How to Grow Cherry Tomatoes on a Balcony? Detailed Guide to Planting Methods and Benefits
First, the planting methods for balcony cherry tomatoes
Step 1: Sowing and raising seedlings
First, seed soaking and germination: For home tomato growing, you can sow directly to raise seedlings, or soak the seeds for 3-4 hours in water at about 30 degrees. Stir several times during this period, until the seeds feel not slippery when held and touched by hand. Wrap and cover them with a damp gauze and germinate at 25-30°C. After about 12-18 hours, when 2/3 of the seeds have sprouted white, sow them. The soil covering thickness is generally best at about 0.5 cm. The growing medium is best as seedling soil or seedling blocks.
During the entire seedling-raising period, neither soil humidity nor air humidity should be too high; do not water unless the seedbed is dry, and watering should also be done on sunny days between 10 a.m. and noon; during long periods of rainy weather, also seize the breaks in the rain to ventilate appropriately. The tomato seedling age is generally 90-120 days, and seedlings are planted out when they have 8-10 true leaves.

When the seedlings reach 3-4 leaves, they can be transplanted into pots. Before potting the young seedlings, first wash the flower pot, place a tile piece or nylon gauze over the drainage hole at the bottom, and fill with potting soil. Use a gardening trowel to dig out the young seedlings from the original pot at about 5 cm around the root system; the depth must not be less than 8 cm. Plant the dug-out young seedlings with their soil ball into the pot, straighten the plant, and gently shake the flower pot. After planting, water thoroughly immediately until water seeps out from the pot hole.
Step 3: Daily management
Water management: After the tomatoes are potted, water thoroughly once; afterward, water once every 3-5 days. Control the amount of watering before fruit setting, and keep the potting soil moist during the fruit enlargement period.
Fertilization management: After potting, apply a 200 mg/kg high-efficiency compound liquid fertilizer once every 10 days, or apply decomposed chicken manure before flowering.
Training: At present, two methods are commonly used: single-stem training and double-stem training. Single-stem training: keep only the main stem and remove all side branches gradually and completely. This can reduce the number of fruits per plant and increase fruit size. It is suitable for early-maturing dense planting with short trellises and for indeterminate growth-type varieties. Double-stem training: in addition to the main stem, also keep the first side branch growing below the first flower cluster, and remove all other side branches, allowing the selected side branch and the main stem to grow simultaneously. This can increase the number of fruits per plant and raise yield per plant, and is suitable for varieties with good soil fertility and strong plant vigor.
Topping means removing the apical growing point. Generally, when the plant height reaches about 80 cm, leave 1-2 leaves at the top and remove the growing point.
When too many fruits set and the whole plant cannot support them, flower and fruit thinning is needed, and this can also ensure fruit quality and fruit shape.
Through stem twisting and side-shoot pruning, the pot shape can be formed. Stem twisting should be done on sunny afternoons, and must not be done on cloudy and rainy days or on sunny mornings. In addition, yellow old leaves and branch shoots at the base should also be removed in time to help ventilation and light penetration and reduce nutrient consumption.
Cherry tomatoes are sweet and sour in taste and slightly cold in nature. They are beneficial after eating for constipation, eating too much meat, thirst, bad breath, chest and diaphragm stuffiness and heat, and swollen and painful throat inflammation.
1. Cherry tomatoes can promote human growth and development, especially in children, so children can eat cherry tomatoes as one of their main fruits. Their nutritional value is high, and they can support physical development. In addition, lycopene can protect the human body from carcinogenic toxins in cigarette smoke and automobile exhaust, and can improve the body's sun protection function.
2. Cherry tomatoes can increase the body's resistance, delay aging, and reduce the formation of wrinkles, so they are especially suitable for women for beauty care. They can be called a natural beauty fruit for women. Cherry tomatoes, like other tomatoes, can be eaten both raw and cooked. But they are more suitable for eating raw.

4. After eating cherry tomatoes, they can promote salivation and quench thirst, strengthen the stomach and aid digestion, and are suitable for people with high blood pressure, heart disease, hepatitis, thirst, and loss of appetite. For bleeding gums, eat 2 raw tomatoes on an empty stomach each day.

6. Protect the skin. The content of vitamin PP in cherry tomatoes ranks first among fruits and vegetables. The role of vitamin PP is to protect the skin, maintain normal gastric juice secretion, and promote the production of red blood cells.
7. Antioxidant. The vitamin A content in cherry tomatoes is among the best in fruits and vegetables. In addition, cherry tomatoes are also rich in vitamin C and vitamin P, which can scavenge free radicals and have strong antioxidant capacity, thereby protecting cellular deoxyribonucleic acid and avoiding gene mutation.
8. Weight loss. The malic acid or citric acid contained in cherry tomatoes helps gastric juice digest fat and protein.
3. Cherry tomatoes contain special substances such as glutathione and lycopene. They can promote human growth and development, especially in children, increase the body's resistance, and more importantly, the benefits and effects of cherry tomatoes can delay aging. In addition, lycopene in cherry tomatoes can protect the human body from carcinogenic toxins in cigarette smoke and automobile exhaust, and can improve the body's sun protection function. For cancer prevention and anticancer effects, especially for prostate cancer, they can play an effective therapeutic and preventive role. The content of vitamin PP in cherry tomatoes ranks first among fruits and vegetables. It protects the skin, maintains normal gastric juice secretion, promotes the production of red blood cells, and also has an auxiliary therapeutic effect on liver disease. It can also beautify the skin, and its sun protection effect is also very good.
4. After eating cherry tomatoes, they can promote salivation and quench thirst, strengthen the stomach and aid digestion, and are suitable for people with high blood pressure, heart disease, hepatitis, thirst, and loss of appetite. For bleeding gums, eat 2 raw tomatoes on an empty stomach each day.

6. Protect the skin. The content of vitamin PP in cherry tomatoes ranks first among fruits and vegetables. The role of vitamin PP is to protect the skin, maintain normal gastric juice secretion, and promote the production of red blood cells.
7. Antioxidant. The vitamin A content in cherry tomatoes is among the best in fruits and vegetables. In addition, cherry tomatoes are also rich in vitamin C and vitamin P, which can scavenge free radicals and have strong antioxidant capacity, thereby protecting cellular deoxyribonucleic acid and avoiding gene mutation.
8. Weight loss. The malic acid or citric acid contained in cherry tomatoes helps gastric juice digest fat and protein.