Detailed Guide to Cherry Tomato Planting Methods and Management Steps
Want to grow little tomatoes that hang heavy on the vine on your balcony? From caring for seedlings to harvesting the fruit, every step has its finer points. Today we have gathered the growing tips together, so even beginners can follow along and get a bountiful harvest~
I. Preparations Before Transplanting
1. Acclimating the seedlings
Once the little tomato seedlings you ordered online arrive, do not rush to pot them up! Soak the roots in clean water for 2-3hours to let the dried-out roots recover their vigor. If the leaves look a little wilted, soak them together with the soil ball; once they slowly unfurl, transplant them, and the survival rate will be higher.
Choose a pot about 25cm in diameter (for dwarf varieties, 15cm is fine), and it must have drainage holes at the bottom to avoid waterlogging and root rot.
Use a loose, airy organic potting soil for the soil; you can also mix your own (leaf mold +garden soil+perlite=3:2:1), but never use heavy, compacted soil, otherwise the roots cannot spread out and the fruit will be pitifully few.
II. Transplanting Tips
1. Root treatment
When transplanting, gently loosen the tangled roots at the bottom, and do not pull hard! Plant them fairly deep, burying the stem up to the second set of true leaves; this way more fibrous roots will grow, the plant will be more stable, and it will not easily lodge later on.
2. Watering method
After transplanting, water thoroughly once to settle the roots, until water runs out of the bottom of the pot. After that, follow the rule of "do not water until dry, and when dry, water thoroughly": when you touch the soil surface and it feels dry, water again. Never water every day; the roots of little tomatoes hate being damp and stuffy the most, and once they rot, it is very hard to save them!
III. Growth Management
1. Fertilizing
Seedling stage: give plenty of nitrogen fertilizer, such as decomposed sheep manure, scattered around the edge of the pot and buried, to make the leaves grow dark green and thick.
Bud stage: stop feeding nitrogen fertilizer heavily! Switch to bone meal +plant ash, buried in the soil or soaked in water and poured on, to help it bloom more and set fruit firmly.
Fruit-swelling stage: banana peel soaked in water (fermented for 1 week), diluted and poured at the roots to supplement potassium fertilizer; the fruit will be sweet and plump, and less prone to splitting.
2. Light
Just after transplanting, during the acclimation period: first place in indirect light for 3 days, and do not put it in the sun, otherwise the leaves will easily wilt.
After acclimation: gradually increase the light, at least 4 hours a day.
Flowering and fruiting stage: it must get a full 6-8 hours of sun; with enough light, the fruit will set abundantly and taste sweet!
IV. Pest and Disease Prevention
1. Physical control
Spider mites are a common nuisance! If you find small insects on the undersides of the leaves, boil dried chili peppers in water, filter the cooled liquid, and spray it on the undersides of the leaves; 2-3 applications in a row will take care of them.
If there are many aphids, wipe the leaves with soapy water (diluted 10 times), simple and effective.
2. Chemical control
Seedling stage: spray carbendazim once a week (diluted 1000 times) to prevent damping-off (seedlings suddenly toppling over).
Mature stage: spray chlorothalonil or mancozeb once every 2 weeks, especially after rainy days, to prevent leaf spot and late blight.
V. Little Tricks to Make the Plant Bear More Fruit
1. Assisted pollination: at noon on a sunny day, between 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock, gently shake the plant to let the pollen fall onto the stigma; or use a cotton swab to pick up pollen from the center of the flower and apply it one by one to the female flowers, and the fruit will set more abundantly and evenly; on rainy days, do not pollinate. First cut off overly dense leaves to let the plant get ventilation and light and reduce rotten flowers and fruit.
2. Pruning and topping: keep only the strongest side shoot on each branch, cut off weak and crowded branches to avoid wasting nutrients; once the plant has grown to 3 trusses of fruit on the main stem (after each truss sets fruit), top it (pinch off the tender growing tip) so that nutrients all go to the fruit, and the fruit set later will be larger and sweeter; keep only 3-4 well-grown ones per truss, and remove the misshapen ones to ensure the remaining fruit can grow fully.
VI. A Few Reminders About Sowing Seeds
If you grow from seed: first soak the seeds in 40°C warm water for 6 hours to let them absorb water and swell; when sowing, cover with 0.8-1cm of soil; too thick and they will not easily sprout, too thin and they will easily dry out; keep the temperature at
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