WE CARE FOR SPROODS
As soon as I see the first loops on the soil surface, I immediately move the tablets under the agro-lamp. And for the first 3 days I add light around the clock, then up to 12-14 hours a day.
I use LED agro lamps of various configurations, the more powerful they are, the better. I place the lamp at a distance of 10 cm from the plants.
After the first shoots appear, the night temperature should be reduced so that at night it is 20-22 degrees. Batteries can be covered thick fabric. You cannot place seedlings, especially young seedlings, on an icy windowsill; either insulate it with polystyrene foam, or place a table next to the windowsill and grow seedlings on it. I think you will figure out how to secure the lamps in this case.
At this stage of growing seedlings, the advantage of growing in tablets is already visible, because seedlings of different hybrids do not appear at the same time, and the tablets can be transferred under artificial lighting as shoots appear.
FIRST FEEDING
When the pepper leaves unfurl, the seedlings have a sharp need for potassium. At this time, I give the first feeding with a nutritional cocktail.
I infuse 1 tablespoon of dry real vermicompost for 24 hours in 1.5 liters of water at room temperature. Then I add 1 teaspoon of humic potassium fertilizer.
SCHEDULED FEEDING
I feed my seedlings weekly. My rule is to feed often, but in small doses, so I reduce the fertilizer rate indicated in the instructions by three times. Potassium should not be given often! I fertilize with potassium 2 times a month in small doses. As the pepper grows in tablets, I give the seedlings Nitrogen-fixing and Phosphorpotassium mobilizing bacteria (Azotovit + Phosphatovit) - 1 time.
You can also feed with infusion of vermicompost, fertilizers that contain algae - (EcoFus, Chlorella), infusion of Sapropel. Every week the peppers receive small doses of some tasty treat.
If, while growing seedlings, you suddenly find swelling on the leaves, then don’t worry, this is not infection OEDEMA pepper. It's all about excess moisture. After landing in the ground the situation will improve.
OEDEMA OF PEPPER
Pepper is one of the most popular vegetable crops. To achieve maximum results, you need to calculate everything correctly when growing it. Many people know how to collect pepper seeds, but we will tell you how to grow pepper from seeds to reap a rich harvest.
The first way you can go is to grow pepper seeds directly in open ground. This option is considered more risky, because if you sow pepper seeds directly into the ground, they may not take root and germinate, since everything will depend on weather conditions. However, if you live in the southern region and don’t want to bother with seedlings, you can try growing homemade peppers in open ground.
Variety selection
The very first thing you have to do is choose the variety of pepper whose seeds you will plant in your garden bed. You should not choose for sowing early varieties, it is best to plant medium-sized peppers or late date maturation. The recommended varieties include the following: Adjika, Astrakhan, Miracle of the Moscow Region and Double Abundance.
The main condition for planting this vegetable crop with seeds in open ground is a warm climate. This vegetable is very whimsical and is afraid of frost, so if you live in a cold region, it is better to leave this idea. If you decide to plant seeds in open ground, wait until it gets warmer, when there are no longer sharp drops in temperature.
Sowing time
As already mentioned, pepper tolerates very negatively low temperatures, so it needs to be planted in summer. If this matters to you great importance, you can of course check with lunar calendar to find out exactly which number is most favorable for planting. However, most often the seeds are planted in the first half of June (approximately the 6th–7th). By this time there should be no cold weather, so the peppers will be able to grow directly in the ground without any problems.
Site selection and soil preparation
This one is best vegetable crop will grow in light and fertile soil, so try to avoid “heavy” soils where planting material definitely won't take root. To properly prepare the land, you need to take care organic fertilizers, which will heat the soil (as already mentioned, this plant loves heat very much). To do this, before planting, thoroughly dig up the soil and add it there. organic matter. Manure and peat diluted with water are suitable. After this, you need to loosen the soil again.
