1.Too fast
There is no rush to board. Having planted plants in open ground Before the air temperature reaches 20-25° C, we will experience a delay in development and a lack of harvest. You can plant early only under film and in greenhouses.
2. Not enough light
In the shade, the peppers wither, begin to stretch out and fall from the wind. They do not set fruit in this state. To prevent peppers from suffering from lack of light, they should even be planted less frequently - no closer than 25 cm from each other and no less than 60 cm between rows.
3. Shallower is better than deeper
Peppers, like trees, have a root collar. Therefore, it cannot be buried. It must be planted in the same way as it grew in the nursery. It is very important to prevent pepper plants from stretching during the seedling period. Elongated seedlings cannot be planted lying down, like tomatoes. The pepper is buried no lower than the cotyledon leaves. It’s better not to bury it at all: then the seedlings won’t “sit” in one pore for a long time.
4. Supports will come in handy
Despite the fact that closely planted peppers themselves support each other from lodging, they still need to be tied up. Otherwise, when it rains, the wind will blow down the peppercorns, so much so that the roots will turn out.
A garter is required for all varieties, and especially for hybrids characterized by strong growth. Urgent gartering is required when branches break when touched lightly.
5. Not a cucumber, but still...
Peppers tolerate replanting better than cucumbers, but it is also very painful, and it takes a long time to take root. To keep as many roots as possible undamaged, planting must be done by transferring them from the cups in which the peppers grew. It is even recommended to avoid picking so as not to damage the roots.
6. No heat - no cold, no moisture - no drought
Pepper is afraid of coolness and... heat. Already at temperatures above 35° C, the flowers fall off. At the same time, pepper loves water very much, but does not tolerate flooding. If you over-water, the flowers and ovaries will fall off in the same way as with insufficient watering. Peppers need to be watered, like cucumbers, often and little by little. This will lower the temperature and allow you to get large fruits.
By the way, pepper responds best to drip irrigation of all crops.
7. Deep loosening is dangerous
Despite the shallow roots, peppers need to be loosened every 2 weeks. They are loosened shallowly, literally a couple of centimeters. If you damage the root, the plant will wither and die or simply lose all its flowers and ovaries.
You can get rid of such dangerous work if you mulch the pepper plantings with sawdust, pine needles or straw at least 7-10 cm thick.
8. Feeding is required
Peppers have empty space inside, but you need to feed them as if they were full. Fertilizing in open ground is applied once every 1-1.5 weeks. Peppers are very fond of nitrogen and potassium, less so of phosphorus. However, plants cannot tolerate excess fertilizer. It is imperative to observe the measure and under no circumstances apply fresh manure: rotten fruits will appear.
9. Pollination can't hurt
Pepper is a self-pollinating plant, but, as practice shows, cross-pollination of different varieties growing nearby is also possible. This happens with the help of insects. It has long been noticed that if several varieties of pepper are planted on a plot, the harvest is always better.
10. Avoid diseases and pests
To prevent diseases (and peppers have a lot of them), you need to treat the plantings once or twice a season with any copper-containing preparation. It is best to use systemic drugs - Ridomil, Ordan. It is necessary to monitor the emergence of diseases and promptly treat plants against aphids and mites. And if your peppers are favored by cutworms (caterpillars), it is best to use the drugs Alatar, Confidor, Mospilan.
If the timing is missed, the caterpillars will become resistant to poisons.
Sweet peppers are grown less often in the country than cucumbers and tomatoes. Meanwhile, there is no special wisdom in obtaining large yields of this vegetable. And although this is a fairly heat-loving crop, when the right approach Peppers can be successfully grown in the Middle Zone.
PREPARATION OF PEPPER SEEDS FOR SOWING
The ripening period of peppers from germination to fruit harvesting is: 80-100 days for early varieties, 120-140 days for late varieties, so you can start thinking about seedlings in late February - early March.
Seeds need to be planted 55-60 days before planting seedlings in the ground. If you plant earlier, the plants will stretch out, weaken and take root poorly, which cannot but affect the future harvest.
