The tomato, whose scientific name is Solanum lycopersicum belongs to the nightshade family, is native to the tropical regions of South America. This plant grows well in any type of soil, but these must have good internal and surface drainage to avoid waterlogging that can cause it to wilt due to anoxia in the root system.
To establish the cultivation in small spaces such as flower beds, it is necessary to prepare the soil very well to release it, you can use tools such as to turn the soil over and then weed it, this can be done up to the first 30 cm of the soil, since, in the first 20 cm of the soil the roots of the plants usually develop, it is also important to incorporate organic matter that enriches the surface and that allows activating the soil microorganisms.
As for the seed, it is important to acquire seeds of adequate quality that have 98% purity and 70% germination, the purity can be evidenced by checking the packaging well and verifying that there are no other types of seeds or foreign material in the contents, as for the percentage of germination that consists of placing seeds in a moist substrate, at room temperature and with light input so that they germinate depending on the number of seeds sown and the amount germinated the percentage will be determined.
To get ready to plan the sowing in the quarries we must establish the sowing method, which can be direct sowing that requires careful preparation of the ground and well leveled it because the seed should not be buried more than 2cm; it can also be done by transplant sowing for this a seedbed must be prepared 25- 30 days in advance of planting. You can carry out the sowing in the rainy season, although due to being smaller spaces reduced you can implement irrigation. In the quarry, the rows can be separated at a distance of 50 cm and the separation between plants of 40 cm.
In this same order of ideas, it is also necessary to establish a fertilization plan, which can be very economical if we focus on the use of organic materials, compost can be made using kitchen waste and if you have the possibility of obtaining bovine manure it would also be an excellent ingredient for the preparation of such fertilizers, in this article we will not talk about how to prepare such fertilizers but we do recommend providing the organic matter recurrently every two months.
In these crops as in any other there is the presence of pest insects for the control of said insects you can apply biopreparations of the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, entomopathogenic fungi, you can also sow plants with allelopathic effect (repellent) around the flower bed or interspersed with the crop. Among the plants with this effect are oregano, basil, mint, rosemary among others. Of course, you should carry out weekly reviews to observe if there are any pathogenic insects that have caused any damage to the crop, for this we have to make reviews at the base of the plant, stems and the underside of the leaves.
Dear readers, as you can see having a family farm also requires our greatest dedication to be able to obtain good fruits, the aspects that we address in this article are basic and essential so that you can get an idea of how to sow the tomato crop and some ecological ways for pest control and fertilization. It is also important to mention the control of unwanted plants that may appear in our home gardens, which can be controlled manually, this activity can be done weekly to prevent them from taking over the cultivated space and interfering with the growth and yield of the tomato,
Thank you for reading our article, until a next installment.
| Bibliographic references |
|---|
- Urbano, P. (2008). Phytotechnics, plant production engineering. Mundi-Press. Mexico. D.F.
Sources
- Photography and images:All photographs and images are the property of the author @amestyj
- Agrotecnia banner: made by the author @amestyj with own images
- Hive Banner: Designed by the author @amestyj with image owned by hive.
