A gift for beginning gardeners - the “Shuttle” tomato is unpretentious in care and rich in harvest

The Shuttle tomato, due to its high yield and unusual shape, is of interest to summer residents. It is famous not only for its productivity, but also for its extreme ease of care: an ideal variety for beginning gardeners. Shuttle tomatoes are frost-resistant, unpretentious in watering and in the place where they are planted.

In this article you will find step-by-step instructions on how to properly prepare seeds for planting, learn how to care for sprouts and harvest your own homemade harvest.

Tomato Shuttle: characteristics and description of the variety

A distinctive feature of this tomato variety is the compactness of the bushes and early ripeness. The shuttle does not grow more than 50 cm, which allows it to be grown at home: on loggias and balconies.

Tomatoes ripen within 95 days after sprouts appear, which is why the variety is called early ripening. The fruits are medium-sized with a pleasant taste, have a specific elongated shape and appear 3 months after transplantation. to the greenhouse or 3.5 months if the transplant was carried out in open ground.

Chelnok bears fruit almost all summer, right up to autumn frosts.

The yield of the variety does not disappoint: with a fairly dense planting (about 10 bushes per 1 sq. m.), 8-9 kg of fruits are collected from each meter. This is why this variety is so popular among farmers: you can plant them close to each other, do without pinching and gartering (since the size of the plants is small), and still reap a large harvest.

When the fruit acquires a bright red hue and a cylindrical shape, similar to a sweet pepper, we can talk about its maturity.

Shuttle tomatoes are dense and fleshy, do not spread or become soggy when cutting. The weight of each fruit is about 50-60 g. They tolerate temperature changes and transportation well, last a long time and do not deteriorate (relative to other varieties), and are resistant to diseases.

Growing seedlings

To grow Shuttle tomato seedlings at home, you need to prepare the seeds. The best time to germinate seeds is the second half of March. When preparing seeds, they must be soaked in hot water for about half an hour, which will ensure their disinfection. The next step: germination - to do this, place the seeds on a hard surface and cover with damp gauze.

Important! Do not cover the seeds with thick cloth, this will prevent oxygen from reaching them.

Make sure that the gauze remains moist, because moisture is what will ensure germination. After two days have passed, they begin to plant seeds, but always in moist soil.

Plant in rows, 1.5 cm apart from each seedling, maintaining a depth of about 2 cm. It is advisable to place 2-3 seeds per seedling so that they are sure to germinate. For better conditions, close to greenhouse conditions, the box with seedlings is covered with a transparent film.

With regular watering, problems with seed germination should not arise if all of the above instructions have been followed.

Next, we place the container closer to the light: on the window, and also observe the temperature norm for favorable cultivation: about +20 degrees. After a week, the temperature is increased and brought closer to normal room temperature.

Light must come from all directions so that the seedlings are not drawn in a certain direction.To do this, change the location of the boxes or add an additional method of lighting - special fluorescent lamps. As soon as the seedlings have leaves, they need to be transplanted into separate containers: Use plastic cups or regular pots.

For further successful cultivation, periodically take the seedlings outside: this will harden them and prepare them for further transplantation into the greenhouse.

Growing tomatoes in a greenhouse

At the end of May (the optimal time for transplanting), the tomatoes are planted in the greenhouse, but in a different sequence than the seeds: at a distance of about 30 cm from each other, to a depth of 2 cm. This results in 4-5 bushes per 1 sq. m. m of soil.

Important! More dense planting (6-7 bushes per 1 sq. m) does not affect the amount of harvest in any way. Therefore, the “Shuttle” variety is excellent even for those summer residents who have a small plot of land.

Before planting sprouts Dig up the soil, form beds, and add fertilizer a couple of days before planting. In the future, the bushes will be fertilized once a month.

Next, we monitor the growth of the bushes, tying them up if necessary, although in general this variety of tomatoes does not need tying up. If you are making a vertical garter in a greenhouse, make a support for the bush and tie a branch or stem to it with a piece of rope that is falling under the weight. This will make it easier for the plant to grow and develop.

With a horizontal tie, a highly tensioned wire or rope is used from one end of the greenhouse to the other. Ropes will be attached to it to support the branches and stems of plants.

Watering in a greenhouse or in open ground - 1-2 times a week with water at room temperature. The Chelnok variety is not fussy about watering.However, if it is hot outside, the number of waterings is increased to 2-3 per week.

When watering, try not to get it on the leaves of the plants, as this can cause fungal disease, as well as burns if watering is done when the plant is exposed to direct sunlight. Even if you forget to water the plants on time, do not be alarmed - tomatoes are drought-resistant and can survive without water in a greenhouse for up to 2 weeks.

