Some gardeners, having determined their favorite variety of vegetables, grow it from year to year. Others are in constant creative search, following emerging novelties and conducting experiments with new varieties and hybrids. It is to such diversity lovers that we advise you to pay attention to the relatively new hybrid of tomatoes with the alluring name “Machitos”.

Grade description

Hybrid "Mahitos F1" is a product of the efforts of Dutch breeders. The tomato was bred by Rijk Zwaan Zaadteelt en Zaadhandel BV, located in the village of De Lier in the south of the Netherlands. For a quarter of a century of its existence, the company has not only conquered the local market, but is also actively promoting its products in other countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Belarus.

Among the main characteristics of the hybrid, the following should be noted:

Type of bush	Indeterminate, tall, can reach 200 cm.
Bush description	A powerful, symmetrically formed open-type plant with good foliage. The stem and root system are well developed. The leaves are large, dark green, the distance between two adjacent nodes (branches) is small.
Ripening time	Early ripening (from 90 to 100 days after emergence).
Fruit	Quite large, on average from 220 to 260 g, rounded in shape, slightly flattened at the stalk, glossy. The pulp and peel have an equally saturated bright red color, without a green area on the peduncle. Dense, fleshy, very tasty (with thin sweet notes).
Variety Productivity	High: more than 3 kg from the bush, subject to cultivation under the film.

Photo gallery

Advantages and disadvantages

• The indisputable advantages of the Dutch hybrid include the fact that this tomato:
• characterized by excellent germination (up to 100% of seeds);
• unpretentious, takes root very well, adapts to the proposed conditions and recovers after a transplant or other stress;
• forms a powerful root system that allows the plant to endure adverse conditions;
• quickly grows to an impressive size;
• it is well tied up and bears fruit, the fruits ripen together and are equally large in size throughout the hand;
• provides high and long yields, the rate of which is almost independent of weather conditions, in particular, does not decrease with decreasing temperature;
• drought-resistant, not prone to burns;
• gives beautiful and evenly colored fruits with a very high taste due to the significant sugar content;
• It is characterized by good fruit keeping quality, which provides the possibility of their relatively long storage and transportation;
• universal: thanks to the dense skin, tomatoes do not crack during the heat treatment, therefore they are suitable for fresh consumption as well as for preservation or preparation of juices or ketchups;
• resistant to such common diseases as the tobacco mosaic virus, verticillosis, brown spotting, fusarium wilt;
• almost not affected by nematodes.

• Among the shortcomings of the hybrid are primarily noted:
• poor adaptability to outdoor cultivation;
• small-fruity and low productivity with waterlogging, dense planting and other violations of agricultural technology;
• unevenly colored pulp (usually due to a lack of magnesium and potassium);
• the impossibility of seed propagation from grown plants at a very high cost of seed material (the wholesale price for 100 seeds is about 9 euros).

Self-growing seedlings

Makhitos seedlings are best grown on their own. The fact is that even an experienced gardener will not be able to identify a tomato variety by the appearance of seedlings (in the best case, you can determine the type of future bush - determinant or indeterminate). Given the very high cost of the original seeds of the hybrid, when buying ready-made seedlings there is a great risk instead of purchasing ordinary varietal tomatoes planted from seeds of our own assembly.

Sowing time

The timing of planting tomato seedlings must be determined independently, focusing on the climate zone, weather forecasts and their own intuition.

Important! Overgrown seedlings take root very poorly, and if the bush begins to bloom, then the buds will have to be removed altogether, since a non-rooted plant will still not be able to form a good ovary.

Tomato seedlings grow and develop quickly enough, and in early and highly productive Dutch hybrids these dates can be even more condensed. Therefore, it is necessary to calculate the sowing period so that the proposed landing in the open ground could take place after 55 days.

Soil mix

With the beginning of the "seedling" season, a large number of ready-made substrates for seedlings are on sale - balanced and decontaminated soil mixtures, with which no preparatory manipulations are necessary. However, for all the convenience of working with such soil, experienced gardeners still advise preparing the soil for seedlings on their own, insisting that in this case, the plant, after subsequent transplantation into the open ground, will survive a much less shock and take root in a new place faster.

To ensure the appropriate composition of the soil mixture using:

• garden soil taken in the place where the plant will be grown;
• peat;
• river sand;
• compost or other organic matter (fresh manure in the soil for seedlings cannot be used).

Important! Tomatoes prefer soil with a neutral reaction (pH is in the range of 6.5–7). If necessary, the substrate must be acidified or, conversely, reduced excessive acidity.

