How to prepare tomato seeds for planting seedlings, processing and soaking

Preparing tomato seeds for planting seedlings is important and necessary in order to subsequently minimize the risk of developing a large number of problems. Thanks to this stage, the risk of developing fungal diseases of the plant is minimized, and the shoots appear healthy, strong. But the preparation must take place according to all the rules, otherwise vegetable growers risk being left without a crop.

Right choice

How to prepare tomato seeds for seedlings? If it was decided to grow tomatoes on your own, then this should be done from the very beginning. You do not need to buy seedlings, but seeds. This is the only way to be sure that all the important nuances of caring for them will be observed.

It is better to buy grains for sowing, but you can also collect (only from a high-quality harvest). The packaging always has a drawing of the expected harvest. It is important to study the packaging times indicated on the packaging and the peculiarities of the weather conditions that a particular variety can withstand.

In regions where the climate is cold, it is better to choose early varieties. Late varieties can also be tried in warm areas. It is important to consider the place where future seedlings will be planted. There are special varieties for the greenhouse, open ground and even for the windowsill of the house.

As soon as a variety has been chosen, another question arises, how to process the seeds so that the harvest will please with its quantity and quality without the appearance of big problems?

Preparation of tomato seeds for sowing seedlings begins with selection. After the purchase is made, the pack is opened and the selection for further care begins. They are poured onto a paper surface and only those that are large and dense are selected. Empty, small ones will have to be thrown away.

To properly prepare the seeds, by determining their density, liquid with table salt will allow. As soon as the grains fall into a similar solution, you can immediately determine the quality part. Dense seeds are at the bottom, and hollow ones float to the surface.

Even on the purchased grains from the pack, many microbes and fungi live. When they get into the ground, they begin active life. The first shoots sprout weak and die. Therefore, the preparation of tomato seeds for planting seedlings is not complete without disinfection.

A recipe based on potassium permanganate is effective and popular. But you need to do it right. A too saturated solution or an increase in the residence time of the grains in it affects the speed and quality of seedlings. Tomato seeds in potassium permanganate should be no more than 35 minutes.

It is enough to add 1 g of potassium permanganate to the water and mix well. After the grains have been in this solution for the allotted time, they are washed with plain water and left to dry completely in a warm room.

Preparatory steps

Preparing tomato seeds for sowing includes procedures to strengthen the plant, reduce the risk of disease and increase future harvests. Before planting on seedlings, seeds must undergo disinfection, hardening, bubbling and additional feeding.

Many vegetable growers, sparing time and effort, wonder whether it is necessary to soak the seeds? Treatment of tomato seeds before planting will not do without soaking. Seeds can be filled with a thin layer of melt water or rainwater for 48 hours. If too much water is poured, it can rot.

There are many other solutions to soak tomato seeds that gardeners use. You can use juice from aloe leaves or a purchased solution. Treatment of tomato seeds before sowing can be carried out with solutions based on sodium humate, Zircon or Epin extra. They stimulate growth and strengthen crop plants.

Presowing preparation of tomato seeds is continued with the hardening procedure. Soaked grains must go through a hardening stage. Hardening tomato seeds before planting is recommended for persistent transfer of adverse weather surprises in the future (wind, hot days or cold nights).

In order to harden future plants, you need to place the grains in a wet towel and leave to lie at a temperature of 20 degrees for about 12 hours, then the towel is moved to a cold place for 7 hours. You need to harden the seeds in this way for three days. During this entire period, you need to monitor the temperature and humidity of the air, otherwise the planting material may rot or mold.

Hardened seedlings will not succumb to temperature changes and will withstand bad weather.

Processing tomato seeds before sowing requires a disinfection procedure. Seed disinfection is carried out using a wide variety of recipes, the most popular are prepared on the basis of 0.1% potassium permanganate and 10% hydrogen peroxide.

