Tips from experienced gardeners: how to use iodine to feed tomatoes

Feeding tomatoes with iodine is by far more and more popular, since this product is harmless to both humans and cultivated crops.

In order for such dressing to bring maximum benefit, tomatoes need to know when and how to make it right.

In our article, we will analyze in detail the ways to make iodine for seedlings of tomatoes and adult bushes. What is the use of such a fertilizer?

Consider the root and foliar methods of feeding. As well as actions with excessive iodine solution.

What is useful for such a fertilizer tomato?

Tomatoes are very sensitive to iodine supplements. This culture usually responds to the introduction of this element of rapid growth. But at the same time tomatoes very little need iodine itself. In the market you will not find individual supplements with high iodine content.

Introduction of iodine in the period of formation and growth of seedlings of tomatoes allows replacing their feeding with nitrogen fertilizers, for example, the same nitrate.

Iodine supplement helps increase crop yields, increases resistance to fungi and microorganisms in the soil.

There are several signs by which it is possible to determine the need of a culture for feeding with iodine solution:

• Delayed onset of fruiting in adult tomato bushes. If during this period they are not given the necessary top dressing - the fruits will be very small, and the harvest will be very low.
• The most characteristic signs of iodine deficiency in tomatoes are thin, weak stems, sluggish and pale leaves.
• Weak immunity in tomato seedlings. When saplings grow poorly and get sick - they need urgent watering with iodine solution.
• Spraying iodine solution can help tomatoes with the defeat of their bushes root rot, brown spot, mosaic and especially late blight.

Benefit and harm

The benefits of processing tomatoes with iodine are as follows:

1. Seedlings tomato tolerates picking easier and gets acclimatized in the garden.
2. Nitrogen metabolism in the stems and leaves of the plant is improved.
3. Tomato seedling grows much faster, and young bushes in the garden begin to actively form a green mass.
4. Plants develop a strong and healthy root system.
5. Tomatoes are becoming more drought resistant.
6. Culture more easily tolerates the effects of excessive waterlogging.

Fertilizer seedlings tomato iodine solution has a beneficial effect on human health. For example, in some varieties of this vegetable, with this feeding, vitamin C accumulates in the fruit. Yes, and the taste of the fruit increases several times.

Does this method have disadvantages? As such, deficiencies in feeding tomatoes with iodine is not detected. But it should be remembered that an overabundance of this element can be harmful to both plants and man. Tomatoes accumulate iodine compounds, part of which enters the fruit, which then goes to us in food. therefore It is important not to overdo plant irrigation with iodine-containing solutions..

How to feed?

Liquid dressing with iodine can be done in two ways: foliar and root. The alternation of species will be most effective, since it will give the best result both in terms of treatment of tomato bushes, and in terms of preventing their diseases.

Seedling

For the proper development of the bushes of tomatoes and their fruits fertilizer with iodine must be applied even in the early stages of maturation of the crop, at the stage of seedling formation at home. This will help young plants grow well and grow properly. Bushes will gain strength to continue to successfully transfer the transplant and take root in a greenhouse or open field.

But to begin watering tomato seedlings must be in the right time and it must be done correctly. Based on the experience of home gardening, the most optimal time for the first feeding of seedlings with iodine is the period when the second pair of true leaves forms on the bushes. At this stage, root or extra-root fertilization of plants with iodine solution is performed.

For foliar treatment will require the following composition:

1. In 1 liter of warm water a glass of nonfat milk is diluted and 5 drops of iodine alcohol tincture are added.
2. The resulting composition is sprayed above-ground parts of tomato seedlings.
3. It is better to perform the procedure early in the morning or after sunset.
4. Iodine composition must be evenly distributed over the entire surface of the plant.

Root top dressing is more often used for growing seedlings in the greenhouse and consists of the following:

1. For a ten-liter bucket with room temperature water, you need 10 grams of iodine tincture.
2. Each bush needs to be watered at the very root of 500 ml of solution.
3. It is better to carry out this procedure in the morning or in the evening.

Watch the video about feeding tomato seedlings:

Adult bushes

Root method of making

The preparation is as follows:

1. In 5 liters of hot water, dissolve 3 liters of sifted ash, cover the container with the solution and infuse for at least an hour.
2. Then dissolve the infusion with warm water, so that the total volume is equal to 10 liters.
3. Next, pour 10 ml vial of iodine and add 10 g of boric acid. Stir the resulting solution thoroughly and leave to infuse for 24 hours.
4. For watering plants, dissolve 1 l of solution in 10 liters of warm water.
5. Watering is carried out at the root of plants.

Foliar method of making

1. In 1 liter of warm water dissolve 250 ml of skim milk.
2. Then add 5 drops of iodine, mix thoroughly.
3. It is possible to spray tops with this composition in the morning or in the evening.
4. Too much watering the bushes is not worth it, because from exceeding the dosage of iodine on the leaves of the culture can cause burns.

What to do if overdone?

Remember that iodine as a fertilizer for tomatoes is useful only in a certain period and with proper proportions. Excess substance will affect plants negatively in the form of deformation of its brushes and fruits.

You should not make an excessively strong solution of iodine, because it is a fairly strong substance and the above dosages are quite enough. If the concentration of the composition for treating the bushes is too high, the harm will be received not only by the plant, but also by you, as you breathe in iodine vapors.

It is also worth having a reasonable approach to the number of plant treatments with such fertilizer. It is better to stop watering before fruiting the crop..

Important rules

• Iodine and other substances cannot be used for tomato seedlings if less than 10 days have passed since it was planted in the ground.
• When feeding tomatoes with iodine concentrate, you should not additionally add Aspirin or Trichopol to the solution.
• Manganese crystals can be added to the solution with iodine, but it is important to keep the correct proportion: for 100 ml of the composition 0.5 g of pink grains.
• Watering bushes with boric acid or hydrogen peroxide is possible only 4 days after the end of feeding with iodine.
• In the fight against late blight on tomatoes with the help of an iodine composition, it is better to take only the lean oil for the treated mixture.

Conclusion

When growing tomatoes in their own area, it is necessary to resort to various types of fertilizing of this crop, including iodine solutions. To prepare such a fertilizer is quite simple and does not take much time. But only timely and competent introduction of such funds will make the plants resistant to diseases and will allow to achieve a good harvest in the future.

Watch the video: How I Grow Medicinal Vegetables that Can Help Heal Disease (April 2024).