Care For Pepper Seedlings Before Picking And Picking Seedlings

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

There is no vegetable garden without peppers. Part 2

Some gardeners immediately sow seeds in a large container, so that later they do not make a pick or transshipment.

But for those who have a cold apartment, it is better to sow with a pick, because the soil can sour, it is difficult to regulate watering. Sowing is carried out to a depth of 1-3 cm. If you have prepared very loose soil, then to a depth of 2-3 cm, if the soil is coarse (a lot of sand, sod land), then by 1 cm. After sowing, the containers should be covered with foil and placed in a warm place. but not necessarily bright, a place with a temperature of + 24 … + 28 ° С. I put them in the bathroom.

Gardener's handbook

Plant nurseries Stores of goods for summer cottages Landscape design studios

Seedlings from germinated seeds appear in a day or two. You do not need to put on the battery, they can overheat, the roots will dry out. If the soil temperature is + 16 ° C, then the seeds may appear in a month, or even completely rot. I heard that the seeds of some varieties and hybrids bred in the Moscow region supposedly begin to germinate at a temperature of + 8 ° C, but I haven’t grown such varieties yet and I can’t say anything about it. As soon as shoots appear (little white loops), you must immediately put the container in a bright place.

Reduce the temperature to + 15 … + 16 ° С for 1-2 days or + 18 ° С for 5-6 days, i.e. quench. Then create the optimum temperature for the peppers + 23 … + 25 ° С during the day, + 18 … + 20 ° С at night, on cloudy days + 20 … + 22 ° С. Seedling growth stops at + 12-14 ° C. I lower the temperature like this: the seedlings are on the table near the window, so I paste its inner frame, it's already cool. I close the heating battery with a blanket, open the inside of the window. If the temperature needs to be raised, I do the opposite. Even between the frame and the seedlings, I lay a blanket, rolling it into a roll so that it would not blow.

Notice board

Kittens for sale Puppies for sale Horses for sale

Lighting up pepper seedlings

Pepper is a short day plant. When seedlings appear, the seedlings should be placed in the brightest place, but this does not mean that you need to supplement the lighting around the clock. In cloudy weather, and in the North-West regions in February, March, April there is very little sun, the backlight should be turned on during the day for 10-12 hours, no more.

It is believed that pepper is especially sensitive to the intensity of illumination when the generative organs are laid. Seedlings have 3-4 leaves during this period. I have only one 60 W fluorescent lamp for the entire table serves as a backlight. Peppers up to the fourth or fifth leaf are at this window, where the sun appears from 11 to 16 o'clock, and I also illuminate with a fluorescent lamp. Then I move them to another room, where the sun never comes, but the illumination is provided from 9 am to 9 pm with one 60 W fluorescent lamp. And near the sunny window, seedlings of tomatoes and cucumbers will grow.

Care for pepper seedlings before picking

Most often, before picking, seedlings suffer from a black leg. It can affect plants due to severe hypothermia of the soil, from thickening of seedlings, from waterlogging of the soil. As soon as the cotyledons unfold, I sprinkle each plant with sand. I wash the sand (construction, river) so that the water becomes transparent. Then I roast it in a frying pan, stirring occasionally. Then you need to cool the sand and sprinkle the seedlings with it.

Sprinkle cabbage and tomato seedlings in the same way. It is necessary to sprinkle it not when the plants begin to fall, but in advance. Before picking, the seedlings do not need to be fed, because the soil in which they grow has everything. And it is necessary to water constantly so that the soil does not dry out. It should not be soggy, but moist. Sharp changes in seedling watering lead to early lignification of the stems, and the fruits are thin-walled, no matter how you water them later. The water temperature for irrigation must be at least + 20 ° С. If the apartment is cold, then you need to water it with water warmer than + 20 ° C. In the apartment, pepper seedlings are periodically sprayed with water throughout its growing season, because the air is very dry near the battery. You can spray with water at any time of the day, but not in the bright sun.

Seedling picking

This is a transplant of seedlings from a "school" into a large container. In it, the land should be the same as in the "school". The size of the dishes, or rather, the size of the clod of earth for one plant depends on how many days the plant will grow before planting in the greenhouse. For example, we dive on March 15, we will plant in the greenhouse on May 5, which means that the seedlings will grow until disembarkation for 50 days. Practice has shown that a capacity of 450-500 ml will be enough. Another case: we dive on March 15, but we will plant seedlings in the greenhouse on May 25. In this case, this capacity will only be enough, most likely, it will not be enough.

Seedlings will receive less food and will be asked to go to the ground. And if we sowed late-ripening varieties with large branching in the first ten days of February, we dive on March 1, and plant them in the greenhouse on May 20, i.e. seedlings in a pot will grow for 80 days, then in this case the pot must be 1 liter. But with late sowing, for example, on April 1, we will dive on April 25, and plant seedlings in a greenhouse in a month. In this case, a 250-300 ml capacity is sufficient.

