Growing Seedlings Of Peppers And Eggplants

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

Read the previous part. ← Growing seedlings of celery and parsley

Research by scientists has shown, and my many years of experience have confirmed, that the quality and age of seedlings are of great importance for obtaining a good harvest of peppers and eggplants. Seedlings should be healthy and "fun".

The recommended age of pepper seedlings to be planted in greenhouses is 60-70 days from germination. The weather conditions in our region allow planting seedlings in late May - early June. If you leave 7-10 days from sowing to germination, then a simple calculation shows that you need to sow in the first half of March. However, it should be borne in mind that the recommended numbers are suitable only for optimal conditions, i.e. 25-29 ° C for seed germination, 20-24 ° C for seedling growth, plus a sufficient amount of light.

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At home, it is far from always possible to create such conditions, usually the temperature is lower and there is little light, so the seedlings grow very slowly, and instead of 60 days you have to wait much longer. Therefore, in such cases, it is necessary to sow earlier - here each gardener empirically selects the appropriate sowing dates. Let us immediately warn against a mistake: do not sow too early, in January or the first half of February, because low temperatures and lack of light will lead to the fact that the seeds, failing to sprout, will simply rot. It is better to sow in early March, and this seedling will catch up with the seedlings sown earlier by the time of planting in the greenhouse.

Pepper seedlings can be grown in two ways - with a pick, even with two, and without a pick. After the pick, it is necessary to leave a margin of time for 5-7 days for the seedlings to take root.

Seeds must be examined before sowing and selected well-shaped, ear-like, light yellow in color, with a well-visible bulge near a tiny "nose". If this bulge is black in the light, such a seed can be thrown away. Purchased seeds before sowing must be pickled in a 1% solution of potassium permanganate (1 g per 100 ml of water) for 20 minutes, then washed thoroughly. There are many ways to pre-sow peppers seeds - this is often written about in the literature. I prefer not to torture the seeds in any way. I consider it especially dangerous to harden future heat-loving plants by changing temperatures with keeping the unfortunate seedlings in the refrigerator. After all, they may not rise from the shock received.

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In the option with a pick, the seeds are sown in vessels with a wall height of 5-6 cm to a depth of 1.5-2 cm. It is advisable to sow different varieties in different containers, because they may have different germination times. Usually early varieties emerge much faster than medium and late varieties.

You can sow with dry seeds or hatched - as you like. The crops are covered with foil or glass and placed in a very warm place - from 25 to 30 and even 35 ° C. Modern hybrids are especially fond of warmth. From above, for additional insulation, you can wrap it up with some kind of warm cloth.

When the loops of at least half of the sown seeds appear from the ground, the seedlings can be rearranged in a warm (not lower than 18 ° C) bright place. Remove insulation. If the seedlings haven't dropped the "caps", you need to help them by moistening them with a drop of water and covering the plant with a small glass to soften these "caps". And even try to gently remove them with tweezers. If these methods do not help, then the seeds are underdeveloped. Such seedlings must be removed, and new ones must be sown in their place. Further care is normal. Water only with warm water, loosen the soil - all as needed. Arrange a "walk" for seedlings every day, starting from 5-10 minutes.

Make sure that there is no cold blowing from the window glass. When the seedlings have expanded the cotyledons, remove the cover. In the stage of one or two of the first true leaves, the plants must be dived, it is better each - into its own vessel with a volume of at least 300 ml. Deepen in half of the hypocotal stem. Some gardeners go deep to the cotyledons. Pepper grows in either case.

Seedlings love feeding

I prefer feeding in small doses with each watering: I add a few drops of liquid complete fertilizer of the Ideal type to 1 liter of water. The older the seedlings, the more drops - from 1 to 5. If the April sun is hot and the room is very dry, I spray the plants from a spray bottle over the leaves - they love it, and shade from the sun. Peppers suffer from too bright sun. Before planting in the greenhouse, I do not allow the plants to bloom, I remove not only the bud in the first fork, but also other buds that are going to bloom. The first flowering is allowed only after planting in the greenhouse. Experience shows that the yield is much higher.

About additional lighting

I illuminate the seedlings with a 40 W fluorescent lamp for 16 hours a day. As the seedlings grow, the lamp has to be raised higher so that the distance from the lamp surface to the top of the plants does not exceed a few centimeters. In this way, the maximum illumination of the plants is obtained. There are never any leaf burns from a fluorescent lamp.

Similarly, you can grow eggplant seedlings. Only on the leaves I never spray them - the eggplants can get sick from this. And when diving I do not deepen at all.

If you need to grow a small number of bushes of peppers and eggplants, then you should prefer the no-pick method of growing seedlings. With this method, each plant is immediately grown in its own vessel. At the same time, no time is wasted for the plants to take root after the pick, therefore, sowing can be done later, when it becomes warmer and lighter. I sow in mid-March. Seedlings grow better not on the windowsill, but in the back of the room, where there are no drafts, at a room temperature of 20-22 ° C.

About the volume of dishes

She sowed in boxes of dairy products in volumes of 250, 350, 500 and 600 ml. The best seedlings were obtained in a volume of 600 ml, that is, the root system requires space for the normal development of plants. Sow 2-3 seeds in each glass. In phase 2-3 of a true leaf, it is necessary to cut off weak plants with scissors, leaving the best growing seedling for further growth.

Seedling care was the same as in the picking method. In the case when root tubercles are formed at the base of the stems of the peppers (which means that the plant wants to form additional roots), I poured 1-2 cm of earth into the boxes. Plants in such conditions always grow very quickly. By the time of planting in the greenhouse, large fluffy bushes with two tiers of buds grow. Particularly distinguished by their health are those bushes of peppers, in which boiled fish bones were laid on the bottom under the roots. And the yield from such bushes is higher. Eggplant with bones was not tested.