Before sowing, tomato seeds also need a procedure such as bubbling. It allows the seeds to swell, saturate with oxygen and germinate faster in the future. Seeds are poured with half a glass of water and stirred periodically (bubbling) for 4 hours. If the house has an aquarium, then you can connect the tube to the compressor. The grains will be further enriched with oxygen. After a while, they are placed on a dry cloth to dry completely.

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Presowing treatment of tomato seeds to increase yields is carried out with recharge. The following recipe is popular. Nitroammofosku, sodium humate and wood ash are poured with a liter of water. The grains of tomatoes in potassium permanganate are kept in a specially made gauze bag, which is dipped in the resulting solution for half an hour. After that, the seeds are kept in a wet towel until they begin to germinate. As soon as the first sprouts hatch, they are transplanted into the prepared soil.

In order for the processing of tomato seeds before planting is not in vain, each stage must be performed correctly. The place of further planting of seedlings, taste, height of bushes, weather conditions and other factors are taken into account.

More about the soaking procedure

When asked whether it is necessary to soak tomato seeds before planting, an unambiguously positive answer will be given. Soaking tomato seeds is recommended for growth and high yield. If you skip this stage, then the seedlings will come out badly and the bushes will be susceptible to many diseases, as well as pests. The crop will also not please with its quality and quantity. Whether to soak the seeds is everyone's business, but the further result will depend on this stage.

Soaking tomato seeds can significantly reduce the risk of these problems. It is extremely rare for treated seeds to become susceptible to disease.

There are many recipes and methods for soaking tomato seeds before planting. How much you can soak tomato seeds depends on the recipe and the ingredients used. What can you dunk the landing base in? Recipes that are popular and effective among agronomists and amateur gardeners.

1. You can soak the prepared base in aloe juice. The product is safe, natural and nutritious. Increases plant resistance to diseases, stimulates growth at any stage of development. How to soak seeds in aloe leaf juice? Fleshy leaves of aloe are placed first in a cold place. After that, the juice is squeezed out. Can be used neat or mixed with water. A tissue bag containing the contents is dipped in the solution for 24 hours.
2. It is useful for seeds to brew in a composition of wood ash. 60 g of ash is dissolved in one liter of water and left for two days to infuse. After two days, the infusion is ready for use. In the infusion for enrichment with mineral components, you must leave the base for 4 hours.
3. Tomato seed treatment can be carried out in a solution with Epin. This is a plant-based drug that not only stimulates plant growth, but also increases its resistance to various adverse factors (lack of light, cold weather). 5 drops of the preparation are added to warm water (100 ml) and left for about two days. Epin for seedlings is used to stimulate the germination process.
4. You can soak tomato seeds in a chicory acid-based mixture. The Zircon preparation is a powerful activator of the growth of seedlings and their roots. It takes about a day to soak the seeds in Zircon.
5. Fitosporin can be used to soak the seeds. It is a biological means of protecting grains from diseases. About 3 drops of the drug are added to a glass of water and the seeds are soaked for three hours. After the procedure, a protective film of beneficial bacteria forms on the seeds. It prevents the penetration of pathogenic bacteria inside.

You can soak tomato seeds in solutions with various ingredients that will positively affect the further development of a cultivated plant: honey, mushrooms, tea, onion husks. The main thing is to observe proportions so that care does not harm future seedlings.

Fighting disease

The disinfection procedure is necessary in order to get rid of all pathogens that live on the shell of the seeds. The most common recipes include potassium permanganate and hydrogen peroxide.

• Soaking seeds in potassium permanganate tomatoes is carried out for the purpose of disinfection. How to properly soak tomato seeds before planting with potassium permanganate? A light pinkish solution is being prepared. If the mixture is saturated, then the tomatoes may die. It is necessary to keep the seeds in potassium permanganate no more than 35 minutes. After 30 minutes, they are removed from the mixture and washed. You can use baking soda for this. This will completely disinfect the planting material.
• It is very simple to prepare the solution. In a liter of water, dilute 30 g of soda. The seeds are left in this solution for three hours. Then washed with clean water and placed in gauze soaked in fertilizers. Seed sowing can be started after just three days. Thanks to these solutions, the seedlings will have a strong stem, roots and a high yield.

