A complete guide to tomato production in the greenhouse ( Part three)

Fit culture is to transplant the material to the place where he would continue his growth and development. In accordance with the selected production system the material can be planted directly in the soil or in the substrate, if it is a system of hydroponics. Success during the landing of a culture depends on several factors such as adequate soil moisture or substrate, nutritional and phytosanitary status, depth of planting and the quality of the duplicated material.

Planting density

There are two basic ways of location of the plants in the greenhouse. First the individual rows, the distance between which varies from 1.0 to 1.4 m. Distance between plants in the row may vary from 30 to 50 cm depending on the variety. Second – the plants are planted in double rows (photo 2), which are located on the ridge or on the shelf at a distance of 50 to 60 cm from each other. In this case, the distance between plants along the row is 40 to 50 cm Distance between centres of the ridges ranges from 1.40 to 1.60 m, width of aisles are obtained from 0.8 to 1.0 m.

Thus, the density from 2.2 to 2.5 plants per m2. In some cases, especially when dealing with varieties of outdoor growth or in cold climates can be achieved by a higher stocking density – up to 3 plants per m2. In conditions of low light and high temperature should work with lower density to maintain acceptable quality and good performance. Higher density than recommended, will mean higher cost of planting material and inputs, more pest problems, and lower quality in terms of fruit size.

Transplant

Final transplant is approximately four to five weeks after sowing. A well-executed transplant is of great importance for a good harvest in the greenhouse. Before transplanting it is recommended to raise the racks to a height of not less than 20 cm Then make the rows of a and the points in which are located the plants. If you use plastic mulch material, location of plants noted on the plastic with a small hole. In place to transplant make holes about 5 cm deep, slightly larger than the volume occupied by the container that holds the transplanted plant. The soil should have sufficient moisture level.

Plants are placed carefully, trying not to damage the kom of the substrate with roots. It is recommended that when transplanting a small portion of the stem immersed in the soil to provide a better initial support and allow the plant to grow new roots, but you need to ensure that the cotyledons were not buried. Transplanted plants must be watered to prevent wilting. In the first days after the transplant, watering should be short but frequent to keep the place where they develop roots, moist.

Pruning

Pruning is the removal of any part of the plant. The main purpose of pruning is to balance vegetative and reproductive development that allows you to send photoassimilate fruits. It also has other advantages, mainly related to phytosanitary. Basically, there are four types of pruning:

Formative pruning

When this pruning is determined by the number of stems that will have the plant. For indeterminate varieties, it is advisable to leave one stem, as the plant is stronger and easier to care for him. If you decide to leave two stalks, you need to choose two areas of strength. Most of the main stem and the second stem, which appears immediately below the first inflorescence.

Removal of laterals

Axillary buds, also called the shoots are small shoots that grow at the point of connection of petioles to the main stems. They must be removed manually before they become too large (<5 cm). It does not allow them to intercept nutrients that are important to the fetus. In addition, eliminating them when they are small, we reduce the size of the wounds and thus reduce the likelihood of attacks of fungi, especially Botrytis cinerea. To avoid accidental removal of the growing point of plants, confusing her stepson, remove only the shoots that are below the last formed flower brushes. With the development of culture the emergence of laterals is reduced, and monitoring can be performed less frequently.

The removal of flowers and fruits

The removal of flowers and fruits helps to balance vegetative and generative growth in order to optimize the number and size of fruits in brush and around the plant. Removal of the fruit has the General formula, and will depend on the following factors:

Grade. From large-fruited varieties will be less fruit on the brush than the small-fruited varieties. At the same time, varieties with open growth and with smaller fruit tend to the formation of inflorescences with numerous flowers. It is therefore necessary to remove some of the flowers that formed fruit can grow more one-dimensional and reach slightly larger sizes than their genetic potential.

Climatic conditions. In conditions of higher temperature and lower radiation to maintain the same quality characteristics that you want to leave less fruit. At the same time, at higher densities or lower availability of radiation per plant, number of fruits per bunch must be reduced to maintain the same quality.

The state of development and power plants. The first brush is taken to remove the fruits in favor of vegetative growth, leaving 4 to 6 fruits depending on variety and climate. Similarly, when the fruit is the seventh of the brush begin to tie on plants, they often show poor vegetative growth. If the goal is to create a greater number of brushes, it is recommended to leave these brushes with the number of fruits is less by one or two than the previous brushes.

