How can autumn tomato cultivation achieve high yields? A detailed explanation of the key techniques
Tomato (Tomato), also known as xihongshi (tomato) and yangshizi (foreign persimmon). Its ancient names were liuyueshi (June persimmon) and xibao sanyuan. In Peru and Mexico, it was originally called “wolf peach”. The whole plant is covered with sticky glandular hairs and has a strong odor. The stem is prone to lodging. The leaves are pinnately compound or pinnately deeply lobed, with extremely irregular leaflets of unequal size, ovate or oblong, with irregular serrations or lobes along the edges. The calyx is rotate, with lanceolate lobes that persist in fruit; the corolla is rotate and yellow. The berry is oblate or nearly spherical, fleshy and juicy, orange-yellow or bright red, smooth; the seeds are yellow. The flowering and fruiting period is summer and autumn. Tomato is a warm-loving, light-loving vegetable, and its requirements for soil conditions are not too strict, but to obtain high yields and promote good root development, a deep, well-drained, fertile loam rich in organic matter should be selected. It originated in South America and is widely cultivated in both northern and southern China. Tomato is rich in nutrients and has a distinctive flavor. It has effects such as reducing weight and slimming, eliminating fatigue, increasing appetite, improving the digestion of protein, and reducing abdominal bloating and food stagnation.
The growing environment of tomato
Temperature: Tomato is a warm-loving vegetable. Under normal conditions, the optimum temperature for assimilation is 20-25°C, and the optimum soil temperature for root growth is 20-22°C. Raising the soil temperature can not only promote root development, but also significantly increase the nitrate nitrogen content in the soil, accelerate growth and development, and increase yield.
Light: Tomato is a light-loving crop, with a light saturation point of 70000lx and a suitable light intensity of 30000-50000lx. Tomato is a short-day plant. In the process of transitioning from vegetative growth to reproductive growth, it basically requires short days, but the requirement is not strict. Some varieties can bud and flower earlier under short days, while most varieties flower earlier and grow robustly under 11-13h of sunlight.
Water: Tomato needs a relatively large amount of water, but it does not need frequent large-scale irrigation. Generally, a soil moisture of 60-80% and an air humidity of 45-50% are suitable. High air humidity not only hinders normal pollination, but also causes severe diseases under high temperature and high humidity conditions.
Soil and nutrition: Tomato is not too strict about soil conditions, but to obtain high yields and promote good root development, a deep, well-drained, fertile loam rich in organic matter should be selected. The suitable soil pH is 6-7, and overly acidic or overly alkaline soil should be improved.
How can autumn tomato cultivation achieve high yields?
1. Cultivate strong seedlings and ensure full stands. 1. Seedbed soil preparation and disinfection: Mix fully decomposed farmyard manure and vegetable garden soil in a 4:6 ratio, sift, and prepare seedbed soil. After mixing, add 250 grams of urea and 1-2 kilograms of superphosphate per cubic meter, and add 50 grams of carbendazim (or mancozeb) and 100 grams of phoxim per 50 kilograms of seedbed soil, mix well, which can play a role in sterilization and insect killing. Use a sprayer to spray water so that the water content reaches the degree that it forms a ball when squeezed by hand without seeping water and breaks apart when dropped to the ground, then fill into nutrition cups. 2. Seed soaking, disinfection and germination: Put tomato seeds into warm water at 55°C, stir continuously until 25°C, soak the seeds for 10 minutes, place them in a 1% potassium permanganate solution for 15 minutes, filter with a gauze bag, tie the bag mouth, wash in water until the water becomes clear, then place in water at 25°C and soak the seeds for 4 hours, remove and drain, germinate until the radicle emerges, and wait for sowing. 3. Sow at the right time: Use a small bamboo stick to loosen the soil in the middle of the nutrition cup, then sow 1-2 germinated seeds in the center of each nutrition cup, cover with nutrient soil about 1 cm thick, then arrange the nutrition cups neatly on a low bed 12 cm wide and 16 cm deep, with the length depending on the situation, then cover with plastic film, and set up small arched frames on both sides of the bed. For winter-spring planted tomatoes and early-spring planted tomatoes, cover with plastic film and straw mats; for summer-planted and autumn-winter planted tomatoes, cover with shade nets and plastic film. At the 1-leaf-1-heart stage, thin and fill in seedlings in time to ensure that each nutrition cup has one strong seedling. 