Tomato "Agatha": advantages and disadvantages, rules of cultivation

Each hostess wants to quickly diversify the lunch menu with fresh tomatoes from her own site.Therefore, early ripe tomatoes are very popular. They do not differ in large size, but before others will bear fruit to your table.

On the shelves of gardening shops you can find many seeds of such tomatoes. But if you prefer time-tested varieties tested by experienced gardeners, you'd better opt for Agata tomatoes.

Tomatoes "Agatha" bear the first fruits on the 98th day of the growing season. On the 120th day you can carry out a full harvest. The shape of the fruit of this variety is rounded, the color is bright red, the skin is smooth. Brush fruit brings an average of 3-6 fruits weighing 80-100 g each.

Grade "Agatha" in the climatic conditions of the middle lane grows well in open ground. Fruits at the same time do not crack and do not overripe, grow about the same size and retain an excellent presentation. Peculiarities of the root system do not require a large amount of space for each bush; therefore, relatively small areas are suitable for their cultivation.

Productivity depends on care. On average, you can get from 2 to 7 kg of yield per square meter. On an industrial scale, you can get 580-670 centners of tomatoes from each hectare.

The fruits have high taste characteristics: tomatoes are dense, fleshy, juicy, but not watery. In the taste of many, there is a slight sourness. Experts rate the Agata tomatoes from 3.8 to 5 points.

Like most early tomatoes, Agata is quite resistant to late blight. Reviews of gardeners who grow it show that the resistance of a tomato to this fungus is even higher than the stated average. He also barely suffers from vertex rot.

This tomato belongs to undersized varieties, the average height of an adult plant is about 33-45 cm. The growth of the bush stops after 4-5 fruitful brushes form on it, and they will later yield a harvest of tomatoes. The first fruitful brush is formed on the plant immediately after the fifth leaf, the rest - at a distance of two sheets from the previous one.

Due to the low growth of the plant varieties do not require stabbing. This makes tomato "Agatha" especially attractive for beginner gardeners, who have not yet studied all the subtleties of growing tomatoes.

It may be a disease-resistant variety, but an additional measure of protection will not harm it. After the removal of the stepsons, the bush is better ventilated, it helps in preventing the disease, prevents blackening of the fruit, which most recently was a real scourge of gardeners.

Separated stepchildren do not need to throw away. If you put them in water for a few days, they will give roots and you will get young plants. This will be especially useful if you have a few seedlings. On such plants, the crop will ripen a little later, but the quantity and quality of fruits will be the same as with plants grown in the traditional way.

Bushes in tomatoes of this variety are low, so there is no strong need for tying them. However, it does not hurt: after all, it is not a standard grade. First, tied up bushes are better and smoother. Secondly, in non-attached plants, the lower fertile brush can “lie down” on the ground. This can lead to the fact that the fruits on it will begin to rot.

Tomato seeds can be planted on seedlings in the second half of March. In order to obtain strong seedlings, it is important to prepare the seeds correctly. In order to prepare them, they are placed in an oven and heated at a temperature of 60 degrees for 3 hours.After that, disinfection is carried out in a weak solution of potassium permanganate. Decontaminated seeds are soaked in a solution of trace elements or biostimulants.

For germination used wet sand, in which they are kept at a temperature of 23-25 ​​degrees. Germinated seeds need to harden, keeping at a temperature of 3-5 degrees for 3 days. This will allow future plants to easily tolerate temperature drops.

Germinated seeds are planted in a cooked container. The optimum depth for tomato seeds is 0.5 cm. After that, the container with future seedlings is covered with a piece of glass or cling film and kept at a temperature of 25 degrees until friendly shoots appear. After most of the plants have risen, glass or film covering the box can be removed and seedlings placed in a bright place.

The temperature of the room, where there are containers with seedlings, should not be below 16 degrees. Young seedlings need a lot of light, so in the first days it must be constantly illuminated with lamps. For older plants, daylight hours are at least 12 hours. If there is not enough natural light, you must continue to apply highlighting. Plants that do not receive enough light grow frail and weak.

Young seedlings need weekly watering at room temperature. When the fifth leaf is formed on the plants, they should be watered every three days with room temperature water.