All ingredients are mixed in equal proportions, wood ash is added to them as a source of potassium, then the prepared soil is pickled (decontaminated) by abundant watering with potassium permanganate solution, kept in an oven heated to 70–90 ° С, or, on the contrary, in cold weather temperature below –15 ° С. In the latter case, it is recommended to carry out several consecutive removal of the soil in frost, between which the soil should be kept warm, allowing all microorganisms in it to wake up, in order to guarantee their destruction by the next freezing.

Capacity for growing

The easiest way to grow seedlings in special cassettes. For tomatoes, the Dutch or Polish standard is optimal. Since the seeds of Mahitos are almost 100% germinating, they can immediately be planted one at a time in separate cassettes of sufficient volume (at least 300 cubic cm) and later not be wasted on picking - thinning with transplanting into larger containers.

Conventional boxes or boxes are also suitable for seedlings, but in this case you need to stock up on additional containers in which grown bushes will be transported. In the absence of cassettes for this purpose, you can use disposable plastic cups or denser boxes of yogurt.

Of course, peat tablets are a very convenient option for growing tomatoes. They are planted whole in the ground, without extracting plants from them, but such a pleasure is quite expensive, given that you need to purchase them on each bush without the possibility of reuse.

Seed preparation

In some sources you can find recommendations for pre-soaking the seeds of "Mahitos" in rooting solutions such as "Immunocytophyte", "Virtan-Micro", "Epina", "Kornevina", etc. However, in reality this does not need to be done.

Important! The expensive seeds of Dutch hybrids went through all the necessary pre-planting processing, so they can and should be sown immediately, directly in the dry state.

Additional procedures for dressing, saturation with moisture and nutrients for Mahitos seeds are not only unnecessary, but also harmful, because in such a situation the plant may receive an additional burn or oversaturated feeding, which will further increase the growth rate of the bush and sharply reduce its yield.

There is also no need to pre-test the seeds for germination: at the declared price of goods, a European producer, who values ​​his reputation, guarantees almost complete absence of defective packaging in the packaging.

Sowing seeds

Tomato seeds are usually planted to a depth of 10 mm. The easiest way is to pour into the prepared containers such an amount of land that will allow you to lay the seeds directly on its surface, after which you will only have to sprinkle the seeds with a thin layer of substrate.

When using cassettes for seedlings, 1 seed is placed in each cell. If sowing is carried out in boxes, seeds should be laid out no more often than at a distance of 3 cm from each other (this applies to the row width and the laying frequency in each row).

Important! Watering the earth should be very plentiful, but only before laying the seeds. After sprinkling the top layer, you can only sprinkle it slightly from the spray gun, otherwise the seeds may unevenly deepen with a stream of water, and this will significantly slow the emergence of seedlings.

Seedling Care

After planting the seeds, the containers are tightened with a film or covered with glass and placed in a warm place (the temperature should be at least 25 ° C, for this purpose, a window sill next to a battery or other heating device is ideal). In this condition, the boxes with seedlings can withstand the first 5 days - this time is usually enough for Makhitos to give the first shoots. Periodically, the film from the soil should be removed for a short time and, if the earth has dried up, it should be moistened using a spray gun.

When the shoots appear, the greenhouse regime is gradually canceled (first remove the film for several hours, then increase this time, and finally remove it altogether so that it does not interfere with seedling growth). At the same time, it is necessary to reduce the external temperature to about 20 ° C - at this level, the main process of forming bushes takes place.

Young seedlings need a lot of light. If the days are cloudy, it is worth installing special lamps that will provide tomatoes with at least a 12-hour light day, and the more intense the lighting, the better.

Watering tomatoes in the first weeks of their growth should be plentiful, but not excessive. Both drying and waterlogging are equally detrimental to seedlings. But “Makhitos” does not need additional nutrition at the stage of growing seedlings.

After the formation of 2 real leaves, the seedlings dive, but this procedure is necessary only when tightly planted in common boxes or when using cassettes with a small cell. Machitos tolerates transplantation quite easily, but even for this stable hybrid this procedure is stressful.

Seedling hardening

Hardening of seedlings begins about 2 weeks before the expected date of planting of its seedlings in open ground. The meaning of the procedure is to prepare young plants for a future radical change in external conditions.

It is necessary to begin hardening by taking seedlings out into the open air in the daytime and leaving it there for a short time, say, for 1 hour. Then the time spent by the bushes outside gradually increases and approaches from both sides to the dark time of the day (seedlings are taken out earlier and left longer). By the time of transplanting to a permanent place, the tomato bushes should already spend a full day and all night in the open air.

