Pepper is one of the most popular cultures among our Russian gardeners. The fruits of this plant have a wonderful peculiar taste. They are rich in vitamins and minerals. Peppers are used to make fresh and canned salads, they are stuffed, put in soups and borscht. In care, this wonderful culture is not particularly whimsical and resistant to disease. Difficulties in a beginner gardener can arise only when growing seedlings. The technology for producing strong plants on the windowsill has some of its own characteristics. Vegetables are grown a little differently than other garden crops.
When to plant pepper for seedlings
The beginning gardener must take into account the fact that at the beginning of growth, pepper develops extremely slowly. Therefore, its seeds should be planted quite early. Before carrying into the soil, seedlings of this culture should grow in boxes at least 70-90 days. If tomatoes and eggplants in central Russia are sown in mid-late March, then pepper should be planted in late February - on the 20th. In the southern regions of the country seedlings can be planted earlier - at the beginning of the month.
The answer to the question of when to plant pepper for seedlings depends on the variety of this plant. Some varieties are allowed to be sown earlier. Such pepper is less sensitive to lack of lighting. But still before February 15, planting seedlings is not recommended.
What you should know about
The question of how to sow peppers for seedlings and care for them properly comes down to the mandatory observance of some important recommendations for growing this crop in the early stages of development. Strong, healthy, potentially productive plants in boxes can be obtained only under such conditions:
- Compliance with the correct temperature conditions. Sharp cooling or overheating of plants should not be allowed in any case. Otherwise, the stem of the pepper will become woody and will cease to grow in thickness. This will greatly affect yield. It is also impossible to allow temperature drops below +13 degrees. Otherwise, the development of seedlings will stop.
- Caution when diving. Pepper roots are very tender and break easily. When carrying it in glasses to cotyledons, as seedlings of other cultures, it is impossible to deepen it. This plant is very sensitive to root rot. In-depth peppers become sick and begin to lag behind in growth.
- Watering seedlings should be moderate. Pepper does not tolerate drying and painfully responds to overflows.
That is, for the successful cultivation of seedlings of this culture, you just need to ensure that the plants are uniform without a sharp change and stress.
Grade selection
Of course, a beginner gardener should not only know how to sow pepper for seedlings, but also which grade is best to choose in a particular case. In our country, both early varieties of this crop, intended for salads and canning, as well as early and late ones, can be grown. The following grades are the most popular among domestic summer residents:
- Atlant. These are mid-season peppers intended for cultivation both in the open ground and in greenhouses.
- Early ripe Fat baron with very sweet fruits. The growing season for this variety is short. Therefore, sowing it in February is not necessary. You can plant seedlings even in early March.
- Eskimo F1. Very early pepper with a wide bush and thick fruit walls.
- Golden star of the east F1 - a very productive early hybrid.
- Isabella F1 is a mid-season variety with a very powerful and at the same time compact bush.
Later varieties of pepper, such as Nochka F1, Paris F1 and others, are usually grown only in the southern regions of the country, that is, where the warm weather is at least until mid-autumn.
Seed selection
With the question of when to plant pepper for seedlings and which variety to choose, we sorted it out. Next, we’ll talk about how to properly prepare the planting material of this culture. Of course, pepper seeds should be selected first. Planting material purchased in the store is usually quite high-quality - almost all the seeds from the bags sprout. If they were collected on their own in the fall, sorting should be done. For this, a 4% solution of ordinary table salt is poured into a glass and the seeds are lowered into it for a couple of hours. Empty, unimaginable grains just float to the surface. They need to be collected and discarded. Heavy seeds with seeds will sink to the bottom of the glass. They are taken out and dried on a piece of thin, clean cloth.
How to pickle pepper seeds
Such a procedure as planting pepper seeds on seedlings will be much more successful in the case of preliminary treatment of grains with fungicides. Etching will prevent the development of various kinds of viral and fungal diseases. For processing, the selected pepper seeds are placed in a gauze bag. Then a fungicide solution is poured into the jar. This can be, for example, Fitosporin-M, Maxim, Vitaros, etc. Soaking is carried out according to the instructions attached to the drug. You can also not spend money on fairly expensive funds and just treat the seeds with a thick solution of potassium permanganate for half an hour.
After pickling, the planting material should be thoroughly washed without removing it from the bag.
