How to make tomatoes blush faster

Tomatoes plucked from the bush are sweeter, more aromatic and tastier than those that were picked green and ripened at home. It has been scientifically proven that tomatoes ripened on a branch contain more vitamins and biologically active substances, in particular, lycopene and carotene, than those that were picked green and ripened at home.

However, in the middle lane and northern regions of Russia, it is not easy to achieve the ripening of the crop on the bushes, since tomatoes require a lot of sun and heat, which are often not enough. As a result, gardeners miss a good half of their harvest. Many summer residents canned tomatoes green, some simply pick off unripe fruits and leave them to ripen at home. How to get the tomato crop ripe on the bushes? Read about it in our article.

Tomato varieties

First of all, you need to seriously approach the choice of tomato variety.

First of all, you should know that tomato varieties are subdivided into:

• ultra-ripe (75-85 days);
• early (90-95 days);
• medium early tomatoes (100-103 days);
• mid-season (100-115 days);
• late (120-130 days).

If you grow these plants in Siberia or in the Urals in the open field, you should choose for ultra-early ripening varieties - Aurora F1, Alaska, Far North, Ultra-early ripening, etc., early ones - Eugene, Alpha, Gavrosh, Arctic, etc., mid-early - Niagara, Scarlet and mid-season candles - Biysk rose, Golden Queen, Nezhdana.

Of course, in the conditions of the North, the Urals and Siberia, the most suitable way of growing tomatoes is in greenhouses or film shelters, since tomato is a thermophilic crop and, as a rule, develops slowly in cool spring and June weather.

By the beginning of August, when many gardeners' tomatoes are just beginning to bear fruit, they are destroyed by cold weather and late blight. Tomatoes, on the other hand, need 4-5 months with warm nights (15-18 ° C) to have time to completely "give" the harvest.

Remember... Sharp temperature changes can delay plant development and fruit ripening for a long time.

Immediately after disembarkation in open ground you need to stimulate the plant for rapid growth and full development. The faster the ovaries appear on the bushes, the faster the process of tomato ripening will begin.

What not to do during tomato ripening

During this period, you cannot:

• generously to waterespecially when it is cloudy and damp outside;
• feed with nitrogen-containing fertilizers, including organic ones (mullein, chicken droppings, infusion of green mass);
• exceed the dose of fertilizers.

Also, you can not plant seedlings in cold soil.

Read also:

The best varieties of greenhouse tomatoes that are resistant to late blight.

Top 15 sweetest tomato varieties for greenhouses.

A bright variety with a rich harvest and rich taste - the Eldorado tomato.

How to make tomatoes ripen faster

For tomatoes to ripen faster, they need to create the appropriate conditions, and for this you need to know the physiology of the development of the tomato fruit. It is known that, after the formation of the ovary, the fruits grow for about 1 month, then ripening occurs for 15-20 days.

As a rule, ripening after the beginning of flowering lasts 40-55 days depending on the variety.

There are many reasons why tomatoes slow down their ripening. Here are some of them:

• the average air temperature is less than 15 degrees Celsius;
• the average air temperature is over 35 degrees Celsius. With prolonged exposure to such temperatures, gradual drying and foliage may fall. Tomato fruits stop ripening;
• lack of lighting (tomatoes are a photophilous culture);
• overabundance or lack of essential substances. So, with an excess of nitrogen, tomatoes begin to actively develop deciduous mass, so the fruits begin to lag behind in development. With a lack of potassium, the foliage is deformed, changes color, and with a prolonged deficiency, the leaves and stems begin to dry out, as a result, the ripening of tomatoes is delayed. Lack of phosphorus reduces the rate of fruit development.

If your tomatoes are set, but after 50 days they have not ripened, then something is wrong, and urgent measures must be taken to accelerate ripening.

Ripening acceleration

Providing the tomatoes with a comfortable environment, you will receive ripe tomatoes not only on time, but also early.

Increased lighting

With a lack of light, which can be caused by excessive thickening of the plantings, the fruits ripen slowly and unevenly. In order for the bushes to receive more light, they must be tied to supports. When shading the bushes, the lower foliage should be removed to provide adequate lighting for the fruit.

Additional lighting can be provided in the greenhouse if the daylight hours are too short.

Good illumination is provided by a well-chosen planting scheme. The distance between seedlings depends on the height of the plants and the growing conditions.

Removing new peduncles

At the end of August, new flowers and buds are still forming on the tomato bushes, but they will not have time to ripen, but they will be able to slow down the growth and ripening of already existing fruits, taking away nutrients from the plant. Therefore, unpromising flowers and buds must be removed when they appear.

Removing stepchildren

Removing stepchildren or pinching is an agrotechnical technique for removing lateral shoots (stepchildren) growing from the leaf axils in the aerial part of the main stem, which gives a positive result only with timely and regular implementation.