It is better to prepare the seeds first. For this, 1 tsp. Dissolve potassium permanganate in 1 liter of hot water. Pour 3 tbsp over the seeds for half an hour. l. warm solution and then rinse warm water. After this, you can also fill them with a heteroauxin solution for 12 hours - take 1 tablet per 1 liter of water. After this, place the seed in a canvas bag and put it in the snow overnight, and keep it in the room during the day. 5-6 days of such hardening are enough. At this time, you need to make sure that the seeds do not dry out, germinate or suffocate. After hardening, dry the seeds thoroughly before planting or sow immediately - whichever is more convenient.
PLANTING PEPPER
It is best to prepare soil for seedlings using peat. If there is no peat, you can take humus. So, to 2 parts of humus (peat) add 1 part of turf soil, 1 part of sawdust. Pre-spill the sawdust with a solution of ammonium nitrate (a glass of nitrate in a bucket of water).
The sawdust should be moistened with this solution for 2 weeks. Then all components must be mixed, add 1 tbsp. n. superphosphate. 2 tbsp. l. ash - and the soil for seedlings is ready. The operation with sawdust is necessary so that the seedlings grow strong and do not experience nitrogen starvation, in which the leaves become pale and the plants themselves become weak.
Seeds can be sown in separate pots or in trays (boxes). In the second option, the distance between the rows should be 3-4 cm. There is no need to plant the seed deeply - 1 cm from the top is enough. Before the emergence of friendly shoots, it is better to cover the crops with plastic wrap.
Once the seeds have sprouted, the boxes should be placed on a cool windowsill for several days. Then you can move it to a warm place where the temperature is kept at 25°. As soon as the first true leaf appears, the peppers should be picked.
CARING FOR PEPPER SEEDLINGS
Every 12 days, peppers should be fed with complex fertilizer, starting from the time the second leaf appears. A total of 3 feedings need to be done. If signs of nitrogen starvation appear, it is best to feed the plants with chicken droppings - 0.5 liters of droppings per bucket of water.
As the plant develops, it needs to be shaped - leave the 2 strongest shoots to simulate the skeleton of the bush, and pinch out the weak branches after 12 leaves appear.
As soon as the plant develops more than 7 leaves and they are sufficiently strong (and this will happen in 50-60 days), the seedlings can be planted in a greenhouse or open ground.
It is worth knowing that peppers are capricious and demanding. They restore the root system poorly, do not like transplants, and take root slowly. Therefore, many gardeners eliminate the picking operation and plant non-picked plants.
Good strong seedlings are considered to be plants 20-25 cm high with 5-10 leaves and a strong stem 3-4 mm thick at the roots.
MAY CONCERNS
In May, it is time to prepare the ground for peppers, if it has not been prepared since the fall. Peppers feel best in garden beds after cucumbers and cabbage. They do not tolerate fresh manure - it is better to take rotted compost and add it to the ground - 1 square meter. m 1 bucket of manure, 50-60 g of superphosphate, 20 g of potassium salt.
Planting in the ground or in a greenhouse should begin when the air temperature reaches 15°. Frosts are destructive for peppers, so plants should not be planted before the end of May.
Peppers love moisture, so they need to be watered well before transplanting.
It is better to choose a cool, cloudy day for planting. Plants should be carefully removed from the boxes, being careful not to disturb the roots. It is optimal to plant peppers in peat cups and plant them in the ground together - then the peppers will get sick less.
The distance between rows should ideally be 50 cm, between plants - 30 cm. Plants should be planted in separate, well-watered holes. You can’t bury peppers when planting them: this will cause them to get sick and dry out. Sprinkle with soil up to the first leaves. But if you plant the peppers very shallowly, the top roots will begin to die, and this should not be allowed.
It is important to plant sweet and bitter peppers as far apart as possible to prevent cross-pollination. Otherwise, sweet peppers will be bitter, and bitter ones will not be pleasantly spicy.
