How to grow tomato seedlings in early spring? A detailed explanation of the latest technical points

Tomato is a common edible vegetable in people's daily life, widely cultivated around the world and deeply loved by people everywhere. Early spring cultivation is meant to fill the gap in market demand and is a new technique in modern vegetable growing. Quality and yield are the goals people pursue. Good seedlings are the guarantee for subsequent growth. Now let us look at exactly how the seedling raising should be carried out.

1. Preparing the seedbed

Dig the soil, open furrows and form ridges, with the furrows about 10 cm deep and wide. Break up the soil on the seedbed into fine crumbs; when necessary, sift the soil once with a coarse sieve. The fine soil layer should ideally be 20 cm deep. Place nutrient soil on the upper layer and set up a small film-covered tunnel for seedling raising.

2. Disinfection and sterilization

Before sowing, sun the seedbed for 3 to 4 days, then use 50% carbendazim wettable powder diluted with water and spray it on the seedbed to kill pathogens. In addition, the seeds also need to be treated with carbendazim for seed dressing to prevent the seeds from carrying pathogens. Warm water soaking can also be used to disinfect and promote germination; 50 degree hot water must be stirred for about 20 minutes to achieve the sterilization effect.

3. Sowing

Are the ridges spaced about 20 cm apart? Directly on the bed surface, use your hand to make small holes about 2 cm deep at intervals of about 4 cm, place 2 to 3 seeds in each, or simply broadcast the seeds all over. Then cover with about 1 cm of fine soil, and finally water the whole seedbed so that the seeds make close contact with the soil.

4. Fertilization 

For the base fertilizer, more than half can be decomposed organic fertilizer. If the nutrient soil is fertile, less fertilizer can be applied during the seedling stage. If the leaf color becomes pale, showing a fertilizer deficiency, some foliar nitrogen fertilizer can be sprayed. During this period, apply a certain amount of compound fertilizer according to the growth of the seedlings. Supplement trace element fertilizer regularly and in fixed amounts.

5. Temperature 

Before emergence, the temperature must not be too low, as low temperatures cause the seeds not to germinate or to grow weak and spindly. After the seedlings emerge evenly, avoid high temperatures, which can easily scorch the seedlings. Once two true leaves have grown, the seedbed must be kept warm to avoid flower and fruit drop in early spring, which would affect early yield. At noon on sunny days, the soil temperature can easily become too high, so the film at both ends can be opened for proper ventilation, but at night the film must be well covered, so as to prevent the day-night temperature difference from freezing the seedlings to death.

6. Humidity 

Generally, no watering is needed during the seedling stage to prevent damping-off disease. Do not water at noon on sunny days; generally water after the sun sets in the afternoon. Water according to the weather and the size of the seedlings. If overwatering occurs, plant ash can be scattered to absorb moisture or ventilation can be provided.

7. Light 

Seedlings need an appropriate amount of light to grow well. In winter the temperature is relatively low, and although there is a risk of freezing injury, the film should still be opened to receive light, otherwise the seedlings will grow deformed. The film should be opened once every morning as much as possible to increase the duration of light exposure, and this should also be done on cloudy days. 

8. Pests and diseases 

During the seedling stage, Rhizoctonia rot and damping-off disease often occur. When the disease occurs, rot appears from the seedling roots and may even break off, causing the whole plant to die directly. Therefore, the main measure is to spray carbendazim before the seedlings emerge for prevention.

Early spring tomato breeding should pay attention to the above operational points, so as to ensure that the seedlings emerge robust and healthy. To ensure early yield and quality, solve specific problems in light of actual conditions. I hope the above content can help everyone with the specific operations.