How to feed tomatoes with ashes?
In order for the harvest of tomatoes to be plentiful, it is necessary to use some top dressing. There are mineral, organic, complex and other fertilizers that can accelerate the growth and development of tomatoes. But the most popular option is ordinary ash, which can be made at home.
Many gardeners like to use ashes, as they know exactly what is in it and how this top dressing will affect vegetables.
Beneficial features
Garden crops need only wood ash, which is formed during the combustion of plants. This ash is organic. You can not use the ash that remains after burning household or construction debris, rubber or plastic, as it is not a natural product, and therefore will not bring any benefit to the tomato. On the contrary, chemicals remain in such ashes that can adversely affect tomatoes.
Wood ash is used by gardeners to increase the yield of tomatoes. It is a wonderful substitute for potash and phosphate fertilizers, as it contains many useful trace elements, including calcium, magnesium, and potassium.
Ash should be placed in seedlings, as it is extremely easily absorbed by tomatoes. Quite often, plants do not respond well to any chemical top dressing, so it is best to feed them with organic products.
Ash components can stimulate the immune system and have an extremely good effect on the development of tomatoes. With the help of them, seedlings can grow green mass and protect themselves from various diseases. In the process of growing, tomatoes are easier to cope with stress and disease. Ash includes:
- Calcium. Thanks to this element, endurance increases, nitrogen is better absorbed. If the tomatoes lack calcium, the walls of the new tissues are thin and the top turns pale and bends. It also affects the development of the plant root.
- Potassium. It allows you to raise immunity, relieves the plant of the risk of getting sick with fungal infections and late blight, helps to form stems. With a deficiency, a brown border is visible on the edges of the leaves, and they themselves can curl up and resemble a tube in shape.
- Sodium. Able to regulate the balance of moisture evaporation and absorption. This element helps tomatoes withstand drought without any problems. If tomatoes lack sodium, brown spots can be seen on the leaves.
- Phosphorus. Thanks to this element, tomatoes are more resistant to adverse conditions for them. It helps to absorb nitrogen, develop the root system, and is also an extremely important element for fruit set.
If the seedling turns purple and does not grow, it means that it lacks phosphorus.
Application methods
Ash can be used in various variations:
- it can be applied to the soil dry;
- an ash solution is made;
- beds of tomatoes are sprinkled with fertilizer;
- sprouts are sprayed.
Tomatoes react extremely positively to any method of application. Foliage and stems acquire a rich green hue, and the green mass becomes more juicy. If there are no visible differences, it is necessary to do the processing again.
It must be remembered that for any application, you should not get carried away, because if there is too much ash in the soil, this can have a bad effect on tomatoes and soil. It is also strictly forbidden to use this top dressing together with other organic fertilizers.
Cooking
There are many options for preparing top dressing at home. To do this, you need to know at what stage the development of seedlings is.
Feed preparation:
- Take half a tablespoon of ash and pour one glass of hot water over it. Top dressing is left for several days, then filtered out. Seeds should be placed in this solution, which should be there for several hours. Then they are dried and sown. Thus, high germination can be achieved, the seeds will germinate quickly.
- Also, ash can be added to the soil in which the seeds will be planted. It is necessary to place one and a half glasses of ash in a bucket (10 l), stir. If vegetable seedlings are planted in such a mixture, you can not feed them more with ashes until they are planted in open ground. Otherwise, plants can get root burns, which will lead to their death.
- Plants that have already been planted should be fed with a solution prepared as follows: three tablespoons of ash must be diluted in five liters of water. Tomatoes are watered with this mixture once every three weeks.
- In order for the tomatoes to develop well, when planting, three tablespoons of ash should be placed in the holes. It is important not to forget to mix the fertilizer with the earth so that the roots of the plant do not get burned.
- Many people mix the ash solution with boric acid and iodine, then let it brew for 2-3 days, dilute this mixture ten times and water each bush one liter. This process must be repeated 2-3 times a season.
Ash is a wonderful tool that will help tomatoes fight a variety of viruses and pests. You need to mix 300 grams of natural fertilizer with one liter of water and boil for half an hour. Then let the product brew, strain, place in a bucket (10 l), place 40 grams of laundry soap there and spray the seedlings in the morning or evening.