Growth stimulants
When to plant pepper for seedlings, you now know. Better to do it in February. However, an early harvest can be obtained at later planting dates. If, for any reason, sowing was carried out with a delay, the seeds should be pre-treated with growth stimulants. In order for the plants to develop well in the future, you can soak the planting material, for example, in Epin (for 12 hours). If this drug is not at hand, it is allowed to replace it with a solution of wood ash. It contains a lot of trace elements useful for pepper. To prepare, add 2 g of ash to a liter jar of warm water and insist the resulting solution for 24 hours. The seeds in it are soaked for 3 hours.
Sprouting in gauze
Before performing an operation such as planting pepper seeds for seedlings, the latter should be germinated, since this culture develops very slowly in the early stages. To do this, lay a sheet of plywood in a warm place and cover it with a piece of soft, dampened in water cloth. Pepper seeds are placed on top. Then they put a second moistened flap on them. Over the next seven days, carefully monitor that the fabric does not dry out. About a week later, shoots will appear on the seeds. All further actions with planting material should be done as carefully as possible. The processes of the seeds are very tender and easy to break off.
After germination, a procedure such as preparing pepper seeds for seedlings can be considered complete. At the next stage, they begin to land.
Soil preparation
Of course, only on a very nutritious and at the same time loose soil strong pepper seedlings can be grown. Photos of well-developed plants obtained using suitable soil, you can see on this page. While the seeds of peppers sprout, you can start preparing boxes for them. Tanks before filling the soil should be carefully treated with a solution of potassium permanganate. The mix can be bought at the store. You should purchase land intended specifically for pepper. It will be nice to add a little sand (0.5 parts to 3 parts of soil). If you wish, you can prepare the soil mixture yourself.
Good pepper seedlings can be grown on soil of the following composition: 3 parts humus or oily garden soil, 2 parts peat and 1 part sand. All ingredients are best prepared in the fall, falling asleep in bags.
The question of how to grow good seedlings of pepper comes down to the proper processing of the finished soil. The soil mixture, among other things, must be steamed in a double boiler or shed with a weak solution of potassium permanganate to remove the infection. Perform this procedure preferably with purchased soil. Some manufacturers produce not too high-quality soil mixture, infected with various viruses and bacteria.
The drawers themselves must have drainage holes. Install containers in a shaded, warm place on pallets. The soil is filled in such a way that the distance to the edge of the sides of the boxes from its surface is about 2 cm
Planting seeds
So, how to sow pepper for seedlings correctly? Let's deal with this in more detail.
In addition, pieces of polyethylene or glass should be prepared before sowing. They are necessary to prevent drying of the soil before the shoots of peppers. Plywood with sprouted seeds is placed next to the boxes. Landing is done very carefully. Grabbing seeds is best with tweezers. They are not placed on the surface of the soil too often. The distance between the seeds should be at least 2 cm. Pepper does not like shading and thickening.
After all the seeds have been unfolded, they are sprinkled with a soil mixture with a layer about 1.5 cm thick. Next, planted peppers are carefully watered with room temperature water from a spray bottle. Boxes are covered with glass or polyethylene. In the future, it will be necessary to ensure that the soil does not dry out.
Compliance with all the technologies described above is a good answer to the question of how to plant pepper seedlings correctly. Too deep to plant is not worth it. Pepper rises and so long enough - two, and sometimes three weeks.
Sprouts
As soon as loops become noticeable above the soil surface, the boxes should be rearranged on the windowsills. Since the daylight hours in February and early March are still very short, it is advisable to arrange additional lighting for the pepper. It is not difficult to find lamps with the spectrum necessary for the onset of photosynthesis processes in our time. In addition, such equipment is not very expensive. Glass or film from the boxes, of course, should be removed.
Watering small seedlings of pepper is done in the morning with tap water, which has been left for 24 hours.
Dive
Plastic cups are best for transplanting grown plants. They can be grown very strong and healthy seedlings of peppers. Dive terms are determined by the degree of development of the plant. Transplant after 2-3 leaves appear on peppers. In glasses, plants will develop the soil much better than in boxes.
Make a pick as follows:
- The day before the operation, the seedlings in the boxes are well poured.
- Plants are picked up with a finger and taken out, gently supporting by leaf blades, and not by a fragile stalk.