The ground around the plants can be mulched with straw or grass so that the ground retains moisture longer and there are fewer weeds.
After planting, you should especially carefully monitor the moisture of the soil. Peppers really don't like dryness. They need to be watered often and regularly, but not too much.
If you overwater peppers, they may suffer from blossom end rot. If the peppers dry out, especially during the period when the peppers are setting, then the fruits will subsequently have a bitter taste. It is best to water in the morning, pouring the water carefully, at the root.
The water should be warm - from cold water Peppers stop growing and yields decline. In the first days after planting, watering should be frequent. Then you can water it once every 10 days.
You need to loosen the rows more often, a couple of days after watering. These procedures provide air access to the roots. But since the roots of peppers are close to the surface, loosening should be shallow - no deeper than 6 cm.
15 days after planting the plants, they should be fed for the first time with complex mineral fertilizers. To do this, you need to take 1 kg of mullein and mix it with 10 liters of water, in which 30 g of superphosphate are dissolved.
This solution is enough for 1 square. m beds. You can also take chicken manure in the proportion already indicated above.
SUMMER CARE OF PEPPERS
In the summer you need to feed the plants several more times with a mixture of mullein and superphosphate. Apply 0.5 liters of mixture per plant. The next feeding must be done through
2 weeks. Take 2 tbsp per bucket of water. l. nitrophoska and water the plants with this mixture. The main thing is that the solution does not get on the leaves; to do this, it must be carefully poured under the root. Otherwise, burns will appear on the leaves.
If necessary, you can feed the plants a couple more times. All fertilizing is carried out at night, on damp soil.
When flowers appear, you need to watch the peppers especially carefully. If it gets too hot (more than 33-34°), the flowers may fall off and the peppers may wilt, so it is best to shade the plants in extreme heat.
It is better to tear off the first flower that appears, so that the peppers do not become depleted of strength and development is not delayed.
ABOUT PEPPER DISEASES AND THE FIGHT WITH THEM
Although with proper agricultural practices the risk of disease is minimized, peppers are still not immune to various infections.
Most often, plants are affected by late blight, fusarium, brown spot, black rot of fruits, and black leg. Almost all of these diseases are fungal in nature.
Diseases such as mosaic are caused by viruses. Blossom rot, when plants begin to rot, occurs due to errors in watering and care.
To protect plants from black rot, before planting seedlings, you need to treat the seeds with potassium permanganate according to the scheme indicated above, and do not plant peppers in the garden after nightshades.
With blackleg, rot of the root part of the plant appears, which leads to its death. Affected peppers should be removed immediately, and the beds with the remaining ones should be watered with a 3% solution of copper sulfate and sprinkled with ash.
Spraying with garlic infusion helps against late blight.
To do this, mix 100-150 g of crushed dry leaves or scales of garlic heads in 10 liters of water, leave for 24 hours and spray the plant with this solution. You can also use 1% Bordeaux mixture. To prevent late blight, peppers should be planted away from tomatoes and potatoes.
In greenhouses, peppers are most often affected by gray rot. This is usually due to high humidity. Therefore, for the purpose of prevention in greenhouses, it is necessary to regularly ventilate the premises and plant peppers at large intervals between each other.
HARVESTING PEPPERS
Peppers accumulate vitamins before the seeds ripen. Therefore, ripe red and yellow peppers contain more vitamins than green ones.
Ripe peppers should be carefully cut with pruning shears. By picking off the fruits, as many people mistakenly do, you can damage the fragile plant. It is important to regularly remove the fruits as they ripen, without leaving them on the bush.
If ripened fruits remain on it for a long time, then the plant stops blooming and producing new ovaries. If you pick the peppers on time, the plant will continue to bloom and bear fruit.
If frosts begin and the ground peppers are not yet fully ripe, it is best to tear the plants out of the ground with their roots and hang them in a warm place. The peppers will soon ripen on their own.
There is another way - in the fall the peppers can be dug up and transplanted into a pot. At home on the windowsill they will grow and bear fruit until next summer (after all, this is a perennial plant).
