Why Does The Ovary Crumble On Tomatoes? The Main Reasons, Prevention. Photo

Tomatoes, due to the presence of lycopene and other compounds most important for the human body, are a vegetable without which we simply cannot live. Experienced gardeners claim that the tomato ovary is in its infancy even then, when the plants are still at the seedling stage, that is, they are very small. And if you take care of them correctly, then the probability that the ovary will suddenly fall off in the future will be minimal. So what can the seemingly formed ovary on a strong and healthy tomato plant fall off from?

Content:

• The first reason. Shadow
• The second reason. Cold water
• The third reason. Incorrectly selected tomato seeds
• The fourth reason. Naughty temperature
• The fifth reason. Pollination problems
• The sixth reason. Improper nutrition
• The seventh reason. Diseases and pests
• Prevention of shedding of the ovary on tomatoes

The first reason. Shadow

Tomato seedlings, however, like adult plants, require enough light. Well, everything is simple here: since the leaf is on the sunny side, then it participates in the most complex processes of photosynthesis, which means that the plant needs it and the plant understands that it can stock up on enough nutrients to feed the ovaries.

It is worth placing tomatoes in the shade, say, saving space in the garden, how the photosynthesis processes slow down or stop altogether, the plant will sound the alarm - what if it does not have enough nutrition to feed such a large amount of ovary? And he will start dropping it one by one, trying to focus on what is left.

The second reason. Cold water

Another reason that the ovary of tomato plants can begin to fall off is sharp watering with cold water from a hose. This usually happens at dachas: gardeners rarely come there, see drooping tomato leaves, but with heroically hanging ovaries on them, and strive to save the plants as quickly as possible, grabbing the hose and sometimes moisten the soil under them right in the middle of the day.

As a result, the plants are severely shocked. Before that, the tomatoes survived, built up the thinnest suction roots on the root system, trying to absorb at least part of the substances dissolved in the residual water, and then the gardener with his ice water literally shocked them, having achieved that these very roots simply died not easily, the plant stood up into a stupor, stopped absorbing moisture and shed part of the ovary.

If you want to help the tomatoes and do not want to use even the simplest drip irrigation, which we have written about a thousand times already, then at least take your time with watering. First, pour water into a barrel or warm water to room temperature in a simple bucket, and gently pour a couple of liters under each tomato bush, moisten the soil under them.

Watering in this way, you definitely will not allow the ovary to fall off. Do not water in the middle of the day, the best time is evening or early morning. And one more thing: if there has been no watering for a long period, and you do not want to lose the ovaries, then before watering, at least slightly, but loosen the soil at the base of the tomato bush, and after watering, mulch it with a thin layer of humus.

The third reason. Incorrectly selected tomato seeds

I notice an interesting feature in many areas: caring grandmothers, contrary to all persuasions, choose seeds from the largest and most delicious F1 tomato hybrids and sow these seeds in pots, and after that they plant tomato seedlings on the site. Imagine their surprise that powerful and beautiful plants sometimes turn out to be without a crop, and the ovary simply falls off on others.

The whole reason is not in grandmothers, but in F1 hybrids. If you do not go into long explanations, then they (hybrids) are created for a commercial purpose, so that the buyer in the first year gets a gorgeous harvest of tomato fruits, but in the second season he again went to buy the same hybrids. By the way, tomato seeds are not expensive and the harvest will definitely pay off.

The fourth reason. Naughty temperature

Temperature, or rather its fluctuation, can make very drastic adjustments to the yield of tomato, and literally make you lose part, and sometimes even more, of the ovary. Vibrations within ten degrees in one direction or another are especially dangerous.

There is very little you can do outdoors for tomatoes. Well, for example, if a cold night is expected, then you can build ordinary arcs from hard wire and cover them with non-woven covering material or make smoky fires around the periphery of the site. In the greenhouse, you will have to raise the temperature significantly - by turning on the heating or placing heated bottles of water or stones in the greenhouse. It is advisable to increase the temperature to 25-27 degrees so that the tomato plants are comfortable and they do not think about dumping the fruits.

Ideally, in order for the ovaries of tomato plants to stay in place, it is necessary that the temperature outside or in closed ground at night was at the level of + 15 … + 17 degrees, and in the daytime - + 23 … + 25.

At elevated temperatures, it does not matter in a greenhouse or on the street, a tomato plant will spend a huge amount of energy on breathing, lowering the temperature of its body, therefore, just a huge amount of energy will be wasted simply by shedding excess ovary and leaving only a few tomato fruits that the plant it believes it is able to feed.

Sometimes it comes to the ridiculous: in the areas, the distance between which is only a few meters, the tomatoes stand and literally bend under the weight of the ovary, and on the next one the stems are almost naked. There are many reasons for this: maybe the closer standing of groundwater, cooling the soil and the lightest shadow, and lack of nutrition, and varietal peculiarity, and so on …

The most dangerous period for dumping a tomato ovary is the period when, after a prolonged cold snap, a very sharp warming suddenly begins. What does it do? At this time, tomato leaf blades begin to rapidly evaporate moisture: there is a lot of water in the soil and there is simply nowhere to put it, and the roots cannot cope with such a load, they do not fully provide those ovaries that have managed to form, and the latter partially fall off.

