Agronomist notebook: Caring for tomato seedlings in nursery

It is slightly over a week since Moses sowed tomato seeds in a raised nursery bed.
He has been watering them twice a day and the seedlings have now emerged thus there is need to remove the mulch, which is one of the first nursery management practices.
Delayed removal of mulch normally results in taller seedlings as the plants search for light. Later, such plants end up with stem breakages.
Always remove the mulch when the weather condition is cool and do it gently to avoid causing injuries to the seedlings. Place the removed mulch far away since it may harbour pests and diseases.
As a good practice, remove the mulch when 70 per cent of the seedlings have germinated, and water the plants soon after.
We erected a shade net on top of the nursery to shelter the seedlings against the harsh environmental conditions currently experienced in Kajiado.
In the place of a shade net, you can also use dry grass which you should erect a metre-high.
Secure the shading materials by tying strings across or placing rafters on top to prevent them from being blown away by the wind.
As the seedlings germinate, some weeds also grow thus weeding is necessary and do it manually.
Have records of all management practices
At this stage one should avoid herbicides because the seedlings are still delicate.
Some of Moses seedlings were crowded in once place, so we did pricking out.
Such seedlings can be transplanted in another seedbed to curb wastage. Pricking out allows sufficient space for root development, good aeration, and easier management of pests and diseases.
I have trained him to scout for pests and diseases such as white flies and Tuta absoluta and fungal diseases like blight every day.
At week three, we will apply CAN to encourage vegetative growth and soon start the hardening off process, where one gradually reduces the shade and watering in the nursery to make the seedlings strong enough to survive in the field after transplanting.
I have asked Moses to reduce the number of watering from twice a day to once depending on the weather conditions.
Our target is to transplant the seedlings after four weeks when they would have achieved 3-4 leaves.
As a good measure, have records of all the management practices you do for reference and to monitor the plant progress.
In our case, to allow easy and effective implementation of the activities, we have developed the work plan on the left.
In the next article, I shall focus on land preparation as we plan for the transplanting of the tomato seedlings.





Post a Comment