​Related articles​​To grow pepper seedlings, a mixture of soddy soil, peat and humus is usually prepared. Since this culture requires a lot of potassium, a glass must be added to the soil substrate. wood ash. Due to its high alkaline reaction, the soil must be thoroughly mixed, otherwise you can burn the roots with an unstirred lump of ash.

With a black leg

. 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.

Row spacing

Sowing seeds of pepper

Pepper shoots are very fragile, break easily, so they must be tied to pegs. And in a circle of beds, it is better to plant tall crops that will protect your planting from the winds.

Delicious, sweet, fragrant pepper, which is suitable for many salads, preservation, stuffing, etc., can be grown simply in your country house in open field. Gardeners have long proven that rather heat-loving crops, such as peppers, can grow in more severe conditions if certain rules are followed and appropriate care is taken. In our article we will talk about how to grow pepper in the open field.​

To grow on your own Bell pepper, you can take the most various varieties, which grow equally well in open ground or in greenhouse conditions. These are such as Olympia, Swallow, Gift of Moldova, Winnie the Pooh and many others.​

For planting, it is necessary to correctly select varieties with fleshy, thick fruits, as they are more unpretentious. We start doing this in March or the end of February, using ordinary clay pots for this, into which a mixture of soddy soil, sand, peat and leafy soil is poured.

Pepper pests: (1-aphid, 2-Colorado potato beetle, 3-mites, 4-scoop).

Seedling feeding

The birthplace of pepper is America - in areas where a tropical climate prevails, you can still find wild-growing individuals of pepper. ​

It is worth noting that today special ready-made soil mixtures based on biohumus are sold in stores, which are perfect for planting peppers.

The 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. blue vitriol and sprinkle with ash.

How to plant seedlings and create favorable conditions for growth?

This solution is enough for 1m2 beds. You can also take chicken manure in the proportion already indicated above.

Ideally, it should be 50 cm, between plants - 30 cm. Plants should be planted in separate, well-spilled holes. It is impossible to deepen the peppers when planting: from this they begin to hurt and dry. It is necessary to sprinkle with earth to the first leaves. But if you plant peppers very shallow, then the upper roots will begin to die off, and this should not be allowed.

As soon as you plant pepper seedlings in open ground, care must be taken to protect the plants from frost. As an excellent protection from the cold, it is recommended to use tents that are made of wooden blocks, cardboard, burlap and other materials. Peppers should be covered with such tents in the evening, and opened in the morning. If the cold snap drags on, it is better to use a portable temporary film shelter.

Before you start growing peppers, you need to prepare open ground. In regions where the climate is mild, sweet peppers grow well outdoors in areas protected from the effects of the wind, provided there is sufficient sunlight. These requirements are met by the site, which is located next to the southern wall of the house. If wind protection is not provided, you can build a rocker protection consisting of plants or create a windproof fence in the form of a wattle fence.

Swallow is a semi-standard, medium-sized bush, the fruits are oval-cone-shaped, the peel is very smooth. The weight of one fruit is approximately sixty to ninety grams, the color is light green. This pepper is early ripe, the conditions for its cultivation are very simple.

Like any plant, pepper has its enemies. Representatives of flora harmful to pepper are aphids, mites, scoops, Colorado potato beetles, etc.

Sweet pepper is a plant that loves moisture, it is important to water it regularly. If you water the plant irregularly during the appearance of fruits, then cracks appear on the fruits.

How and what to feed?

The plant is very thermophilic and at the same time moisture-loving. It represents the nightshade family and is distinguished by its capriciousness.

First of all, you need to select full-fledged healthy seeds. Having immersed them in a saline solution, it is easy enough to reveal the empty ones, they will float on the surface, full-weight seeds will always sink to the bottom. So they continue to prepare for sowing. After spending some time in warm water, the seeds are wrapped in a damp cloth, placed in a plastic bag and placed in a warm place so that they germinate.

From phytophthora, spraying with infusion of garlic helps.

Need a few more times in the summer

Harvest

It is important to plant

Another long-known remedy for protecting plants from frost is sprinkling and smoking. The material for burning is better to choose one that can provide thick smoke. The sprinkler should provide a fine mist of water. This will get the greatest effect.

