Good advice to the gardener: how to grow powerful and healthy seedlings of peppers (from sowing to planting in the ground)

In the third decade of February (I live in the Pskov region, middle lane), I usually plant peppers. This year I chose the date for February 20 (and according to the lunar calendar - a good day before sowing this crop). What points do you need to pay attention to in order to grow strong and stocky seedlings? Let's consider further.

Seed selection

First of all, you need to select pepper seeds for sowing. The fresher the planting material, the better. Even store-bought peppers grow a good seedling if the seeds are collected and used immediately for their intended purpose. I became convinced of this myself for several years.

After 3-4 years of storage of pepper seeds, their germination rate decreases sharply. The seed should be sold within three years.

Treatment

Before sowing, the seeds should be etched in a solution of potassium permanganate (or in hydrogen peroxide or Chlorhexidine) for 20-30 minutes. Then the material must be rinsed in running water and dried.

Sowing dates

When choosing seeds, you need to pay attention to the sowing time, this is a very important point. If sown ahead of time, the seedlings will outgrow. Elongated plants will recover for a long time when planted in the ground for a constant time.

If planted late, the plants will still be underdeveloped. As a rule, the development period of pepper seedlings with a pick is 60-70 days. If you do not dive the plants, then this period is reduced by 15-20 days.

Sowing features, schemes

Pepper seeds must be sown in light, loose and nutritious soil (neutral pH 6-7). Pepper does not like acidic soils, it simply does not grow on them.

Peppers are sown in wooden boxes, bowls, where the depth of the grooves should be at least 1-2 cm so that the root system develops well. The row spacing is 4-5 cm, in a row the distance is 1 cm. This seeding pattern is time-tested.

If you sow seeds in cassettes and cups, then picking for them will be more successful, without damaging the main number of roots.

What to do after sowing

Crops must be moistened and covered with glass or foil. Then the containers should be placed in a warm place, with a temperature within + 22- + 24 degrees. Under these conditions, friendly shoots will appear in 5-12 days.

Care

As soon as the first shoots appear, the glass or film should be removed from the container. Further, the "plants" need to provide a temperature regime in the region of + 18- + 20 degrees and good lighting.

Picking

A pick should be carried out 25-30 days after receiving the seedlings. Before this event, you do not need to carry out any feeding.

You can dive into cups from 0.25-0.5 liters for 1-2 plants. The soil should be fertile, neutral in acidity, moisture-absorbing, loose, breathable.

Top dressing

After 10 days, as soon as the seedlings take root in new containers, fertilizing is carried out with mineral complex fertilizers universal type (10-15 grams) in the NPK ratio 20:20:20 with the addition of magnesium sulfate in the amount of 10 grams, which are diluted in 10 liters of water.

The next feeding with the same fertilizers is carried out after 10-14 days, but only if the seedlings look weakened. But in good soil, it should develop normally.

Landing in the ground

After 60-70 days after sowing pepper for seedlings, transfer from containers to the ground to a permanent place is carried out. Plants should reach a height of 20-25 cm, the thickness of the stem closer to the soil - 7-9 mm, buds should be present on the peppers.

The temperature of the soil in the soil (for a permanent place) should not be less than + 12- + 16 degrees (ideally +18 degrees Celsius). If you plant the plants in cold soil, they can get sick and not grow for a long time. Leaves and buds are sometimes discarded due to poor growing conditions.

If you follow these steps, you will have a potent, healthy pepper seedling.

Successful harvests to you!

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