Pepper is a tender, heat-loving and rather capricious plant, which is grown exclusively in seedlings in any region of Russia. To grow strong, healthy seedlings, which will turn into full-fledged plants and please with a bountiful harvest, only compliance with all cultivation rules will help.
Features of growing pepper
Before you start growing pepper seedlings, it is important to familiarize yourself with the features of breeding this nightshade crop:
- Pepper is contraindicated in high humidity. The soil between the rows should not be dry, but it should not be waterlogged either. The blackened leg of the plants will indicate excessive watering.
- Before each watering, it is necessary to loosen the soil between rows to a depth of 5 cm.
- The foliage of a plant is an indicator of its condition. With a lack of nutrients, they change color, curl, dry out and fall off.
- Pepper is a pollinated crop, so it is necessary to provide for the presence of pollinating insects in the summer cottage.
- Bushes do not need pinching.
- The delicate root system of the plant does not tolerate transplantation. It is better to grow seedlings in peat cups, with which they are transplanted into open ground.
- Soil and seed material are subject to mandatory disinfection.
- During the cultivation of seedlings, it must be fertilized.
- The heat-loving culture hardly tolerates temperatures below +15 ° C. At +13 °C and below, it requires covering with agrofibre or film.
Different varieties of pepper should be placed on opposite sides of the plots or planted between them corn, sunflower. It's all about the high cross-pollination of the culture, which will lead to a change in the taste of the fruit.
Growing seedlings
I sow seeds for seedlings 80-90 days before transplanting pepper into open ground. Preparation for sowing begins with the choice of soil. It can be purchased at a gardening store, or you can mix it yourself.
I fill the soil in planting containers, make 2 cm deepenings for seeds in it. I place the seed in a 1% iodine solution for 30 minutes, after which I move them to a damp cloth and leave them in a warm place for 24 hours. During this period, the seeds swell and hatch.
Prepared seeds are placed in the holes and sprinkled with earth on top. The first days I don’t water the soil, but moisten it with a spray gun - this avoids washing out the seeds from the soil. I cover the containers with a transparent lid (glass, film) and leave in a warm place with a temperature not lower than +24 ° C.
I remove the lid as soon as the first shoots appear. Young seedlings in the first month of her life require 12 hours of daylight. If natural lighting is not enough, it is necessary to use a phytolamp or a fluorescent lamp. The optimum temperature for growing is + 22-26 ° C during the day and + 16-19 ° C at night.
seedling care
Care depends on the age of the plants and their condition. I water once or twice a week. Focus on the condition of the ground. For irrigation I use warm settled water. For grown plants, I use a watering can with a diffuser - this allows you to water not only the soil, but also pepper leaves.
I spend the first dressing when the pepper releases 2 leaves. Fertilizers are applied only in liquid form. I use potassium, superphosphate and ammonia. The second application of nutrients is carried out after 14 days. By this time, the seedlings acquire 3-4 leaves.
I regularly gently loosen the soil around the plants and ventilate the room, avoiding drafts. 14 days before planting pepper on the beds, I start hardening the seedlings. To do this, I take it outside for a few minutes, increasing the time interval every day.
Growing pepper seedlings is not too different from cultivating other plants; even a novice gardener can handle it. The main thing is to remember well what pepper loves and what can destroy it.
If your experience of growing pepper seedlings differs from mine, I will be happy to review it in the comments.
Read also: My pepper seedlings turned yellow - I began to look for reasons. I talk about the most common and ways to eliminate deficiencies
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