground, I suggest planting stepchildren deeper, 5-7 centimeters, so that they are not damaged by the wind.
• Water should be poured abundantly so that it stands straight in the pits.
• Stepchildren are inserted into the hole, sprinkled with earth, the earth is pressed.
• You don't need to water a second time.

In open ground, stepchildren usually take root faster than in a greenhouse. But this year it was a very hot June, so the plants began to look better only after 10 days. Another problem is the bear. She cut a lot of carrots and dug up tomatoes. True, she did not eat them, she did not like the roots of these plants.

Having closed the passages and poured earth under the seedling, I reanimated the plant. A few days later, the tomato was no longer so lethargic. By the way, the bear no longer encroached on carrots, the smell of tomatoes scared her away. With this calculation, stepchildren were also planted near beets, strawberries, and other plants.

By the beginning of July, the tomato seedlings stretched out, began to grow, the first flowers appeared. Stepsons in the open field look stronger than in the greenhouse, but also do not produce additional shoots.

Stepchildren in the open field

Stepchildren began to bear fruit towards the end of July. The first tomatoes were small, but with the growth of plants, tomatoes also grew, the largest reached 8 cm in diameter.

Stepson planting is a way out for those who do not want to lose planting material in the presence of empty cultivated land. They are unpretentious in care, but at the same time give a decent harvest.

A stepchild is a young shoot from the leaf axil. There are varieties of tomatoes that “want” to be a bush and form sprouts at each stem node, but there are also those that produce only one stepchild for the entire period of vegetative development.

Why cut stepchildren

If the plants are not formed by cutting out unnecessary shoots, the bed will look like a jungle - green, juicy, beautiful, but with a minimal yield. With high humidity, phytophthora will immediately spread, and in a drought you can’t get close to the bush to water it. A tomato grown in 1-2 stems is oriented towards fruiting, evenly lit by the sun and much more convenient to care for.

In addition, stepchildren can and should be used as additional seedlings. The bushes obtained in this way will give the first ripe fruit a month later, but they will delight with the harvest until frost.

How to prepare a sprout for planting

1. It is necessary to cut off with a shoot length of at least 10 cm. Cut not under the very stem, but leave a “stump” 2 cm. If an inflorescence appeared on the stepson, it will not take root. These can be thrown into the mulch on the cabbage bed.

2. Put an eight-centimeter branch into the water, into a scattered shade (under a tree). Following the advice of experienced gardeners, you can add a drop of aloe juice to the container. From my own experience, no difference was noticed in comparison with ordinary water.

3. It is better to use rain water, but it is also suitable from the tap. After 3-4 days, be sure to change.

4. In a week, the first roots will hatch on the stem. Can be planted!

Planting a rooted stepson

Make a shallow hole, do not pour anything into it. Pour water to the brim, wait until it is absorbed. Cover the sprout to the very leaves with earth. It is better to plant in rainy weather. If there is a drought and heat, we perform the operation after sunset and cover the next 2 days, providing shade. Water under the root every evening for 3 days. Then mulch the plant and further care for it, as for an ordinary tomato. No need to worry if the leaves are tied at a high temperature. This is a defensive reaction, they will be fresh in the morning.

What not to do

1. Grow huge stepchildren. The idea that it is better to take root is erroneous! And the main bush will have to spend a lot of moisture and nutrition in order to grow such a child.

2. Add fertilizer, potassium permanganate, potatoes and other inventions of summer residents to the water for germination, aimed at "improving" plants.

3. Wait until the roots grow, like seedlings in the ground. Half centimeter roots have a higher growth potential, and the survival of the plant is therefore better.

Everyone who had to grow tomato seedlings in the spring periodically faced such problems as poor seed germination, the lack of the desired variety or hybrid, and seedlings stretching due to lack of light. Gardeners have long seen this as a necessary evil that is almost impossible to fight. Is it necessary to fight? Is it possible to simply bypass these difficulties? Let's see how to do it.

Imagine that in April you planted seeds of a very good, rare and expensive variety for seedlings, and out of ten seeds, only one sprouted. What to do in this case? Of course, you can go and buy another bag of seeds. What if there is no such possibility?

And where is the guarantee that they will not be different again, and time will already be lost. In fact, everything is much simpler.

Everyone knows that tomatoes during the growing season give a lot of stepchildren. Usually they are broken off while still very small, leaving, at best, 1 - 2. If this is not done, then the bed turns into continuous thickets, and there is no need to wait for a good harvest.

