How Many Seeds And Seedlings To Prepare For The Season

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

How many seeds and seedlings to prepare for spring

Spring has come. And the time has already approached when sowing and planting work in the vegetable garden and in the garden will begin. In anticipation of these long-awaited events, I want to suggest that gardeners and summer residents once again do arithmetic and determine for themselves: how many beds you want to allocate for a particular crop, and based on the total area for a particular crop, decide whether you have enough seeds of those crops that you decided to grow this year.

The area for crops grown through seedlings is determined according to the scheme of planting in the ground: first in the number of seeds, and then, if necessary, in grams. For example, early cabbage should be planted according to the scheme 70x30 cm (row spacing 70 cm, between plants in a row 30 cm), while the feeding area turns out to be 0.21 m2, so an average of 4.8 plants should be planted per 1 m2. In case of seedlings falling out, it is worth growing with a margin - an average of 5.3 pcs. / M², cabbage of average maturity, planted according to the scheme 70x40 per 1 m², you need an average of 3.6 plants. Late cabbage is required, depending on the variety, 2.4-2.8 pcs / m², and with a margin - 2.7-3.1 pcs / m².

Seedlings of tomatoes, peppers and eggplants when planting according to the recommended scheme 70x40 requires 3.6 pcs / m², and with a margin - 4 plants per m. Seedlings of squash and squash will require about 3 plants per 1 m².

For crops sown directly into the ground, the area under them must be multiplied by their seeding rates. These norms are: for onions ("nigella") -7-8 g / m2, for carrots -1 g / m2, for radish and turnips - 0.5-0.6 g / m2, for radish - 3-4, 5 g / m², peas and beans - 25-35 g / m². From leafy vegetables: lettuce - 0.3-0.5 g / m², for parsley - 4-6 g / m².

So, you have determined the seeds of which crops you have enough and which ones you don’t, that is, you need to buy them. Now it's worth thinking about which varieties you should buy. In order to get fresh vegetables as long as possible, I would like to recommend that you buy seeds of early, medium and late ripening varieties. At the same time, I want to draw attention to the fact that when choosing a variety, it is worth considering not only economic characteristics, for example, keeping quality, suitability for canning, but also resistance to diseases. The increased resistance of some varieties to certain, especially common diseases, allows us to limit ourselves to preventive treatments with immunomodulators (substances that activate plant immunity), such as immunocytophyte, symbiont-universal, humates, Silk, Epin, or biological products (based on microorganisms: Planriz, Baikal EM -one,and etc.). I will give a list of varieties (all-Russian) with increased resistance to the most common diseases.

Cabbage

Dry rot (Fomoz). Varieties Podarok, Moscow late 15, Belorusskaya 455, Khutorok, Vyuga, hybrid Kariya F1 are slightly affected.

Downy mildew (Peronosporosis). The varieties Slavyanka, Yubileinaya, Amager 611, Zimnyaya Gribovskaya, Belorusskaya 455, and Kariya F1 hybrid are less affected.

Black spot (Alternaria). The Losinoostrovskaya 8 variety is relatively resistant, early ripening varieties are less affected.

White and gray rot. Lying varieties and hybrids are relatively resistant: Moscow late 15, Amager 611, Kharkovskaya, Volzhanka 9, Blizzard, Biryuchekutskaya 138, hybrids Kolobok F1, Kraft F1, Karia F1, Krautnayzer F1.

Tomatoes

Late blight. Resistant varieties Grosh, Dubok, Zakaznaya 280, Canned Klevsky, Marinade 1; hybrids Mars F1, Stresa F1, Semko 98 F1.

Macrosporiasis. The varieties Zemlyak, Platan, Sever, Yantarny, etc. are relatively resistant.

Black rot of fruit. The varieties Raketa, New from Transnistria are resistant.

Septoria, or white leaf spot. Resistant varieties Grand, Lebyazhensky.

Cucumbers

Downy mildew (Peronosporosis). The varieties Aquarius, Competitor, Krinitsa, Brigadny, Urozhainy, MIG, Obelisk, Cascade, Third leaf, Platovets, Sovkhozny, Royal, etc. are relatively resistant.

Powdery mildew. Resistant varieties Parad, Competitor, Winter, Murava, VNIISSOK, Ambra, Aura, Libella, Cardia, Pioner, Topolyok.

Now I will move on to preparing the seeds for sowing

Seed preparation for sowing allows to obtain healthy, well-developed seedlings, promotes the emergence of friendly, leveled seedlings, increases plant resistance to low temperatures in the early spring period, and helps to increase yields.

When preparing seeds for sowing, sorting, dressing, soaking, heating, etc. are used.

