The presence of vegetables in every person’s diet is difficult to overestimate, so Balcony Miracle tomatoes are the best choice of a competent gardener. On both regular and holidays, tomatoes are present in dishes. It’s especially nice to make a vegetable salad when you grow your own cherry tomatoes. Bright and juicy, but sometimes very capricious, tomatoes are popular among gardeners even in winter. Despite the required attention, gardeners continue to grow them.
In some cases, growing tomatoes in the country is impossible or is done in insufficient quantities. For such situations, breeders have developed special varieties that can easily be grown on a balcony in winter. Fruiting in such varieties is plentiful, the taste of the fruit is mild, so if you are not the happy owner of a summer cottage, then consider the option of caring for tomatoes at home
Description of the variety
One of the most popular varieties of tomatoes intended for growing on the balcony is the Balcony Miracle tomato, the yield of which is quite high. The variety is classified as determinate, which means small. At best, the plant can reach a height of 50–60 cm, which is quite acceptable in an enclosed space. Such a bush does not need to be tied up or stepsoned.
In terms of fruit ripening time, this tomato variety is quite early ripening. The first tomatoes can be harvested within 85 - 100 days after planting the seeds for seedlings. It is important that even in poor lighting conditions, tomatoes of the Balcony Miracle variety are capable of producing an excellent harvest. Reviews about this tomato are only positive, and the description of the variety fully corresponds to the results obtained. Everyone who planted the Balcony Miracle was satisfied.
Productivity and fruiting
Growing Balcony Miracle tomatoes is interesting. A dwarf tomato bush can produce a harvest of up to 2 kg per bush on the balcony, even in winter. Such good performance makes it the most popular type of tomato that can be grown at home. The fruits have a bright red color and small size. The purpose is universal.
With equal success, tomatoes can be used in canning, for preparing salads and as an ingredient for second and first courses.
The weight of one tomato is small - in successful cases it can reach 60 grams. Harvesting can be done non-stop for a whole year. The trunk of the Balcony Miracle remains strong, and the height that the bush can reach is no more than 0.5 - 0.6 m.
Another characteristic of this variety is resistance to diseases such as late blight. The plant does not require pinching, nor does it require a special garter. To make pollination more productive, you can resort to a little trick: the tomato trunk is shaken well during the period when flowering occurs. This is an important feature of growing Balcony Miracle tomatoes.
Ripening time
Tomatoes of the Balcony Miracle variety ripen very quickly, so the balcony owner will be able to enjoy the success of breeding and the first small tomatoes within three months after planting the seeds. The question of when to plant tomatoes on the balcony has always been relevant. The answer is very simple: planting is possible throughout the entire calendar year, including in winter.
Since the Balcony Sugar tomato is small, you can plant the sprouts in flower pots and place them either on a heated loggia or in a room if it’s cold outside. The container with seedlings can be kept on the windowsill, and subsequently the container with mature bushes is also placed there.
Landing Features
Growing Balcony Miracle tomatoes has its own characteristics, which makes growing tomatoes at home an extremely entertaining hobby.
You can use both a balcony and a window sill for these purposes. Read more about when to plant balcony tomatoes.
Treatment of soil and planting material
To grow small balcony varieties of tomatoes from seeds, you need to grow seedlings. Before sowing, seeds must be treated with a solution of potassium permanganate in the weakest concentration possible.This is necessary to prevent possible diseases. Tomatoes should be cared for properly.
The soil that is prepared for sowing should be slightly acidic. It’s a good idea to enrich it with vitamin and mineral compounds. In some cases, a more rational solution seems to be the purchase of special soil for planting tomatoes.
Before growing seedlings, a few days before starting work, the soil must be watered with water at room temperature or slightly higher. Soaking the seeds is not required, so you can sow them directly from the bag. If the growing experience is successful, you can plant the Balcony Miracle tomato on a larger scale, for example, in a country greenhouse or in open ground.