Sowing rules
Wait until it's a cool day and you can start sowing (it's best to do this in the evening). To sow seeds correctly, you need to place about 5-6 seeds in prepared holes filled with soil and humus. You should not place one seed in one hole - the chances of success are almost zero. After the seeds are in the hole, you need to cover them with soil and pour settled water on top. Planting material does not need to be buried deeply - it is enough for the seeds to be placed in the ground to a depth of about 3 cm. The distance between the holes should be about 30 cm.
Watering and fertilizing
How to grow pepper seeds in open ground? As already mentioned, after planting, the future bushes are watered with water and covered with film until the first shoots appear. Usually the film is removed after 5–10 days, and at the same time the first fertilizing is applied. Ash or yeast liquid fertilizer is ideal as a top dressing.
Shaping and other care
All further actions consist in the fact that as the bush itself forms, you will need to carry out a procedure called thinning twice. The first time this must be done when 2–3 leaves appear (2–3 plants are left in the hole). The second procedure is carried out after the appearance of 5-6 leaves, and it is at this stage that you need to leave the strongest bush. Also, if frost or hail is expected, it is recommended to cover the seedlings with agrofibre so that they remain intact.
Planting seedlings
Growing pepper seedlings is a much less dangerous method than the previous one. You can easily grow pepper seeds at home, since the success of this enterprise will not depend on weather conditions. Therefore, now we will talk in detail about how to grow homemade peppers from seeds.
Variety selection
The choice depends on the conditions in which you intend to grow this vegetable. If you have a greenhouse, then you can grow absolutely any variety in it, since the conditions there are most suitable. If you are growing seedlings on the balcony, the following varieties are perfect: Ilya Muromets, Karapuz, Player and Orange Miracle. But overall it all depends on your personal preferences.
Necessary conditions for cultivation
To grow pepper seedlings at home, certain conditions must be provided. These include:
- Air temperature and soil temperature. The air temperature in the room must be at least +25 °C, and minimum temperature soil should be +18 °C.
- Good lighting.
- Regular watering and loosening the soil.
- Optimal air humidity (if this point is violated, there is a high probability of flowers falling off).
- Pest protection and regular inspection of bushes for insects.
Sowing time
When calculating the sowing time, it is necessary to take into account that seedlings are usually planted after 60–80 days. Of course, taking into account the characteristics of the selected variety, the timing may shift slightly. It is also worth considering that by the time the seedlings are planted in the soil, it should be sufficiently warmed up. Based on this, you can derive the exact planting dates.
Container and soil
Almost any container is perfect for the procedure, be it a peat pot or a plastic cup. Before adding soil to the container, it must be disinfected. This is easy to do by washing the pots in a solution of potassium permanganate or laundry soap. Perfect fit peat pots or paper cups, since this way, when planting in the ground, it will be possible not to remove the seedlings from the container (the material from which the cups are made decomposes).
The soil should be light and loose. You can purchase a ready-made substrate or prepare it yourself. To do this, you need to mix the soil with sand and turf (2:1:1), and add a tablespoon of wood ash with superphosphate (per 10 liters of soil). Also keep in mind that it is better not to use garden soil, but to disinfect the mixture that you have prepared (using potassium permanganate) before starting planting work.
Sowing rules
The soil in the pots is compacted so that there is no more than 2 cm to the edge of the container. Next, pepper seeds are planted about a centimeter deep, and the pots themselves are placed at a distance of 3 cm from each other. Cover with film or glass and leave in a warm place. It is also recommended to prepare tags with the names of the varieties in advance so as not to get confused.
Further care
How to grow pepper seedlings? In the first week, roots form, at which time the temperature should be +14…+16 °C. In the second week, the temperature is increased to +25 °C during the day and to +17 °C at night.
Water the seedlings once a week. In addition, it is necessary to apply fertilizers - excellent option There will be a solution with calcium soda (a spoon of calcium soda in a bucket of water). Also take care of the lighting, as this is important factor during seedling growth. When your seedlings have two leaves, you can pick them to grow lateral and adventitious roots.
Also, do not forget to harden the plant by taking them out to Fresh air, when they grow up (however, try to avoid drafts!).
