Three postulates about tomatoes that robbed me of some of the harvest

First postulate

"Tomatoes grow well on poor, rocky soils." At first I understood literally, and accordingly received a meager harvest. They grow, but what is the harvest?

Finally, my eyes opened when I saw that all the winners of the contests feed their tomatoes very well. It turns out that they love to eat tomatoes.

Then I found a scientific work, I will definitely show you which two wonderful tables with research results are given there. Indeed, tomatoes must be fed properly, and it became clear how!

Second postulate

"Excess nitrogen is contraindicated for tomatoes." I agree, but the fear of this excess nitrogen was not my best friend. I did not apply nitrogen fertilizers.

I added vermicompost and complex fertilizers for tomatoes, but is it enough? Still nitrogen-fixing bacteria. What if my tomatoes are starving? The same scientific article proved that I fed them little!

The third postulate with a saying

“Tomato is a very plastic plant” - that is, you can experiment with it, to put it mildly, it will still grow and bear fruit. And here: "We must pick the leaves":

1. To avoid diseases, the bush will be better ventilated
2. For the fruits to receive more light
3. To make tomatoes ripe faster, the fruits themselves can do the work of the leaves.

I already wrote that in my experience it is necessary to leave a maximum of leaves, then tomatoes are tastier. And to defend against diseases in other ways. What a pity the leaves, which at the beginning of truck farming unknowingly cut off!

And here is the confirmation !!!

Scientific articles

We see that for all three fertilization rates:

1. The more fertilizer (within reasonable limits), the greater the yield
2. The larger the leaf area, the greater the yield
3. The greater the length and area of ​​the leaves, the greater the average weight of the fruit.

What about taste?

That's how:

Indicators of the quality of the fruit are the dry matter content, the content of sugars and vitamins. An excess of nitrogen (bottom line) somewhat worsens the quality of tomatoes.

It turns out that with balanced, reasonable feeding, tomatoes are ready to eat a lot of nitrogen, while there will simply be more tasty healthy fruits. With about the same nitrogen content (not nitrate).

Of course, in this case, all fertilizers were applied on time. Namely, the author proposes to introduce potassium and phosphorus in the calculated amount in the fall, and nitrogen in the spring.

There is also a wonderful topic of timely soil moistening for tomatoes, nothing will be assimilated without water, but more on that another time.

How do you find the conclusions? End all the leaves and fertilizer debate!

Share your observations of tomatoes!

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