How to plant tomatoes on a window. How to grow tomatoes for the New Year's table

Tomatoes appeared in the European diet not so long ago - about 400 years ago. And before that, for almost a hundred years, the plants were considered purely ornamental, and the fruits were poisonous. The Spaniards brought tomatoes when they conquered South America.

Apparently, someone tried unripe tomatoes and got poisoned. Indeed, green tomatoes cannot be eaten raw because high content solanine poison. This led to the fact that tomato bushes were grown in gardens for beauty.

Today, more than 4,000 officially registered varieties have been bred, approximately 5,000 more are amateur selections, and the number of hybrids has already exceeded 20 thousand. Conventionally, all varieties can be divided into three groups - for open ground, for growing in greenhouses and indoor tomatoes. We will talk about the latter in detail.

The group of tomato varieties suitable for growing on a windowsill, balcony or terrace includes several types:

dwarf tomatoes;
tall tomatoes;
ampelous types (hanging);
decorative varieties of potted tomatoes, which, however, produce some harvest of tasty sweet fruits.

The fruits are quite large in size - about the size of an apple, but the most popular are indoor and cocktail tomatoes.

By color, varieties of dwarf tomatoes are red, pink, yellow, white, chocolate and black, green and multi-colored.

All varieties of tomatoes for the windowsill meet the following requirements:

be self-pollinating (there are no pollinating insects in the house);
standard, that is, do not require pinching and shaping of bushes;
adapted to conditions short day, especially in winter;
bushes are small in size;
with early harvest, but extended over time.
resistant to dry air and fungal diseases.

What varieties of tomatoes can be grown on a windowsill in pots?

The answer is clear: these are self-pollinating indoor tomatoes with a compact bush shape.

You should not take tall varieties for planting at home, and it’s not just large size the plants themselves. For full fruiting and ripening of fruits, they also need a certain volume of soil - a container no smaller than a bucket. It is problematic to keep such tomatoes at home in a standard flower pot, and the harvest will be minimal.

We present a short review with descriptions and photos of the most successful varieties of indoor tomatoes that can be grown on a windowsill all year round.

Indoor mini tomatoes of American selection

Among numerous varieties Our vegetable growers recognize Florida Petit, Minibell and Tiny Tim as the most successful. All of them have a compact bush 20-30 cm high, the fruits are bright red, early maturation(80-90 days after germination), quite productive - one planting for 2-3 weeks can produce up to 0.6-1 kg of sweet tomatoes. In the first two varieties they are small, about the size of walnut, and Tiny Tim produces indoor tomatoes as big as an apple.

The first flowers appear above the 5-6th leaf, another inflorescence appears 1 leaf higher. Then the bush stops growing in height, but forms numerous side shoots. There is no need to do any shaping.

Another undoubted advantage is that you don’t need additional lighting- even natural light during the winter window ensures fruit ripening.

Dwarf varieties of domestic selection

These can be called practically problem-free productive varieties for window sill and balcony: Pearl, Bonsai, Angelica. They are also short - up to 30 cm. The fruits are small, but there are a lot of them - the bushes are literally covered with red tomatoes, and in Zhemchuzhina they have a rich crimson and plum-shaped.

- this is one of the most popular and productive indoor varieties, growing both on the windowsill and in flowerpots and boxes on the balcony. Breeders have developed varieties of this variety with red, orange, yellow, pink and chocolate fruits.

The bush can grow up to 0.5 m, it is compact, with numerous branches, but requires garter. Fruiting is early, spread over 1 month. In total, you can harvest up to 2 kg of excellent tomatoes from one plant. There are very tasty, sweet fruits different sizes– from small peas to the volume of a tennis ball.

The best varieties of tomatoes to grow at home in winter are Florida Petite, Bonsai and Balcony Miracle.

The Room Surprise variety looks very decorative. At good care so many cute elongated fruits grow on it that the bush appears red rather than green. This variety can be grown on a garter and in an ampelous form.

The smallest variety today is considered Mikron NK, 15-20 cm tall, the berries are red and yellow, weighing 10-12 g, there are a lot of them, in total - up to 1 kg from such a small bush!

