Sweet bell pepper is one of the most popular and healthy vegetables, which is used both fresh and in stew, boiled, pickled and canned. Growing sweet pepper at home is a painstaking but feasible business. If you want to get a completely natural product, peppers are grown from seeds.
The selection of seeds and their preparation for sowing
To select more viable seeds, pour them into slightly salted water and select those that are at the bottom of the tank. For disinfection, they should be kept for 20 minutes in a solution of potassium permanganate, and then - 12 hours in aloe juice. Sowing of seeds is carried out in February in boxes with prepared soil.
How to sow pepper properly? Landing seedlings
The bottom of a plastic or cardboard box is covered with a film and crushed egg shells, covered with soil from peat, sod and humus mixed in equal parts. Small rows are formed, the distance between which should be 4-5 centimeters, and the seeds are sown to a depth of 1-2 cm. The plants need freedom, therefore, spaces between the seeds are left at 1-1.5 centimeters. Emerging shoots must provide light and protection from direct sunlight. When the first leaf already appears, plants should be peaked in the prepared container. After this, you need to water the planting with a 1% solution of potassium permanganate, cover and put in a darkened room. After a couple of days, again put seedlings into the light, providing moderate watering without top dressing. In good weather, you can begin to temper the seedlings, taking them out into the fresh air during the day.
Pepper - planting in the ground. When and how to do it?
Landing in open ground is carried out at the end of May. By this time, the plant has more than 10 leaves and several flowers. If the spring turned out to be cold, it is better to install a greenhouse made of metal arcs and rods, securing them with twine and covering with a film with the possibility of regulation depending on temperature - pepper responds well to airing. Landing is done in the prepared soil, compost, nitroammophosphate is introduced into it. Peppers, which are then mulched with peat, are planted in holes 30x60 in size, abundantly watered with a 1% solution of potassium permanganate.
Pepper - planting in the ground, top dressing. Care Tips
In the period of growth and flowering, which occurs at the end of June, it is necessary to feed peppers. Two weeks after planting, they should be fertilized with mullein, during flowering - with diluted ash, and after 3 weeks of age, fertilizers containing calcium and potassium. After the formation of the ovaries, the number of fruits should be adjusted by cutting small fruits to reduce the load on the plant. Harvested peppers in July-September.
Pepper - planting in the ground and care. Tips for gardeners
- Peppers need abundant watering and overheating is contraindicated.
- Be sure to loosen the soil for better aeration of the roots.
- To avoid pepper diseases, provide plants with calcium and potassium when planting in open ground.
- Effective soil protection and the preservation of nutrients in it - mulching.
- Adjust the film thickness in the greenhouse depending on temperature conditions and create conditions for ventilation of the greenhouse.
- Peppers, like eggplant and tomatoes, are planted every year in a new place.
That's all the recommendations on how and when to plant pepper. Observing them, you can get a good harvest at the end of the season.