In this situation, one should not hesitate: if you notice a sharp temperature drop from cold to warm, then tomato plants with a large number of ovaries should be treated as soon as possible with immunomodulators such as "Epin", "Zircon", "Tsitovita" and the like. These drugs are able to enhance the vegetative growth of plants, but not as abundant as, say, from the introduction of nitrogen, but they can reduce the load on the absorbing root system and at the same time improve plant nutrition.

At the same time, in the greenhouse, ventilation can also be somewhat increased by opening doors and windows, and if no more crops grow in the greenhouse, then you can even create a draft, tomatoes are not afraid of it.

The fifth reason. Pollination problems

As you know, tomato is a self-pollinated crop, however, at temperatures above +36 degrees and humidity over 68%, pollination does not occur or, as biologists have proved, fruit sets that do not contain seeds, which the plant subsequently recognizes as useless, unable to give offspring. and simply gets rid of them by dropping them.

If you want to increase the percentage of pollination of tomatoes, both in the open field and in the greenhouse, if the weather is calm and calm, devoid of wind, then you need to lightly tap on the twine to which the lashes of the tomato plant are attached, and the pollen will literally spill out of the stamens and get on the stigmas of flower pistils.

There are periods when the weather is too cloudy for a long time and tomato pollen becomes corny and is not capable of pollination. At this time, in order not to form ovaries devoid of seeds, which the plants will drop anyway, it is necessary to process them right during the flowering period, either in the greenhouse or in the open field, with 1% ordinary medical boric acid diluted in a bucket of water, with alternating at least two or three times a week.

In addition to boric acid, which, by and large, is already an outdated and ineffective drug, it is possible to use specially created stimulators of growth and fruit setting for processing tomatoes - these are Gibbersib (commonly referred to as "Ovary"), as well as "Bud" and others. In addition to the fact that these drugs contribute to the formation of a full-fledged ovary, they also contribute to its growth and development on the plant until the time of harvest.

Treating tomatoes with such preparations is most effective in dry, rain-free weather and do them either in the morning or in the evening. If it rains immediately after the treatment, the treatment must be repeated. Usually the ovaries become stronger and begin to grow actively without any hint of rejection within a couple of days after such treatment.

The sixth reason. Improper nutrition

Of course, all these rules for caring for tomato plants in order to preserve the ovaries on them are important and useful, but only when the soil has enough basic nutrients, that is, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. If something is not enough, then the tomato plants will feel hunger and will also begin to shed the ovaries.

But do not think that if you immediately applied large doses of fertilizers, then all the problems were solved in one fell swoop. For example, nitrogen: many people mistakenly believe that it is he who is responsible for the growth and development of the ovary and they pour it or pour it in a diluted form under larger plants. In fact, professional gardeners who grow tomatoes do not advise at all to introduce nitrogen in dry or dissolved form in more than 9-11 g per square meter of a garden with tomato plants, it is especially needed in the initial stages of budding.

In addition, in order to avoid dropping the ovary, it is not recommended to overfeed tomato plants with nitrogen fertilizers before the first fruit that begins to pour on the plant, in particular, to use infusions of manure, chicken droppings, grass or solutions of any nitrogen fertilizers for this.

In order for a tomato bush to develop correctly, to form a sufficient aerial part and a root system capable of absorbing the maximum substances necessary for the fruit from the soil, it is necessary in the first 30-60 days of the growth of the bush on the site to use chicken manure, diluted 15 times in an amount of 0.5 liters for each bush.

Such dressings can be carried out as two or three, there will be no harm. Slurry can also be used exactly, but it needs to be diluted not 15 times, but 10 times.

A good source of potassium (4-5%) is wood ash: after each loosening of the soil and watering, it can be scattered under each tomato bush, which has already begun to form an ovary, 70-80 g of wood ash.

Well, and of course, you should not ignore the use of complex mineral fertilizers: an ovary has appeared - dissolve a tablespoon of nitroammophoska in a bucket of water and add a liter of the resulting solution under each bush.

The seventh reason. Diseases and pests

Alas, without them anywhere, even on an ideal site, they can cause such a rustle that it will not seem a little. But there are also nuances here - observe the crop rotation, fertilize the soil moderately, do not thicken the plants, loosen the soil, water as needed, cut off the lower leaves from the tomatoes, keep the anthills away - and then, quite possibly, both pests and diseases will bypass you.

In tomato, pests can damage in one way or another, both the root system and the aboveground mass, hence the lack of nutrition and the discharge of an extra ovary. Sometimes gardeners themselves open the gates for all kinds of evil spirits, like the Trojan horse, generously sprinkling the area with manure, in which everything can not be, even the same bear.