After the second true leaf appears on the seedlings, a pick should be carried out by transplanting the plants into separate dishes. For this, peat pots or plastic cups with a capacity of 0.5 liters are well suited.

Tomato seedlings are considered ready for planting after the plants have 6-10 fully formed sheets and floral brushes start to tie. Before proceeding to the landing, the seedlings are hardened. To do this, containers with it must be brought out for a few hours to the street or put on a balcony. This will prepare the plants for a new temperature regime. Transplanting seedlings in open ground is usually carried out in the second half of June.

Preparing a greenhouse for planting tomato seedlings begins in the fall, when ash and eggshell are added to the soil. If for some reason this was not done, a week before transplantation, the soil in the greenhouse should be watered with micronutrient fertilizer. Plants can be planted in the greenhouse at the end of May, according to the 50 x 50 cm scheme, deepening the shrub to the cotyledon leaves. If possible, the distance between the bushes is increased to 70 cm.

Should be attentive to the seedlings that are sold in the markets. Quite often there are bright green plants with succulent foliage, obtained with the help of a large amount of organic fertilizers. Bushes grown from such seedlings will also be lush and branched, but they will not be able to get a good harvest. An excess of organics will lead to the fact that only tops will develop. When buying should prefer less bright seedlings. It is also important to know whether the plant has been hardened. This will tell his stalk. If the seedlings are hardened, the stalk will be purple.

In areas with a warm climate, planting seeds directly into the ground is possible. It is produced in the same way as when growing seedlings. Seeds are covered with foil. After the emergence of shoots, you can put the greenhouse arc or continue to close the film at night, during the day it can be removed.

For tomatoes "Agatha" requires proper watering. It is necessary to ensure that the soil does not dry out, but it does not over-humidify: in the latter case, the appearance of a fungus is possible.

Watering should be done in the grooves, so as not to wash the ground from the roots of plants.

Several times during the season, plants need additional fertilization with potash and phosphate fertilizers. It is recommended that the first feeding be carried out 2 weeks after planting, the second - at the beginning of fruiting, the third after 2 weeks after the second. It is also necessary to regularly loosen the soil and weed the plants, removing weeds.

Black spots that appeared on the leaves and fruits of tomatoes, indicate that the plants are infected with the fungus phytophthora. Many garden crops are susceptible to this disease, and although tomatoes of the Agata variety are distinguished by high resistance to late blight, it will be useful to know how to fight it.

You should start the fight before the transplant. To do this, the greenhouse should be treated in the spring or autumn with special preparations for late blight and other diseases. To prevent disease, tomato bushes should be treated with chemicals that can be bought at gardening stores. You can also make a solution of 1% Bordeaux mixture (copper sulfate - 100g, hydrated lime - 100-150g per ten liters of water) and treat the bushes two weeks after disembarkation.

Grade "Agatha" is almost immune to late blight. However, he also needs prevention. In order to conduct it, start with the popular methods. For example, treat plants with infusion of onion and garlic. To do this, take 200 g of onions and garlic in 10 liters of water and leave them for a day in a dark, cool place for the mixture to be infused. The resulting infusion need to process all tomato seedlings.

Another effective prevention method is treatment with ordinary milk sour milk or kefir (100 g per liter of water + 3 drops of iodine).

Tomatoes varieties "Agatha" are perfect for both preservation and for fresh consumption. They can be used for all kinds of salads. Small tomatoes are well preserved. You can cook them and tomato juice or pasta, skipping tomatoes through a meat grinder. Experienced housewives say that this juice is better not to boil, and warm to 70 degrees. Hermetically sealed, it will retain the taste of fresh tomato even in the middle of winter, and the nutrients in it will remain.

You can also make tomato paste from the fruit, strongly evaporating the ground tomatoes over low heat. But after prolonged exposure to high temperatures, most of the vitamins will collapse.

For cultivation in the climatic conditions of Russia tomato "Agata" is one of the best. A seasoned gardener can harvest a very good harvest for a season even from a small greenhouse, if it is proper to take care of plants, feed them in time and protect them from diseases. Even a not very experienced summer resident can safely engage in the cultivation of these tomatoes.

Review of tomato seeds varieties "Agatha", see below.