Are the tomatoes cracking? A few simple rules that our Grandmothers also used

When tomatoes are ripe, they should blush smoothly (or turn yellow, depending on the variety) and increase in size, but not crack! Terribly upset about such a trouble with the harvest, I decided to ask my grandmother, a gardener with sixty years of experience, for advice. And it turned out that her grandmother also knew how to save tomatoes!

It all depends on what exactly caused the cracking - you just need to accurately assess which of the growing conditions the culture perceives so negatively.

Improper watering

Suffering from drought (especially in hot weather) tomatoes slow down in development and, accordingly, form fruits less than it should be according to the varietal norm.

When there is watering, especially abundant watering, the plant begins to "drink" with all its might, to build up juicy fiber of the fruit. Only now the skin has already slowed down in growth and does not differ in elasticity.

As a result, the skin of the vegetable is simply torn from internal pressure. As for proper watering, it should be done every 5-7 days, in hot summer - every 3 days.

It is also useful to know that moisture will remain in the soil longer if, after watering, mulch tomato beds, for example, with mown grass, straw.

Incorrect cropping

We are talking about pinching and removing leaves (so that the bush does not thicken) - if you deprive a plant of too much green mass at one time, it perceives it as stress.

It has been scientifically proven that different species respond to it in specific ways. Tomatoes - can form fewer ovaries or crack.

Incorrect feeding

To explain the causes of the effects of cracking, you need to dive into plant biology. But my grandmother, although she was an educated person, did not delve into this.

It was enough for her to adhere to the following principles of feeding:

· When the fruits have just begun to form, they need potassium most of all. Feeding with calcium should be minimized - because it interferes with the absorption of potassium;

· Tomatoes need nitrogen only once - when the seedlings are planted in open ground or in a greenhouse. It promotes the formation of green mass, and this is good in due time, but in the period closer to fruit setting, it can harm their integrity;

· When growing large-fruited varieties, boron must be present in the top dressing.