Care of pepper seedlings. Planting pepper on seedlings: preparing seeds, soil

Planting and caring for sweet pepper seedlings are not too complicated processes, but they require certain knowledge to obtain a healthy and strong planting material.

Preparation of pepper seeds for planting

Seedling of Bulgarian pepper starts to plant from February to mid-May. Everything depends on the place of growing the seedlings. In the heated greenhouse and on the windowsill, the seeds are sown in the middle of February, and in a non-heated greenhouse the crop is best carried out in the middle of March. The seeds of sweet pepper in three years lost germination, which is why they are first sorted and removed spoiled. To ensure a strong and viable pepper seedling, the preparation of seeds, soil must be carried out in advance.

There are many ways to improve the germination of seeds. First of all, a calibration is carried out, during which the largest and most qualitative seeds are selected, which contain more nutritious stocks. To do this, they must be soaked for several minutes in a solution of sodium chloride, which is prepared by diluting 1 teaspoon of salt per 1 cup of water. Everything is thoroughly mixed and then settled. For sowing, use only settled seeds, which are washed with clean water and dried.

To decontaminate and stimulate germination, soak seeds for 7 minutes in a warm 3% solution of hydrogen peroxide or for 30 minutes in a solution of potassium permanganate, which is prepared by dissolving 1 g of potassium permanganate per 100 ml of water at room temperature, or in a special preparation, for example, "Ecosile" .

To improve germination, you can simply soak for a couple of days seeds in warm water, the temperature of which is from +25 to +30 degrees Celsius. To do this, it is enough to cover the gauze or filter paper in a container, on top of which to put a planting material, moistened with water. Follow the constant moistening, the water should be a little bit so that the seeds do not rot. After they prokslyutsya, they should be slightly dried and immediately sowed in glasses or a greenhouse.

Some amateur gardeners are experimenting with the hardening of seeds. This is necessary in order for the seedlings to be adapted to the temperature drop in the future. Sprouted seeds are placed for 60 minutes in a refrigerator, then removed and kept at room temperature for 2 hours. Such manipulations are carried out 3 more times.

Selection of soil and container for seedlings

Proper care for pepper seedlings depends largely on the quality of the selected soil, which must be loose, absorbing the moisture well. For self-preparation of the mixture, a combination of light brown peat containing indissoluble plant residues, leaf, greenhouse, turf, soil, small sawdust, coarse sand, perlite, humus, garden compost and biohumus can be used. An important point is the ban on the use of land from the site where the plants of the Nightshade family were grown earlier, in order to avoid infection of seedlings with pathogens of tomato and pepper diseases. After preparing the mixture, it is necessary to disinfect it with a weak solution of potassium permanganate.

There are different proportions for the soil collection:

1. The ratio of 5: 1: 4 humus, peat, garden or turf soil. You can use some river sand.
2. The ratio of 1: 3: 1 sod land, peat and humus. To this mixture it is recommended to add mineral fertilizers: superphosphate 10 g, ammonium nitrate 1 g, potassium salt 5 g based on 1 kg of soil.

It will be good to grow seedlings on the coconut substrate . Peppers, planting and care of seedlings of which are no different from caring for plants sown in the usual soil mixture, will feel great.

You can add hydrogel to the soil, which will help to retain moisture better. For this purpose, the balls, which have swollen in water beforehand, are mixed with the soil. If the pellets are used dry, they will displace the soil from the container during swelling.

For planting seedlings, small boxes, plastic cups or jars, cells with a pallet, peat pills, pots that have holes at the bottom are suitable.

A very convenient option for sowing seeds is peat tablets, from which it is easy to carry seedlings during transplantation or picking.

Seeding of pepper seeds for seedlings

The containers are filled with an earth mixture so that 2 cm remains to the top of the pot. When planting seedlings in boxes make a wooden rod grooves to a depth of 1 cm, with intervals between rows of 5 cm. The distance between seeds in the furrow is 2 cm. After sowing, they sprinkle with a small amount of soil.

In order not to waste time on transplanting young shoots, the seeds are added to cups or individual cells.

The container with seeds sown in the ground for a while, until the seedlings have risen, put in a warm place near the battery, cover with a thin polyethylene or glass to reduce the evaporation of moisture. Every day, you need to check the soil in the box so that there is no drying. If preliminary treatment of pepper seeds was carried out, the first shoots appear after a week. After that remove the protective cover in order to avoid overheating and damage to the shoots.

Optimum temperature and illumination

Proper care for pepper seedlings is to maintain a favorable temperature for this culture, which is from +24 to +26 degrees Celsius and at night from +15 to +17 degrees Celsius.

For peppers, sunlight is very important, unlike artificial lighting. Before planting seedlings, you need to determine which window has more light, on which you should grow plants. The pepper on the south side grows best.

Additional lighting

But not always enough natural light seedlings. Tomatoes, peppers care require a similar, so in cloudy weather, you can illuminate plants with fluorescent lamps. The distance from the top of the seedling to the lighting device should be at least 15 cm. Over time, the lamp needs to be lifted from the grown seedlings. The plant needs up to 20 hours of such artificial lighting.

Seedling of seedlings

Further care for pepper seedlings is associated with the selection of the most powerful and large seedlings that are planted in separate pots. This gives plants more space for development and prepares them for subsequent planting in the open ground.

Dive the seedlings, when they grew 2 small cotyledonous leaves, it happens in 2-3 weeks from planting the seeds. To perform this manipulation, water the soil and after 2 hours remove the shoots, which then cut off by one third the root spine. Each such plant is planted in a separate pot or other container.

Watering

After the emergence of sprouting first three days the soil is not moistened. Care of seedlings of pepper at this stage is in a timely watering, using a simple sprayer. With the advent of cotyledonous leaves, the seedlings are watered with water, the temperature of which is about +30 degrees Celsius.

Do not humidify the soil too much, so that excessive moisture does not provoke the damage of the seedlings with a black leg, when the root part of the stem decays. At the slightest signs, the care of pepper seedlings is reduced to stopping watering, then the ground is sprinkled with wood ash or calcined sand. Also, regular ventilation is necessary to allow the soil to dry out.

At the bottom of each pot or box should be a hole for the flow of excess moisture.

Nourishing of seedlings

For normal development, you need to feed Bulgarian pepper. Seedlings care associated with fertilizer, requires at least 4 times. When two of these leaves appear, top dressing is carried out with a solution obtained by dissolving 15 g of potassium salt, 10 g of carbamide, 40 g of superphosphate in 10 liters of warm water. One liter of this feeding is enough for 10 seedlings.

The second fertilization is carried out after 2 weeks, only in the preparation of the solution, 2 times more superphosphate is added.

For better development of the root system, seedlings are supplemented with a potassium humate preparation, 25 ml of this agent is diluted in 10 liters of water. When 6 leaves appear during budding, a microelemental feeding is carried out, which includes copper, iron sulfate, orthoboric acid, manganese sulfate, zinc.

It is important not to let the seedlings grow and be planted on time in the open ground.