- In cups filled with a soil mixture of the same composition as in the boxes, holes are made previously of such a diameter that the roots of the peppers do not bend.
- The plant installed in the hole is sprinkled with a soil mixture, slightly compacting it. When performing this procedure, make sure that the peppers are not buried in the ground above the root neck (in any case, no more than 0.5 cm).
- Transplanted plants are watered.
- Glasses are installed next to window sills, they need to be shaded. After the peppers are accepted, they are transferred closer to the light.
Removing the main root of peppers is possible, but not necessary. Some agronomists believe that such a procedure can cause the plant more harm than good. The fact is that the main core root is responsible for the delivery of nutrients in pepper, as in most other crops. But the rapid development of the lateral processes of particular benefit plants.
How to feed?
After about two months of pepper seedlings (you can see the photo of the grown plants below), the resource of the soil mixture is processed almost completely. Therefore, after this period it should begin to feed. The first time fertilizers are applied some time after the pick. In the second - after about a couple of weeks.
The best types of top dressing for peppers are liquid mixtures with a high content of potassium (for example, "Mortar" or "Senior tomato"). You can also fertilize plants with a weak ash solution or tincture of chicken manure, diluted with water in a ratio of at least one in twenty.
Transshipment of plants
The hardening of peppers begin somewhat later than other garden crops. These plants develop, as already mentioned, in the early stages rather slowly. After the tomatoes and eggplants are put on the balcony or taken to the cottage, the seedlings of peppers can be transferred to glasses or pots of a larger capacity. This procedure should be done carefully, trying not to damage or bend the roots. Take peppers from glasses exclusively with a lump of earth.
Open Landing Dates
With that, when sowing pepper for seedlings, we figured out. It is transferred to the soil approximately 70-90 days after planting in boxes. In this case, the soil on the bed should warm up to at least +15 degrees. Typically, a transplant is done from May 10 to June 25. By this time, plants should already have about 10 leaves, as well as some unopened buds. You can’t delay planting this crop. Blooming peppers are taken much worse. In addition, blooming buds can simply dry out. Of course, this will affect crop yields.
Like most other nightshade, pepper does not tolerate frosts too well. Therefore, arcs of thick wire or thin polypropylene pipes should be installed over the garden bed and the resulting frame should be covered with some non - woven covering material.
How to plant pepper seedlings in the soil
The day before the transfer, the plants are carefully shed. The beds are prepared in a well-lit area protected from strong winds. Lack of light will affect the crop. A strong wind "winds up" and weakens the plants.
When we dealt with the question of how to sow pepper for seedlings correctly, we also mentioned that this crop feels best on loose soils. Heavy soils, meanwhile, are not tolerated not only by young bushes, but also by adults.
If there is no site with loose fertile soil in the garden, the soil must be improved by adding humus, peat and sand. As fertilizer, it is recommended to use ash (1 tablespoon per 1 m²), superphosphate and potassium sulfate (1 tablespoon per 1 m²), as well as urea (1 tsp per 1 m²).
Digging the ground for beds under pepper on a bayonet shovel. The surface of the soil should be carefully leveled. Large lumps are broken by a rake, stones from a bed are removed.
Thickness is something that pepper seedlings cannot tolerate. The planting dates for this plant are late May or early June. Have the peppers on the bed in rows at a distance of not less than 50 cm from each other. In this case, the row spacing should be 60 cm. The plant is carefully removed from the glass together with a lump of earth, set in place so that the root neck remains on the surface, and fill the hole halfway with moist soil. Topping up is done with dry earth.
After all the pepper has been planted, the bed is mulched with sawdust or dry grass. Then produce abundant watering.
Greenhouse Planting
Plants are planted in closed ground in much the same way as in open ground. Only the terms of carrying differ. If the greenhouse is heated, boxes can be placed in it already in mid-spring. After adaptation, the plants are moved to a permanent place. Pepper seedlings in the greenhouse should also be well fertilized. It is best to spill the ground with a solution prepared on chicken droppings (200 grams per bucket of water, 1.5 liters per plant) before planting.
So, we have figured out in detail how and when to plant pepper for seedlings. This culture is not particularly whimsical, and caring for it is simple. However, it is nevertheless necessary to observe the established technologies when growing it. Particularly careful should be when diving, transshipment and carrying in open ground. Too deep to plant, as well as to prevent damage to the roots is impossible.