Also pay attention to the varieties Cherry Yasik, Balcony Yellow, Skorospel, Mirabel, Pierretta 225, Craiova, Boni-M. They can also be grown in open ground on the beds.

Ampel varieties

Bushes with hanging clusters of small fruits are very beautiful, especially in hanging flowerpots and will decorate the interior and balcony.

The most productive among the hanging varieties is Pinocchio. The length of the vines is up to 30 cm; at the same time, up to 1.5 kg of red, uniformly sized tomatoes weighing about 20 g ripen.

Pygmy is another stunning variety that does not require special care, with guaranteed harvest almost up to 2 kg of red fruits weighing 25 g. The bush looks like a green ball covered with red peas.

Another ampelous variety– dwarf form amazing variety Honey bunch. It is distinguished by very large clusters of 20-30 yellow-orange plum-shaped tomatoes. This is the most delicious variety of all the rooms. It is also grown in garden beds.

The cascade variety Tumbler is preferably grown in hanging flowerpots or balcony boxes. Productivity up to 2 kg red, very delicious fruits. Demanding on lighting.

These were listed the best varieties dwarf and ampelous tomatoes for home grown. From them you can collect your seeds for the next stage of cultivation.

There are even more hybrids - City dweller F1, Cherry fingers F1, Red abundance F1, Slastena F1, Arctic cherry F1 and others. Their seeds are on next year do not retain original qualities. But stepsoning allows you to preserve the variety. At the end of fruiting, you need to take the healthiest stepson that did not bear fruit, root it in water and grow it as a full-fledged new bush.

Low growing tomato varieties

On windows in a warm house and on balconies from May to September, when the temperature environment at night it will reach +15 degrees, you can also grow low-growing (standard) varieties intended for open ground. There are no special differences in agricultural technology between dwarf and standard tomatoes.

Homemade tomatoes that grow no more than 60 cm in height are suitable for growing on the window, and varieties with bushes and up to 1.5 m can be used on balconies.

The best standard varieties with guaranteed yield

(Aelita) - early, first ripening 65-75 days after sowing, tomato height up to 50 cm, red fruits 100-130 g, yield up to 2 kg per bush.
Tomato Russian garden. Height up to 35 cm, red fruits up to 60 g, yield up to 1.5 kg. Extra early variety - 60 days after the first shoots.
Golden (SeDeK) - bright lemon round tomatoes 150-200 g, ripening is extended, begins after 90 days. Hypoallergenic dietary variety with a high content of betacorotene.
Firewood - bush up to 30 cm, fruits long - 12-15 cm, red, sweet, weighing up to 180 g. Grows even in containers of 1.5-2 liters.
Mongolian Dwarf - bush height 20-30 cm. And such a baby can produce 8-12 red tomatoes weighing 150 g.
Moscow dawns. Grows up to 50 cm, yield – 3-3.5 kg of red tomatoes weighing up to 120 g.
Beta is a standard variety of cherry types, fruits up to 50 g, the bush grows up to 50 cm.
Severin is one of the most unpretentious tomatoes for the home and balcony, height 50 cm, red tomatoes weighing 80-100 g. Productivity up to 4 kg over extended ripening.
High-yielding variety low-growing tomatoes Visibly-Invisibly produces up to 5 kg of tomatoes weighing 60-100 g per bush. Requires garter, as branches can break under the weight of the fruit!
Bushman - with a height of about 45 cm, the weight of tomatoes reaches 300 g. Very juicy, dense, red-raspberry color.

Growing homemade tomatoes

To get a full harvest in winter, it is important to choose the right sowing time, otherwise dwarf plants will suffer from lack of light.

If you are not going to add more light to your “home beds,” then do the first sowing in August (no later than the 20th). Then you will get the main harvest under New Year and fruiting will last until mid-February.
The second sowing is mid-January, fruiting is in April-May.

With additional lighting of the bushes, you can sow in November or early December. Plants will begin to produce their harvest in March-April, at just the right time.