Of course, you argue, manure is rich (especially mullein) in nitrogen, contains potassium and phosphorus, in general, everything for normal plant nutrition. We agree, but there is also a bear, especially if you took the manure from a site where the soil is damp and wet. While he was lying there, a lot of bears could have accumulated in this heap. The harm from the bear is that it corny gnaws at the root system of tomato plants or affects it, disrupting the life of the plants, and part of the ovary is discarded.

You can get rid of the bear with a variety of insecticides mixed with grain, corn, bread, but if you are a fighter for clean plantations, then every year dig up the area with a full bayonet of a shovel, choose a bear and scold her so that she, such an infection, does not do this anymore!

Further, the wireworm is also a frequent visitor to manure or freshly brought to a plot of land. The wireworm damages the roots of the tomato, and the stems and the plant have no choice but to shed part of the ovary in the hope of feeding at least something.

Again, if you are a strict fighter for everything folk and buy fish only in the store, then try to bury pieces of fresh potatoes on the site before planting tomato seedlings, about a week before, be sure to mark these places. The starving wireworm will literally cram into potatoes and crunch the flesh of the potatoes behind the ears, and then you will catch it - dig it up with the tubers, but then who knows, but I would advise you to dip the whole thing in kerosene.

For those for whom chemistry is not harm, but help, we advise you to use approved drugs such as "Bazudin", and in its pure form it is ineffective. It is better to mix it with river sand or sawdust and before planting tomato seedlings, put a tablespoon of this mixture in the base - there should be no ovary falling off.

From underground reptiles we pass to aboveground ones, they also often harm the tomato and lead to the fact that the ovaries fall off sadly.

Let's go further: butterflies, scoop and whitefly are almost the main pests of tomato. Scoops harm plants in open ground more, laying eggs so that caterpillars hatching from it gnaw the ovaries themselves and they fall to the ground.

For the most part, the whitefly is a guest of the greenhouse, she happily sucks the juice from tomato plants in such an amount that the tomatoes themselves become scarce, and they slowly drop the ovary one by one in the hope of feeding at least what is left. Here folk remedies are unlikely to help, tomato plants need to be treated with insecticides, both before flowering and immediately after it.

As soon as the ovaries are formed, the processing should be stopped, because toxins can accumulate in the fruit in the future. For this, permitted insecticides are used in strict accordance with the instructions on the package. If you want to play it safe, then in addition to treatments, you can place sticky and pheromone traps around the site, and no one forbids collecting larvae with pens and drowning them in kerosene, especially if the site is small.

Prevention of shedding of the ovary on tomatoes

Well, here on the sly, it seems, we have listed all the possible signs of falling of the ovary on tomato plants. Now, as briefly as possible, in conclusion of our story, we want to talk about the rules of prevention, using which such a phenomenon as shedding of an ovary on a tomato, your site and your plants will bypass. We will not repeat about the planting pattern, loosening and everything else that was mentioned above, but let's talk about something new.

So, remember the "nursery" - the stage of seedlings of tomato plants: firmly remember that you do not need to shove it straight from the windowsill into the open ground, the seedlings must be hardened. Usually, seedlings are taken out in boxes in the open air, gradually, for an hour or two a day, and as a result, they are left for a day. Of course, if night frosts are expected, then the seedlings must be brought in and thoroughly watered with rainwater or thawed water, at room temperature. As a result, hardening should last for three or four days, and if the weather is cloudy, then for five.

The second moment: we remind you that the lack of mineral fertilizers in the soil is bad and can lead to the dropping of the ovary. Potassium fertilizers are especially necessary for tomatoes, it is desirable to apply them in a dissolved form, preferably in the form of potassium sulfate (not chloride and not potassium salt!); if you use wood ash, then know that there is only 5% potassium in it, therefore it cannot be considered the main fertilizer of the potash plan, although there are many microelements in wood ash. It is advisable to introduce wood ash into the soil slightly loosened and watered with water, and then slightly mulch the surface with peat or humus, with a layer of a couple of centimeters.

In general, potassium greatly enhances the immunity of tomato plants, improves the taste of its fruits. It is best to apply potash fertilizers in the autumn, say, to the area where you plan to plant tomatoes in the spring, then it will turn into a form accessible to plants and everything will be fine. Interestingly, if potassium in the soil is contained in normal amounts, then tomato plants often tolerate even spring frosts painlessly.

We go further: nevertheless, at the stage of ovary formation, tomatoes need nitrogen. The easiest option is to dilute the mullein ten times and pour 0.5 liters of this solution under each bush. We mentioned in passing that nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are already available in mullein.

If there is no mullein, then take a healthy pack of green tea, 300 grams, spare some money, pour boiling water over it (ten liters) and let it brew for three days, then water the plants, spending a bucket on three square meters of land.

That, in fact, is all that we know about the dropping of the ovary by the tomatoes, if you have any questions - write.

By the way, did you know that just eating tomatoes sprinkled with salt on an empty stomach can cause stomach upset? Here is a healthy vegetable for you. It is best to use tomatoes in salads flavored with not fatty sour cream or high-calorie sunflower oil, and generously pouring olive oil, perhaps not so tasty, but definitely healthy.