In the piggy bank of the harvest: seedlings in Chinese and Kurdyumov

We get healthy and strong seedlings

Strong, healthy seedlings are the key to a good harvest. The famous agronomist and permaculturologist Nikolai Kurdyumov never gets tired of reminding gardeners that seedlings are not a future plant, they are already a plant; if at its seedling stage it is sick, frail and lifeless, then it will never become healthy and strong at all. In this article, we talk about two diametrically opposite methods of growing seedlings that are popular in 2020. One reminds Michurin "do not wait for favors from nature, take them from her," the second suggests minimal interference with natural processes, but both of them are aimed precisely at obtaining high quality of plants.

Seedlings according to the Chinese method

Now the Chinese method of growing seedlings is gaining popularity. It differs from the traditional one in many ways, but the main difference is how the Chinese approach the pick. Tall varieties are especially good at this technology.

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Participant FORUMHOUSE

The method is actively used by the Chinese in industrial and farm greenhouses. It consists in a tough pick - cutting off a month-old seedling at ground level and then rooting the hypocotyl knee in the ground under the bag. It is claimed that the yield of such plants is 1.5 kg higher than with a conventional pick.

Strengths of the "Chinese method":

• seedlings very quickly reach the state “ready for planting in the ground” - they are strong, with a full-fledged thick stem, stocky, with a good root system and with the right amount of leaves;
• the seedlings are low. Fruit brushes, after planting in the ground, are formed at a height of slightly more than 20 cm. The plant will have more ovaries, therefore, the yield will be greater.
• Seedlings do not get sick, and an adult plant turns out to be resistant to many diseases, especially to late blight;
• It is easy to care for such seedlings.

How to grow seedlings in the Chinese way

Soil preparation

Almost any fertile garden soil is suitable for "Chinese seedlings", ideally if it is the soil from under the nettles. Only acidic soil is not good (pH around 6.0). Before planting, the soil will need to be shed with a weak solution of potassium permanganate (1.5%), heated to +50 degrees. You cannot add humus - it may contain causative agents of fungal diseases. Peat can be added, but not more than 0.5% of the total mass of the soil. And not everyone, but only lowlands. You can even distinguish low-lying soil from riding ground: it is black, and riding ground is reddish.

If ready-made soil is bought for seedlings, then first of all you need to look at ph.

For the Chinese method of growing seedlings, only neutral soil is needed.

Seed preparation

Nothing will come of it if you sow any seeds that are horrible: the first step is to empty them out of the bags and conduct an audit. All small, defective, empty, too dark, with specks that resemble mold - any questions for which there may be need to be mercilessly discarded.

Seed stratification

Here's how to do it: first you need to leave them on a gauze napkin dipped in any growth stimulator for a day. (You can also soak a napkin in a homemade stimulant made with your own hands: take two flat teaspoons of wood ash, pour boiling water over it and leave for two days). After a day in the stimulator, the seeds need to be etched in a 1.5% solution of potassium permanganate for 15 minutes, then hold it on a napkin with a growth stimulator for another night. Remove the seeds, put in dry gauze and refrigerate for a day.

Sowing

Seeds according to the Chinese method are sown in common containers filled with 2 cm of drainage (any, from expanded clay to broken brick), which is covered with prepared soil on top. It is necessary to sow in the grooves according to the 4x2 cm scheme. Sprinkle lightly with soil, sprinkle with a spray bottle, cover with foil, take to the south window. Remove the film after the first shoots.

Light mode

Seedlings need 12-hour daylight hours. There is a lot of information on our portal about phytolamps and other devices for supplementary lighting of seedlings. Here you cannot do without them.

Hardening of seedlings

Another striking difference between the Chinese method and the traditional one: according to the Chinese system, not adult seedlings are hardened, but seedlings, and from the first day. As soon as the shoots have appeared, they are taken out at night in a room in which the temperature is 3-4 degrees lower than in the daytime. This imitation of the natural environment will then allow plants to quickly adapt in the open field.