Simple agricultural technology:

Preparing a high-quality soil mixture in the fall, or purchasing ready-made soil.
Sowing 2-3 seeds in separate cups, after the first true leaf appears, remove weak sprouts. It is important to know that picking seedlings delays the onset of fruiting by 7-10 days!
Timely watering (you can’t overwater - fungus will grow), fertilizing every 2 weeks with liquid fertilizers.
Transfer to a permanent pot with a stem recess of 5-6 cm. The minimum container size is 2 liters, the optimal is 4-5 liters.
Protection from diseases. Chemicals should not be used in the house! Spray regularly with this mixture: for 1 liter of warm water, take 50 ml of natural (from the market) milk and 5 drops of pharmaceutical iodine. Sometimes you can treat with a weak solution of potassium permanganate, as well as decoctions of dry herbs. Before flowering – treatment with a diluted solution of live yeast.
During the flowering period, shake the bushes several times a day or run something soft over them. This way pollination will be more complete.
For varieties with a height of 35 cm and fruits larger than 100 g, it is advisable to install supports.

Such simple care will provide you with a few, but tasty and healthy homemade tomatoes.

Many people grow it on the windowsill green onions, dill, parsley. Some people try to grow arugula and lettuce as a change. Did you know that on the windowsill you can grow not only herbs, but also vegetables, for example, cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes?

This topic is very interesting. You want to enjoy fresh vegetables in winter more than ever, but store-bought vegetables at this time of year, as a rule, leave much to be desired in taste and are not cheap. Not everyone can build and maintain a greenhouse in winter. Growing tomatoes and cucumbers on the windowsill is a good way out of the situation.

Growing tomatoes on a windowsill

Our craftsmen have come up with many ways to grow vegetables on a windowsill: some limited themselves to a couple of bushes in pots, while others set up entire hydroponic installations for this purpose. Today we will look at the technology of growing tomatoes on the windowsill in the usual way, accessible to anyone.

From the article you will learn:

1 What is needed to grow tomatoes on a windowsill
2 Which tomato varieties are suitable for growing on a windowsill
3 Tomatoes on the windowsill: growing technology
4 Sowing seeds and seedlings
6 Useful video: how to grow tomatoes on a windowsill
7 We also recommend reading:

What is needed to grow tomatoes on a windowsill

To grow tomatoes on a windowsill, you will need:

seeds or rooted cuttings of a suitable variety of tomato;
containers for growing (boxes or pots);
nutritious soil for planting bushes;
a well-lit window sill (preferably on the south or east side of the room);
lamps daylight or agro-lamps for organizing additional lighting.

Which tomato varieties are suitable for growing on a windowsill?

The specificity of growing vegetables on a windowsill is that they grow in a completely unsuitable environment. A window sill is not a vegetable garden or even a greenhouse. Its area is limited, as is the height of the window. In addition, daylight hours in winter are short, which also matters.

If you want your tomatoes not only to grow, but also to bear fruit, you need to provide the bush with sufficient space, care and light. It is also important that the fruits ripen as early as possible. Based on this, you need to select a variety for growing tomatoes on the windowsill.

Variety - Balcony miracle

It is best to grow low-growing, early-ripening and mid-early, abundantly fruiting tomato varieties with compact bushes on windows. Some varieties and hybrids meet these requirements. Among them are regular tomatoes and small cherry tomatoes. Small tomato bushes of these varieties are simply strewn with delicious tomatoes when they bear fruit.

Here is a list of tomato varieties that are suitable for growing at home on a windowsill:

"F1 Balcony red";
"Balconies of Yelou";
"Balcony Miracle";
"Red Pearl";
"Yellow Pearl";
"Ox Ear";
"Pink Angel";
"Renet";
"Bonsai";
"F1 Bonsai micro";
"Pinocchio";
"Craiova";
"Cherry Lisa F1";
"Bead F1";
"Thumbelina";
"Baby";
"Pygmy";
"Minibel";
"Zelenushka F1";
"Fenik F1".

