Sweet bell pepper is a welcome vegetable in any garden. Europe has been enjoying this vitamin giant since the 15th century. Pepper came to us relatively recently and has taken root well, although it prefers warmer countries.
Its bright colors adorn any dish, and any vegetable is unlikely to boast so many vitamins. Pepper, the description and care of which will be presented below, is the most popular among gardeners and the most prominent representative of vegetables.
Varieties of sweet pepper
The variety of varieties on store shelves confuses not only beginners, but also experienced gardeners. Grown peppers in a greenhouse, open ground or greenhouse can be of different colors and very different shapes.
All varieties of sweet pepper , depending on the ripening time, are divided into:
- ultra-early, which reach the degree of technical maturity in less than 100 days;
- early, require from 100 to 120 days to ripen;
- medium early, ripen on average in 130 days;
- late, will require at least 140-150 days;
- very late - more than 150 days.
The height of the bush allows you to highlight the following varieties:
- undersized (up to half a meter high);
- medium-sized (up to 1 meter);
- tall (1.5 meters or more).
On a bed without a greenhouse and a greenhouse, “sweetened”, “saucer”, “Hercules” grow well. Resistance to temperature extremes was shown by “dawn”, “hedgehog”, “violet”, “chord”, “freckle”, “dolphin”.
For growing in a greenhouse, low-growing early ripening varieties or hybrids like “bianca”, “ruffs”, “youngs”, “turquoise”, “Victoria”, “Hercules”, “flamingo” and some others that will not only grow, but also mature . Moreover, these varieties are disease resistant, tolerate low temperatures well.
Tall, thick-walled, large-fruited varieties of late ripening and, in general, any other peppers in a greenhouse can be grown if it is glazed, polycarbonate, with warm or heated beds.
California Miracle Pepper: Description
Growing this kind of pepper is a pleasure. Today it is one of the most popular varieties.
The California Miracle Pepper is a mid-season variety that takes from 100 to 130 days to achieve technical maturity. The bush size is medium. Height is 0.7 meters. One bush can produce an average of 7-10 fruits. "California Miracle" - pepper, reviews of which among gardeners are exceptionally positive, has cuboid-shaped fruits, they are smooth, glossy, bright red. The aroma is pronounced, with an unobtrusive skin and a wall thickness of 8 mm. Fetus can leave few indifferent. Seeds of this variety have good germination both in open and in closed ground. Strong sprawling bushes with strong elastic branches are characteristic of the variety "California Miracle". Pepper (reviews indicate) sometimes has bitterness. This may be due to not very suitable growing conditions. In most cases, the pepper is sweet, it can be consumed both fresh, pickled or processed.
Sweet pepper: when to sow seedlings
Sweet bell pepper is a thermophilic vegetable. The California Miracle pepper is no exception. Cultivation begins with the preparation of seeds and sowing them to obtain seedlings. The vegetable does not tolerate transplantation, so for sowing it is better to choose peat pots with a diameter of 10 cm. The root system of the plant develops slowly, which means that it is not practical to use large pots for a vegetable such as sweet pepper.
When to sow? This is the main issue that should be decided. Seeds are usually sown in February, so that by the time of transplanting their age was 60-70 days.
Californian Miracle pepper seeds require preplant treatment. It is advisable to soak them in any stimulating solution. Previously, they can be disinfected. To do this, you can use a 1% solution of potassium permanganate, after which the seeds are washed. They are then left to punch on a damp cloth for several days. As soon as they hatch, they should immediately be sown in well-moistened soil no deeper than 1 cm.
Pots with seeds should be covered with a film, plastic bags or glass. Pepper variety "California miracle" emerges in 5-7 days, or even earlier. The temperature in this room should not be lower than 20 ° C, optimally 25 ° C, any illumination.
Pepper Seedlings Care
When the first shoots appear, the containers should be rearranged or provide seedlings with additional lighting. Polyethylene, or something that covered the containers, is gradually removed, plants get used to new conditions for them. It is not necessary to water the seedlings too much, but the substrate should not dry out. In this case, the water should not be cold, at least 30 ° C, otherwise the plant may become frail, fall ill, and then die. The air in the room where the seedlings are located should not be dry. There should be regular ventilation, but without a draft. Pepper responds well to spraying.
Fertilizing during this period is optional, especially if the pepper growing conditions are as required.
Soil preparation
You can plant seedlings in the soil of an unheated greenhouse from mid-May. If this is open ground, then it is better to wait until the end of May - mid-June. In any case, planting requires preliminary soil preparation.