Grasshopping is very effective, because the flow of nutrients to the generative organs of plants and shoots that are lagging behind in development increases.

Caution... You cannot delete all stepsons at the same time. If you cut off 60-70% of the green mass, all the moisture intended for the stepsons will begin to accumulate in the fruits, which can lead to plant diseases, rupture of the fruits.

Tearing off leaves

The lower leaves, which are in contact with the foliage or stem of a neighboring plant, are subject to mandatory pruning. This is necessary to improve ventilation and prevent the spread of diseases.

After the fruits have formed on the first brush from below, all the lower leaves under it should be removed, because contact of the foliage with the ground provokes infection with fungal diseases.

In a mature plant, the lower leaves should be cut off in such a way that the trunk is bare in the lower part at a distance of 25-30 cm from the ground.

Fruits exposed to sunlight ripen much faster and are distinguished by an exquisite aroma and sweet taste.

Prune on a dry, sunny day in the morning to dry out quickly.

Pinching the tops

Another effective method of accelerating fruit ripening is pinching (removing, pruning) the top of the plant, the so-called growing point.

Pinching is carried out after the plant has formed 5-7 brushes with fruits, then 3 leaves are counted above the uppermost brush with ovaries and the upper bud is removed.

It is believed that pinching the top of the bushes during the ripening period is a mistake.Indeed, after the pinching, all the juices of the plant go to the development of the fruits, but at the same time the moisture that was intended for the growth of the top is sent to the fruits, which leads to their cracking. This happens at night when the temperature drops.

Advice... Pinch at the end of July when the tomatoes are in the milk stage. Use only sanitized sharp scissors or pruning shears to avoid infection.

Top dressing

The optimal frequency of feeding tomatoes is every two weeks. With a lack of nitrogen, fruit cracking is observed. However, its excess leads to their absence altogether. Nitrogen is added to the soil during the growth of the bush and roots, and potassium and phosphorus - during flowering and fruit formation.

Top dressing is root (ordinary top dressing, when fertilizer enters the soil and is absorbed by the roots) and foliar (when leaves and stems are sprayed with fertilizer). Root top dressing is a priority, since the main dose of fertilizer is always applied through the soil. Next, we will tell you how to water.

Root dressing

An effective old remedy is an aqueous solution of ash. It is prepared as follows: 1 glass of ash is poured into a bucket of water (10 l) and stirred. Plants are watered with a solution immediately without insisting, at the root. One plant requires about 1 liter of solution.

Important... Tomatoes can be fed with ash solution only after preliminary watering. Otherwise, the roots will burn.

To accelerate ripening and improve taste, root dressing with potassium humate is used. For this, 10 g of potassium humate is dissolved in 200 l of water. First, the powder is diluted in 2 liters of hot water, stirred thoroughly and left for a couple of hours. Then this working solution is poured into a barrel and watered strictly at the root. You can water tomatoes with humate every 10 days.

During the period of mass ripening of fruits, phosphate feeding is popular. Phosphates are poorly soluble in water, so superphosphate extract is used. Granular superphosphate (100 g per 1.5 l) is poured with boiling water, mixed well and left for 24 hours in a dark place.

During this time, the mixture must be thoroughly mixed 3-4 times so that all the granules are dissolved. Then the hood is carefully drained. Now you need to take 170 ml of the hood and dilute it in a bucket of water (10 l). Watering is carried out at the rate of 1 liter for each root.

Foliar dressing

Foliar dressing is considered additional, but there are situations when you cannot do without them. It is foliar feeding that is able to save plants in case of disease, drought, cold snap, when the plant roots do not work well. The correct spraying of plants with nutrient solutions always gives excellent results.

Foliar dressing works quickly enough. But its one-time implementation will not be enough, at least 2-3 procedures are required within a month.

Foliar feeding of plants during the ripening period can be done with superphosphate infusion. Double superphosphate is poured with hot water (100 g per 1 l). The solution is insisted for 3-4 hours, filtered, diluted in 10 liters of water and sprayed.

It has recently become popular to spray tomato plants with an iodine solution. Experienced gardeners are advised to carry out 1-2 foliar iodine dressings per month (at the rate of 30-40 drops per 10 liters of water). 1.5 liters of composition are consumed per ten square meters of area. Plants can be treated with iodine milk solution. To do this, 5 drops of medical iodine are diluted in 250 ml of low-fat milk and 1 liter of warm water is added.

Strictly observe the dosage of iodine, otherwise you may burn the leaves of the plant. In addition, tomatoes are capable of absorbing iodine compounds from the environment.

Remember... Excess iodine can lead to deformation of the fruits and brushes of the plant.