If you were unable to buy tomato seeds of any of the listed varieties, don’t be upset. There are other varieties and hybrids of tomatoes that can be successfully grown at home on a windowsill. When choosing a variety from those available in the store, pay attention to the height of the bush and the ripening period of the fruit. In particular, the height of the bush should not be higher than 30-40 centimeters. If you want to grow a tall variety, remember that you will have to take care of good support.

Tomatoes on the windowsill: growing technology

The process of growing tomatoes on a windowsill is in many ways similar to growing them in a greenhouse and in open ground. But there is also its own specificity. So, special attention You need to pay attention to choosing a container for planting bushes, their lighting and pollination. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, let's sort it out in order.

Sowing seeds and seedlings

Most often, tomatoes are grown on the windowsill seedling method from seeds. But few people know that tomatoes can be grown from rooted cuttings. Both methods have their advantages: in the first case, the bush produces more fruits, in the second, the fruits will ripen a little earlier - the time for forcing seedlings will be reduced.

Seedling method

Dry tomato seeds are planted in seedling boxes or plastic cups. The method with cups is the most convenient: they take up little space, there is no need to pick up seedlings and carry a large box because of several seedling bushes.

Tomato seeds are planted in seedling boxes or plastic cups.

Take regular plastic cups, preferably transparent ones, to control watering. Fill them with soil (no need to make holes in the cups) and pour boiling water over them to disinfect. When the soil has cooled, plant the seeds, deepening them 2 cm.

You can sow 2-3 seeds in one cup; after germination, weak shoots can be removed. And if the seeds are sprouted in advance, plant one in each glass.

The seeds are germinated like this: soak them in a weak solution of potassium permanganate for 15 minutes. Good seeds will swell and sit on the bottom, and non-germinating ones will remain on the surface. The solution is poured out, the seeds are placed in a damp cloth and wait for small sprouts and roots to appear.

Next, cover the cups with seeds with film and place in a warm place (25-30°C). After about 3-4 days, seedlings will appear and can be transferred to a windowsill with additional lighting installed.

Start watering seedlings only after the top layer of soil has dried to reduce the likelihood of fungal diseases. It is better to water with a pear, sticking it between the soil and the wall of the cup. This way, you will not wash out the soil or over-moisten the top layer. Water for irrigation should be warm and settled.

When the seedlings are 3 weeks old, they are fed with seedling fertilizer, diluted with water according to the instructions. To prevent fungal diseases of seedlings, you can spray them with 50 g of milk diluted in 500 ml of water.

After a month, the tomatoes are transplanted from small cups into larger containers. Pots with a volume of 3-5 liters are suitable for this. You can fill a balcony box with fertile light soil and transplant the tomatoes into it, maintaining a distance of 25-30 cm between them.

The soil for growing tomatoes on a windowsill should include peat, sand, humus and turf soil (all in equal parts). Low-growing varieties can be planted in pots with a volume of 3-5 liters, while tall varieties require containers with a volume of 8-12 liters. Place a layer of expanded clay at the bottom of the pot, then a 2 cm layer of sand, place the plant in the middle and sprinkle it with soil up to the cotyledon leaves.

Growing from rooted cuttings

An interesting feature of tomatoes is their ability to root stems and cuttings. Therefore, it is not at all necessary to grow tomatoes on a windowsill from seeds; you can transfer the plant directly from the garden, or root its stepsons or shoots.

Propagation of tomatoes using stems and cuttings

To root, you need to take lateral or apical shoots, place them in cups of water and place them in a warm place, protected from drafts. To stimulate growth, you can add a drop of fertilizer to the cups to indoor flowers. With good room conditions The cuttings will take root in just a week and can be immediately planted in large containers.

But some gardeners shorten this process even further. For example, the author of the following video actually took cuttings from the garden and planted them in the ground without prior rooting. You can see what she did.

By the way, in the spring, in this way you can significantly reduce the time for forcing seedlings early tomatoes for the garden. Just root a few cuttings from a bush on the windowsill and the seedlings will be ready in a maximum of two weeks.

Caring for tomato bushes on the windowsill

When the seedlings are ready and planted in containers, the bushes are placed on permanent place. Tomatoes are light-loving, so they are best grown on the south side. It won't be superfluous additional lighting fluorescent lamps or agro-lamp, especially in the autumn-winter period. Insufficient lighting usually leads to a lack of flowering and, accordingly, no fruit.