Landing in the ground
Planting can be done after the first buds have appeared and there are at least 8 leaves. The stem by that time reaches about 2.5 cm in length. The main condition is warmed soil (therefore, peppers are planted in open ground from late May to early June). The plant is taken out of the pots (or not, if peat pots were used) and placed in the hole until the first leaves appear. After this, they are sprinkled with soil and carefully tied up so that the seedlings do not break.
Disease and pest control
The most common diseases are fungal diseases, so if you find something similar on your seedlings, you can treat them with fungicides (selected depending on the disease) to get rid of the infection. Peppers are also often attacked by aphids, spider mite and slugs. Insecticides will help against the former, and you can get rid of ticks using soap solution with the addition of onion or garlic infusion. Tobacco dust will help against slugs.
Video “Planting peppers”
From this video you will learn how to plant peppers correctly.
Planting and care are not very complicated processes, but they require certain knowledge to obtain healthy and strong planting material.
Preparing pepper seeds for planting
Seedlings begin to be planted from February to mid-May. It all depends on the place where the seedlings are grown. In a heated greenhouse and on a windowsill, seeds are sown in mid-February, but in an unheated greenhouse it is better to sow seeds in mid-March. After three years, sweet pepper seeds lose their germination capacity, which is why they are sorted out first and the spoiled ones are removed. In order for pepper seedlings to be strong and viable, the seeds and soil must be prepared in advance.
There are many ways to improve seed germination. First of all, calibration is carried out, during which the largest and highest quality seeds are selected, which contain more nutritional reserves. To do this, they need to be soaked for several minutes in a sodium chloride solution, which is prepared by diluting 1 teaspoon of salt in 1 glass of water. Everything is thoroughly mixed and then settled. For sowing, only settled seeds are used, which are washed clean water and dried.
To disinfect and stimulate germination, soak the seeds for 7 minutes in a warm 3% solution of hydrogen peroxide or for 30 minutes in a solution of potassium permanganate, which is prepared by dissolving 1 g of potassium permanganate per 100 ml of water at room temperature, or in special preparation, for example, "Ecosile".
To improve germination, you can simply soak the seeds in warm water, the temperature of which is from +25 to +30 degrees Celsius. To do this, just cover the container with gauze or filter paper, on top of which put planting material moistened with water. Ensure constant moisture, there should be little water so that the seeds do not rot. After they hatch, they should be dried a little and immediately sown in cups or a greenhouse.
Some amateur gardeners are experimenting with seed hardening. This is necessary so that in the future the seedlings are adapted to temperature changes. The sprouted seeds are placed in the refrigerator for 60 minutes, then taken out and kept at room temperature 2 hours. Such manipulations are carried out 3 more times.
Selecting soil and containers for seedlings
Proper care of pepper seedlings largely depends on the quality of the selected soil, which should be loose and absorb moisture well. For self-cooking mixtures, you can use a combination of light brown peat containing undecomposed plant remains, leaf, greenhouse, turf, soil, fine sawdust, coarse sand, perlite, humus, garden compost and vermicompost. An important point is a ban on the use of land from a site where plants of the Solanaceae family were previously grown in order to avoid infection of seedlings with pathogens of tomatoes and peppers. After preparing the mixture, you need to disinfect it with a weak solution of potassium permanganate.
Exist different proportions for soil selection:
- Ratio 5:1:4 humus, peat, garden or turf soil. You can use some river sand.
- The ratio is 1:3:1 of turf soil, peat and humus. It is recommended to add mineral fertilizers to this mixture: superphosphate 10 g, 1 g, potassium salt 5 g per 1 kg of soil.
It will grow well as seedlings. Peppers, planting and caring for seedlings of which are no different from caring for plants sown in the usual soil mixture, will feel great.
You can add hydrogel to the soil, which will allow you to better retain moisture. For this purpose, the balls, previously swollen in water, are mixed with soil. If you use the granules dry, then during swelling they will displace the soil from the container.