After watering, it is advisable to loosen each time: this will allow the roots of the plant to receive air. Loosen with a special hoe or garden fork, cultivating the soil 5 cm deep. This will prevent diseases of the plant roots and promote its accelerated growth.

Important! Do not confuse loosening and weeding. You need to loosen the soil after watering, and weed the beds only as weeds sprout on it.

Remember about timely pinching, if required: cutting young shoots from plant stems. After removing the stepsons, the bush looks like a stem with several branches that will bear fruit in the future. This will allow the plant to develop in its normal mode and bear fruit on time.

When it comes to growing tomatoes, be aware of existing pests and plant diseases. Despite the resistance of this plant species to diseases, the most common is a fungal disease late blight.

Spots that appear on the leaves indicate the development of the disease. This is due to frequent watering, so at the first sign they reduce the amount of moisture that reaches the plant. It is also necessary to remove and burn all damaged leaves to prevent the spread of the disease.

Important! To prevent the appearance of late blight, it is recommended to spray the bushes with copper-containing preparations.

Another common disease of the variety is mosaic. The carrier of the disease is aphids. If you see white or yellow spots on the leaves, this is a mosaic. Completely affected leaves fall off, but you shouldn’t let this happen: tear off the diseased leaves in advance.

There are pests that eat plants, for example, the cockchafer. Its larvae eat the roots of the plant and it dies. You can fight them by directly collecting the larvae or using special pest control drugs (for example, Medvedok).

Subject to the regime of watering, loosening and feeding, as well as with proper monitoring and prevention of diseases and pests, you are guaranteed to get a good harvest of Shuttle tomatoes.

The nuances of growing in open ground

The Shuttle tomato variety is suitable for growing in open ground, as it is extremely resistant to cold weather and does not require staking. However, a Shuttle grown in open ground will bear fruit a couple of weeks later than one planted in a greenhouse.

There are also a couple of nuances that hinder the healthy growth and development of plants in open ground:

1. Rains. If there is too much rain, the plant becomes infected with fungal diseases or suffers from excessive moisture.
2. Plants planted in open ground become more susceptible to attacks by pests and diseases. For example, a disease such as late blight enters a plant, including through rain. An attack by cockchafers or aphids is also more likely when these tomatoes are grown in open ground.

Harvesting and application

As soon as the tomatoes acquire a bright red color and an elongated cylindrical shape, they are harvested. As a rule, ripening occurs in July and August, but continues even in the fall.

Pick tomatoes carefully so as not to damage either the branches or the fruit itself. For storage, place the fruits in a paper-lined box. It is not recommended to put too many tomatoes in one box, as the fruits lying below will become wrinkled.

Store the box in a dry place, but not in direct sunlight. The room temperature should not exceed +6 degrees, otherwise the tomatoes will begin to deteriorate. If there is a need for long-term storage of tomatoes (more than 3 weeks), they are removed from the branches slightly unripe and placed in boxes to ripen in the same way.

The use of the crop is varied: the fruits are convenient to preserve, they fit perfectly into jars. “Shuttle” tomatoes will decorate the holiday table even in the form of ordinary slices.

Also, we must not forget about the beneficial properties of tomatoes. Tomatoes are a powerful antioxidant. Lycopene, which is part of the tomato, helps in the treatment of many diseases. In addition, tomatoes have an antibacterial effect. Tomatoes also fight blood clots, and due to the serotonin they contain, they improve your mood.

Advantages and disadvantages of the variety

Main advantages:

• compactness of the bush;
• resistance to diseases and pests, as well as drought;
• growth and development without tying up;
• yield: tasty, dense, bright fruits, pleasant aroma;
• ease of care and harvesting;
• long fruiting.

Flaws:

• To grow a healthy plant, you need enough light and heat;
• needs regular feeding;
• prevention of fungal diseases will be required.

What farmers say

Reviews on the Internet are mostly positive. There are often comments about the ease of growing “Shuttle” tomatoes and the large harvest. There are many comments from recipes. Here are examples of several reviews.

“Chelnok has been my consistently grown variety for ten years now. Low. In the best years, I collect at least a seven-liter bucket from a bush. Good at rolling." — Svetlana, St. Petersburg.

“I like these canned tomatoes. It’s easy to grow, you don’t need to do almost anything,” — Natalya, Moscow region.

“It’s an excellent variety, this is the only one I plant, and it takes root well in open ground,” — Olesya, Nizhny Novgorod.

Conclusion

Tomato Shuttle is a variety that has been proven over the years. It is extremely tasty and easy to grow, making it ideal for beginning gardeners. The compactness of the bushes will not only save space in the garden, but also grow them at home on the balcony. By following the instructions in the article, even a novice gardener will receive a large harvest of tomatoes.