Each summer season begins with growing seedlings. Everyone understands why this is done - you can significantly increase the growing season and get not only an earlier, but also a significantly larger crop. In our country there are regions in which heat-loving vegetables cannot be grown in any other way.
As the first stage of development passes, so do the subsequent ones - this is the law of nature. To improve the development of plants, many gardeners and gardeners use peat pots. How to use these little helpers? Should I buy them for growing seedlings? Consider the pros and cons of such cups.
What are they made of?
Before you buy peat pots for seedlings, find out what they are made of. Such devices are made from peat, to which cardboard or wood is added. Most gardeners praise cups with a ratio of the main substance of 70% and additives of 30%. Be wary of low-quality goods, it happens that unscrupulous manufacturers increase the percentage of impurities, or even use only cheap cardboard. Before you buy agricultural machinery, read what is written on the package.
Environmental rationale
Peat products have many advantages over their counterparts made of plastic, paper or ceramic. For plants, this will be a real environmentally friendly home. Peat, which goes to the production of containers for growing seedlings, does not contain pathogenic microflora, there are no weed seeds. In such products, the content of harmful toxic substances, for example, heavy metals, benzopyrene residues and pesticides, is significantly lower. The concentration of such substances will be many times lower than the norms allowed in agriculture for growing plants and crops. Light weight peat is safe to use, it does not contain pathogens of various diseases of vegetable and flower crops.
When choosing peat pots for growing seedlings, carefully inspect them. Good quality products should have a wall thickness of one and a half millimeters. Such walls will be strong enough to serve the entire period of plant development, but at the same time, the roots of seedlings can develop unhindered. After planting in the soil, a high-quality pot will begin to disintegrate quickly, thereby facilitating the work of cleaning the fields. The decay period of quality products lasts approximately 27-32 days.
Peat pots for seedlings. Pros of using
- Due to the porous walls, the best air-water regime of the root layer is ensured. During planting in the soil, the plants freely take root through the walls and bottom.
- Such containers do not contain pathogens and toxic substances, while they have great mechanical strength in both wet and dry conditions.
- When planting seedlings together with a pot in the ground, the survival rate reaches almost 100%. Later, when decomposed, the pot will serve as fertilizer.
- Due to the accelerated survival of seedlings, an earlier harvest is collected, mainly for this and seedlings are planted in peat pots.
How to use? General requirements for the use of peat pots
- The containers are pre-filled with slightly moistened nutrient soil, crushed a little. After this, planting of seedlings in peat pots begins. You can sow seeds, plant bulbs, cuttings or seedlings.
- Place prepared cups on pallets, pesos, plastic wrap, gravel or a layer of soil.
- Seedlings should be often watered while maintaining a moist soil condition.
- Peat pots must not be allowed to dry. How to use them correctly? Wrap each unit with foil - this will help prevent drying out. Otherwise, the salt contained in the earth may crystallize and in a concentrated form can be a danger to tender seedlings.
- When the plants grow, the pots should be placed looser to increase light, aeration. Moreover, with a more spacious arrangement, the interweaving of the root systems of neighboring plants is prevented.
- Growing seedlings in peat pots ends with planting in the ground. You do not need to dig up plants, plant them directly with the old container.
Seedlings of zucchini, cucumbers, pumpkins, eggplant, squash
Seedlings of these cultures do not like transplants. For plants to take root, take peat pots for growing. How to use them? Which size would be preferable?
For seedlings of cucumbers intended for planting in protected ground, pots with a diameter of 11 cm are suitable. The duration of cultivation is approximately 30 days. How to plant in peat pots? One sprouted seed is sown in one cup.
If you have to plant vegetables in open ground, then for seedlings of zucchini, squash and cucumbers, you should choose containers with a diameter of 8 cm, 11 cm is better for pumpkins. Seeds are germinated and planted one in each pot. Planting depth 1 cm. Cucumbers can be planted in 2 pieces in one container.
Pumpkin seedlings will be ready on average in 20 days, and the remaining vegetables in a month. You yourself can calculate the optimal landing time.
Ready pots are placed on pallets tightly to each other, carefully watered and left in a warm place, where the temperature is maintained at 25-30 degrees until emergence. When yellow-green sprouts appear, the temperature must be reduced to 20-22 degrees. This temperature is maintained for 2-3 days.
Watering
You should water the cucumber seedlings with warm water, heated to 25-30 degrees. If there is cold watering, the plants may hurt or even die.
Quenching
To prevent plant diseases after transplanting into the soil, they are hardened - 7-10 days before planting - they often ventilate the premises, reduce the temperature to 15 degrees, and less often water.
Outdoor landing
Prepared plants are planted in soil directly in pots. Some gardeners break cups before planting or pull out seedlings along with an earthen lump. You can do that too. However, gardeners who used peat pots to grow seedlings, planting reviews leave the following - they believe that it is better to make holes in the tanks beforehand. When decomposed, the glasses will nourish the plant, helping to get a big crop.
Seedlings of cabbage
In March, cabbage is sown in special boxes. After the appearance of seedlings, they are dived, and planting in peat pots begins. Cups with a diameter of about 7 cm are suitable. You can use round specimens or peat blocks, in which there are 6 cells at once. In late April, you can begin to land in open ground.
Lettuce seedlings
Seedlings of lettuce for planting in a protected ground are prepared with picking seedlings in pots. Suitable pots measuring 50X50 mm or, as they are also called, peat cells. After about a month, the seedlings will be ready for planting in a greenhouse or greenhouse.
The roots of many plants can pierce the bottom and walls of peat cups. However, most gardeners do not wait for this - they are guided by the size of the aboveground part of the seedlings.
Experienced gardeners argue that if you submerge peat pots in warm water before planting until the air bubbles from the walls cease, then the soaked walls and the bottom will not create obstacles and will be easily processed by the soil inhabitants.
The disadvantages of peat pots
- Not all plants tolerate the acidic environment inherent in peat. Some manufacturers add special mineral fertilizers to the product composition, as well as lime and chalk, which reduce acidity.
- Mandatory frequent watering is required.
- Evaporating from the surface of the pots, the water cools the soil very much, as a result, the root system is much worse developed.
- Some plants can not break through the peat walls, they have to be removed from the tanks during transplantation.
- Often mold appears on poor-quality pots, the walls collapse
- The high cost of peat cups, especially when growing large volumes of seedlings.
Unfortunately, some unscrupulous manufacturers give out pots made of ordinary cardboard for quality peat products. Gardeners complain that sometimes in the fall, when digging a plot, they find undecomposed pots with leftover roots.