Peppers are responsive to care. If you put your soul into them, they will amaze you with their productivity and rich taste. Go for it!
Growing peppers - sharing our experience
The vegetable is simply golden
I also want to talk about pepper, although much has already been written about it. But there are as many secrets as there are gardeners. So, in order.
As I wrote before, we take the land from the dacha, in the village, in a ravine under nettles. We put it in bags, bring it home and put it on the loggia. Although it is glazed, it is not insulated, so the ground freezes. I don’t plant seedlings early, although I tried in mid-February, and at the end and beginning of March, but settled on the date of March 10. We plant peppers in the ground on May 10-15 under double acrylic, the densest. Therefore, even if there is frost, they will still not freeze. By this time, the peppers have grown to 30-35 cm - strong, the leaves are large, green, the bush is all in buds and - most importantly - does not bloom, literally 2-3 flowers, and that’s all. And my landing rules are as follows.
In mid-February, we bring the soil from the loggia into the common corridor, where it remains until March 1 and thaws during this time. And on the 1st, I pour it into a basin, add a full handful of ash, mix it and pour it into seedling boxes. Then I pour a hot pink solution of potassium permanganate on it. Until March 10, the boxes are in the hallway of the apartment. During this time, the earth has time to rest and dry out a little. I loosen it, lightly pat it down and make two grooves, pour it with a slightly warm pinkish
potassium permanganate solution and plant the seeds. First I pickle the seeds in a dark solution of manganese and plant them without washing them. I don’t carry out any further manipulations with them - I think that if the seeds are good, they will germinate successfully, but why revive dead ones?
I have my own seeds, so I plant them every 1 cm. I remove those that sprout later than necessary, and my own seeds sprout literally after 5-7 days. All this time, the boxes stand on the table by the window, covered with polyethylene, secured with an elastic band.
From time to time I buy new seeds at the store. I leave the ones that suit me, and remove the rest. Two years ago, yellow pepper seeds were purchased - White Gold, Golden Calf and Bugai. I don't have photos, but they are exactly as advertised on the bags, only even larger. The Titan and Atlant varieties have proven themselves to be excellent. They are all beautiful, very large and very sweet.
This is how I grow seedlings, everything is very simple, by March 20 all the seeds germinate. And on April 5, the transplantation begins. I replant them in 400 gram sour cream cups. And here the most important thing is that I definitely dive them.
For what? Yes, many argue that you don’t need to pick peppers, but I believe that if you don’t do this, the pepper will start to grow too quickly and by the time of planting it will be very tall and will bloom, but this is exactly undesirable! No matter how carefully we replant the pepper, if it is already blooming profusely, its color will still fall off, even if not all of it, and we don’t need that.
When I dive, in the first week the pepper seems to freeze and does not grow. By the end of the second week it begins to move a little, and only by the end of the third week does growth resume. This is approximately April 24-26. There are three weeks left before planting in the ground under film on May 12-15 – that’s quite enough. Pepper has time to grow, because he is no longer young in age.
Medicine for prevention
And the transplant is quite simple. We dig holes, remove the sprouts from the cups, plant them and water them. We do not add any fertilizers. And only after a week, when the peppers have finally gotten stronger, we feed them when watering. By this time we already have the fertilizer ready. We prepare it like this: in a 200-liter barrel we put 1 bucket of manure, 1 package of granulated chicken manure, leftover yeast, jam, pieces of half-eaten bread, and grown nettles. All this ferments for 2-3 weeks and it’s ready.
But I add this fertilizer not 1 liter per bucket, but 0.5 liters. But every week (1 time). And if the weather is hot and dry, we water ourselves every other day or every day, but literally 0.7 liters each, since pepper has a superficial root system and this amount of moisture is enough for it.
Two weeks after planting, I spray the peppers once with a solution containing zircon. I read in one magazine that this is a natural preparation - an extract from the herb Echinacea purpurea, which is medicinal plant. I always have a lot of pepper, every year, and I didn’t count.