The demands of the market. Depending on the market for which products are produced requires a certain ratio of fruits of different calibers or sizes. Size depends partly on species and climatic conditions, but they can also be manipulated and by trimming of the fruit.

Compact and chunky varieties (multi-fruit), planted in average climate with a density of about 2.5 plants per m2, in the first two brushes you should leave only 4 of the fruit so as not to overload the plant and allow it to grow normally and continue to produce new floral brush. Later you can leave for 5 fruits in hand, when the plant is strong. In moderate cold climates, where the development of culture and the fruit is slower, you can leave more fruit than the average climate. Here we recommend that you leave 4 to 5 fruits in the first two hands, and from 5 to 6 fruits in subsequent hands.

Varieties with open type growth and less fruit, as a rule, form inflorescence with large number of colors. Therefore, it is necessary to remove some flowers to tie the fruit to grow more one-dimensional and reach slightly larger sizes than allowed by the genetic potential of the plant. Usually the first fruit in the brush is the biggest, but sometimes it grows so fast that other fruit is small, or, in some varieties, first fruit has a tendency to warp and lose its commercial value. If this happens, you can remove the first fruits systematically.

In addition to removing the fruits to create a balance between vegetative and generative growth should be performed to remove the phytosanitary purposes and removing fruit with defects. The fruit from decay vertex, with symptoms of disease or insect damaged, or with defects such as "cat face" should be removed as soon as discovered. If left on the plant, it will just be a waste of energy for the culture.

Remove the lower leaves

As soon as the plants get older, the fruit on the lower racemes are harvested, the older leaves, located in this area, begin to turn yellow and wither away. They should be removed to provide better ventilation and lower relative humidity at the base of the plants. The removal of these leaves shall begin at the end of the harvest second brush, and then should continue deletion with the maturation of brushes. To remove them, just Osipov fingers at the level of the stem so that to minimize the scarring. The removed leaves should be immediately removed from the greenhouse to eliminate any infection.

In General, it is necessary to always maintain a good leaf area, but not excessive. Very leafy varieties can sometimes remove a few leaves in the lower and middle part. This will increase ventilation and reduce the morbidity with no impact on production. The General recommendation for cases in which a programme of biological control of aphids using parasitoids: before deleting leaves, you should check to see if they are still pupae parasitoids of whiteflies. If so, it is recommended to leave the leaves until the adults of the parasitoids.

Support and garter

Support is in the vertical orientation of the plants along the plastic thread or twine, which passes from the base of the plant (the third or fourth sheet) to a wire, located directly over the plants at a height of 2.5-3.0 m, and which runs in the direction of the row (photo 4). To keep the plants along the twine, you can use plastic clips that cover the stem beneath the petiole fully developed and durable sheet. You can also support the plant by tying twine around it clockwise after every 2 or 3 sheets or one rotation for each brush.

You should try to make this work without damaging the plants, i.e. do not wrap more than you need, and do not compress. Winding plants are cleaned weekly, and even twice a week during the first weeks of development at elevated temperatures, when the plant growth is very fast. Later, when the formation of the fetus, the winding can be done once a week.

It is important to note that in the process of winding the upper part of the plant (head) should be free to ensure normal leaf growth and prevent the formation of wrinkles. The growth of the plants, they will need to be vacated to facilitate care.

Pollination

Plant tomato "self-pollinating", so does not require cross pollination. Tomatoes are typically pollinated by wind when grown outdoors. However, in greenhouses air movement is not sufficient to ensure that the flowers pollinate themselves, which is necessary for vibration of floral brushes, to get good pollination.

In the case of greenhouse crops, the producers make the vibration of the plant, hitting a support system. Other manufacturers have not taken steps to improve the quality of pollination.

Weather conditions are also important for good pollination. In order to prevent the shedding of flowers, the average temperature should not exceed 25 °C, especially in low-light conditions. Below 15 °C there are problems with pollination, and below 10 °C process stops.

Humidity also has a direct effect on pollination. High importance, especially in low-light conditions, can reduce the viability of pollen. Buitelaar & Eindhoven (1986) defines the optimal range of relative humidity for pollination between 60 and 85%. Below this range, the adhesive functions of stigmas reduced, which may reduce the adhesion and germination of pollen. At the same time, very low humidity can cause desiccation of pollen, with the result that it loses its effectiveness. Above this range reduced the release of pollen from the anther.