You can also dive into the "school", i.e. in a box of any size, at least 10 cm deep. The distance between the plants will depend on how many days the seedlings will grow here before planting in the greenhouse. Practice has shown: a distance of 15x15 cm is the best option. In the box, the cut-down plants develop beautifully, amicably. This is especially beneficial if you have a cold apartment: the soil in the boxes is not as supercooled as in small plastic cups. But after landing in the greenhouse from the "school" the seedlings "sit down", freeze, because its root system was severely disturbed. Potted seedlings can be planted in the greenhouse when the soil there warms up to + 16 ° C. And it is advisable to plant it out of the box when the soil warms up to + 18 ° C and above.

Picking "in the diaper"

Another way is practiced by those gardeners who are far away and find it difficult to take out pepper seedlings. An experienced gardener V. N. Kovalev. A piece of film about 10 x 17-20 cm in size is taken. On one end of the film, put one or one and a half tablespoons of very moist soil, put a seedling on this soil - a stem and roots on the soil, and the leaves will look out of the film. Put the same amount of earth on the roots on top.

Spin the film with a roll. Fasten the edges of the film, and put the rolls with plants in jars or pots in several pieces. You can water and feed such seedlings from above or below. It is quite easy to transport it, but practice has shown - I have been comparing the results for several years - seedlings "in a diaper" and seedlings with a large clod of earth behave differently after transplanting into a greenhouse. If you grow seedlings "in a diaper" for 50 days or more, then when they are planted in a greenhouse, they "sit down", that is. freezes for a long time, and does not grow.

This is a waste of time, fruiting in the future will be, but it is delayed in comparison with potted seedlings by 20 days. I compared seedlings grown in containers of 200 ml and 500 ml. Of course, the seedlings that are grown in a container with a volume of 500 ml enter into fruiting earlier.

And here's another experiment of mine: I specially bought several seedlings from another gardener. She raised it in yogurt cups. The plants were beautiful, the leaves glistened, buds were set. I planted these plants next to my seedlings grown in 500 ml containers. The picture was the same as with the seedlings from the "diaper". Fruiting is late. For several years I have been comparing different options, but the conclusion is one: in small containers, pepper can develop normally for no more than 30 days, and then it must be planted, otherwise fruiting is delayed.

You can dive when the seedlings, in addition to cotyledons, will also have two true leaves 3-5 mm in size, and the root system has not yet branched out. But you can dive even when the leaves are already 2 cm long, the plants will easily take root if the apartment is warm. The root system at this age is already highly ramified and many roots break off.

Among gardeners, there is an opinion that when diving it is necessary to pinch the central spine. Practice has shown that this is a waste of time. the spine will still be broken. In order not to disturb the root system at all, there is a transshipment method. For example, I will carefully pull the plant out of the cassette together with the soil in which it grew, the roots are not disturbed, I will put the seedlings in a 0.5 liter pot, sprinkle it with soil, this will be the transshipment.

If the apartment is cold, then when transshipment or picking, the plants do not need to be buried. If there is a temperature of + 22 … + 24 ° C, then it can be deepened by 1.5-2 cm. We dive or do transshipment into well-spilled soil. I make a depression with a small fork, plant a plant, sprinkle the roots from the sides, carefully pour water around the edges, while the earth will squeeze all the roots. On top of the watered soil, I sprinkle earth, slightly moist, crumbly. I will level it, squeeze it a little. It will be like mulch, under which there will be no crust, the plant will not have to be watered for several days - it all depends on the size of the pot and on the temperature in the apartment.

On the days of survival, it is necessary to remove the seedlings from the direct rays of the sun. If you have a very sunny window, you can stretch the lutrasil over the frame for the entire growing season of the seedlings, this helps a lot. Watering the seedlings after picking and before planting in the greenhouse should be carried out constantly so that the clod of earth does not dry out, but it is not very damp either. Pepper does not tolerate drying out of the soil. Loosening is not deep, shallow, about 1.5-2 cm. But if you did not calculate and poured water or it got colder in the apartment, then you can safely make punctures in the soil to the very bottom of the pot with a thin stick or knitting needle. And urgently to make additional punctures in the sides of the cups. In general, the rule is this - holes in containers are made not in the bottom, but on the side, stepping down 1-1.5 cm.

Top dressing of pepper seedlings

What does a pepper need? Phosphorus is required from germination to fruit formation. Nitrogen is needed for growth before flowering, and during the formation and ripening of fruits. Potassium is required from fruit setting to the end of their ripening. The need for calcium throughout the growing season. This means that pepper needs all the macronutrients, but it will not give up microelements either. In practice, feeding seedlings of peppers grown in an apartment looks like this: organic matter, superphosphate, complex mineral fertilizer, where there is nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, was added to the soil before sowing. These fertilizers will work when watered and warm. But still, 2-3 additional feeding must be done.

There are instant complex fertilizers with microelements - Kemira-lux, Kemira-kombi, small packages of the Buisk plant - aquariums - matched with different formulas nitrogen - phosphorus - potassium, they all contain microelements and calcium. Consumption rates according to the instructions. Some gardeners use such fertilizers at every watering, but the concentration is 10 times less. Maybe that's right. Moreover, pepper does not like high concentrations. A weak solution of fertilizers can be used for foliar feeding, just not on a sunny day.