Growing seedlings according to the Chinese method

In Russia, the Chinese method of growing tomato seedlings is gaining popularity. It has many benefits for healthy plants and a rich harvest. Our tips site decided to find out what features the Chinese method of growing tomato seedlings has.

So, to grow tomato seedlings according to the Chinese method, you need:

• Prepare the soil. Fertile soil with a neutral pH is suitable. Sour is not good! You can collect land in your garden in the fall, preferably where the nettle grew. Before planting, the soil is spilled with a weak, 1.5% solution of potassium permanganate, which is preheated to a temperature of +50 degrees. The Chinese do not add humus, and very little peat, up to 1% of the total mass of the soil. You can buy ready-made seedling soil with a neutral pH.
• The seeds are selected very carefully. If, according to the advice of the portal, you chose seeds in packages, you will need to sort them out and throw out all small, empty, with dark spots.
• The seeds are pre-stratified. An infusion of wood ash is prepared – two teaspoons are poured with boiling water and infused for two days. In this stimulant, a napkin is soaked on which the seeds are laid out. After a day, they are washed with a 1.5% solution of potassium permanganate, they are kept on a napkin with a growth stimulator for another night, then they are kept in a refrigerator in dry gauze for a day and only then sown in the ground.

Prepared seeds are planted according to the Chinese method in a common box. Drainage up to 2 centimeters high, for example, broken brick, and soil on top, must be placed on the bottom. Seeds are planted in grooves according to a 4×2 centimeter pattern. The seeds are sprinkled with soil a little, the soil is moistened with a spray bottle, the box is covered with a film and placed on the windowsill on the south side of the house. The film will need to be removed after the first shoots..

Important! According to the Chinese method, the seedlings should be illuminated 12 hours a day. So you can’t do without phytolamps.

It is necessary to harden the seedlings, according to the Chinese method, immediately, from the first day of the emergence of sprouts. At night, boxes with seedlings are transferred to a cooler room. Not in the cold, but so that the temperature is three to four degrees below daytime. This is how the plants get used to their natural rhythm – a little cooler at night than during the day..

The most important difference between the Chinese technique is picking. A month after planting the seeds, when the tomatoes already have three full-fledged leaves, with sharp small scissors the seedlings are cut off at the very roots and transplanted. There are two options for picking:

1. Directly into the ground. In separate cups filled with the same soil as when planting seeds. Do not forget about the drainage at the bottom and the hole to drain the water. After transplanting cut plants, the soil spills well, a glass with a seedling is covered with a film and for two or three days it stands in a dark place at a temperature of no more than 15 degrees. Then the cups are returned to the southern windowsill under the phytolamp.
2. In water. Until the roots come in. Water at room temperature, settled. Plants fall into the water to cotyledon leaves for a week, and then they are transplanted into the ground.

The first method, as practice has shown, is preferable, because during transplantation from water into the ground, the roots can be damaged.

Disembarkation in a permanent place follows the usual pattern. The first feeding with nitroammophos – 1 tablespoon per bucket of water – is carried out two weeks after planting. The second feeding – after the formation of a pair of flower brushes.

The formation of tomatoes according to the Chinese method is carried out in two stems, the upper fruit clusters are removed. According to the technology, no more than six brushes should be left on the plant. This has a very positive effect on the quality of the fruit..

You can choose any method of growing seedlings. The main thing is that before planting in a permanent place in the garden, the plants are strong, with leaves without spots, a trunk the size of a pencil, with white tips of developed roots and compact internodes.