How to Grow Tree Tomato Seeds: A Guide to the Correct Planting Method

Tree tomato, also called woody tomato or tree tomato, is relatively rare in daily life. The tree tomato has very high edible value; one bite is sweet and sour, and your mouth turns bright red - it is especially delicious. So, do you know how to grow tree tomato? Below, the editor will introduce its planting method!

Tree Tomato Seed Planting Method

Choose a suitable variety, and do a good job of disinfecting the seeds, soil, and air.

Sow in autumn, harvest in winter and spring. Generally, you can choose mid- to late-maturing varieties with tall plants and large fruit, or you can use early-maturing self-topping varieties, but they are not as disease-resistant as late-maturing varieties. Therefore, you should choose Israeli varieties suitable for local growing.

Soil, seed, and air disinfection are the basic disinfection tasks before sowing. If these disinfection tasks are done well, they can prevent or reduce the occurrence of diseases, reduce the use of pesticides and pesticide damage, and are also one of the basic measures for producing pollution-free vegetables. The specific methods are as follows: Chemical seed soaking: soak for 1 hour with 30% amobam 200-fold solution, or potassium permanganate, or formalin 500-fold solution. After chemical soaking for sterilization and disinfection, immediately rinse the seeds clean in clear water. You can also soak the seeds for half an hour with 25% carbendazim solution and then rinse them clean with clear water. You can also combine formalin soaking and fumigation. The specific operation is to first soak the seeds in clear water for 3—4 hours, then pour the wet seeds into formalin (that is, 40% formaldehyde solution) 100-fold solution and soak for 15—20 minutes. After taking them out, wrap them well in wet gauze, place them in a basin or jar, seal for 2—3 hours for fumigation and disinfection, then rinse them clean with clear water.

After seed disinfection, place them at 25--30℃ for germination. When more than half of the seeds have sprouted white, they can be sown.

Tree Tomato Seedling Raising Technology

Tree tomato can be direct-sown, but in order to facilitate early-stage management, seedling transplanting is mostly used. Sowing can be done from after the beginning of spring to May, with a sowing rate of 0.5-0.7 kg per 667 sq m. Before sowing, the seeds should first be soaked. You can use 20-30 mgkg-1 “920” plus 0.5% carbendazim and soak for 24-48 h (hours), in order to disinfect the seeds, break dormancy, and increase the germination rate. After soaking, germinate for 2-3 d (days). When 80% of the seeds have sprouted white, they can be sown. The seedbed should preferably be a plot with good water and fertilizer conditions. The bed width should preferably be 1 m, and the bed surface must be level, with fine soil, and compacted. The seedbed should preferably be disinfected first; you can drench it with dexon mixed with water.

After watering thoroughly, sow, then cover with 0.5-1.0 cm fine soil or manure soil, sawdust, or other mulch, and cover with plastic film (laid flat or on arched frames). After emergence, remove the flat-laid film. For arched-frame film, pay attention to ventilation and cooling to prevent high-temperature damage to the seedlings. Water according to moisture conditions and pull out weeds. When the seedlings have 2-3 true leaves unfolded, thin them, and combine this with bagging for temporary planting. Bagged seedlings from temporary planting should be watered carefully. When the seedlings are 25 cm tall, the stem diameter 3 cm above the soil surface is 0.6-0.8 cm, and the leaf color is green, they can be planted out. For water-deficient plots, it is best to plant out 5-6 d (days) after the rainy season begins. For planting out before the rainy season begins, because the weather is dry, water once every 10-15 d (days) to keep the soil consistently moist. After planting out, it is advisable to cover with plastic mulch to preserve heat and moisture and promote the seedlings to quickly take root and grow leaves. When grown in low-heat areas, with proper management, fresh fruit can be harvested in the same year.

Tree Tomato's Requirements for the Environment

1. Temperature. Temperature includes air temperature, sand temperature, nutrient solution temperature, and so on. The air temperature should be controlled at 25-28℃ from 10:00 to 14:00, with a maximum not exceeding 30℃, and controlled at 22-25℃ after 14:00; the temperature at 5-10 cm in the substrate sand layer should remain stable at around 22℃ on average, with a range of 20-24℃, and should not fluctuate too much; the temperatures of both the nutrient solution and clear water should be controlled at an average of 20℃, with a range of 18-22℃.

2. Humidity. Under normal circumstances, higher air humidity is beneficial to the photosynthesis of autumn seedlings and favorable to their growth, but excessively high humidity easily induces various diseases; therefore, during the growth and development of autumn seedlings, regulate the relative air humidity in the greenhouse to 50%-60% by means of ventilation, misting, watering with clear water, and other methods, with a maximum not exceeding 70%.

3. Light. The daily sunshine duration for tomato trees should be maintained at 14-16 h, and the light intensity should at minimum be above the light compensation point of 3000 lx. The light intensity during the main photosynthesis period from 10:00 to 14:00 should preferably be 30,000-40,000 lx or higher, and at minimum should remain above 7000 lx.

Tree Tomato's Utilization Value

Tree tomato contains 20% more protein, and its minerals number in the dozens and are high in content. Taking fern as an example, its iron is 13 times that of Chinese cabbage, its carotene is 2 times as much, and its vitamin C is 8 times as much. As for folic acid,

Tree tomato can be grown for both foliage and fruit. The fruit is rich in pectin and can be made into jam or jelly. Stir-frying is also good.

Every 100 grams of red amaranth tea contains as much as 200 micrograms, exceeding the champion of folic acid——spinach.

The above is the tree tomato planting technology summarized by the editor for everyone. I hope it can help you! Tree tomato not only has rich nutritional value, but also has certain ornamental value, and tree tomato is relatively rare, so relatively speaking competition is not great either. Therefore, if you want to start a planting business, you can consider growing tree tomato!