In order for the cruciferous flea to bypass the tomatoes, it is necessary to grind the ash and mix it with tobacco dust (taking an equal amount of ingredients). Then the resulting mixture should be powdered plants 2-3 times. To get rid of aphids, there is a good remedy: mix 50 grams of ash and 50 grams of laundry soap in five liters of water, then add 10 grams of urea and insist for several days.
How to feed?
When vegetables grow, they also need fertilizers to help them form fruit. It is extremely useful for plants to water with an ash solution - 100 grams of ash must be diluted in water, and then sprayed on the bushes.
After the plants are abundantly watered, you need to pour 50 grams of ash under each bush. When the tomatoes bloom, to improve the taste, you can add ash in proportions of 1⁄2 cup per 1 m2. If you feed the plants with ashes, a person will get a big harvest and healthy vegetables. But in order for the effect to be maximum, it is necessary to observe a certain norm. At first, plants should be fed with a small amount of ash. This fertilizer works pretty quickly. The bush will become stronger, the leaves - brighter.
In order to feed seedlings on the windowsill, foliar and basal methods should be used. It is necessary to wait two weeks from the moment of picking the seeds and only then carry out top dressing. It is also important to consider that it is carried out a few weeks before planting the plants in open ground. They should be fed twice, this will be enough to protect the roots from a variety of bacteria and accelerate the formation of strong tomato leaves.
There is a recipe for root nutrition: a few tablespoons of wood ash should be soaked in warm water, left to infuse for three days. After that, you need to use the fertilizer in this way: moderately water the plants placed in separate containers or common pots. Some people add a small amount of soap to this infusion by placing this mixture in a spray bottle and spraying the tomatoes. This protects the plants well from any pests.
When seedlings are planted in open ground, it is necessary to let them settle for a week, and only after that start feeding. Foliar fertilizer will be appropriate after seven days, root - after fifteen days. These fertilizer methods have many differences. By foliar method, plants are fertilized extremely quickly, because when the infusion is sprayed on the stems and leaves, the cells absorb it rather quickly.
If you add a product under the root, some of the nutrient composition may be washed off when the tomatoes are watered. This helps the fertilizer reach the roots of the plants faster.
It is important not to forget that the plants should be sprayed with a less concentrated fertilizer, otherwise the young greenery will burn.The most successful time for top dressing is evening or morning, since it is then that there are no sun rays, moisture from the soil evaporates slowly.
When planting in a greenhouse, many use yeast along with ash. To properly prepare the starter, 100 grams of yeast is placed in a ten-liter bucket of water, then two tablespoons of sugar are poured into it. You need to wait a few hours. and then dilute the mixture in 50 liters of water.
You will learn more about feeding tomatoes with ash and yeast from the following video.
Tips
When planting tomatoes, peppers or eggplants in open ground, you need to pour a few teaspoons of ash into each of the holes. It is extremely important not to forget to mix it with the soil. You can also do it differently: digging up the ground, it is worth distributing up to 3 glasses of ash per square meter of beds. Top dressing with an extract from wood ash is a rather useful and necessary thing, but you don’t need to get carried away. Feeding tomatoes in this way is allowed no more than 2 times before transplanting to the soil of the garden.
In order for the yield to be high, and the taste of the fruit to be sweet and more pleasant, during the flowering of plants, it is necessary to spray their stems and leaves with an ash extract with the addition of boric acid. It is very simple to prepare this remedy: pour 3 cups of ash into 2 liters of boiling water, leave for a couple of days, drain or strain. Then dilute the resulting product with a bucket of water (10 l) and add 10 grams of boric acid.
During the fruiting period, you need to constantly feed the plants, sprinkling a small amount of ash (half a tablespoon) around the bushes every two weeks. This will help the tomatoes to be healthier, stronger and sweeter.
Wood ash is a wonderful substitute for store-bought potash-phosphorus fertilizers.It is able to help tomatoes at various stages of development: it will protect seedlings from diseases and add sweetness and strength to ripening fruits. It is strictly forbidden to use potassium chloride as a fertilizer for tomatoes, as well as chlorinated water. This can be said negatively on plants.