Only in 2013 I decided to count. From 72 bushes we collected almost five bags - the ones in which they sell 50 kg of sugar. And two more buckets, but smaller ones, albeit red ones. And the peppers in the bags were not just large, but actually huge, red, yellow and very sweet! It was too much for us, we had to sell it. We took it with pleasure.
I make a lot of pepper preparations: I marinate them, prepare adjika, lecho, and freeze them. In general, we have a garden of 17 acres, so we grow everything we need and can, and we are not afraid of any food sanctions!
I wish all readers health, success on the dacha front, and the respected editors also patience to sort out our scribbles.
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Pepper is a rather capricious and demanding crop. However, most gardeners and gardeners have adapted to its requirements regarding soil, watering, and heat, and successfully grow it in their garden plots. The reference books give many recommendations on how to how to prepare the soil for peppers, including for seedlings. Let's take notes on the information.
Soil for pepper seedlings
Pepper is a heat-loving plant, so it is recommended to grow it only as seedlings. Since pepper does not tolerate picking, it is recommended to immediately sow the seeds in separate pots (preferably peat). The diameter of the pots is no more than 10 cm.
Soil for seedlings must consist of the following components:
- Garden soil,
— Humus, which saturates the soil with minerals, increasing its fertility.
— River sand, which is a good leavening agent, and earth.
The components are mixed in a ratio of 1: 2: 1 and ash is added here (for every kilogram of substrate - 1 tablespoon). You can add peat - it provides the soil with the necessary looseness and moisture.
The substrate should be uniform and fine, for which it should be sifted. Must be carried out disinfection measures:
- The most in a simple way disinfection is to water the soil with potassium permanganate. After the soil has been watered generously, wait until it dries and only then can you plant the seeds.
- More complex methods include calcination - treating the soil with high temperature(on average up to 80 degrees). This can be done by placing the soil in a preheated oven or microwave.
- Steaming - you need to steam the soil in a water bath for several hours with the lid tightly closed. This procedure should be performed a month before using the soil. Then the soil microflora will have time to recover by the time of sowing.
- Fungicides are also used; they must be dissolved in water and watered abundantly on the soil, thereby destroying different kinds fungi that may be in the ground.
- And in order to improve the quality of the substrate and saturate the soil with air, it is recommended to add natural soil loosening agents - perlite or vermiculite - these are processed small minerals.
It's simple! For sowing, you can also use a special soil mixture, making it easier for you to carefully preparing soil for pepper seedlings. This soil is sold in garden stores and has a fairly reasonable price.
Pepper seedlings can be grown in greenhouses or at home on a balcony or windowsill. Plant the seeds to a depth of 1.5 cm.
Pepper is a plant very sensitive to lack of moisture, so its seedlings should be watered abundantly, but in moderation. If you overwater the seedlings, a fungus may develop in them and the plant will die. Watering should be done with warm water, as cold water can also cause plants to die or get blackleg.
Soil for planting in greenhouses and open ground
Peppers prefer a warm microclimate, which is why they are most often planted to greenhouses, providing suitable air temperature.
in autumn soil for peppers dig up and saturate with organic fertilizers, for example, compost or manure. Dose of organic fertilizers: 5-6 kg per 1 m2. Over the winter, the fertilizers will rot, the beds will become warm and quite fertile. And this is the ideal soil for growing peppers in a greenhouse.
In the spring, before planting seedlings, the soil is dug up and fertilized again. Now potassium and phosphorus fertilizers are being applied. Dose: 40 g per 1 m2. Nitrogen fertilizers are also necessary, their dosage is 30 g per 1 m2. You can prepare fertilizers yourself. To do this, you will need humus (but not fresh manure), a glass of wood ash, a glass of double superphosphate and 25 g of nitrate. This composition is used for 1 square meter area.
Before planting seedlings, the soil is thoroughly loosened to a depth of about 15 cm, holes are made into which one and a half to two liters of water are poured. Then the pepper is planted there along with the lump of earth in which it grew. The lower leaves should be at soil level. After planting, the plant is compacted by hand and covered with mulch (peat, humus), which prevents the evaporation of moisture from the soil.
