Tomato Long Keeper: variety description, reviews

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Tomato Long Keeper was created at the end of the last century by domestic breeders. The variety was included in the State Register of Vegetable Crops, but it is bred in small quantities due to late ripening.

For gardeners, the Long Keeper tomato variety is of interest because of the excellent preservation of the fruit. It allows you to get late harvests, delivering tomatoes to the markets at a time when the harvest of other varieties is already over.

Description

Tomato Long Keeper is a late-ripening, low-growing, high-yielding variety intended for long-term storage. Ripening period - 130 days. The leaves of the plant are medium in size. The first inflorescence is laid above the seventh leaf, and the next - after 1–2.

Properties of fruits

Long Keeper tomato fruits have a flat-round shape. They are smooth, medium in size, weighing about 150 grams. The color of the fruits in the immature form is white, and when ripe, they become pink-pearl. Maturationfruit comes a month after removal.

According to reviews, the Long Keeper tomato is used for pickling, canning, fresh consumption in winter.

Growing

According to the description, Long Keeper tomatoes are grown in seedlings. Sowing seeds is carried out 60-70 days before the expected date of planting seedlings in a permanent place.

Before you start sowing, prepare the seeds. To do this, they are soaked for fifteen minutes in a dark pink solution of potassium permanganate. All floating material is removed, and what remains at the bottom is washed with water. The seeds are being dried.

Then prepare the soil for sowing. You can make it yourself or purchase a ready-made substrate for tomatoes.

The landing tank is filled with soil. Then grooves are made about 1.5 cm deep. Seeds are laid on the bottom, maintaining a distance of 2 cm.

To get a Long Keeper tomato like in the photo, you should follow the planting pattern. To do this, it is recommended to plant no more than eight bushes per square meter.

Dignity of the variety

Tomato has a number of advantages, among them:

• stable yield;
• excellent keeping quality of fruits - tomatoes are stored for up to eighty days at room conditions, and in the cellar - until spring;
• when harvested for fresh consumption, it is recommended to shoot semi-ripe fruits.

The bushes are highly resistant to various diseases, including: tobacco mosaic, cladosporiosis, fusarium.

Long Keeper tomato variety is included in the State Register and recommended for cultivation in open ground, under temporary shelters and in unheated greenhouses.

Planting seedlings

The place for planting tomatoes has been prepared since autumn. It should be well lit, protected from drafts. The predecessors of tomatoes can be legumes, onions, green crops, cabbage, cucumbers.

In the spring, the selected area is cleared of weeds, the soil is dug up, fertilizing at the rate of 5 kg of compost per square meter. Be sure to add three tablespoons of phosphate and potash fertilizers.

As soon as the average daily temperature does not fall below 15 degrees, you can plant seedlings. To do this, holes are made in the garden according to the scheme 40 x 30 cm. It is better to plant seedlings in cloudy weather or in the evening. Humus, several granules of superphosphate are placed in each well. The pits are watered. Seedlings are deepened to cotyledon leaves.

If the seedlings have overgrown, it is recommended to remove the two lower leaves, the plants are planted at an angle, placing it so that there is about 20 cm of the stem above the ground.

Care

What culture looks like can be seen in the photo. Long Keeper tomato reviews indicate that the plant does not need special care. This variety is cared for in the same way as other tomatoes.

Agricultural technology involves periodic loosening of the soil. Two weeks after planting the seedlings, the bushes should be spudded in order to grow a more powerful root system.

At first, the plants are wateredrarely, but plentifully, spending 3-5 liters of water per bush. During the formation of the ovary, watering is increased. To do this, use only warm, settled water. During ripening, watering is reduced.

Tomatoes belong to the determinant species, about 120 cm high. They need a garter, support, pinching. They are led in 1-2 stems.

Feeding

The first time fertilizer is applied ten days after planting the seedlings. If fertilizers were placed in the planting hole, then the first top dressing is carried out later, after about three to four weeks.

Nettle tincture gives good results. For its preparation, they take nettles, but without roots, lay the plants in a container with water. A week later, the concentrate is ready for use. To prepare a working solution, take a liter of concentrate and dilute it in a bucket of water. The resulting composition is watered with tomatoes under the root. In this case, the consumption should be one and a half liters of composition per ten bushes. Nitrogen fertilizers can be used by diluting them according to the instructions.

The next two top dressings are carried out during the period of flowering plants and fruit growth. For this, the same fertilizers are used as the first time.

Foliar top dressing is useful. To stimulate the ovaries during the flowering period, tomatoes are treated with special preparations or the bushes are shaken. This procedure is carried out in the morning hours.

Harvesting

Collecting Long Keeper is carried out from mid-late August. In order not to damage the fruits, they are carefully removed. This variety is recommended to be removed from the bushes at the stagetechnical maturity. Tomatoes ripen at room temperature or in the cellar. With the latter method of storage, they retain their taste and appearance until spring.

When the night temperature drops to ten degrees, the whole crop is harvested. Ripe tomatoes are stored separately from green ones to slow down the ripening of the latter. If you need the fruits to ripen faster, then it is recommended to store them together with ripe ones.

Disadvantages of the variety

Long Keeper has disadvantages due to which it is rarely grown in the middle zone of the country. These include not only late ripening, but also average taste. However, they are preserved even during long-term storage of the harvested fruits. When storing other varieties, taste qualities are lost.

Minor disadvantages include the need for garter, pinching bushes. These negative features are characteristic of almost all varieties of tomatoes.

Reviews

According to the reviews of gardeners who have evaluated the variety, the tomato is worthy to be grown on every plot. In winter, it supplements the diet. Some even compare the taste to store-bought tomatoes, which are said to be far inferior to Long Keeper.

There are reviews confirming that the fruits are stored for a long time - they do not lose their appearance until mid-March.

The description says that the plant is about 120 cm high, but, according to reviews, the bush is taller, with a powerful trunk. Tomatoes do not ripen on the plant, which is why they are harvested whitish. During storage, they first turn yellow, thenturn pink. They will not turn red, but inside the pulp is a rich red color.