Soil for tomatoes, prepared at home in compliance with agrotechnical standards, has an advantage over a ready-made mixture from the store, since manufacturers do not always approach the issue of the composition of specialized soil with full responsibility. The optimal soil acidity should be no more than 6.7 pH, however, in the process of soil mass formation in industry, this indicator often has serious errors.
What kind of soil do tomatoes like?
It is not enough to take ordinary garden soil, mix nutrients into it in arbitrary quantities, and then expect that healthy and fertile plants will grow in this incredible substrate. So that the seeds do not have to spend additional effort to break through to the soil surface, and young shoots have enough energy to meet their development time, the soil mixture must be well balanced and meet the following standards:
- there should be much less organic matter in the soil for sowing than other micronutrients, otherwise all the strength of tomato seedlings will be spent on growing green mass to the detriment of fruiting;
- soil for tomato seedlings, before being put into containers for sowing, is disinfected so that in conditions of constant humidity it does not provoke the growth of fungal infections or insect invasion;
- Tomato seeds are planted only in loose, “breathing” soils;
- Soils with a high level of acidity are not allowed for planting seeds.
If you plan to form the composition of the soil mixture with your own hands, it is better to stock up on soil in the fall and then treat it against insects and harmful microorganisms.
Optimal components for soil mixtures
Soil for tomato seedlings includes basic elements that are invariably present in any filling, additional elements represented by a large number of nutrients and loosening substances, as well as auxiliary elements - various deoxidizers and stabilizers that improve the properties of the components.
When the question arises of what soil to use as a basis, many gardeners take soil directly from their plot.
But due to the low level of nutritional value and the strong saturation of such soil for seedlings with traces of fertilizers from all previous years, this base does not provide much benefit for tomatoes. Tomatoes love turf or leaf soil, which go equally well in greenhouses and seedling boxes. This kind of soil for tomato seedlings is considered ideal, you just need to make sure that the soil material is not collected near trees that enrich the soil with tannin elements - seedlings cannot be planted in such an aggressive environment.
Peat is an indispensable component of the soil for tomato seedlings. It provides balanced moisture exchange and has high air permeability, but it cannot be added to the soil for tomato seedlings in its pure form, since peat instantly forms an acidic environment. Dolomite flour, lime, and chalk will help bring the acid balance of the soil closer to a neutral state. After mixing the additives, the soil for tomato seedlings is sifted so that lumps of peat do not get tangled in the roots of the seedlings.
Coarse, washed river sand is the main leavening agent for both homemade and homemade soil. Before using sand in the soil for tomato seedlings, it is calcined in a frying pan or doused with boiling water, and then dried in the oven. In some cases, sand is replaced with perlite.
Humus is also the basis of soil composition, but its origin should not be related to the presence of animal waste. Only a thoroughly rotted substrate made from leaves, weeds, and branches will do. Before introducing the component into the soil, the humus is removed from large lumps and sifted.
Sometimes, instead of sand and even peat, sawdust and needles from coniferous trees, scalded with boiling water, are added to the soil for tomato seedlings.Coconut substrate is used less frequently, but its basic components in the soil should not be completely replaced.
Secrets of preparing specialized soil
It is impossible to say which recipe for preparing the right soil is better for seedlings and which is worse. Each region is unique in the composition of its soil, so what has a positive effect on tomato seedlings in the Moscow region can negatively affect a seedling in Irkutsk and vice versa. The only summary point of the manual, which will equally apply to all regions of the country at the same time, is the nuances of preparing the soil for planting in order to preserve the best properties of all components.
The preparation of the necessary material should be carried out in September-October. Then you can carry out manipulations to sift and disinfect soil components. It is also better to purchase ready-made soil during this period, since it is not a fact that it will be on sale in early spring.
Long before the sowing period, care must be taken to ensure that the seedlings are not at risk of infection by fungus or death from the activity of insect larvae that may be present in the soil. You can prevent troubles only by completely destroying the harmful microflora of the soil. There are several ways to do this without damaging the soil's nutrient medium:
- the best way to disinfect soil is not “roasting”, but treating the soil in a water bath, which lasts 1.5-2 hours;
- the second gentle method is freezing the finished mixture, or just the soil, which is achieved by removing bags of soil for the whole winter in an unheated room (garage, shed, balcony)
- drug disinfection of soil with iodine (4 drops of iodine per bucket of water) or 1% manganese solutions.
1-2 weeks before introducing planting material into the soil, the already processed and sifted soil mixture is well watered with a special product containing colonies of beneficial bacteria to increase the nutritional value of the substrate.
What soil do tomatoes need?
About a week before planting tomato seeds for seedlings, the soil is thoroughly sorted out again, sifted through a coarse sieve and the creative work of preparing a soil mixture begins. It is necessary to select the soil that meets the needs of the region in advance.
Below is a quick reminder indicating the required proportions of soil components.
- River sand, two types of peat (lowland and upper) - 1 part of each ingredient;
- Humus and turf soil - 3 parts each, perlite (1/2 part) and river sand (4 parts);
- Upper peat (10 parts), river sand (5 parts), ash (1 part);
- Sawdust (10 parts), river sand (5 parts), ash (1 part) and for every 10 kg of mixture - 2 teaspoons of any nitrogen fertilizer;
- Pine, deciduous needles (10 parts), sand (5 parts), ash (1 part).
Peat, by default, creates an acidic pH environment in the soil, unsuitable for growing tomatoes, however, it is difficult to abandon this component due to its high value for tomato seedlings. You need to take care in advance to reduce the acid level of the soil to which peat is added by mixing available deoxidizers into the finished composition.
For depleted and poor soil, dolomite flour is suitable, since it itself is already a self-sufficient fertilizer. Compositions containing fatty black soil respond well to chalk or lime neutralizers.
What soil is not suitable for tomatoes?
If ordinary black soil is taken as the basis for the soil mixture, you cannot choose the one that covers areas near large construction sites, factories, cattle farms or highways. The presence of clay in the soil for tomato seedlings will make it heavy and viscous, which will make the formation of even, healthy seedlings almost impossible.
Any organic matter in the soil for tomato seedlings, especially if it is not completely decomposed and is still aggressive, can destroy the seed material even before germination occurs. This occurs due to the release of particularly high temperatures by bacteria, which ensures the decomposition of the product in a short time.
Often, using purchased soil, gardeners do not pay attention to the service life of the finished mixture, and in vain. The peat present in the soil, even if its initial characteristics were good, over time begins to actively release heat, which dehydrates the seeds. In addition to checking the expiration date on the package of soil, it would be useful to look at the seams of the cellophane container at the time the adhesions diverge - such a mixture will also be considered spoiled.