It is worth saying that the cultivation of peppers cannot be done earlier than 3 years after the growth of nightshade crops on the ground (for example, tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes). A large number of diseases of such plants can be transmitted through the soil. Before planting, you can grow cabbage, zucchini, cucumbers, other pumpkin and legume crops, table root crops.

The gift of Moldova is a larger variety, its skin is thin, and the flesh is very tender, reaching five to six millimeters in thickness. The shape of the fruit is cone-shaped, three-tetrahedral. Pepper color - light green, taste - soft, memorable. The yield of this variety is quite high. The unpretentiousness and ease of cultivation makes this pepper the most common in summer cottages.

Pepper's little enemies

Planting seedlings in a greenhouse is considered the best option, since the height of such a bush will be greater, the yield is also much higher. In addition, it will be easy to follow the conditions.​

The scoop is one of the most common pepper pests. It is difficult to fight with it, since there are a large number of its varieties and the period for the release of larvae is extended for a long time.

​Permanent access sunlight will allow the plant to develop and grow normally. In order for the pepper to develop well, provide additional illumination, provide seedlings with a 12-hour day.

Fresh seeds collected, for example, last year will germinate faster. The longer the period of their storage, the worse the germination will be. It is better not to use seed that has been stored for more than three years at all.

About the beneficial properties of pepper

1. To do this, mix 100-150 g of crushed dry leaves or flakes of garlic heads in 10 liters of water, leave for a day and spray the plant with this solution. You can also use 1% Bordeaux liquid. To prevent late blight, peppers should be planted away from tomatoes and potatoes.
2. feed the plants
3. Sweet and hot peppers as far apart as possible
4. Peppers can be susceptible to the same diseases as other vegetable crops from the nightshade family. The causative agents of diseases can serve as a variety of viruses, bacteria and fungi. The most famous diseases of peppers are wilting and blackleg. "Black leg" is associated with the defeat of pepper seedlings. To solve the problem of this disease, you need to adjust the temperature and humidity. Adult crops are susceptible to wilting. The manifestation of this disease occurs in a change in the color of the leaf blades, dropping the leaves and browning of the vessels on the stems. In the end, all this leads to the death of plants.
5. The soil in the area where you are going to grow pepper should be well-drained, fertile, and retain moisture well. The preparation of the site must be done in the fall. After the previous crop is harvested, you need to completely free the soil from the remains of plants and dig up the soil.

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Peppers in the greenhouse and on the windowsill

I grow hot peppers separately from the usual.

When to grow seedlings bell pepper? It is necessary to start two months before planting in the ground, that is, approximately in mid-March, in which case in mid-May it will already be possible to prepare the substrate, move future bushes to permanent place. It is best to plant two plants in one cup, they develop best in a pair.

Aphids and the Colorado potato beetle can harm the plant less, however, a high degree of infestation with these pests leads to slower growth and deformation of the fruit. Moreover, affected plants become a place for the spread of fungal and viral diseases.

Growing Rules

The plant does not tolerate strong winds or drafts, you can not plant it in partial shade. Under such conditions, it will stretch in length, which will interfere with the normal development and fruiting of the plant.

Growing on a windowsill

​If you are partial to the landing process cultivated plants, then tips on growing peppers will be very useful information.

For sowing bell pepper seeds, most gardeners use small plastic boxes that are filled with pre-prepared soil. For each variety, a separate box is usually prepared and signed by all means. If necessary, you can find out about the characteristics of the variety from the packaging bags.

Planting seedlings in a greenhouse

In greenhouses, peppers are most often affected

A mixture of mullein with superphosphate. Apply 0.5 l of the mixture per 1 plant. The next top dressing must be done through

so that cross-pollination does not occur. Otherwise, sweet peppers will be bitter, and bitter ones will not please with spiciness.

​Disease control and prevention measures are primarily the purchase of quality seeds and seedlings, the elimination of pests and weeds, crop rotation and the removal of diseased plants. The main pests for peppers are mites, slugs and aphids. To combat them, the good old proven folk methods. This solution will help to overcome aphids: 200-250 grams of wood ash is taken per bucket of water (+ 50 ° C). To protect peppers from spider mites, you can use chopped onion or garlic (200 grams), as well as dandelion leaves (200 grams) in a bucket of water. The above solutions must be infused for at least a day. Before use, they must be mixed and filtered. To increase the effect, you can add a little to the solution. liquid soap(gram 30-40). Regular loosening and soil treatment with dry mustard or crushed red pepper (one teaspoon per 1 m2) will save you from slugs. Straw mulch can also help.