4. Seedling stage management: For winter-spring planting, pay attention to extending light, strengthening insulation, ventilating and removing moisture, and adjusting the light, temperature and humidity in the seedling protection facilities, mainly preventing damping-off and rhizoctonia rot. For early-spring planted tomatoes, strengthen insulation, ventilation and moisture removal, and extend light in the early stage, and pay attention to avoiding rain and strong light in the later stage, mainly preventing early blight, late blight and viral diseases; for summer-planted tomatoes and autumn-winter planted tomatoes, attention should be paid during the seedling stage to shading, rain avoidance, cooling, and dwarfing control, which can significantly reduce virus invasion and cultivate strong seedlings. 2. Intensive cultivation and heavy application of base fertilizer: Generally, apply 5000 kilograms of decomposed chicken manure or cow manure per mu (add 200 grams of 10% phoxim 812 powder or 10% granules per 50 kilograms of fertilizer, mix well, and cover with film for 7 days), 50 kilograms of ternary compound fertilizer or 50 kilograms of Norwegian compound fertilizer, and 20 kilograms of superphosphate. The land should achieve “three plowings and three harrowings” to achieve the goal of soil as fine as flour, loose and breathable, laying the foundation for stable yield. 3. Prevent seedling diseases at planting: For every 50 kilograms of rooting water, add 60 grams of 30% miaojundi or 50 grams of 72.2% propamocarb to prevent seedling diseases. Row spacing 60 cm × 40 cm, plant about 3200 plants per mu. Choose a cloudy afternoon for planting and pour enough rooting water. Be careful not to plant after heavy rain.
4. Field fertilizer and water management: pay attention to controlling in the early stage, promoting in the middle stage, and pushing in the later stage. From planting to the seedling recovery stage, loosen the soil appropriately, and do not water unless dry. A mixed solution of 0.2% urea and 0.2% potassium dihydrogen phosphate can be used for foliar topdressing to promote early seedling recovery. From seedling recovery to the swelling of the first inflorescence fruit, apply 1-2 times of dilute manure water to promote seedling growth and build a high-yield framework; from the first cluster fruit reaching walnut size to the fourth cluster fruit just flowering is the full fruit stage. Pay attention to heavy topdressing (mainly nitrogen fertilizer and potassium fertilizer) and heavy irrigation for fruit swelling. Every 10 days, apply 8-10 kilograms each of urea and potassium sulfate per mu. From the first cluster fruit turning white to the end of harvest, water every 7 days, and at the same time spray the leaves with a mixed solution of 0.2% urea and 0.3% potassium dihydrogen phosphate to promote rapid fruit swelling, prevent premature aging of the plant, and increase yield. 5. Timely thinning of flowers and fruits to promote both tomato fruits and vines: When the plant height is about 33 cm, insert bamboo and tie the vines in time, and at the same time remove side buds and prune. Generally, remove the leaves below the first cluster fruit and keep the middle and top leaves to shade the fruit and prevent sunscald. There are several types of pruning: single-stem pruning, one-and-a-half-stem pruning, and double-stem pruning. When pruning, the three different methods can be selected according to planting density, or one or two of them can be used. Early-maturing and self-topping tomato varieties generally set fruit concentratedly and have smaller fruits, so it is necessary to thin flowers and fruits during the full flowering or full fruit stage, controlling about 40 fruits per plant. When each cluster fruit is as large as a broad bean, keep 3-4 good fruits and remove excess flowers, fruits and deformed fruits. This allows nutrients to be supplied in a concentrated way, increases single fruit weight, and improves the rate of marketable fruit. Note that pruning and thinning of flowers and fruits should be carried out on sunny days. In spring and winter, low temperatures and in autumn, high temperatures can easily cause flower and fruit drop. Within 3 days of tomato flowering, use 2,4-D (when the temperature is above 15°C, the concentration is 10 mg/L; when the temperature is below 15°C, the concentration is 20 mg/L) to dip flowers to preserve flowers and fruits. Each flower can only be treated once. 6. Fruit ripening: For early-maturing varieties, in winter-spring planting during the early fruiting period and in autumn-winter planting during the middle-late fruiting period, 30% ethephon 2000 (15 mg/L) can be used to smear the surface of ripe fruits, or the picked fruits can be soaked in a 2500 mg/L solution for 1-2 minutes, then piled on a hotbed at 22-25°C, and after 4-6 days the fruits can turn red and be marketed.