Dive without diving

In general, this is a rupture of all our gardening patterns: with such a pick, the entire root system remains in the soil.

Tomatoes can form a root system on any part of the stalk - this is what the "Chinese pick" is based on. A month after sowing, when the plant already has three real leaves, you need to cut them off at the very roots with small sharp scissors and root them in water or soil.

Those who have practiced both picking methods prefer the first - it happens that when transplanted from water, fragile roots break.

Landing in the ground is done as usual: even the Chinese have not invented anything new here. Two weeks later, make the first feeding with nitroammophos (1 tbsp. l. on a bucket of water), after the formation of a pair of flower brushes, a second feeding is carried out.

Plants are formed according to Chinese into two stems, removing the upper fruit clusters. If you follow the technology dogmatically, then you cannot leave more than six brushes, and you will be surprised how this will have a beneficial effect on the quality of the fruit.

Watch a video on how to feed properly adult seedlings.

Seedling according to Kurdyumov

In growing seedlings, Nikolai Kurdyumov remains true to his principle of cooperation with nature, and he considers good seedlings the one that grew up with minimal human participation: without transplants, with sufficient heat, moisture and nutrition, in the sun location.

Hence some rules:

• healthy seedlings grow in breadth rather than upward, so they need space. No crowding on the windowsill, and this will bring the crop closer by about a month. According to Kurdyumov, we should strive for such seedling bushes, whose trunks are almost as thick as a pencil.
• tomato seeds for seedlings should be sown according to the 4x4 cm scheme. It is believed that the composition of the soil is not particularly important for seedlings before picking - Kurdyumov insists that the soil should be fertile.
•  Exactly after 20 days, the seedlings, together with the cubes of earth, are removed and placed under a film in fertile soil, according to the 12x12 cm scheme. The transfer should be carried out so that the plants do not even notice it.
• After another 15-20 days, the seedlings, together with the soil cubes, are removed without the slightest damage to the root system and transplanted to a permanent place. For those who do not often visit the dacha, Kurdyumov recommends covering the beds with lutrastil: nothing will ever burn out under it.

The agronomist is a supporter of early planting of seedlings: he believes that in Central Russia, seedlings at the age of three weeks can be safely planted under film almost every year at the end of March. If the greenhouse is well made, nothing bad will happen to the seedlings.

In approximately the same way, Kurdyumov recommends growing cucumber seedlings, the only thing is that cucumber seedlings need a higher temperature, below -15 degrees, it begins to hurt. And cucumbers simply cannot stand even the smallest damage to the root system.

Based on this, the agronomist recommends:

• sowing cucumber seeds not in boxes, but in peat tablets or pots, in paper bags, sachets, and so on;
• plant immediately in a permanent place, in a garden bed and cover with lutrastil or film.

Kurdyumov advises sowing cold-resistant cabbage immediately to the garden, best of all under lutrastil. He considers our usual planting of cabbage in the heat to be a monstrous mistake, which leads to an inevitable decrease in yield. Why exactly lutrastil: cabbage does not like heat and even heat, it stretches even at temperatures above +18 degrees, so the film is not suitable here, and the costs of lutrastil will pay off with interest.

conclusions

Whatever method of growing seedlings we choose, the main thing is to get healthy and strong plants before planting in the exhaust gas. Here are the signs of a good seedling:

• the bushes are not deformed, there are no spots and plaque on the leaves;
• the bushes are not damaged by pests;
• leaves are evenly colored;
• bushes are stocky, strong, not "ankle";
• the root system is well developed, it is branched, well encloses a clod of earth, the tips of the roots are white;
• the internodes of the stem are compact, it itself is strong.

Read on FORUMHOUSE how to calculate planting dates for seedlings in 2020how to make a budget with your own hands LED seedling lightand how to do seedling racks. In the video - how to choose high-quality seedlings.