Now let's take our only tomato sprout. If it is well looked after, fed and illuminated with artificial light when necessary, then stepsons will begin to appear from the axils of the leaves at the right time. But you don’t need to break them off right away - let them grow up a little. When they reach 4 - 5 cm, or more, they are carefully plucked off and stuck into moist soil or sawdust. You can also just dip it in a jar of water. After 5 - 6 days, the stepchildren will take root, give roots and begin to develop like new young plants. Such seedlings are much stronger than those grown from seeds, do not require picking or additional illumination, unless, of course, they try to grow it on the northern windowsill. She is ready to bloom in a month, because these are parts of an already developed plant. The first flower brush in these tomatoes appears much lower than in seedlings grown from seeds. And since it is obtained vegetatively, it retains all the properties of the mother bush.

And what will happen to the mother bush itself? After some time, new stepchildren will grow on it, with which you should do the same. It's also a good idea to trim off the top of the mother plant when it's tall enough. The cut off upper part also takes root quickly, as well as the side branches. In addition, shortening the upper part is even useful, as it causes increased growth of stepchildren.

There is only one secret: stepchildren for seedlings should be used only those that have grown above the fourth leaf. If you take the lower ones, then the bushes obtained from them will bear fruit a little later, and their first brush will be located much higher along the trunk.

In such a simple way, from a single seed, you can get seedlings for a whole garden. It is especially useful when you need to propagate some rare and interesting hybrid. After all, as you know, seeds obtained from hybrids do not retain the properties of the plant from which they were collected. In order to grow the hybrid you like next year, you must again look for and purchase its seeds. This is where the vegetative method of reproduction comes to the rescue. An adult healthy bush is dug up in the fall and transplanted into a large flower pot or container. At first, they take care of him like an ordinary indoor flower. Then, when the leaves turn yellow and fall off, move it to a cool, but fairly bright place. Ideally, the temperature should be between 7 and 15 °C. But an ordinary window sill is also suitable if there are no heaters next to it. In nature, the tomato is a perennial plant. Therefore, if favorable conditions are created for him - cool air and very moderate watering, then he will easily overwinter. In the spring, when it gets warmer, new stepchildren will appear on it, which can be used to obtain young plants.

The advantages of this method are obvious, because seedlings

- does not require picking;
- does not need additional lighting;
- does not suffer from black leg and similar diseases;
- quickly begins to bear fruit;
- guaranteed to retain all the varietal characteristics of the mother plant.

But there is also a drawback to seedlings grown from a stepson - the central taproot, which goes deep into the ground and reaches the groundwater, may not appear in it. True, this is compensated by a highly developed system of lateral roots, which are located closer to the soil surface. Therefore, growing tomatoes from such seedlings will not work at all without watering. Otherwise, tomato bushes obtained by vegetative propagation are no different from ordinary ones planted with seeds. And they give a harvest, under equal conditions and care, no worse.

Many gardeners are faced with the problem of a lack of tomato seedlings for planting. Often this happens due to the death of seedlings due to frost or due to poor seed germination. In this case, you can increase the number of seedlings with the help of stepchildren.
One of the methods that is used to propagate tomatoes on the site is the rooting of stepchildren. It is carried out when the stepchildren on tomato bushes reach about 10-15 cm.
We collect the cut stepchildren in a bundle and tie it with some kind of soft ribbon.
Pour the prepared solution into a small jar with the addition of preparations for the rapid growth of roots, it is quite possible to prepare a solution based on Zircon, the liquid in the jar should be two to three centimeters from the bottom of the jar.
Then we move the stepchildren to the prepared jar with the solution and move it to a bright, warm place, but in no case under the direct rays of the sun.
To the maximum within a week, roots will begin to form on the stepchildren. Without waiting for the formation of a whole “beard” of the stepson’s roots, plant them in the prepared soil, the soil should be fertile.
After a couple of weeks, when the plants begin to grow, they can be planted in a permanent place of their growth.
Rooting of stepsons of tomatoes can also be carried out in water or, for example, in a solution of mineral fertilizers. Stepsons of tomatoes can be grown in various containers, for example, in boxes, pots, jars.
Landing stepsons in open ground
Before planting rooted stepchildren of tomatoes, it is necessary to prepare a garden bed by first adding fertilizer and compost to the soil. Then you should dig small holes and place the plants in them.
If you root the stepchildren of late-ripening tomato varieties, you can significantly increase the fruiting period.
Benefits of growing seedlings from stepchildren
This method allows not only to increase the number of tomato plants in quantitative terms, but also contributes to the fact that the plants bear fruit better.
In addition, with such reproduction, varietal qualities are preserved.
This method can also be used when there are few tomato seeds.
In addition, growing tomatoes from stepchildren allows you to sow less seeds for seedlings and take up less space on the windowsill.