Sort the seeds before sowing by size and density. The seeds of cabbage crops are sorted by size (all types of cabbage, radishes, turnips, radishes). To do this, they are passed through sieves with a certain hole diameter. Small batches are sorted by hand. Seeds are divided into three fractions: large, medium and small, which are thrown away. The seeds of tomato, cucumber, pepper, zucchini and pumpkin are separated by density, immersing them in a salt solution prepared at the rate of 30 g / l of water, keeping the seeds in the solution for 5-6 minutes. After that, the floating seeds are removed, the rest are washed with running water.

Disinfection

To protect the seedlings, the seeds are treated with various preparations, plant extracts and heated before sowing. Good results are obtained by processing seeds of tomato, pepper, cucumber, squash and pumpkin in a 1% solution of potassium permanganate (1 g / 100 ml of water) for 20 minutes. After that, the seeds should be rinsed with running water. Seeds of cabbage, carrots, cucumbers and beans are heated in water with a temperature of 48-52 ° C: cabbage seeds for 20 minutes (followed by cooling in cold water for 2-3 minutes); cucumbers - within 2 hours, beans - 6 hours. Onion sets affected by downy mildew can be disinfected in a slightly pink solution of potassium permanganate with a temperature of 37-40 ° C for 2 hours.

Soaking the seeds

This technique is of particular importance for seeds with a hard shell that is not permeable to water - carrots, parsley, onions and others. Seeds of carrots, tomatoes, beets, parsley are soaked for 48 hours; cabbage, cucumber, zucchini, watermelon, lettuce, radish - 12 hours; peas, beans - 6 hours; onions and parsley - from 8 to 24 hours.

Soaking seeds is well combined with their enrichment with physiologically active substances - growth stimulants, micro- and macroelements, which enhances the growth and development of plants. For these purposes, you can use an infusion of ash. It is prepared as follows: a glass of ash is poured into a liter jar, poured to the top with water, after 6-8 hours the infusion is filtered. Then 1/2 cup of this extract is placed in a half-liter jar, topped up with warm water and the seeds in gauze bags are immersed in it for 12 hours. Those who do not have ash can be offered to soak the seeds in a solution of industrial polymicro-fertilizers or in an infusion of complex AVA fertilizer, which also contains all macronutrients except nitrogen: insist 2 g of powder of AVA fertilizer in 1 liter of water for two days,and use the bulk of this fertilizer when sowing (or mix with seedling soil) and for feeding any plants during the season.

Heteroauxin, gibberellin-containing preparations, vitamins of group B, C, PP (nicotinic acid) are used as growth stimulants when soaking. It is also effective to soak seeds in a solution of humates, which activate their germination and plant development. A good effect is obtained from soaking in half-diluted aloe juice for 6 hours. In recent years, a tool has appeared in gardening stores that is effective both for soaking seeds and for feeding already growing and fruiting plants. This is a microbiological fertilizer "Baikal EM1" in liquid form. Due to the presence of growth and other biologically active substances in it, "Baikal" has a stimulating effect on germinating seeds and growing plants, as I have seen from my own experience. In addition, it contains substancessuppressing the development of pathogenic fungi that cause "black leg", root rot and other diseases, that is, it can be used to prevent diseases.

The timing of growing seedlings

For guidance on the timing, I offer a table compiled by the candidate of agricultural sciences A. L. Feoktistova for the central zone of the Kirov region. I think it is quite suitable for the Leningrad region.

Soil preparation … I know very well that some gardeners prepared the land for seedlings in the fall, but for those who do not have enough land this year or who do not have it in advance, I will offer options for compiling soil. For any seedlings, mixtures are suitable: 1 part of humus, 1 part of sawdust, 3 parts of peat, 1 part of turf; 2 parts of humus and 3 parts of peat. It is advisable to add 2-3 g of fluff lime, 40 g of garden mixture or 2 glasses of wood ash to a bucket of this mixture. Some vegetable growers recommend adding ammonium nitrate, superphosphate and potassium chloride to this mixture, however, saltpeter and potassium chloride, especially in the form of lumps, can cause root burns, so when filling the mixture for seedlings, especially with a high content of humus in it, you can do without them … In this case, it is more expedient to add the AVA fertilizer powder at the rate of 1-3 g / l. In this case, superphosphate will be unnecessary, since there is even more phosphorus here than in superphosphate. If your mix is low in humus, nitrogen fertilization may be needed. However, if the soil is shed a week before sowing the seeds with the fertilizer "Baikal EM1", then the fertility of the soil can rise to a level at which, at least at first, it will be possible to do without fertilizing with nitrogen fertilizer.