How else to speed up the ripening of tomatoes

What to do to make tomatoes blush faster on bushes in the open field? In addition to the above, there are a number of other methods based on nutritional restriction (fasting, overlapping, breaking off roots) and the use of chemicals (ethylene, ethyl alcohol injections, etc.).

The methods listed below are suitable for both greenhouse and outdoor tomatoes.

Starvation

From mid-July, tomatoes cease to be watered and fed in any form. Moreover, a temporary film shelter is made over the beds so that moisture from rain and dew does not enter the roots.

Overlapping

This method blocks the outflow of photosynthetic products to the roots. Most of all nutrients begin to flow to the fruit, which speeds up their ripening.

It is performed in two ways:

• tug. A thin wire made of any material is carefully pulled over the trunk at a level not higher than 14 cm from the ground surface. They try to pull the stem down, but not cut it through;
• incision. The stem is cut with a sharp knife directly in the center at a height of 6 cm from the ground level. The length of the cut is about 7 cm. A match, a piece of wood, and a toothpick are inserted inside.

It is advisable to pre-treat all tools and materials with any antiseptic. The procedure is traumatic - pathogenic bacteria can get into the wound. Then the bush will not pour fruit, but will begin to fight the infection.

Tearing off roots

To do this, they gently grasp the stem almost at the level of the soil with both hands. Then gently pull up. As soon as you hear the characteristic clicks of the coming off roots, you stop pulling.

You can cut off small roots with a shovel, sticking it as close to the trunk as possible.

Ethylene

The method is based on the ability of ripe fruits to emit ethylene gas, which causes accelerated ripening of fruits. For this method, you need a piece of banana peel, half an apple, or a small ripe tomato.

All this is put in a dense plastic bag and put on the largest, but not yet ripe bunch of tomatoes. Next, the bag must be tied tightly and left for 3 days.

After this time, the bag is completely removed and transferred to another hand. After this procedure, tomatoes begin to turn brown already on the 5-6th day.

Attention! Do not forget to change the "filling" and as signs of mold or decay appear.

Ethyl alcohol injections

Alcohol (96% ethyl alcohol - 0.25 ml, vodka - 0.5 ml) is injected into each green tomato through a thin insulin needle with a syringe.

According to numerous reviews of amateur gardeners, the method works perfectly. Tomatoes begin to ripen 20 days earlier than usual.

What to do to make plucked tomatoes turn red faster

Most of our country is located in the zone of risky farming. Heat-loving crops rarely yield fully ripe fruits. Low temperatures harm the fruit, causing it to rot.

If the night temperature in the open field approaches + 5 ° C, then it's time to remove all green tomatoes. In the greenhouse, the temperature limit is higher: + 9 ° С.

It is advisable to harvest the fruits in the morning, before the tomatoes are heated in the sun. It is better to cut them off with scissors, leaving the stalks. Tomatoes ripen better with stalks. Tomatoes must be dry without dew drops.

Where to put green plucked tomatoes so that they pour faster? Warm, dry rooms are suitable for this. The optimum temperature for ripening is from +13 to 15 ° С, humidity is at 80%.

Attention... The higher the temperature, the faster the tomatoes will ripen, but their quality will deteriorate as they lose a lot of water and cease to be elastic.

Selected medium and large sized tomatoes are laid out in 2-3 layers in containers, for example, in boxes or baskets. To avoid condensation, they are shifted with soft paper or sprinkled with sawdust.

It is known that tomatoes ripen well in the presence of ethylene gas, which is emitted by all ripe vegetables and fruits. To ripen tomatoes faster, you can:

• put a few completely reddened tomatoes to them;
• add a couple of ripe bananas or red apples to the green tomatoes.

Be sure to periodically sort out the fruits, removing the spoiled ones.

For better ripening, some gardeners dig up tomato bushes with a lump of earth and hang them with their roots up in a warm shed or other suitable room. This method allows small tomatoes to gain weight and grow larger.

With a large number of bushes, they are cut off at the root and stacked. You need to put them with the tops towards the center. The height of the stack should be no more than 60 cm. The stack should be insulated with straw mats.

The stack is revised every few days.

Green tomatoes collected from diseased bushes are placed in a plastic box with holes - for example, from under fruit - and spilled for several minutes with hot water at a temperature of about 60 ° C, dried and left to ripen.

They need to be checked daily, removing sick ones.

Conclusion

So, you are convinced that tomatoes are capricious and heat-loving plants that require constant care and attention. It is important to timely and correctly carry out all agrotechnical measures. There are many methods of accelerating the ripening of tomatoes - choose the taste! When trying out a new method, do not apply it to all plants at once, start with a few bushes.

The video will tell you more clearly about ways to accelerate the ripening of tomatoes: