Pepper seedlings

How to properly grow pepper seedlings

Bell peppers are one of the most popular vegetable crops that have been known for over half a century. Over the course of such a long time, many species and varieties have been bred. Today there are more than 2 thousand of them. This vegetable is loved not only for its bright appearance, but also for those vitamins and trace elements that are contained in this healthy vegetable. If you are still dreaming of growing this wonderful vegetable on your site, then you need to prepare healthy seedlings in order to plant them in a greenhouse or open ground. After all, each culture has its own nuances of growing and planting. Pepper seedlings are no exception.

The nuances of growing pepper

1) Pay attention to watering. Pepper does not like drought, and does not like very wet soil, so you need to find a middle ground.
2) Before starting watering, it will be necessary to loosen the soil by about 5 cm in depth.
3) If you notice that the foliage began to curl, change the light, began to dry out, then this is a clear sign of a lack of vitamins and beneficial trace elements. Many varieties of peppers are pollinated, so try to keep bees or other pollinating insects in the area where the peppers grow.
4) If you notice that the lower part of the stalks of the peppers is covered with black skin, then this means that rotting has begun, this was the excessive moisture of the soil.
5) Peppers do not need pinching, unlike tomatoes. The lower leaves, on the contrary, create protection against drying out of the soil. There is one case when pinching can be done - when the weather was too hot, but humid. Then the lower leaves must be cut off in order to avoid rotting, and also to create the possibility of airing.
6) Pepper has a delicate root system. That is why picks and frequent transplants are undesirable. It is best to grow seedlings in peat pots, which are then planted with them in a permanent place.
7) During cultivation, the soil and seeds need to be disinfected, since peppers are quite often exposed to various diseases and viruses.
8) Peppers are very fond of top dressing, so the first top dressing can be applied even at the stage of growing seedlings. Then after planting the peppers in their permanent place.
9) If the air temperature or in the greenhouse drops below +13 degrees, then for peppers it will be something like frost. If such temperatures are expected, then be sure to cover the peppers with a covering material.

It must be borne in mind that peppers are capable of cross-pollination, so they need to be planted a considerable distance, or a taller plant, for example, tomatoes, corn, should be placed between crops.

Pepper seedlings: growing stages

Peppers are not very different from growing seedlings of other vegetable crops. The very first stage is the right choice of a variety that will suit your particular region.

For the southern regions, the varieties differ in the following characteristics:

• They love warmth.
• They tolerate dry weather well.
• They tolerate extreme heat well.
• They die from low air temperatures, as well as cloudy weather.

Other features are characteristic of the northern regions:

• They tolerate low temperatures well.
• With a lack of sunlight, the leaves will not crumble.
• It tolerates night changes in temperature well.
• They are distinguished by a stable harvest.

Pepper growing areas

Then you need to decide where the pepper will be grown: outdoors or in greenhouses. How you grow peppers depends on how you plant them.The thing is that pepper has a long vegetative period - 3-4.5 months. Therefore, you need to grow seedlings about 90 days before you transfer the peppers to their permanent place - around mid-February. The deadline for sowing seeds is mid-March. In order to plant seedlings in a permanent place for most regions of our country - the beginning of June, for planting in the southern regions - mid - end of May. If you plan to grow peppers in unheated greenhouses, then this period should be 14-15 days earlier. If you plant and plant the seedlings correctly, you can get a healthy and large crop of peppers. Now let's take a closer look at the stages of growing seedlings.

Planting seedlings

1) We are preparing the soil. It is best that the soil consists of 2 parts of humus, 1 part of sand, 1 part of soil from the garden, a few tablespoons of wood ash. The soil should be loose and not too acidic.
2) It is imperative to decontaminate the soil. To do this, you can calcify the ground in the oven or apply the method of freezing the substrate in outdoor conditions.
4) The soil that has undergone decontamination should be poured into boxes or pots, and also prepare the depressions where the seeds will be planted. The depth should be 1.5-2 cm.
5) About 5-6 hours, before you plant the seeds, you need to shed the soil well with a solution of copper sulfate.
6) It is also necessary to disinfect the seeds. To do this, put the seeds in a 1% iodine solution for about half an hour. You can place the seeds in hot water (about 50 degrees) and put them in a thermos overnight, or for 4-5 hours.
7) After disinfection, the seeds must be put in a damp cloth and left in a warm place for several days, the seeds will have time to take a little.
8) The seeds can then be planted. They need to be placed in the ground and lightly sprinkled with earth. After planting, the soil will need to be well moistened, but be careful that the seeds do not crawl out anywhere.

Seedling seedling care

This completes the planting process. After that, containers with seedlings must be covered with polyethylene and taken to a warm place, the temperature there should be at least +24 degrees and not higher than +27 degrees. Try to make sure that the sun does not fall on the seedlings, the place should be dark enough. As soon as you notice that the seeds have sprouted for the first time, the film must be removed and the containers with the seedlings should be placed on the window so that the pepper seedlings can receive enough light. In the first month after you put the seedlings on the window, it will need 12 hours of lighting, so if you do not have this opportunity, you will need additional lighting (daylight hours should be from 7 a.m. until the evening until 9 p.m. ). To do this, you can use a light lamp, and also control the temperature near the seedlings.

After the sprouts appear, the temperature regime in the daytime should be +22 +27 degrees, at night +14 +16 degrees. Most importantly, keep an eye on the temperature at night, lowering can harm the peppers.

Pepper seedlings: proper care

You need to care for the seedlings until the peppers reach 25-30 cm in height and until you notice the first buds on the seedlings. What does seedling care boil down to?

Picking

When you notice the appearance of at least two leaves, you need to dive the seedlings. If you planted seeds immediately in separate containers, then a dive is not necessary. And if in a common box, then a dive is inevitable. It is necessary to water the seedlings abundantly and give the seedlings a little time to stand. After that, you need to carefully remove the peppers, while grabbing a piece of soil and replanting in separate containers.

Watering and seedling pepper

It is necessary to water the seedlings about 1-2 times a week. But at the same time, the soil should not be very moist. The water should be settled, warm, about 30 degrees.If you use cold water, it can negatively affect the seedlings and peppers, they can get sick. For watering, it is better to choose a sprinkling method.

Fertilizer

You can apply fertilizer twice. The first feeding is introduced when a dive is made, or when at least two leaves appear on the pepper. To do this, you can prepare a solution of potassium, ammonia and superphosphate. Before starting to prepare the solution, it is necessary to dissolve all the elements in water, because the solution must be liquid. Fertilizers can be applied for the second time 14-15 days after the first feeding, or when at least 3-4 leaves appear. The same components are used as fertilizer, but the dosage is doubled.

Loosening

Do not forget to loosen the soil. This will allow the oxygen to saturate it better, which will improve the growth of the peppers. You need to loosen the soil very carefully so as not to harm the root system.

Moisturizing

It is necessary to maintain an optimal level of humidity, for this you need to spray the plant with warm water. Also ventilate the room more often, but beware of drafts. They can be detrimental to seedlings.

Pepper seedlings: hardening

It is necessary to prepare seedlings for transplantation to a permanent place. It is necessary to carry out a kind of hardening of seedlings. To do this, at the initial stage, you can simply open the window for a few minutes so that the seedlings receive a dose of fresh air, then we increase the "walk" time, bringing it to several hours. Then you can take out the seedlings to the balcony or terrace, but again protecting them from drafts and winds. Then you can leave the seedlings outdoors overnight, but the night temperature should be above +14 degrees. When you take out the seedlings to the balcony, make sure that they do not fall on direct sunlight to prevent burns.

We plant peppers in a permanent place

It doesn't end with planting and growing seedlings. An important step is transplanting seedlings into open ground and providing further care for the peppers. It is necessary to prepare the soil for the peppers 1 year before planting. The soil in which you are going to grow the peppers should not have previously grown crops of the nightshade family, such as potatoes or tomatoes. But, carrots and eggplants can be grown in the ground, after which you can plant peppers. It is best to grow them first, so you should plant sweet peppers in their place.

In spring, the beds must be dug up, all weeds removed, disinfected either with special means, or use a solution of potassium permanganate. In order to build the beds, you will need: keep a distance of 40 cm between the bushes, and up to 60 cm between each other in adjacent rows. Due to the love of peppers for warmth, the beds need to be made high, about 50 cm.It is best to make such indentations in the ground that you made for seedlings, so that the peppers can adapt better and faster. If you grew seedlings in peat pots, then they are simply planted in the ground, and the edges of the beds. Add ammonium nitrate to the hole, which is then mixed with the ground. Then put the plant and bury it with earth. After that, the landing should be shed well. They take warm and settled water. For 3 bushes, you will need 1 bucket of water.

After watering the plants, add soil so that the lower leaves do not touch the ground. Be prepared for the fact that the seedlings will be a little sluggish at first - these are the features of adaptation to a new place. But do not rush to water the seedlings every day. Instead of benefiting her, on the contrary harming her, the roots may start to rot. If the weather is not yet too warm, you can cover the seedlings after planting in open ground using a covering material.

Pepper seedlings: tips for summer residents

If you decide to start growing peppers in your area, then you need to know a few subtleties:

1) It is best to choose those varieties that do not have a rich harvest, but will have good resistance to various diseases and unfavorable weather conditions. Let the harvest be not strong, but stable.
2) If you want to get a large number of ovaries, it is important to remove the central inflorescence. it will also have a beneficial effect on the yield.
3) The pepper should have 2 or 3 stems, if the number is greater, then they need to be removed.
4) It will be good if you mulch the soil. Peat or 10 cm of rotted straw can be used as mulch. Mulch retains water well.
5) As we said earlier, you will need to attract pollinating insects, you need to spray the plant with sweet water, to which you need to add bromine.
6) For the entire season, it is necessary to fertilize approximately 4-5 times. Urea is best suited, which will need to be dissolved in water, the proportion is 1:10.
7) The beds must be constantly weeded and loosened.

If you also want to grow on your site this vegetable, remarkable in its taste and vitamin qualities, and you are ready to perform all the necessary actions for its proper care, then you can safely do it.