Tomato Betta

There is a small group of tomato varieties that ripen at extremely early dates. And, despite the fact that their fruits, as a rule, do not differ in any special size and taste, after the cold winter season and the lack of fresh food from the garden, they always seem to everyone just perfect, like a breath of fresh air. In addition, such crops are often quite easy to care for. One of the brightest representatives of ultra-early tomatoes is the Betta variety.

Betta is a hybrid that has been widespread in Russia for more than 2 decades. It was created by Polish breeders. The copyright holder of the hybrid variety is the breeding company "Gavrish", which filed an application in the late 90s of the XX century for the variety to be entered in the State Register. After the crop was tested, it was included in the State Register in 1998, and it became a recognized selection variety.

The Betta variety is a low-growing plant, its height can be no more than 40-50 cm. The culture is standard, it does not need a garter and pinching. The leaves are of medium size, the color is dark green, there are no stipules, and the corrugation is weak. Branching is not too strong, as well as foliage.

The bush takes up a little space - from 25 to 30 cm in diameter, so the culture is planted quite tightly. The first fruit clusters can form only after 6-7 leaves, sometimes even earlier, then after 1 or 2 leaves. The brush contains from 4 to 6 flowers, practically without barren flowers - each flower subsequently turns into a tomato.

The Betta tomato is distinguished by its fruit in the shape of a flat circle, there are ribs, but they are barely noticeable. The color of the ripe fruit is red, the number of seed nests is 4-5, there are few seeds. Small glossy tomatoes, the average weight of one berry is 50-70 grams, however, if the care is good, 100 gram tomatoes are obtained.

The tasting assessment of the taste is as follows - it is assessed as quite good, not very sweet, there is a slight sourness. Due to the peculiarities of early ripening, mainly fruits are eaten fresh with pleasure. However, if there is a surplus, they are canned, processed into various blanks, including tomato paste.

As already mentioned, Betta's ripening dates are ultra-early. The fruits reach ripeness in a biological sense in just a month and a half, that is, it is from 78 to 83 days. The second half of June can be marked as the beginning of the harvest, which lasts until the last days of July.

Betta tomatoes are distinguished by a fairly high yield for such a low-growing standard variety. One bush can produce about 2 kilograms of fruit per season, and given that the plants are located close to each other, from one meter in a square, you can collect from 10 to 15 kg.

Betta is traditionally cultivated through seedlings, but there is one peculiarity. It is not necessary to grow the material for planting for too long, for example, 2 months or more, as for other varieties. Often, the culture is planted in the garden as early as 30 days after the first shoots.

True, some experienced gardeners still try to keep the seedlings up to 1.5 months so that they have time to harden well.Thus, seedlings are sown in April (beginning or middle), and they can be planted in the ground at the very beginning of May.

Due to the fact that the variety is compact, the planting scheme can be quite dense, namely 30x50 cm.If we consider the number of bushes, then this is 4 or 5 copies per square meter.

It does not take much time and effort to grow a tomato variety like Betta on your site. The variety is unpretentious. By the way, if the task is not to get an ultra-early harvest, you can try to grow the crop using the seedless method, placing the seeds immediately in the ground in the garden when the heat comes. In this case, the tomatoes will ripen closer to the second half of summer. But this option is suitable for those who do not have time to deal with seedlings.

It cannot be said that Betta tomatoes do not require care at all. But it includes quite common activities such as watering and feeding. And since the culture is by its nature standard and rather short, pinching is not an obligatory procedure. However, for the evenness and strength of the stem, as well as to prevent the shoots from dropping to the ground, tomatoes are still recommended to be tied to a support.

Betta has good resistance to the main ailments that affect tomatoes. And due to the fact that tomatoes ripen early, they do not have time to be amazed by late blight. As a prevention of diseases, it is important not to violate the rules of watering, to ventilate the greenhouses regularly, and also not to plant seedlings very often.

As for watering, it should be done only with warm water that has settled for a certain time. Watering schedule - 1-2 times every 7 days. If there is a lack of moisture, this can lead to curling and yellowing of the foliage, and the inflorescences can fall off. Excess moisture can also negatively affect Betta tomatoes - these are factors such as root rot, signs of a fungal infection.