The raspberry-colored Empire tomato is a truly wonderful vegetable that can bear fruit for a long time, despite unstable weather with rain and temperature fluctuations. Growing tomatoes that are sweet and tasty is a simple task for both an experienced gardener and a beginner. It is necessary to pay attention to the conditions of keeping the vegetable plant and the rules of caring for it.
Distinctive features of the hybrid
Among the early ripening varieties, Raspberry Empire is distinguished. When writing a description of a vegetable crop, it is noted that the variety has:
- the bush reaches a height of up to one and a half meters and above;
- fruiting occurs 95-110 days after the appearance of the first shoots;
- up to ten or more pink fruits without a green spot are formed on the clusters;
- the weight of heart-shaped tomatoes reaches 100 - 150 grams;
- high resistance of the hybrid to crown and root rot, brown spot;
- The tomato yield ranges from eighteen to twenty kilograms per square meter of planting.
Tomatoes of the Raspberry Empire variety are grown in open and closed ground. But the hybrid bears fruit better and lasts longer in greenhouses or greenhouses, under a film covering.
Growing Requirements
Many people choose hybrids bred by breeders for cultivation because they always produce high-quality fruits, their seed germination is 100%, and they have an excellent taste.
It is safer to grow the Raspberry Empire F1 tomato in a greenhouse. To do this, at the end of February or beginning of March, tomato seeds are planted in special containers or boxes. Caring for hybrid seedlings is ordinary. It consists of:
- glaze;
- feeding;
- picks.
65-day-old seedlings are planted in greenhouse conditions in late April - early May.
Stretched out tomato shoots placed in the holes obliquely, placing the stems on the ground, sprinkled with earth. If the greenhouse is low, then this method of planting tomatoes is also suitable.
Tall varieties must be tied to pegs, or better yet, to a horizontally stretched wire.
In order for the bushes to bear fruit better, no more than five to six fruit clusters are left on the plant. After this, you can pinch off the top of the main stem, leaving two or three leaves above the top cluster. This will help the fruits get enough nutrition.
It is advised to follow these rules for caring for Raspberry Empire tomatoes:
- Watering tomatoes abundantly should be infrequent.And to reduce evaporation from the soil, a layer of straw or peat two centimeters thick is laid around the tomato bushes.
- Every ten days, Raspberry Empire tomatoes need feeding. It is prepared from mullein diluted in a ratio of 1:5, adding ten grams of ammonium nitrate, fifty grams of superphosphate, fifteen grams of potassium salt to a bucket of solution. During the period of fruit ripening, the amount of potassium salt is increased to eighty grams, ammonium nitrate to thirty. A bucket of solution is added per square meter of tomato planting.
- When growing tomatoes, monitoring the air temperature in the greenhouse is mandatory. It should not rise above thirty degrees Celsius, otherwise the flowers will fall off due to the sterility of pollen.
- The optimal maintained humidity in the room for vegetables will be between fifty and seventy percent.
The hybrid tomato variety is characterized by good growth dynamics after planting in a greenhouse. Fruiting of tomatoes will increase if you form an indeterminate bush with one or two stems.
Rules for forming one or two stems
To increase the yield of sweet Raspberry Empire tomatoes, it is necessary to plant the varietal vegetable in the tenth of June. Excess shoots on the stems of the plant are removed, leaving three leaves above the last inflorescence. The procedure is then repeated every ten or twelve days. If only the main stem is left, then all the stepsons are removed.
When forming a bush into two stems, a strong lower shoot is left for fruiting. The procedure, carried out on time, will allow you to get raspberry fruits two weeks ahead of schedule.
Remove unnecessary shoots by breaking them out. For Empire tomatoes, this is painless if the stepsons reach a length of three to five centimeters.
Healthy tomato bushes are first in line for pruning. Weak, diseased plants are broken off later. This sequence will help stop the spread of fungal and viral diseases that are transmitted through juice tomatoes when pinching.
Reviews from gardeners
The Raspberry Empire variety receives only excellent characteristics from those who grew the hybrid tomato. The versatility of using the resulting tomato crop is especially noted. Sweet, like raspberries, red fruits are loved by both children and adults. They are used to prepare canned food for the winter. Some people eat raspberry tomatoes fresh. They are stored for a long time and can withstand long-term transportation. They make delicious sauces and pastes. Sweetish tomatoes are suitable for making tomato juice. They are distinguished by a sufficient mass of dry matter, a small amount of seeds, and juicy pulp.