Caring for tomato bushes on the windowsill

An important point in growing tomatoes is pinching - removing shoots that develop in the axils of the leaves. They must be broken off by hand and not cut off. By removing shoots, you increase productivity, because... are spent on the development of stepchildren nutrients plants that could be used for the formation and development of fruits.

For growing tomatoes on a windowsill, the optimal daytime temperature is 28°C and night temperature is 15°C. Unlike cucumbers, tomatoes are not afraid of drafts. Water several times a week with warm (20-25°C) water, without eroding the soil under the bush. Once every 10 days, feed the plants with mineral or organic (manure, ash) fertilizers.

You can also spray the leaves with a nutrient solution. But do not overdo it with fertilizers, otherwise your greenery will grow greatly to the detriment of the fruits. As the plant grows, it is necessary to tie the stems to a wooden peg.

Pay attention to pollination

Tomatoes do not require artificial pollination, but to be on the safe side, you can tap the stem a couple of times a week during flowering to shake up the flower clusters. At this stage, you can spray the tomato bushes with the preparation “Ovary”, which promotes the formation of fruits.

When the bulk of the fruit is formed, remove the top of the plant and flowering clusters. This way you will ensure full development of the tomatoes. A tomato can bear fruit for 5 years, but still, it bears fruit best in the first 2 years.

Kherson tomato has already become a brand not only in our country and the CIS, but also in the EU. On the shelves of stores in Germany, Scotland, Cyprus and other countries you can find canned tomatoes “Kherson style”. Processing companies European countries they are increasingly ordering tomatoes wholesale in Ukraine.

The most delicious tomatoes are grown open method on rich soils of the Kherson region in soft climatic conditions. Since there is enough potassium in the local soil, tomatoes grow sweetish, juicy, with a soft (not “woody”) core.

Balcony miracle

Let's move on to main topic- where to get plants. For summer residents, the answer is simple - dig up healthy low-growing bushes from the garden beds, on which small fruits and flowers still remain.

Transport the dug plants carefully so as not to break them; plant them in 2-3-liter containers (for example, in a plastic bucket) or two plants in a balcony box. The soil is either taken from the garden - the top fertile layer, or it is bought ready-made in the store: “For tomatoes and nightshades”, “Universal”, “ Living earth"etc. You can make your own soil mixture: 70% humus and 20% garden soil (but not the same where tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants grew), 5% black peat and the same amount of washed sand. The soil must be disinfected - poured with a strong boiling solution of dark potassium permanganate or frozen outside or on the balcony. Easy care: in the morning regular watering settled warm water, if necessary, fertilizing with complex mineral fertilizer(1 teaspoon per 5 liters of water).

If you can’t dig up tomato bushes, you can get plants from stepchildren. At the end of the season, cut off side shoots 10-15 cm long (small ones 5-7 cm long are also possible). They put them in a jar of water, and when the roots appear, they are planted in small pots with nutritious soil, covering part of the stem to the base of the leaves.

After the rooted stepsons begin to grow, they are transplanted one at a time into large pots or cache-pots. The roots of stepchildren are very fragile, so you need to plant them carefully so as not to tear them. The advantages of this method: fruiting occurs quickly, it is possible to save the variety you like if there are no seeds.

Video: Indoor tomatoes. Growing tomatoes in winter

Seedlings are sown at the end of March, and for autumn growing - in July. Leading breeding companies have prepared the seeds of indoor tomatoes for sowing; they do not need to be disinfected and can be sown dry. Or, to speed up germination, you need to keep it in a damp cloth in a warm place (for example, on top of the refrigerator, but not on the radiator). Sow as soon as small roots appear.

Sow to a depth of 1-1.5 cm in small cups with a diameter of 5-6 cm (seedlings will appear in 4-6 days). When the seedlings grow 2-3 serrated leaves, transplant one plant at a time into pots with a diameter of 10-12 cm.