Outdoor cultivation

It should be noted that from 30 to 50 grams of superphosphates, from 50 to 80 grams of wood ash and from 5 to 10 kg of humus or manure are applied per 1 m2. At the same time, I would like to focus your attention on the fact that you should not plant peppers on the ground, where fresh manure has just been added. An excess of soluble nitrogen adversely affects the preservation of the ovaries, as well as the ripening of the fetus.

Adept is hybrid variety, whose crop will ripen one hundred and ten days after the start of cultivation. The color of the ripe fruit is light yellow, almost lemon. The taste is sweet, the pulp is very juicy and tender.

Properly planted seedlings of peppers have about eight to twelve leaves, its height is up to thirty centimeters. It is not necessary to loosen the soil in the greenhouse when planting, but fertilizing and watering should be regular. Before planting seedlings, you need to make sure that the temperature of the soil is not lower than fifteen degrees, as the pepper loves heat. In order to avoid infection of the pepper with pests, you should not miss the time of their first appearance. Treat the plant immediately if you notice them. After all, receiving good harvest guarantee only healthy seedlings pepper.

Pests and their control

If you want to grow a bountiful crop of pepper, then you must also consider that this plant needs warm soil. To do this, treat the beds and raise them to a level of 40 to 70 cm. Timely weeding will help the pepper develop faster.

So, we read about the secrets of growing sweet peppers.

Prepared pepper seeds are laid out after about 2 cm in small grooves, covered with soil for 1 cm and slightly compacted. If you close them deeper, then the shoots will be weak. Insufficiently deepened seeds will not be able to free themselves from the shell, which will remain on the cotyledon leaves and will interfere with the development of the plant. After sowing, the soil is watered with water.

Pepper harvest

gray rot

2 weeks. On a bucket of water, take 2 tbsp. l. nitrophoska and water the plants with this mixture. The main thing is that the solution does not get on the leaves, for this it must be carefully poured under the root. Otherwise, burns will appear on the leaves.

The ground around the plants can be mulched with straw or grass so that the ground retains moisture longer and there are fewer weeds.

Types of pepper for self-growing

As you can see, growing a good quality pepper crop in the open field is quite simple. You just need to follow the recommendations in this article. We wish you a rich harvest.​

​In autumn period you need to carefully dig the area where you are going to grow peppers. In the spring, it is necessary to loosen the soil, add 30 to 40 grams of fertilizers (potash and phosphate) and 20 to 30 grams of nitrogen fertilizer per 1 m2.

Catherine refers to large fruits, whose color is bright red. The pulp of such pepper is tender and very sweet, has a pronounced spicy aroma.

Pepper seedlings begin to ripen in April.

Pepper contains in large numbers ascorbic acid and vitamin A. According to the content of vitamin C, it is ahead of both lemon and blackcurrant.

When pepper shoots appear, the weak ones are often removed and the stronger ones are left. During the next branching of the shoots, each of them is pinched again, leaving strong and strong shoots.

You can grow peppers by seedlings. And for this it is necessary to sow the seeds in advance, 50-60 days earlier than the seedlings begin. Choose only fresh seeds for seedlings.

It is better to cover the box with crops with a film so that the soil does not dry out quickly. It is advisable to keep it in a warm place until the first shoots appear. Even when favorable conditions are created, the first shoots can be expected only after 10 days. When they appear, the box with seedlings is moved to a cooler place with a temperature not higher than 16 degrees. After a week, the seedlings are exposed to a warm and well-lit window sill. Temporary stay in cooler conditions helps to slow down the growth of plants and allows you to protect the shoots from stretching. Additional illumination of seedlings with fluorescent lamps also helps to prevent stretching of sprouts, at first it should be around the clock.

