Tomatoes, or tomatoes, are one of the most famous plants in the world. Many dishes are prepared from aromatic fruits, it is difficult to imagine modern cuisine without this wonderful vegetable. Tomatoes are present everywhere: in salads and soups, sauces and gravies, and there are thousands of dishes where they are present as additives. Love for this bright representative of the Solanov family is truly popular and deserved.

A little about the history of tomatoes

Tomatoes are native to South America, where these plants are still found in Peru and Brazil in a wild or semi-cultivated form. They came to Europe in the 16th century together with seafarers and were initially cultivated by gardeners as an ornamental culture. They appeared in Russia even later - in the 18th century.

Currently, hundreds of varieties have been bred, differing in the method of cultivation, adaptability to different climatic conditions, growth, color, size of fruits, field of application, taste.

How to stop the growth of tomato seedlings

Tomatoes have excellent taste, are a storehouse of vitamins and microelements, food acids. Reduce blood cholesterol, restore and prevent liver diseases, increase immunity, especially in the elderly and children.

What conditions do tomatoes need

The conditions are the same as those preferred by plants of tropical and subtropical climates all over the world - more light, more heat and moisture, too, so that winter never comes.

How to accelerate the growth of tomato seedlings

In our country, where summer lasts only three months in part of the territory and the threat of return frosts is strong, it is customary to grow tomatoes in seedlings. The growing season for this culture is too long, the early onset of cold weather can delay and slow down the growth of tomato seedlings, cause a slowdown and halt in development, early termination of fruiting. Tomatoes will stop growing, stop developing. As a result, the ripening of these wonderful fruits will also slow down, if they are sown in natural conditions.

Therefore, it is necessary to grow tomato seedlings on the windowsills from early spring, since February in many apartments, gardeners and gardeners put all kinds of boxes, jars and together sow seeds of their favorite fruits in them.

Important! Tomatoes quickly sprout friendly and begin to reach up, swinging in height literally before our eyes. To prevent this from happening and not have to slow down, stop their growth, continuously plant and transplant, you need to remember three simple rules.

Sowing is rare enough

Sowing tomatoes

Dense shoots are a typical mistake of novice gardeners, leading to stretching and excessive growth of seedlings, which then will have to be stopped in growth.

When sowing, do not throw the seeds in a handful, but carefully spread them on the ground with tweezers so that there is at least a centimeter of free space around each seed. Otherwise, the seedlings will shade each other and with all their might reach up to the light, gaining excessive growth and resembling thin threads.

If it turned out that the seedlings came out thick, it is better to thin them out with the same tweezers in the very first days and remove the extra ones than to mess around later with elongated seedlings and think about how to slow down the growth of tomato seedlings.

Advice! If the plants have risen with a cap, only immediate transplantation with the removal of the very tip of the root can help in this case, the so-called picking of each plant into its own separate dwelling or planting it in a common spacious box. After transplanting, you need to put the container with seedlings in a very bright and cool place, with an air temperature of 18-20 degrees for two weeks.

Tomatoes will survive the transplant more easily, they will be forced to stop or significantly slow down their growth, they will begin to grow the root and get fat before our eyes, gaining the missing volumes and you will not have to figure out how to stop the growth of tomatoes in height.

You need to sow on time!

Haste in this matter is completely unnecessary. The best seedling age for planting it on a permanent place is 60 days. Therefore, you do not need to sow in February if it does not fall into the ground until mid-June. It is necessary to count from the expected day of planting seedlings two months and a week in advance and boldly sow these days, the seedlings will be the best.

Don't be greedy and sow a lot!

Seedlings of tomatoes

It is necessary to calculate well how many seedlings the window sills or loggia can accommodate so that it is not cramped and hot. It is better to have twenty plants that, with good care, will give you a great harvest than a hundred roots of useless elongated seedlings. After planting in the ground, it will hurt for a long time and recover - as a result, without making you happy with the harvest. Yes, and your time and work with this approach can be saved significantly.