Further care is the same as for ordinary tomato seedlings: not frequent, but abundant watering and only in the morning. To ensure that the soil is evenly moistened, add water to the pan. When watering, the water is kept free of chlorine for 3 days or passed through a filter. Water once every 5 days, and when high temperature- in 1-2 days. This is especially important during fruiting. However, plants should not be sprayed, even on hot days.

Plants with 4-5 leaves are transplanted into beautiful large pots where tomatoes will delight the owners with a harvest. A week after transplantation, they begin to feed using any complex mineral fertilizer (mortar, aquarine, nitrophoska, etc.). For tomatoes growing in pots, its walls limit the ability to independently obtain the missing nutrients, so the plants need to be fed constantly every 7-10 days. Moreover, the concentration of the first two fertilizers should be low (1/2 teaspoon of fertilizer is poured into 5 liters hot water, cool). From the third feeding, the dose is increased: 1/2 teaspoon per 3 liters of water. Before applying, the nutrient solution is filtered through gauze in three layers, and after feeding, be sure to water the plants with water.

Ventilate tomatoes in the window more often by opening the window to reduce the temperature.

During fruit setting, it helps to ripen them better by removing 2-3 cm of soil from the pot, and in return adding biohymus, humus or garden soil from under cucumbers and cabbage.

With weak growth and poor fruit formation, when the tomatoes are very small, you can sprinkle the bushes with a solution of mineral fertilizer (1/4 teaspoon per 1 liter of hot water, strain, cool). You can also use ready-made liquid fertilizers(ideal, veta, etc.), without exceeding the concentration recommended on the label.

40-50 days after germination, flower clusters appear on the plant, and after 20-25 days flowering begins. Then you need to additionally pollinate the brushes daily or twice a week by tapping the stem with a pencil. This must be done, otherwise the flowers will not be pollinated, because there is no wind in the room.

It is good to sprinkle the soil with sifted furnace ash every 10 days after watering, followed by obligatory loosening to prevent a crust from forming.

In low-growing tomatoes lower leaves They do not cut the plants, they do not shoot them, that is, they do not remove growing side shoots. Only varieties that form tall plants should be formed into 2 stems, leaving one stepson under the first cluster. As it grows, it produces a second stem.

If you want to increase the yield, the fruits are cut off when they turn brown or pink and placed for ripening. The yield on dwarf varieties ranges from 0.5 to 1.5 kg (with tall plants, where the fruits are larger, the harvest was not covered, but it is much larger). If the fruits are not cut brown, the harvest will be smaller, but from my own experience I know how difficult it is to resist leaving some of the tomatoes to ripen on the branch, they look so beautiful among the green foliage.

I had experience growing tall tomatoes with a stem of more than 1.5 m in one window. The yield was higher than that of low growing plants, however, there is much more hassle: a special garter on the window; placement not in a beautiful pot, but in a 10-liter bucket; watering and fertilizing are plentiful and frequent. After that, I grow only low-growing, small-fruited tomatoes and not only get fresh vegetables from the garden on the window, but also a lot of positive emotions.

Tatiana Oktyabrskaya

Video: Growing tomatoes on the windowsill

Tomatoes on a windowsill in winter lately are grown more and more often. This method of obtaining vitamin vegetable products is different high level efficiency and low costs of both money and time.

Benefits of growing tomatoes at home

In a home greenhouse

In indoor mini-greenhouses you can grow not only seedlings for planting in open ground. This miniature design is quite suitable for cultivating dwarf tomato bushes and allows you to get good harvest small fragrant fruits all year round.

Factory greenhouses are made from stainless steel and also have them covered organic glass and a base in the form of a tray. Closed indoor mini-greenhouses equipped with automatically controlled lighting, temperature and humidity are called growboxes. In such “mini-greenhouses” tomatoes develop very well, and they have enough light, heat and moisture in full.

How to sow tomato seeds (video)

Growing tomatoes and caring for them in an ordinary city apartment is not much different from cultivating them in open ground and caring for them. indoor plants. However, this method provides an excellent opportunity to replace low-use store-bought vegetables with environmentally friendly and very tasty products grown with your own hands and with minimal costs funds and time.