The entire pollination process lasts in normal conditions approximately 50 hours. When pollination is successful, after a week the fruit begin to form. When the plants are young and will produce their first flower brushes, they should be pollinated every day or at least every 48 hours until the first fruits. It is very important to ensure that the brush formed fruit, as this encourages the plant to reproductive state, which will promote flowering and productivity. To increase the productivity of tomato culture in the greenhouse, it is recommended to carry out some action for pollination between 9 and 10 am, every day, from the beginning of flowering.

Cycles of culture

The cycle of the culture of tomato is mainly determined by the cultivar and climatic conditions under which the development of plants. At the time of transplanting to the greenhouse and floral differentiation has occurred, ie the first born of the inflorescence, although this is not visible yet. Time before the opening of the first flower of the first inflorescence depends on the total received radiation, but it can range from 40 to 50 days after sowing of seeds. On the other hand, flower development is mainly determined by temperature, and to promote the development of flowers in daytime temperature is more important than the night. When the flower reached full development, the formation of the ovary of the fetus is the result of pollination. Time required from fruit set to ripening ranges from 7 to 9 weeks, depending on varieties, position of the hand and environmental conditions.

During the first 2 or 3 weeks of fruit growth is slow, and achieved 10% of the total weight of the fruit. Then comes the period of rapid growth, which lasts from 3 to 5 weeks, during which the fruit reaches almost its peak. Finally, there is a period of slow growth, in about two weeks, during which the increase in fetal weight is small, but there are metabolic changes characteristic of maturation (Chamarro, 1995).

Update of culture

When the performance of the plants begins to decrease, refresh the culture. Due to the high cost of production of tomatoes in greenhouses, it is necessary to maximally use the available area during the whole year. If you update culture growth point of the plant is removed by removing 2-3 leaves above the highest flower brush.

These actions should be done at least 5-6 weeks prior to the renewal of a culture, with the aim that during this time the fruit was already formed on the plant have reached their full size and could be collected.

Simultaneously with the elimination of points of growth, must be planted seedlings for the next harvest so that you can minimize the period of time in which there are no products.

Another way of renewal of a culture consists in the planting of new seedlings in among the old plants, which soon must be remedied, so that by the time they remove the new plants were developed and began to bear fruit in a few weeks.

Weed control

Weeds – all plants, which at any given time interfere or somehow hinder the growth of the culture.

When growing tomatoes, as well as any other cultures, they have two different effects: the first is competing for water, nutrients and light, and the second are alternative hosts of fungi and pests that can affect the culture.

With respect to competition for water is usually not very important if the water is a rich resource. But if it is not what is observed in many regions, competition can be important, especially those weeds that are more developed than the tomato root system. As for nutrients, if the soil is well fertilized with nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, the competition mainly is for secondary elements and micronutrients.

Competition for light starts later and is more serious weeds that have large leaves. The degree of influence is due primarily to the state of development of tomato plants, and is higher in the period between germination and the first weeks of a final transplant.

Weed control, as well as with pests and diseases requires an integrated control that combines control with herbicides (natural or synthetic) with some cultural practices. Soil preparation, which will be transplanted plants either manually or by mechanical means, helps to combat weeds, but not enough to solve this problem.

You can cover the ridge with mulch plant material. It can be vegetables, such as rice husk, straw, etc. or synthetic. The most common is the tomato mulching plastic film (black, gray, or milky white), which cover the ridge and secured by seeding the soil on the sides of the ridge. After the coating film breaks only in those places where it will grow plants. The film, in addition to creating a physical barrier that prevents the emergence of weeds also reduces the light inside the ridge, preventing their appearance.

With regard to control using herbicides, the use of chemicals requires minimal knowledge of the products that will work for dominant weed species in the area of culture, because tomato is a plant that is particularly sensitive to damage caused by herbicides. Often the damage associated with herbicides, may be similar to damage caused by other sources such as excess fertilizer salts. Symptoms of herbicide damage are not always unambiguous, such damage can be the result of applying different pesticides.

UTADEO
Inga Kostenko, Mivena, Ukraine
Anna Ustymenko, Club Sirius Agro Plant