A vegetable garden in an extreme year: how to care for tomatoes in hot and cold weather

Now there is such a joke: aliens watch a TV series about Earth and say: "This season about 2020 is generally fire!" It was not enough for us to have a pandemic and other shocks - the weather, as if specially designed by someone, to deprive the chances of a good harvest. But it doesn't matter - we are looking at ways of growing tomatoes in any weather conditions.

How to grow tomatoes in a cold summer

It is impossible to think of anything worse for tomatoes than a damp and cold summer. In such weather, tomatoes do not ripen, they get sick, and late blight feels at home in the garden. It seems that it is better not even to waste energy dancing with tambourines around the tomato beds, but this is not our method. It would be nice to foresee such weather, make high beds and plant only varieties resistant to late blight, but if it's too late, we will work with what we have.

But you need to benefit from this experience and henceforth never plant tomatoes close to each other.

Tomatoes love space!

In crowded conditions, tomatoes always “fatten”, build up a powerful green mass and spend all the nutrients on it. There is almost nothing left for the formation, growth and ripening of fruits. And when it is cold and rainy all summer, crowding becomes one of the main reasons for the spread of diseases.

What to do:

• Shake off drops. Almost nobody does this, but the method is not bad. If it rains and goes, then you need to take an elastic long branch and periodically gently shake off the raindrops from the bush. This will worsen the conditions for the development of fungal diseases.
• Pinch. And pinch mercilessly. Remove stepsons and tops, tear off the lower leaves.
• Make awnings. Shelters on arches made of film or covering material with a minimum density work in such weather very good, the main thing is to cover the plants not completely, leave the lower part open for airing.
• Tie up. Tie up even those varieties that we usually do not tie, even the lowest and most compact ones. The fruits must not come into contact with the ground!
• Feed. In extreme conditions, tomatoes especially need high-quality, properly selected feeding, because it not only enhances the ability of plants to resist disease, but also accelerates maturation fruits!

In recent years, feeding from milk and iodine has been gaining popularity in our gardens. People have experimented with it both in greenhouses and in the exhaust gas, and got excellent results. It is simple to make it: pour a liter of kefir or low-fat milk into 10 liters of water and drip 10 drops of an alcohol solution of iodine. Pour a liter of top dressing under each bush.

Drive off phytophthora. In cold and rainy regions of our country, mulching of tomatoes with hay is common. "Hay stick" - a bacterium that quickly multiplies in hay - a natural antagonist of late blight pathogens. You can bring out the "hay stick" artificially: take a piece of hay, fill it with water and leave until a cloudy film appears on the surface of the water. The film must be collected in some vessel, pour a liter of milk whey into it and process the tomato bushes with this composition.

How to grow tomatoes in a drought

Heat and drought are not so terrible for tomatoes as cold, but also - little good. Vegetable growers are faced with the task of providing tomatoes with the right amount of moisture and properly forming bushes.

And for this you need:

• Mulch. Tomatoes are mulched immediately after planting in the ground. The water will not evaporate so quickly after watering, and mulching will also slow down weed growth.
• Loosen. If the bed is not mulched, then the tomatoes are loosened 5-6 times during the season.
• Pinch. With the exception of a few varieties and hybrids that do not need pinching, all tomatoes need to be regularly removed from the shoots growing from the leaf axils. The more stepchildren, the less the plant has the strength to form fruit. Tomatoes that have been pinned give harvest 10–20 days earlier!
• Remove bottom leaves. In hot weather, this will help improve air exchange. It is possible to remove the lower leaves within a month after planting the plants in the ground gradually, 1-3 leaves a week. It is not necessary to delete it cleanly, but leaving a small stump. When the fruits begin to ripen, there should not be a single leaf on the tomato stem under the lower inflorescence!
• Water wisely. There is no need to pour water without sparing: the plants themselves will report their need for moisture. Leaves droop a little - it's time to water. Leaves briskly bristle in all directions - it's too early to water. You cannot water by sprinkling, only at the root, water should not fall on the leaves at all - in fact, that's why experienced gardeners choose drip irrigation.

In hot and dry summers, tomatoes are watered more often than in summer with normal weather, about every 2–4 days. But in no case should you water abundantly, pour out a doubled rate: after a strong overdrying of the earth, this will lead to the falling of fruits.

How do you grow tomatoes in extreme conditions? Write in the comments!

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