Cooking tomatoes is quite easy but the same cannot be said for sowing tomatoes , which is certainly not a trivial operation to perform. Even though tomatoes are one of the most cultivated vegetables in gardens, it is necessary to learn how to do it and not improvise.
This vegetable is very present on all our tables, it is often eaten in salads , especially in summer, but it is also the main ingredient of many sauces that in traditional Italian cuisine we find used to season pasta or pizza.
The plant that produces tomatoes is a solanaceous plant that is quite demanding in terms of nutrients, temperatures and sun exposure. Those who want excellent results must learn to sow at the right time and must be lucky and live in a place where the climate is the one they like. In this article we will try to provide information and advice to venture into sowing tomatoes in the best possible way.
Sowing tomatoes: period
If you want to sow tomatoes directly in the field, you usually have to wait until April, or even May, depending on the area you live in. This is because the ideal temperature for sowing is just above 20 degrees. This vegetable, to grow well, must absolutely not suffer from the cold, so it is essential to be sure that the temperature does not fall below 12 degrees, neither during the day nor at night.
Around February or March, it is possible to sow tomatoes only if you have a seedbed available, in this way we get ahead of ourselves by a couple of months, making the seedlings grow which will then have to be transplanted into the garden. This transfer operation is always linked to the temperature which outside can never be below the fateful 12 degrees, those that could kill the newly born seedlings. Why anticipate and then wait?
Because the harvest is extended because the period in which the plant can give us its fruits is extended .
If we talk about the sowing period, we cannot fail to mention the influence of the moon that many believe is present on all fruit vegetables and tomatoes are one of them. These are perhaps peasant beliefs, but it is good to be aware of them. The waxing moon phase would be the one capable of favoring development because the moon itself would send the energies present in the vegetables upwards precisely in this period. This would be valid not only for tomatoes but also for leaves, flowers and fruits of other plants.
Speaking of the influence of the moon, it must be said that it is better to specify that there is no scientific confirmation regarding these beliefs. Not everyone follows this rule, there are those who ignore it and those who, when in doubt, respect it. I would say that the decision is up to personal discretion.
Sowing tomatoes: seeds
You can produce the seeds yourself , from your own crops, year after year, it is not a particularly complex operation. They must be taken from the fruits and left to dry so that they can be used the following year. Since they are a “living material”, they must be stored in a dry place and positioned away from heat sources, if we proceed correctly we will obtain tomato seeds that can last even four or five years.
If we want to be comfortable, we can buy seeds either in some specialized store in our area, or online, the important thing is to be careful and choose certified organic seeds , avoiding instead the hybrid varieties indicated with the acronym F1. If we find ourselves faced with many varieties to choose from, we focus on the oldest vegetables that are usually the most resistant and also do better in the organic garden.
Sowing tomatoes: soil
The soil that is prepared to receive tomato seeds cannot be any soil but must have precise characteristics if we want to be sure of being able to pick pulpy and good fruits. It is therefore necessary to work the soil before sowing with the spade, even for two or three weeks in a row, to move the soil that is too compact. The hoe can be useful, in aid of the spade, to break up the clods and roots that we might find in our area.
In fact, weeds that could disturb the seedlings must be eliminated at the root. About a month before sowing, it is necessary to proceed with manure (or compost) incorporating it into the soil with the help of a hoe, and then level the ground with a rake. This is the final touch and also serves to eliminate any stones that are too large to remain.
Sowing tomatoes: tips
Given the small size of tomato seeds , it is advisable to plant more than one seed in each pot or in each pot and place them at a shallow depth in the soil. Let’s keep in mind that in each gram of seed there are about 300 seeds.
If it is still February and we have decided to sow in a seedbed, we can use alveolated containers or pots, filling them with suitable soil for sowing and earthworm humus. The operation itself is simple: place the seed on the surface and cover it with a light layer of soil and then lightly compact the soil with your fingers. The seedbed allows us to anticipate the moment of sowing by about two months, when we then transplant the seedlings into the garden we will not have to worry about the presence of “holes” that could instead appear in the garden, in case some seeds do not germinate.
Around April we can instead sow in the field , thus avoiding having to transport the seedlings later. The seeds in this case should also be buried at a shallow depth, maximum half a centimetre. Usually direct sowing in the field is recommended only for those who live in areas with a very mild climate to be sure that sudden frosts do not occur, this usually happens in Southern Italy or on the coasts.
As for the positioning of the seedlings, we can calculate a distance of about half a meter between one and the other and a distance of about one meter between different rows, this if they are climbing varieties, for the others it is instead good to increase both measures respectively to 70 and 120 centimeters.
