If you also pre-grow tomatoes from seeds at home, you surely have a supply of cups or flower pots from previous years, which are to become their first home. Even before you put the seeds in them, it is necessary to take some important steps on which the future health and vitality of the tiny plants depends.
The days when the temperature outside is still reminiscent of winter, but spring is already dawning in our gardening souls, are absolutely ideal for an activity that many gardeners underestimate. It’s a pity, because its omission can spoil all our plans for a rich harvest of our own tomatoes.
For the summer season, we have to prepare both small containers and later the entire greenhouse, as shown in the YouTube video from Flera TV:
Don’t forget about disinfection
In short and simply – if you are going to use last year’s plastic boxes, clay flower pots or seed trays, you must pay them due care in the form of thoroughly . In microscopic cracks and also in salt deposits, these seemingly safe containers host invisible enemies – mold spores, bacteria and viruseswhich can destroy young and fragile tomato seedlings even before they form the first true leaves.
Pure water is not enough
How to do it? Unfortunately, simply rinsing the flowerpots with a stream of clean water is definitely not enough to remove harmful microorganisms. Many diseases, such as the dreaded fall of key plants, can survive even relatively extreme conditions in the dried soil on the walls of containers, such as very severe frosts by Central European standards. If we then pour fresh (and often very expensive) substrate into a “contaminated” flowerpot, it will become saturated with pathogens within a short time. Disinfection is therefore an absolutely essential step in the “preventive medicine” of the garden. It’s simple and we can be sure that in the future it will save us not only money for new seeds and chemicals, but mainly the disappointment of the sad sight of withering tiny plants.
Use bleach or vinegar
The first step to success is therefore mechanical cleaning, where we remove all visible remains of the old substrate, roots and possible fertilizer residues with a stiff brush. Then it’s time for a disinfectant bath for at least ten minutes. What can we soak the containers in? It is most often used common household solution and water in a ratio of one to nine. If we want to avoid overly aggressive chlorine, it is also possible to use a stronger vinegar solution. However, we should be aware that its effectiveness against some more resistant viruses may be somewhat lower after all. It is important to ensure that the solution is in contact with the entire surface of the container – outside and inside.
Pozor na terakotu
We must pay special attention to the classics burnt terracotta flower pots. It is a porous material that can absorb not only water, but also germs. With these containers, a disinfection bath is really necessary thorough rinsing with clean water. Otherwise, residues of cleaning agents could later damage the sensitive roots of young tomatoes. After cleaning, it is then necessary to let them dry freely in the air. In addition, a dry environment is another enemy of the remaining microorganisms.
Cleanliness is essential
One or two hours of time that we devote to the cleanliness of gardening containers and tools will return to us many times over in the summer. A healthy start to life is essential for tomatoesbecause a strong seedling grown in a clean environment will later be much better able to withstand the stress of transplanting and the subsequent attacks of pests in the outdoor habitat. Only then, when you harvest the first tasty tomatoes in August, will you remember that their journey to success began at the turn of January and February.