What needs to be done so that the seedlings do not stretch

There are several basic rules that allow the gardener to get high-quality seedlings, strong bushes with bright green leaves and thick legs, which cause affection by their appearance alone, she will not need a suspension and inhibition in development:

  • good lighting - the more light each bush gets, the less it stretches in growth, it is necessary to place seedlings on a sunny window or supplement it with a fluorescent lamp, increasing the duration of daylight hours;
  • moderate warmth - the best temperature for proper growth and development of seedlings is 23-25 ​​degrees, if higher, then the seedlings begin to significantly increase in growth beyond measure;
  • proper watering - you need to water the seedlings abundantly, but not often, waiting until the earthen lump dries thoroughly and the tomato begins to feel a little sad, dropping the leaves;
  • plant feeding when it is really required - an excess of nitrogen fertilizers also leads to an acceleration and violent growth of seedlings, a deficiency causes slow growth.
How to accelerate the growth of tomato and pepper seedlings

From all of the above, it is quite possible to draw conclusions how to cope with this scourge and stop the growth of tomatoes in height. To do this, you need to increase lighting, lower the temperature to 12-15 degrees and reduce watering.

Additional Information! It is possible and necessary to process seedlings with drugs such as Epin-extra or Athlete. Both of these drugs prevent seedlings from stretching, strengthen them and increase immunity.

Epin extra

What to do with seedlings that need to be saved

Eggshell as fertilizer for tomato seedlings

How to stop the growth of tomato seedlings? There are several quick relief methods to stop tomato seedlings from growing in height, akin to so-called shock therapy. Do not be afraid, tomatoes are very tenacious plants and their adaptability to various stressful situations is beyond praise ...

So, in order for tomatoes to slow down their growth, you just need to complicate their life, create conditions for hardening and enhanced survival:

  • Cut off a few lower leaves on each plant. With this type of help, two factors will work at once - the plants will become much lighter and growth will slow down, and a stressful situation will arise for the plants, which will force them to suspend their growth for a couple of weeks. Growth will stop and the stem will begin to thicken. If after this period a delay in growth is still needed, then the next pair of leaves can be shortened by half.
  • Open the window for a little ventilation in order to lower the temperature on the windowsill, especially at night, cover the battery under the window with a thick blanket to reduce the amount of heat generated by it. The growth will stop and the growth of the bush will slow down.
  • At the first opportunity, plant seedlings in a well-lit greenhouse or take them out on a glazed loggia for a day, you can use hanging trays in the greenhouse, if the ground is still cold, in this way you can stop development for more than two weeks.
  • Transplant the plant into a tall glass or plastic bottle, pour a little earth down, put the plant, sprinkling the earth to the top. Such a plant will form a very powerful root and it will need to be planted in the ground at an angle or completely lying down.

    Seedlings in tall glasses

  • Place seedlings on a cold floor or in a cool hallway at night.
  • The way of our grandmothers. Take a needle from a medical syringe, disinfect it with alcohol and pierce the plants through and through at a height of 2-3 centimeters from the ground. While the wound will heal, the growth of the plant will stop for ten days.
  • Well, the most radical way for a very elongated old seedlings. Cut off the tops of the tomatoes with sharp scissors to a length of about twenty centimeters. Put these tops in a jar of water, like a bunch of flowers. Change the water in the jar every day to fresh. After a week or two the tomatoes will give beautiful young roots and then they can be planted again in pots with soil. Once rooted, they will be exemplary seedlings — short, sturdy and very attractive in appearance.
  • Several times a day, gently run your hand or a cardboard over the leaves and rotate the pots a quarter around their own axis in a circle. Plants will be disoriented and irritated, as a result of which the leaves of tomatoes and stems will release ethylene gas, which also slows down the growth of seedlings.

Recommendation! If you need a longer delay, then you can combine a couple of methods. First, perform the first one with cutting off the leaves, and when the seedlings begin to stretch again, pierce with a needle. Or first pierce it with a needle, and when growth resumes, transplant it into a plastic bottle or take it out to a cool balcony. The scope for our imagination is great here, as they say!

If the plants, as a result of manipulations, have slowed down too much growth, you need to return heat and feed. In extreme cases, spray with any growth stimulant and everything will return to normal, the tomatoes will begin to grow rapidly.

It is better to prevent trouble by planting seedlings correctly than to eliminate the consequences of planting errors later.