It will be useful to disinfect the soil in the greenhouse. You need to do this in early spring. For these purposes, you can use special chemical compounds or simply thoroughly wash everything in the greenhouse with water and a soap solution. To transplant pepper, you must:
- the soil in the greenhouse was warmed up to + 18 ° C;
- the land was fertilized with phosphorus and potash (40 g per m²), nitrogen fertilizers (30 g per m²);
- loamy soil can be mixed with rotted sawdust, manure, peat;
- half-ripened sawdust, coarse sand should be introduced into clay soil;
- peat, humus, rotted manure should be added to the sandy soil;
- a week or several days before planting, you can pour mullein with hot aqueous solution (5 liters of solution for each square meter of soil).
After fertilizing, the soil must be dug up.
How to prepare seedlings for transplanting
Seedlings before planting in the ground must be hardened. To do this, pepper must first be briefly, and then for the whole day put in fresh air and the sun, and bring back at night.
A week before planting in a greenhouse, pepper seedlings can be fed with a solution of potash fertilizers and sprayed with a solution of Bordeaux liquid, which will prevent the occurrence of various fungal diseases.
Pepper planting pattern
The planting pattern of sweet pepper directly depends on the size of the bush of the selected variety. Pepper "California miracle", the cultivation of which takes place in a greenhouse, is planted according to the scheme 40 to 40. And on average, 4-6 bushes per 1 m² are obtained.
By placing seedlings in a permanent place, do not deepen the seedlings; they will not have any side roots. Otherwise, the plant may rot and die.
You should carefully treat the root system, the damage of which can lead to the fact that the pepper will recover for a long time. Therefore, it is advisable to transplant with an earthen lump, in which seedlings grew.
Further care
Sweet pepper took root well in the middle latitudes of Russia, being considered a relatively unpretentious plant. But care still has some features, which allows you to get a good harvest from the variety "California Miracle."
Pepper, reviews of which indicate the yield of the variety, loves water. A lack of moisture leads to inhibition of the development process and the plant's dropping of ovaries. Waterlogging can lead to illness. It should be watered regularly, only under the root, and the water should be settled and warm.
Humidified should be not only the soil, but also the air in the greenhouse. In order for the humidity level to be normal, you can water the tracks in the aisle or the glass of the greenhouse.
If the weather is hot and humid, then the lower side shoots must be removed. If the weather is hot and dry, then it is not worth it to step up the plant, since the foliage protects the soil from drying out.
The root system of sweet pepper requires constant access to air. Compaction of the upper layer leads to a decrease in yield. Loosen the soil under the plant carefully, as it has superficial roots, it is easy to damage them. To avoid weeding, the soil under the plant must be mulched. For this, sawdust, mowed grass, humus, straw, which has already been bred, are suitable. The mulch layer must be at least 4 cm.
Pepper is a fragile plant and requires garter, as the stem and branches under the weight of the fruit can be damaged. And this is done not only with tall, but also with undersized varieties.
Feeding planted seedlings
During the season, sweet bell pepper requires several top dressings. The first fertilizer can be carried out with the appearance of several true leaves. The second feeding will be carried out a few weeks after the first. Caution must be with nitrogen fertilizers, feeding "California miracle." From such a feed, the plant will become more powerful, but the number of ovaries will sharply decrease.
Collecting sweet bell pepper seeds
In fairness, it should be noted that the seeds of sweet bell pepper have maximum germination only in the first year after assembly, and the “California miracle” (pepper) will not be an exception. The reviews confirm the popularity of the variety and suggest that the seeds collected on their own are not inferior to those purchased. But you should follow a few rules.
In order for the collected pepper seeds to be purebred and not to pollinate with neighboring plantings, it is necessary in advance, even before flowering, to choose a stronger bush. And as the first buds appear, it will need to be covered with a small greenhouse. After tying the first ovaries, which are best suited for collecting seeds, the shelter is removed, the ovaries are marked with strings so as not to confuse them with fruits from other pollinated bushes in the future.
Pepper: Diseases and Pests
The following diseases are dangerous for pepper:
- late blight;
- white rot;
- macrosporiosis;
- vertex rot;
- septoria;
- black leg.
Peppers are very fond of slugs, butterfly whitefly, dustpan, aphid, Colorado potato beetle and bear. To protect the plant from the bear, an hour before planting, the wells prepared for seedlings are filled with water. After planting with a sprayer, the plantation is sprayed. The spraying procedure for the season can be carried out 2-3 times. As a tool, wood ash is suitable, which fights well with various pests.
Aphids are best treated with whey. It will take one and a half liters per bucket of water. After treating the plant with serum, it is advisable to sprinkle pepper with wood ash again.
Pepper "California Miracle", the description and methods of cultivation of which were presented above, is a truly unique vegetable. Arriving from distant warm Mexico to us, he was able to adapt perfectly to the local conditions and at the same time did not lose a drop of his usefulness, taste and aroma.