Planting seedlings in a permanent place

Seedlings of the Dutch hybrid are considered ready for planting in the open ground when about 6 true leaves have formed on the bush. If the conditions for growing seedlings were created correctly, then by this time the bushes should grow by 20–25 cm. The laying of the first fruit brush is welcome, but if flowers began to bloom on it, such a branch will have to be removed.

In order not to lose actively forming buds, "Makhitos" should not be planted in open ground before the soil has time to finally warm up. The optimum soil temperature for the development of the hybrid is 18 ° C, so you should not hurry with a transplant, especially since unexpected frosts characteristic of April and even the beginning of May can completely destroy the first crop at the stage of laying it.

The classic planting scheme used for the "Makhitos" involves the placement of bushes at a distance of 35 to 40 cm from each other. However, a space of at least 1 m wide should be left between the rows.

Outdoor Care

It should be noted that when breeding the hybrid, breeders from Holland proceeded from the fact that the “Makhitos” would be grown in greenhouses. Residents of Ukraine and the southern regions of Russia practice planting this tomato in open ground, however, despite the fact that powerful bushes develop well in such conditions, the yield in this case still suffers greatly. Moreover, tomatoes ripening in the open air are seriously inferior to hothouse in their taste characteristics.

Watering

Hybrid "Machitos" should not be watered too abundantly. With an excess of moisture, the plant will direct all vital juices to active growth and the formation of green mass, while the fruits will not be tied very actively and will not grow to the declared size. It is necessary to water the bush as the top layer of the soil dries up, and during cooling it is better to stop the procedure altogether.

When the plant has formed 3-4 fruit brushes, the amount of moisture can be slightly increased.

Another trick is that a tomato cannot be watered over a bush. Water (fundamentally important - not very cold) must be poured exclusively under the root. The drip irrigation system is ideal for this purpose.

Top dressing

A characteristic feature of the hybrid is a genetic tendency to intensive growth. However, this positive point may turn into a deficiency in the abuse of fertilizers. The excess energy that the bush receives due to rich top dressing, as in the case of inadequately plentiful watering, is sent to the growth and laying of additional stepsons, to the detriment of the number of ovaries formed and the size of the fruits. This condition of the bush is called by farmers fatliquoring.

Important! The fatliquoring bush bears fruit later than the due date, but it adds to the farmer extra work associated with the removal of new stepsons.

For this reason, “Makhitos” needs to be fed very limitedly, and a hybrid does not need nitrogen fertilizers at all. Approximately after the formation of the 3rd fruit branch on the bush, fertilizing with potassium and magnesium should be applied to the soil. These minerals will provide faster ripening of tomatoes and their uniform staining. If necessary, you can repeat the procedure after about a month, and fertilizer application ends there.

Video: Topping Tomatoes

Stepson

The correct formation of "Machitos" involves the abandonment of 1, maximum 2 stems. All other stepsons should be removed immediately as they appear, otherwise a too branched bush will start to create problems for itself and will not be able to provide the crop expected from it.

In addition, the Dutch hybrid needs partial thinning of the foliage. Excess leaves obscure the forming tomatoes and also draw a lot of moisture from the soil. With increased leafiness of the bush, tomatoes form later, have smaller sizes and are not as sweet as necessary. On the other hand, the tomato needs foliage for proper development, therefore, it is also impossible to overdo it with its removal. An experienced farmer carefully pinches the leaves at the bottom of the plant, pressing the place of the gap with his fingers to avoid the release of juice.

Did you know? The red color for tomatoes is provided by a substance called lycopene. This pigment has the ability to break down fats and bind free radicals. According to studies conducted by Harvard scientists at the end of the last century, daily use of tomatoes can reduce the risk of prostate cancer by no less than a third.

With an abundance of lighting (in the case of growing tomatoes in open ground in hot regions), the amount of foliage to be removed increases. You also always need to get rid of dried branches - their preservation increases the risk of fungal infections.

Soil care

Traditionally, caring for the soil around the tomato bush involves 2 procedures: loosening after each watering (otherwise the earth becomes covered with cracks through which moisture is actively evaporated from it) and removing weeds.

However, modern agricultural techniques can avoid these tedious procedures. To do this, it is enough to use a drip irrigation system, which excludes flooding the soil with large amounts of water and, accordingly, does not cause cracking, as well as cover the soil with a layer of mulch (in this quality you can use hay, straw, peat or pine needles) through which weed grass does not grow. Mulching, by the way, provides excellent moisture retention in the soil and does not require loosening even when using conventional root watering, without the use of drip systems.

