For all gardeners and gardeners, it is important to obtain a large and high-quality harvest, without the use of chemical fertilizers and stimulants. In the case of growing tomatoes, spraying tomatoes with iodine with milk is becoming increasingly popular. Of particular importance is the fact that this method in small dosages is harmless to both plants and humans.
Importance of iodine for tomatoes
By itself, an element such as iodine for tomato seedlings does not play any role for growth and development.If it is missing or not there at all, the plant will not notice it. So why is it necessary? The element has a stimulating effect because it improves the absorption and assimilation of nutrients and helps to activate the plant’s defenses in the fight against diseases.
There are several ways to supply iodine to vegetable crops. Plants receive it from the ground or with applied fertilizers - root or foliar treatments. It should be borne in mind that most often the presence or absence of this element is unknown, since it is not specifically added.
If we consider soils depending on the level of saturation with this element, we can distinguish rich and poor soils. The rich include:
- peat tundra;
- red soils and black soils;
- chestnut soils.
The poor are as follows:
- gray soils and forest soils;
- podzolic;
- salt licks;
- brown soils.
Before artificially saturating plants with fertilizer, you should take into account the soil in which they grow and the fertilizers applied. Iodine-containing materials are: manure, peat, peat and wood ash, phosphate rock. If there is suitable soil or fertilizing, spraying tomatoes with milk with iodine is carried out only if problems arise that may indicate the need for action.
These are:
- a decrease in the usual level of yield or a significant decrease in the size of the fruit while maintaining normal care;
- late fruiting;
- low immunity of seedlings: their poor growth, disease, death;
- the appearance of fungal diseases;
- manifestation of iodine deficiency: weak thin stems, pale leaves.
This fertilizer for tomatoes How feeding with iodine will help solve the difficulties that have arisen.
The effect of iodine on seedlings
Most often, the element is used as a good assistant only for tomato seedlings before the ovaries appear - its application later is not recommended. During this period, it helps the vegetable crop gain nutrients. This substance in itself is not a nutritional supplement. This is a powerful antiseptic, the use of which helps to cope with rot, fungal diseases, and disinfect seeds. Prevention of viral diseases is of particular importance.
Milk for vegetables
Using milk in combination with tomatoes has only positive effects. Firstly, this is an environmentally friendly product. Secondly, it is saturated with many useful substances that are absorbed by the vegetable during growth. Thirdly, milk contains amino acids that activate plant growth.
All this helps to improve metabolic processes and better absorption of nutrients. Therefore, the greatest effect in the case of tomatoes can be obtained by using milk solutions during the growth and formation of fruits.
Feeding with a solution can be either root or foliar - each of them will have its own effect: root - saturate the soil with useful microelements, and foliar - protect from pests.
Raw milk is most suitable for these purposes, but if it is not possible to get it, a pasteurized product or yogurt is also used. Whey, which is formed during souring, is often used. The most effective treatment will be with a specially prepared solution, which has a complex effect.
Milk with iodine
A wonderful foliar feeding is treating tomatoes with milk and iodine. This method additionally helps to protect them from pests, since almost all insects cannot tolerate lactose and milk sugar.After the spraying procedure, a film is formed on the surface of the leaves, which prevents pathogens of many diseases from penetrating inside. This method is especially useful in the fight against fungal infections.
The mixture is prepared as follows: take 4 liters of water and 1 liter of milk, to which 15 drops of iodine are added. We’ll talk further about how to water tomatoes with iodine.
Features of application
Treatment with the solution can be carried out for tomatoes in a greenhouse or growing in open ground. But you must comply with some conditions:
- there should be no direct sunlight;
- watering the seedlings is carried out in the morning or evening;
- the weather should be dry and windless, otherwise the mixture will drain from the leaves;
- The best air temperature for this procedure is about 18 degrees.
This is important, since treatment with iodine solution in hot or sunny weather, as well as incorrect dosage, can lead to burns on the surface of the leaves.
Ideally, the plant should “envelop” a cloud of the mixture and be evenly distributed throughout the entire seedling, for which the tomato is sprayed with iodine using a fine spray bottle.
Compliance with processing deadlines is also important. It is first produced 2 weeks after planting. July is considered the best period, since it is at this time that active growth occurs. Next, the procedure is repeated at intervals of 14 days if nothing bothers the vegetable. When problems arise, actions will be different.
You can feed seedlings even if there are no problems, but the plants grow in “poor” soil. This will help add nutrients and prevent disease.
They do this as follows:
- For the first time, you should feed the tomatoes with the solution at the seedling level. To do this, take 1 liter of milk and 15 drops of iodine solution per bucket of water. Seedlings need to be sprayed completely.
- Then, feeding the tomatoes with iodine is done after planting in the ground. You need to feed with a mixture of 5 liters of water, 1 liter of milk and 10 drops of iodine solution. The bushes are treated before flowering begins. You can repeat the procedure after 3 days.
- During fruiting, tomato seedlings are treated, if necessary, every 2 weeks with iodine serum.
Benefit in fighting diseases: late blight
This iodine method of control is especially effective in combating fungal diseases. This will help with the spread of “brown spot”, “gray rot”, “tobacco mosaic virus”, and fusarium wilt.
A particularly common problem is a fungal infection called “late blight”: if the disease spreads and measures are delayed, up to 70% of the entire crop can die.
The pathogen is spread by spores, and signs of the disease are:
- dark spots on the back of the leaves;
- leaves become brown and dry out;
- the fruits gradually turn black.
Infected parts of the plant are almost impossible to save. They are removed, removed and burned, or the whole plant is disposed of in the same way. Fire helps prevent the spread of spores. Favorable conditions for the development of this disease are calcareous soils and high humidity, so the greenhouse must be ventilated as often as possible. Weak plants that lack nutrients are at greatest risk of infection.
All control methods are based on environmental disinfection. The principle of spraying for tomato seedlings and adult plants will be approximately the same.Since iodine is an antiseptic, and milk has an acidic environment that is detrimental to late blight, this method is ideal.
To stop the spread of late blight, seedlings should be sprayed regularly, preferably every day. After this, you should not water the vegetables.
Different mixtures are used:
- water and skim milk whey in a 1:1 ratio;
- water, milk and iodine in the following proportions - 1 bucket/1 liter/15 drops;
- 0.5 liters of milk and 10 drops of iodine.
They can be alternated with other methods that do not contain iodine as a fertilizer. This will be even more effective than using only one method. Thus, to get a good harvest it is not necessary to spend a lot of money, because you can get by with inexpensive improvised methods.