1. . This is usually due to high humidity. Therefore, for the purpose of prevention in greenhouses, it is necessary to regularly ventilate the room and plant peppers at large intervals between each other.
2. If necessary, you can feed the plants a couple more times. All top dressing is carried out at night, on wet ground.
3. After landing,
4. Secrets from an experienced gardener. She will tell you how to care for pepper, what top dressing to use and how to determine the missing trace elements by appearance pepper.
5. To really get excellent harvest, landing must be carried out according to certain rules.​
6. In addition to these varieties, a lot of other species are grown, including bright orange Aria with plump fruits, Red chrysolite with a delicate aroma, California miracle with thick, juicy fruit walls. For the cultivation of some, agricultural technology is necessary, other varieties are very simple and unpretentious. When choosing, one must take into account the ripening time, growing conditions and many other factors.​

Many people wonder when to grow bell pepper seedlings so that the harvest is plentiful and tasty. They begin to do this around mid-May, when the prepared seedlings are planted on the beds in accordance with the scheme forty-five by forty-five centimeters. When growing outdoors, it will be correct to organize a small shelter on top of a stretched film. Bulgarian pepper itself must be hung on trellises, although a large bush will not work on open ground, its maximum growth is up to sixty centimeters.

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Secrets of growing peppers outdoors

The presence of a substance called "rutin" has a beneficial effect on the human blood vessel system.

Growing conditions

Pepper seeds are capricious, and therefore you need to take the process of growing seedlings with all responsibility. They can be sown in trays or pots, and then put in a warm place.

Pepper seedlings can be grown with or without a pick. Some believe that this vegetable crop does not require picking because it does not tolerate transplanting. In fact, a damaged root system, of course, can slow down the growth of plants, but if you pick carefully, then it is not at all harmful and even necessary.

Peppers accumulate vitamins before the seeds ripen. Therefore, there are more vitamins in ripe red and yellow peppers than in green ones.

When flowers appear, peppers should be monitored especially carefully. If it gets too hot (more than 33-34 ° C), then the flowers may fall off, and the peppers will wilt, so it is best to shade the plants in strong heat.

Landing Rules

Pay close attention to soil moisture. Peppers do not like dryness. They need to be watered often and regularly, but not too plentifully.

Leaves and a strong stem 3-4 mm thick at the roots.

Outdoor cultivation of pepper is usually carried out in the last days of May. At this time, the risk of frost is minimized. Pepper is planted according to the scheme 60-70 x 20-30 cm. Before planting, you need to water the seedlings abundantly so that during the planting process your pepper does not look wilted, can take root better, grow faster.

Growing sweet peppers is quite simple, but you need to do this only in accordance with all the recommendations of specialists. We offer several useful tips that will help grow a tasty and healthy vegetable:

What should care include?

You can start harvesting peppers at the end of August or at the beginning of September, when the fruits are not yet quite ripe

If you take sweet pepper with food every day, it will improve hair growth, vision, skin.

Before sowing, it is necessary to prepare the seeds of the plant, for this, treat the seeds in a 1% solution of manganese for 15 minutes, then rinse and place the seeds in a wet cloth for 2-3 days.

The appearance of two true leaves on the seedlings indicates that the seedlings growing in the box should be dived into separate containers. Until the flower buds are laid, the seedlings grow slowly, so a 200 ml cup is enough for picking.

Ripe peppers should be carefully cut with secateurs. Cutting off the fruits, as many mistakenly do, can damage a fragile plant. It is important to regularly remove the fruits as they ripen, without leaving them on the bush.

Cold protection

It is better to tear off the first flower that appears so that the peppers do not deplete their strength and development is not delayed.

If you pour peppers, they can be affected by blossom end rot. If the peppers dry out, especially during the period of tying peppers, then subsequently the fruits will have a bitter taste. It is best to water in the morning, pour water carefully, under the root.

Pest and disease control

In May, it's time to prepare the ground for peppers, if it has not been prepared since autumn. Peppers feel best in the beds after cucumbers and cabbage. They do not tolerate fresh manure - it is better to take rotted compost and apply it to the ground - for 1m250-60 g of superphosphate, 20 g of potassium salt.

When planting peppers in the heat, it is better to choose the second half of the day to allow the plant to get stronger overnight. When the weather is cloudy, the landing can be made in the morning.

Water the plant regularly, as even a slight lack of moisture can make it bitter.

Video "Growing pepper in the open field"

. If harvesting is delayed for two to three weeks, the fruits will turn red, the number of new ones will decrease.

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How to grow a large Bulgarian (sweet) pepper - Good-Tips.Pro - Useful magazine

Pepper Care in May

It is necessary to feed the plants every seven days with mineral fertilizers or compost, having prepared a solution in advance with the addition of water and a small concentration of fertilizer. After 15 days after planting, the first top dressing is carried out. You can use mullein, diluted in ten parts of water, with the addition of 25 g of superphosphate.

