Three mistakes when growing tomatoes that make you resent the delicate plants
Created: 06/14/2022, 09:01
By: Andrea Stettner
Tomatoes are undoubtedly one of the favorite vegetables of the Germans.
In order to develop their magnificent fruits, the plants also need the right care.
Hardly any garden in Germany can do without tomatoes.
Although the nightshade plant is quite demanding in terms of care, many tomato fans insist on growing their own tasty tomatoes.
With the almost endless selection of tomato varieties such as vine tomatoes, cocktail tomatoes or strong beefsteak tomatoes, there is something for every taste.
So that the harvest is successful and you can soon look forward to bright red fruits, it is important to avoid the
most common mistakes when growing tomatoes
.
Tomato plants thrive when you avoid the most common growing mistakes.
© Cavan Images/Imago
Three common mistakes in tomato growing that can jeopardize the harvest
Do not properly prefer tomatoes:
Tomatoes are among the heat-loving plants.
So that they also thrive in our latitudes, tomatoes are ideally grown in small pots on the windowsill
before and puts them only as young plants in the bed.
The best time to start growing is early April.
If you start earlier, this has decisive disadvantages.
On the one
hand, the tomato plants wither
due to a lack of light.
This means they only get weak shoots that are thin and long.
On the other hand, the young plants should only be planted outdoors after the ice saints, from mid-May.
Before that, the danger of night frosts, which damage the delicate plants, is too great.
After pricking out the sprouts, you should also place the tomato plants in a cool but bright place.
Remove tomato leaves incorrectly:
To prevent tomatoes from catching fungal diseases such as late blight, you should make sure that
no leaves touch the ground
and remove them.
A sufficient distance between the plants is also required, as the leaves dry faster and fungal diseases have a hard time.
So feel free to cut off a few leaves and cut back on side shoots to get the thicket under control.
But don't be too harsh
: the leaves of the tomato plants are used for photosynthesis, which is essential for the plants to survive.
The leaves also protect the fruit from the sun, which can get sunburned if there is too much light.
Fertilize too little:
Tomatoes are heavy consumers and need a particularly large number of nutrients for optimal growth of roots, greenery and fruit.
These include sodium, phosphorus, potassium, but also calcium and magnesium.
These are supplied via fertilizer, such as coffee grounds or manure.
If you don't fertilize enough, this will show up as discolored leaves or diseases such as blossom end rot.
The wrong planting neighbors can also lead to a nutrient deficiency.
These ten mistakes can ruin your garden
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Of course, tomato plants always need enough water to grow optimally and produce a lush harvest.
Unfortunately, hobby gardeners often water tomato plants too little.
Just like growing cucumbers, this mistake can endanger the harvest.(as)
