Nitrates are no longer scary: how to treat tomatoes so that they do not accumulate nitrates

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Nitrogen supplements play a key role in the accumulation of nitrates by plants. Unlike cucumbers or zucchini, tomatoes need much less nitrogen. The need is high at the beginning of summer, when leaf formation is active.

With the beginning of fruiting, the nitrogen content in fertilizers should be reduced to a minimum, focusing on potassium and phosphorus, which are needed for the formation, growth and ripening of fruits.

How dangerous is an excess of nitrogen?

Mistakes happen even to experienced gardeners. The desire to please your favorite crops leads to the fact that tomatoes receive much more nitrogen than necessary. This happens as a result of:

• frequent use of green grass infusion;
• overdosing of mullein or bird droppings;
• application of unrotted manure;
• fertilizing with ammonia;
• abuse of hot mulching.

Summer residents are afraid of mineral fertilizers, but they lose their vigilance when using folk remedies. After all, it is much easier to calculate the exact dosage of saltpeter or urea than manure or rotted manure.

In any case, the result is deplorable – tomatoes begin to actively grow leaves and side shoots, set fruits poorly and accumulate nitrates in them, as they cannot cope with the large amount of incoming nitrogen.

A remedy against nitrate accumulation

If you notice dark green leaves, thick shoots, and no ovaries, you should eliminate nitrogen from your fertilizing and instead focus on potassium-phosphorus fertilizer, which will help redirect the tomato's energy from growing greens to flowering and fruiting.

But what to do with nitrates?

There is a remedy that can stop the accumulation of nitrates in tomato fruits. This is iron. Iron regulates nitrogen metabolism in plants, accelerates its absorption, and stimulates the formation of proteins. Spraying the leaves with a 1% solution of iron sulfate (1 tsp per 10 l of water) will rid the fruits of nitrates.

To increase the effectiveness of the treatment, you should convert iron to a chelated form. This can be done by simply adding 1 tsp of citric acid to the solution described above. Chelated iron is better absorbed, because this is the form in which plants consume metals. And citric acid keeps the metal ion in a soluble state until it enters the plant.

By using this recipe, you can not worry about the safety of the crop for health.

However, problems are better avoided if you correctly dose nitrogen fertilizers.