Pepper refers to heat-loving crops. But breeders bred more than 200 varieties, some of which bring a wonderful harvest even in the harsh conditions of Siberia and the Urals. These are not only varieties intended for growing in greenhouses. Early pepper varieties are successfully grown on the open ground. Today in Russia more than three dozen varieties of sweet and two dozen varieties of hot pepper are regionalized .
Sweet pepper varieties are different, and they are all valued for their high content of vitamins and mineral salts. They have excellent nutritional and taste properties. Pepper has no equal among vegetables in the content of ascorbic acid in mature fruits.
Early varieties of pepper have a sufficiently large period of technical ripeness of the fruit (from the time of emergence of the shoots to harvest) - 85-100 days. Bushes of pepper are compact, have an average height (bush height in the range of 1.0-1.4 m) and dense foliage. The most popular varieties in the CIS were Agapovsky, Atlant, Dobrynya, Ruza F1.
These varieties have prismatic fruits, a smooth and slightly ribbed surface. Some varieties have a fruit weight of up to 280 g with a length of 15 cm. Breeders were able to instill resistance to many varieties of known viruses - tobacco mosaic and potato virus.
Pepper is very picky about light. Almost all varieties develop better under conditions of a not too short day. But a large lack of light is contraindicated for pepper - a significant part of pepper flowers is not fertilized and falls off.
Water in large quantities to pepper is most necessary during the fruiting period. With insufficient moisture, many buds and ovaries fall.
Sweet pepper in most cases is grown in seedlings, with the exception of the southern regions, where pepper seeds are sown much earlier than tomatoes - at the end of February.
When determining the location of seedlings, take into account what grew on the site in the previous year. The most favorable place is considered to be the site where before that pumpkin and bean crops either or cabbage grew. It is not recommended to grow peppers after nightshade and near cucumbers. Any varieties reduce yield due to such predecessors, and the risk of pepper diseases is great.
Sweet pepper is planted on highly fertile and friable soils that are deeply dug up and have a sandy or loamy structure. Sweet pepper, hot - varieties are planted on beds as far apart from each other as possible to avoid pollination.
Long before planting pepper seedlings (in autumn), the soil is being prepared on the site for this crop. For this, potash and phosphorus fertilizers are added, the earth is carefully dug up, and in the spring the site is saturated with nitrogen-containing fertilizers. Rotten manure, peat and rotted sawdust are added to the loamy soil .
In clay dense soil, sand is added. With a large amount of sand in the soil, humus and sawdust, wood ash, superphosphate and potassium sulfate are added to the site .
Pepper (any variety) in the form of seedlings is planted after the end of frost at a soil temperature above 15 ° C, this is somewhere around mid-June. Pepper does not require a deep planting - it even harms him. Seedlings are planted in the ground at the level of the first true leaves.
Since the air temperature at night, even in June, is not always stable, seedlings for the first 5-7 days are covered with film, plastic or paper bags.
After transplanting seedlings into the ground, top dressing is necessary. In total, at least two top dressings are produced. As it is used, finely chopped leaves of dandelion, nettle, plantain, mullein and wood ash are mixed in a barrel and poured with water. The mixture is infused for 7-10 days. So it turns out fertilizing, which saturate the soil around the pepper. You can use diluted manure with water (1: 10), urea or nitrophos. Quite often, bird (chicken) droppings are used for feeding in a proportion of 1:12.
If you want to grow a good crop of such a vegetable crop as pepper, you need to choose varieties carefully and be sure to observe the above agricultural technology.