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• How to treat tomato seeds with hydrogen peroxide? For two days, you can soak the seeds in 10% hydrogen peroxide to achieve a disinfecting effect. The amount of active ingredient should be equal to the number of seeds. A solution with hydrogen peroxide reduces the content of nitrates in fruits, increases the rate of germination, strengthens the immune system.In addition, it helps to disinfect the surface of each grain, which often contains germs and fungi in a dormant state.
• Often gardeners use the biological preparation Fitolavin for self-cultivation of tomatoes. The composition based on streptotricin antibiotics prevents the development of the most common diseases among tomatoes. The drug is absolutely safe for humans and does not affect the beneficial soil flora.
• Thermal disinfection has been popular since ancient times. The method allows you to get rid of harmful microbes and increase productivity. To this end, a place will be organized for planting material within two days where the air temperature will be about 30-50 degrees.

If already at this stage you begin to fight bacteria and fungi, then in the future green bushes will independently be able to fight the invasion of pathogenic bacteria.

Sowing start

The prepared base must at the end go through the germination process. To this end, the tomato grains are placed on a damp cloth, covered with another layer of wet cloth and removed to a warm room. The fabric is re-moistened as needed. As soon as the first sprouts hatch, the seeds are planted in the soil.

Preparing tomatoes for sowing is not complete without good soil. For seeds to germinate, special conditions are required:

• before sowing, the soil should be doused with boiling water to get rid of any infection;
• disinfect the seeds themselves;
• loosen the soil well;
• plant no deeper than 1.5 cm;
• the soil should not be cold;
• the presence of sufficient moisture;
• awakening seeds from a dormant state.

There are other rules how to prepare tomato seeds for planting. Before sowing, they should visit a warm place. If they are in the cold and immediately planted in the ground, then the first shoots will hatch not after three days, but after three weeks.

You can prepare the soil for tomato seedlings yourself. Black soil, humus, peat, superphosphate or wood ash will come in handy. The components can be mixed together.

When sowing cooked grains in one large container, you must follow the rules. The distance between the grooves should be at least 2.5 cm. After planting, the container is covered with glass or plastic wrap. The soil requires regular watering and ventilation. As soon as 90% of the seedlings emerge, the film is removed.

When determining the timing of planting grains in the ground, gardeners rely on personal experience, necessarily take into account climatic norms, the selected variety of tomatoes and the conditions in which they will grow.

If the seedlings are planned to be grown in a greenhouse, the end of February is considered the best time to sow seeds. For further cultivation outdoors, but under cover, the best time is considered to be the beginning of March, and without cover - the end of March.

But some vegetable growers do all the actions that relate to planting and caring for plants according to the lunar calendar. It is being developed by astrologers and agronomists. In their opinion, the Moon, being at different distances from the Earth, acts on the entire living part of the world. Sowing, replanting plants is necessary when the moon is growing. In this case, the seedlings develop well and quickly. The lunar dates are calculated annually different.

As soon as the first true leaves appear, the seedlings dive (pinch long roots without touching the weak and short ones). Large and sturdy bushes can be transplanted into separate containers, such as disposable plastic cups. It is imperative to make holes at the bottom of the cups so that moisture does not stagnate.

To avoid problems with seedlings, you need to follow important rules for caring for it:

• you need to water regularly, preferably with a watering can, without pressure;
• seedlings are placed in a well-lit place, without drafts;
• the container must constantly be turned on different sides so that the stems are even and do not stretch up;
• there must be enough space for the development of each bush;
• every two weeks it is recommended to apply mineral or organic fertilizers.

There is nothing difficult in caring for tomato seeds. If you devote a little more time to the preparatory stage, taking into account all the features, then in the future there will be less difficulties and the result will pleasantly surprise.