Before planting, it is advisable to preheat the air in the greenhouse. The soil temperature must be at least 15 degrees, otherwise the peppers begin to get sick and lose their ability to absorb nutrients. The optimal soil temperature for peppers is 25 degrees.
Greenhouses must be thoroughly ventilated, especially after watering, and do not forget to loosen the soil to a depth of 10 to 3 cm (it is gradually reduced as the plants grow).
2-3 days after planting in a permanent place, it is useful to hill up the seedlings with damp soil, the height of the mound is approximately 3-4 cm. Hilling up will help the young plant to take root better.
Soil for planting peppers in open ground prepared in the same way as for greenhouses. In addition, you should choose the right site for planting. Pepper is afraid of drafts and loves light and warmth. Therefore, the area should be bright and protected from drafts.
At the end of May, when the soil warms up well, the seedlings can be planted in a permanent place. Now she is no longer afraid of illness.
If you use expert advice and take care of it exclusively healthy vegetable, then a good harvest will not keep you waiting!
Unlike many vegetables that gardeners grow successfully middle zone Russia on their garden plots, pepper places much higher demands on temperature conditions and soil fertility. This crop has a slow growth rate, so getting a full harvest is possible only by growing seedlings. And even in this case, heat-loving peppers will need shelter from the night cool.
However, despite the complexity of agricultural technology, many enthusiasts very successfully grow this valuable and delicious vegetable in their garden beds not only in the Non-Black Earth Region, but even in more northern regions.
The right soil for seedlings
One of the main components of growing strong pepper seedlings is preparing suitable soil. It must meet several basic criteria.
- The soil for vegetables must be breathable and moisture-absorbing. Such characteristics can be achieved by preparing a mixture of equal parts of humus, rotted sawdust (can be replaced with sand) and peat, as well as two parts of turf soil after pumpkin, legumes or root crops. The moisture capacity of the substrate can be increased using a hydrogel, which, when added to the soil, retains nutrients and accumulates moisture. At the same time, the soil becomes much looser, and the amount of watering can be reduced.
- The soil mixture for seedlings must be nutritious. The addition of wood ash or rotted manure, which can be replaced with mineral fertilizers (ammonium and potassium nitrate and superphosphate), has a positive effect on plant growth. Chlorine-containing fertilizers should not be used, as they harm the root system of peppers, but excess nitrogen in the soil is not dangerous for the crop, since peppers are not prone to stretching.
- Vegetable crops are very sensitive to soil acidity and prefers its neutral values. At pH
- Before filling containers for seedlings, it is recommended to disinfect the prepared soil mixture using heat treatment (steaming or calcination). In addition, before planting, the soil can be treated with a solution of potassium permanganate.
Soil at a permanent growing site
Seedlings at the age of 2 months are planted in a permanent place, which is prepared in the fall. The soil must be nutritious, sufficiently loose and at the same time retain moisture well.
- The site is chosen in a warm and sunny place. If planting is planned in open ground and not in a greenhouse, then protection from the prevailing winds in your area should be provided. This can be either a wall of a neighboring building, a green hedge or fence, or a specially erected fence.
- After harvesting, carefully remove all plant debris and dig the soil deeply.
- To increase fertility, it is necessary to add organic matter in the form of humus or rotted manure in the fall. It is strictly not recommended to add fresh manure to the soil for peppers, since excess nitrogen will lead to an increase in green mass and inhibition of flowering, and, consequently, fruiting.
- Superphosphate and wood ash are added as mineral fertilizers.
- If necessary, measures are taken to reduce soil acidity to pH values > 5.5. For this, dolomite flour or lime is used.
- It is not recommended to plant peppers after any nightshade crops, since the causative agents of diseases common to them can remain in the soil from previous seasons.
- In the spring, the area is dug up again, but shallowly, and fertilizers containing phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen compounds are added in a ratio of 2:2:1, respectively.