Suitable for planting seedlings small boxes, plastic cups or jars, cells with a tray, peat tablets, pots with holes in the bottom.
Very convenient option Peat tablets are used for sowing seeds, from which it is easy to transfer seedlings during transplanting or picking.
Sowing pepper seeds for seedlings
The containers are filled with earthen mixture so that 2 cm remains to the top edge of the pot. When planting seedlings in boxes, do wooden stick furrows to a depth of 1 cm, with intervals between rows of 5 cm. The distance between the seeds in the furrow is 2 cm. After sowing, they are sprinkled with a small amount of soil.
In order not to waste time on transplanting young shoots, the seeds are placed in cups or separate cells.
The container with the seeds sown in the ground until the seedlings have sprouted, is placed in a warm place near the radiator, covered with thin polyethylene or glass to reduce moisture evaporation. Every day you need to check the soil in the box so that it does not dry out.
If carried out Preliminary processing pepper seeds, the first shoots appear after a week. After this, the protective cover is removed to avoid overheating and damage to the sprouts.
Optimal temperature and light
Proper care of pepper seedlings consists of maintaining a favorable air temperature for this crop, which ranges from +24 to +26 degrees Celsius during the day and from +15 to +17 degrees Celsius at night.
Very important for pepper sunlight, Unlike artificial lighting. Before planting seedlings, you need to determine which window has the most light, and the plants should be grown on it. Peppers grow best on the south side.
Additional lighting
But seedlings do not always receive enough natural light. Tomatoes and peppers require similar care, so in cloudy weather you can highlight the plants fluorescent lamps. Distance from the top of the seedling to lighting fixture should be at least 15 cm. Over time, the lamp must be raised from the grown seedlings. The plant requires up to 20 hours of such artificial lighting.
Picking seedlings
Further care of pepper seedlings involves selecting the strongest and largest seedlings, which are planted in separate pots. This gives plants more space for development and prepares them for subsequent planting in open ground.
Seedlings dive when they have grown 2 small cotyledon leaves, this happens 2-3 weeks after planting the seeds. To carry out this manipulation, water the ground and, after 2 hours, remove the sprouts, from which the main root is then cut off by a third. Each such plant is planted in a separate pot or other container.
Watering
After the emergence of seedlings, the soil is not moistened for the first three days. Caring for pepper seedlings at this stage involves timely watering using a simple sprayer. With the appearance of cotyledon leaves, the seedlings are watered with water, the temperature of which is about +30 degrees Celsius.
Do not moisten the soil too much to excess moisture did not provoke damage to seedlings by blackleg, when the root part of the stem rots. At the slightest sign, caring for pepper seedlings comes down to stopping watering, then sprinkling the soil wood ash or calcined sand. Regular ventilation is also necessary so that the soil has time to dry.
There should be holes at the bottom of each pot or box to allow excess moisture to drain out.
Feeding seedlings
For normal development you need to feed bell pepper. Seedlings require fertilizer-related care at least 4 times. When two true leaves appear, fertilize with a solution obtained by dissolving 15 g of potassium salt, 10 g of urea, 40 g of superphosphate in 10 liters of warm water. One liter of this fertilizer is enough for 10 seedlings.
The second application of fertilizers is carried out after 2 weeks, only when preparing the solution, 2 times more superphosphate is added.
For better development The seedlings are topped with the drug; 25 ml of this product are diluted in 10 liters of water.
When 6 leaves appear during budding, microelement feeding is carried out, which includes copper, orthoboric acid, manganese sulfate, zinc.
It is important not to let the seedlings outgrow and to plant them in open ground in time.
Central America is considered the birthplace of sweet peppers. Once in Spain, it began to spread throughout southern countries- Turkey, Iran, Bulgaria. With time heat-loving plant received recognition in other European countries, including Russia. We call it bell pepper.
This southern fruit rich in vitamins and minerals, can be eaten as fresh, and in salads, canned for the winter.
