5 ways to use tomato tops for all occasions

Tomato leaf is a great help in growing vegetables and fruits. There are at least 5 ways to use tomato waste plant, which will significantly save time, effort and money of the summer resident.

Ways to use tomato tops

Sometimes it seems that the bushes of tomatoes grow by leaps and bounds. I did not have time to remove the upper stepchildren, and here already the lower growths. While you are cutting off the lower ones, for no reason at all, the leaves have fallen out from the palm and are about to lie on the ground - they also need to be torn off. As a result, over the summer, an armful of succulent stepchildren and leaves are gathered, which you do not know where to. However, experienced gardeners are happy with such a “harvest”. And this is why: tomato greens can act as a natural insecticide and fungicide. In general, tops are a natural raw material from which it is possible to prepare a useful fertilizer, rich in various chemical elements, compost, nutritional mixture, mulch.

Pest control

Most of all green medicine do not like aphid, caterpillars and spider mites. Moreover, even the most malicious enemy of the nightshade, the Colorado potato beetle, ceases to be interested in plants that are sprayed with an infusion of tomato tops. The smell of infused grass alone kills in them the whole desire to crawl onto the treated landings.

First of all, it deters pests of tops due to its toxic composition. Scientists have found that the fibers contain alkaloid solanine - a toxic organic compound.

Recipe for infestation from harmful insects

It is necessary to prepare 2-2.5 kilograms of green leaves, leaves and stepsons, chop them. Received chips pour a bucket of hot water and let it brew for 5-6 hours. To speed up the process, you can boil the mixture over low heat for 20-30 minutes. The resulting decoction (infusion), strain and dilute with clean cold water in a ratio of 1: 4, then add a little grated soap to stick.

It is possible to spray with such a tool any vegetable crop, both for the purpose of prophylaxis and when the first insects appear on the leaves. Ticks, on which such a solution falls, die during the first days after treatment. To consolidate the result of the treatment is carried out every 7-10 days, bypassing not only the affected bushes, but also healthy.

To always be provided in useful raw materials, it is necessary to dry the collected tops and stepchildren - in this form they are also suitable for making infusions and decoctions.

Precautions when using insecticidal broth from tomato tops:

1. Concentrated solanine infusion can damage plants and cause burns. Therefore, you should follow the prescription rules, and before processing the beds, the tool should be tested on one bush in order to identify "allergic reaction". If after spraying the foliage does not appear blistering, spots and other ailments, then we can safely take up the treatment of the entire area.
2. Processing infusion of tops carried out in the early morning or evening. In cloudy weather, you can spend all the work during the day. It is important not to keep the treated plants under the scorching sun - this can cause leaf burns.
3. Vegetable poisons do not accumulate in the soil, and therefore are absolutely harmless to plants and humans, do not settle in the fruit, and toxins disappear in the light, so you can eat processed fruits after a day.

Compost

Tomato tops are an excellent ingredient for a compost mixture. However, only young juicy and green tops that are not affected by disease are suitable for the nutritional composition. Late blights will be better burned, otherwise the disease can infect the entire area.

For the preparation of compost using not only greens, but also blackened fruits, which are placed in a large barrel, mixing with a small amount of earth. To disinfect the substrate, the mixture is shed with blue vitriol. To make the process go much faster, a mullein and urea diluted in water are added to the compost, or specialized means, such as the EM preparation, Sanex, are used. In this case, the nutrient fertilizer for the soil will be ready next year.

Compost is “prepared” under a black film in which small holes are made to get air inside. Spring compost can be supplied with complex fertilizer. Fully prepared compost looks like crumbly humus, which can be used to mulch the land under fruit trees, shrubs and winter crops of vegetables or to make for digging.

Grass fertilizer

It is known that tomatoes respond well to liquid feedings, especially if they are herbal. But most of all they favor green fertilizers from their own tops. This feed is a source of large doses of nitrogen and other trace elements necessary for the growth of tomato bushes.

For the nutrient mixture, the stepchildren, leaves, and other parts of the plants are mixed, adding weeded weed. It is imperative to check the greens for signs of disease - if they do, they cannot be used.

Cooking:

The grass is poured with two buckets of water, the container is closed with a lid and allowed to infuse for a week. The finished brew will be covered with bubbles (methane output) - a sure sign that the useful fertilizer is ready.

Application:

The concentrate is diluted with water from the flow rate of 1 liter of the mixture per 10 liters of water and watered the tomatoes under the root, without affecting the ground organs of the plants. For foliar application, reduce the concentration, filter the solution and spray the bushes. Such fertilizing will promote faster penetration of vitamins to the plant, as well as destroy the insects appearing on the tomatoes.

Ash

When burning the tops turn into the most valuable, possessing useful properties, top dressing.

• firstly, the resulting ash is a natural, and therefore completely safe product;
• secondly, in the burnt plant residues there is a huge amount of micro- and macroelements, which “throwing out” would be sacrilege.

Enriched with phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium and other elements of the ash, it is necessary to bring in the ground during the autumn digging area. During the winter, dry fertilizer will supply the soil with nutrition, from which its fertility will significantly increase. Ash from the tops of tomatoes can be made under perennials, preparing for the winter period. The fertilizer is mixed with water and shed the ground under the shrubs, giving the ashes to sit well in the ground.

Topper mulch

Tomts tops can be used as mulch, laying in the aisle between the beds, under the bushes and dwelling tree trunks under fruit trees. Green mulch perfectly copes with the weed - it stops growing, retains the evaporation of water, protects the roots from overheating during the summer heat, and when rotting, it supplies the soil with necessary microelements. Only the mulch from tomato residues can reduce the labor costs of a gardener by a third.In addition, dried tomato tops, laid out under fruit trees and shrubs, protect them from dangerous insects who like to spend the winter in the bark of trees. The smell of their leaves will simply scare them away, and they will go to the neighboring garden to look for a home for the time of cold weather.

Now and you know about the beneficial properties of the tops of tomatoes, it remains only to apply all the tips and recommendations on the use of healthy herbs on your site and be happy for a good crop grown without the use of chemicals.