If desired, tall bushes can be earthed, but when growing tomatoes in the open field, this procedure is not necessary. Moreover, weak and thin plants are usually spudded, while the “Machitos” forms a powerful root system and stable stems.

Bush tying

An indeterminate bush of the Dutch hybrid, growing up to 2 m and forming fairly large fruits in large quantities, requires mandatory garter. Без этой процедуры плодовые кисти будут обламываться или опускаться на землю, а при контакте с почвой помидоры поражаются различными гнилями и не вызревают равномерно.

Did you know? Самый большой помидор, попавший в Книгу рекордов Гиннеса, был выращен в американском штате Миннесота фермером по имени Дэн Маккой, который, по собственному признанию, был вынужден подвязывать ветку с этим гигантом колготками собственной жены. Вес плода составил 3 кг 800 г. Интересно, что предыдущий рекордсмен также появился в Америке, правда, на сей раз в штате Оклахома. Этот помидор весил 3 кг 500 г.

Существуют 2 основных способа подвязки:

1. Вертикальная — с использованием индивидуальных кольев или других подставок под каждый куст, к которым привязывается стебель.
2. Горизонтальная, или шпалерная: по бокам ряда вбивают мощные стационарные опоры, а между ними протягивают горизонтальные канаты в несколько ярусов. И уже к ним производят подвязку кустов по мере их роста.

Выбор одного из указанных способов зависит от личных предпочтений огородника, однако, как правило, при выращивании большого количества томатов рациональнее использовать шпалеры.

Preventative treatment

Если обеспечить гибриду хорошие условия, то обладающее отличным иммунитетом на генетическом уровне растение самостоятельно может справиться с болезнями и вредителями, а потому в проведении профилактических процедур нет необходимости. В открытом грунте, для которого «Махитос» подходит плохо, обеспечить здоровье кусту несколько сложнее, поэтому в такой ситуации особенно важно соблюдать основные правила севооборота.

Important! Томаты никогда не следует высаживать после других паслёновых культур, в частности, перца, баклажанов и картофеля, поскольку эти растения имеют общих вредителей, которые, успешно перезимовав после прошлого года, с удовольствием возьмутся за появившиеся на том же месте молодые кусты.

Чтобы не использовать токсичные инсектициды и фунгициды (традиционные ядохимикаты против насекомых и грибковых инфекций), в профилактических целях грядки можно обработать современными биопрепаратами, которые практически безопасны для людей и не исключают употребление плодов едва ли не сразу после применения. Выбор подобных средств очень велик, в качестве примеров можно привести такие:

• «Фаберлик» (против фузариоза, фитофтороза и мучнистой росы);
• «Фитоверм» (против колорадского жука и всех видов клещей);
• «Липидоцид» (против совки, моли, капустницы и других чешуйчатокрылых насекомых);
• «Немабакт» (против колорадского жука);
• «Битоксибациллин» (против колорадского жука, паутинного клеща, капустной моли) и др.

Harvesting

К сбору урожая можно приступать уже через 3 месяца после появления всходов томатов и, соответственно, чуть более чем через 1 месяц после его высадки в открытый грунт. На первом этапе «Махитос» выдаёт не слишком крупные плоды, которые очень хорошо использовать для закатки целиком. Однако спустя примерно 1 месяц после начала плодоношения помидоры достигают своих полноценных размеров, а их количество заметно увеличивается. По этой причине огородники часто говорят, что урожай «Махитос» собирают дважды за сезон.

В отличие от многих других сортов и гибридов, помидоры у «Махитос» легко перевозятся и могут сохранять свою плотность на протяжении нескольких дней.

Did you know? Французские учёные обнаружили, что хранение томатов в холодильнике приводит к очень быстрому разрушению их аромата. Однако если сорванный помидор подержать в тепле при температуре около 20 °C, он приобретёт ещё более интенсивный запах, чем имел на кусте.

Итак, «Махитос» — великолепный голландский гибрид томатов с высокой урожайностью и невероятно вкусными плодами, которые хорошо транспортируются, хранятся, могут употребляться как в свежем в виде, так и в качестве заготовок. Но желающие попробовать вырастить у себя на грядке эти помидоры должны быть готовыми к тому, что в открытом грунте растения никогда не продемонстрирует тех потрясающих товарных качеств, которые были в них заложены в процессе селекции.