Many varieties have now been developed that are resistant to cooler temperatures and less daylight hours. Varieties such as Gladiator, Gift of Moldova, and Californian Miracle are good fresh. Smaller-fruited varieties such as Ermak and Victoria are suitable for canning.
Since planting peppers in the ground requires persistent warm weather, then seedlings are traditionally grown. Planting pepper seeds for seedlings must be done in February in order to obtain strong seedlings by the beginning of June.
To grow pepper seedlings, prepare an earthen mixture consisting of humus, soil and sand in a 2:1:1 ratio. For one kilogram earth mixture add a tablespoon of ash. The finished substrate for seedlings should be light and loose.
Pepper seeds pre-soak in warm water(50 °C) for five hours. It is advisable to add a little potassium permanganate to the water for swelling so that the water has a slightly pink color. Then lay it out on a damp cloth in a warm room for two to three days. You need to make sure that the cloth does not dry out, or you can lightly cover the seeds. This preparation promotes rapid seed germination.
Some owners, in the old fashioned way, sow seeds in large boxes with an earthen mixture, so that after the seeds have sprouted, they can select strong shoots and, after picking, plant them in individual pots. But modern technologies They suggest sowing peppers in separate pots; fortunately, you can buy ready-made plastic “greenhouses” for seedlings, consisting of individual cells. This allows you to remove seedlings with a clod of earth when planting in the ground without injuring the plants.
Also, for planting seeds, instead of soil mixture, you can use peat tablets, having a loose structure and not requiring additional fertilizer seedlings. Peat tablet has a small indentation on one side. It is placed in a seedling pot with the indentation facing upward and watered generously. After half an hour, the tablet swells and doubles in size. Two or three pepper seeds are placed in the hole and filled to the top with a small amount of humus. The seedlings are planted in the ground along with a peat cup.
After sowing the seeds, the soil in the greenhouse is well watered and covered on top. plastic film or glass. It is desirable that there is an air gap between the glass and the ground.
The greenhouse is placed in a warm room (about 22 °C), you can dark place before emergence.
Caring for pepper seedlings
After the shoots emerge, the film (glass) is removed and the greenhouse is placed in a warm and well-lit place. Room temperature in the sun it should be in the range of 23–28 °C, and at night it should not fall below 15–17 °C.
To grow the root system, seedlings are picked when at least two leaves appear on the seedlings. To do this, water the soil in the pots generously, after a few hours, carefully remove the sprout and cut off the lower 1/3 of the root, then plant it back in the pot. This procedure requires great care so as not to break the delicate sprouts. A novice vegetable grower should practice on several sprouts, and if he cannot pick well, then it is better not to touch the remaining sprouts, otherwise he may be left without seedlings at all.
Hardening and feeding pepper seedlings
In order for plants to take root better in open ground, it is necessary harden plants. In warm weather, first open the window for one to two hours, avoiding drafts. In April–May, in warm weather, seedlings can be placed on glass veranda or balcony. And two to three weeks before planting, it can be placed outside during the daytime and left on the veranda at night. The main thing is that the air temperature in the room at night does not fall below 13 °C.
Pepper sprouts need feeding mineral fertilizers. You can add some a small amount of(1/2 teaspoon) of ash in each pot, but do not let the ash get on the sprout.
If the pepper leaves are pale green, then you can fertilize them with the following composition:
- 2 tbsp. spoons "Agricola Aqua";
- 1 tbsp. a spoonful of Agricola granules for pepper, tomato and eggplant;
- 10 liters of water.
The following fertilizing is suitable for root growth: 2 tbsp. spoons “Kornerost” (root formation stimulator) and 1 tbsp. Dilute a spoonful of nitrophoska in five liters of water.
To prevent seedlings from overgrowing after the start of the budding period, reduce watering and increase lighting. Budding is the setting of buds after the formation of 3–4 true leaves on the plant.
If the seedlings outgrow due to prolonged planting in the soil, then during planting part of the stem goes deeper into the ground. This allows you to increase root system due to its growth from the stem.