Sowing
The soil, prepared in advance, is poured into small cups (peat cups can be used), and then two seeds are placed there. The container must be covered with film to recreate the greenhouse effect. For timely emergence of seedlings, it is necessary that the room temperature in winter does not fall below 22 °C.
When the first shoots appear on the surface of the film, the film is removed. After this, the containers with the sprouts are transferred to a place where it is cooler, the air does not warm up above 15 ° C. If cultivation begins in the winter, it is necessary to organize an additional light source for the seedlings located on the window. It should be turned on before dawn and in the evening after dark.
The fact is that there is a necessary minimum number of daylight hours required for the successful cultivation of any crop.
After the sprouts stretch to 10–15 cm, they should be pruned. On average, this time occurs three weeks after sowing.Using this procedure, you can influence the development of the root system, so manipulation is necessary. After picking, the plant should be placed in a container that allows for drainage. The best option is ceramic pots or peat cups. You can grow similar plants in flower pots, placing them on the window.
If not all the seedlings are used for home growing, the remaining bushes can be planted in a greenhouse or grown in open ground. If this is done, the first fruits can be harvested within a month.
Plant care
Balcony Miracle is a very unpretentious balcony red variety, but still has some requirements for how to grow it. Culture is decorative, which means that there is the possibility of its formation. The bush will have a beautiful decorative appearance.
During the flowering process, it is recommended to shake the bushes slightly, because bees do not fly over the grown sprouts. This action will allow the pollen to better spread for pollination, which will subsequently lead to a rich harvest.
Temperature
It is best to grow Balcony Miracle in summer. The air temperature should not fall below 16 °C. If this minimum threshold is exceeded, the plant will slow down its growth and fruiting will be in jeopardy. The optimal temperature is considered to be up to 26 degrees.
Watering
The cultivated variety has special requirements for watering. Watering should be not only regular, but also quite abundant. When growing indoors, it is necessary to moisten the soil no more than once a week.If the season is warm and the plant is on the balcony, then the frequency of irrigation must be increased and watering must be done as the substrate dries.
It is important that when watering tomatoes you should not be overzealous; care should be moderate. If the soil in which the housewife planted the tomatoes turns out to be too wet, the plant may get sick, and when the soil dries out it will turn into an earthen lump.
When watering, you need to be careful and make sure that the moisture gets directly to the ground - the tomato leaves should not get wet. If cultivation takes place in a greenhouse, then you should become familiar with the peculiarities of watering in advance.
Top dressing
According to the laws of agricultural technology, the application of fertilizers is simply necessary. This will affect both the development of the bush and the quality of the resulting fruits. You can use ready-made feeding complexes, or you can prepare the solution yourself.
Making a composition for feeding tomatoes is not a difficult task. It is necessary to mix 5 g of superphosphate, 1 g of urea, 1 g of potassium sulfate in one container. This will have a positive effect on flowering, quality of tomatoes, and speed of ripening. An excellent alternative to this remedy is chicken or cow droppings.
If it’s hard to imagine using droppings in an apartment, ordinary baker’s yeast is perfect for this purpose. 10 grams of dry matter are dissolved in a bucket of water, and after one day the seedlings are watered with this solution.
Diseases
Tomatoes grown indoors are usually not susceptible to diseases. The conditions for their cultivation are, by general standards, close to sterile. But in some cases, diseases can still affect the Balcony Miracle:
- the source of infection is the soil in which the tomatoes are planted;
- cultivation occurs in the winter season, when plants are in dire need of nutrients;
- the seeds were not disinfected before planting;
- lack of light, which can be easily compensated by using a fluorescent lamp.
Balcony tomatoes will produce a rich harvest for a sensitive grower who will pay attention to certain growing conditions and take all necessary measures to eliminate diseases. In this case, you can count on 2 kg of fruits collected from one bush. At the same time, the bush will not take up much space, and its shape will serve as an excellent decorative element of any balcony. Growing tomatoes Balcony miracle at home - interesting and entertaining.