Pepper seeds are sown in containers at a short distance from each other, then covered with a film until the sprouts sprout.

Usually they do it as follows: the seedling is carefully removed from the well-moistened soil in the box by the stem, and, trying not to shake off the earthen ball, is moved into a glass. The stem is buried to the first leaves, the soil is poured, compacted and watered. Such a transplant with a clod of earth does not damage the root system, therefore it is easily tolerated by the plant. If ripe fruits remain on it for a long time, then the plant stops blooming and producing new ovaries. If you remove the peppers on time, then the plant blooms and bears fruit further.

Although with proper agricultural technology the risk of diseases is minimized, peppers are still not immune from various infections. The water must be warm Planting in the ground or in a greenhouse should begin when the air temperature reaches 15 °. Frosts are detrimental to peppers, so plants should not be planted before the end of May.

Prepared wells should be poured abundantly with water: at the rate of 1-2 liters per well. In this case, it is better to use water heated in the sun. Gently pulling the seedlings out of the pots, they must be placed in the holes in an upright position and planted a little deeper than they grew in the pots. This is necessary to provide your pepper with additional nutrition, which will help the adventitious roots that appear on the stems covered with earth. When buying seedlings for growing, you need to make sure that there are no flowers and the fruits are not sluggish.

In order to grow a beautiful and tasty pepper, you must remember that taking care of it includes the prevention of diseases, the fight against various insects. Most often, lesions are possible from aphids or spider mite, in this case, spraying with karbofos or decomposing insecticides is recommended. Pepper contains K, Na, Fe, Zn, Mg, I and is a necessary component for baldness, manifestations of osteoporosis, a low level of the body's immune defense. liters of solution. You can also feed pepper with fertilizers "Sudarushka", "Ideal", "Biomaster", chicken droppings.

The soil for pepper is chosen rich, with a high degree of fertility. To grow seedlings, it is important not to forget that the soil must be warm. So, the temperature of the soil should be at least 25 degrees Celsius. In addition, it must be kept moist until the seedlings emerge.

In the process of growing pepper seedlings should not be watered often, but as the earth dries up, that is, you do not need to fill it, but do not let it dry. Watering can be combined with top dressing with any complex fertilizers. If frosts begin, and ground peppers have not yet fully ripened, it is best to tear the plants out of the ground with roots and hang them in a warm place. The peppers will soon ripen on their own.

Most often, plants are affected by late blight, fusarium, brown spot, black fruit rot, black leg. Almost all of these diseases are fungal in nature.

- from cold water peppers stop growing, yields decline. In the first days after planting, watering should be frequent. Then you can water it every 10 days.Peppers love moisture

To grow a good crop of pepper, it is necessary to carry out certain care, which consists in ensuring proper watering, weeding, fertilizing, garter and other actions. The soil for planting pepper should be warm, its temperature should be about fifteen degrees.

Among the diseases, it is possible gray rot when the plant does not have enough moisture. In this case, small spots can be seen in some areas. gray color fruits begin to soften. It is especially important to prevent disease infection if the pepper is grown in containers, pots, then it will be right to constantly monitor the sufficiency of moisture, the condition of the leaves and fruits. Sweet pepper is one of those vegetables that are great for any dish, being a real table decoration . It can be called a treasure trove of vitamins, especially vitamin C, the amount of which in pepper even exceeds its content in lemon and currant! It is enough to eat fifty grams of sweet pepper to get the required daily dose of this vitamin. But this vegetable is also rich in mineral salts, organic acids, glucose, fructose, while cooking, valuable substances are completely preserved, so pepper can be eaten raw, dried, stewed, pickled, canned, salted. It is important to feed the plant during fruiting fertilizer, which contains more N and Ca.​

Pepper seeds are sown in a warm and moist soil substrate (a depth of 1-2 cm is enough). To prevent the topsoil from drying out, cover the crop with polyethylene film. And after the first shoots of pepper sprout, the film can be removed.

Bulgarian pepper care in summer

To obtain powerful seedlings that are resistant to environmental factors, they are hardened: they gradually lower the temperature by opening the window, if it is already warm enough outside, the cups installed on the tray are taken out to open air. During hardening, it is very important to protect the plants from drafts. There is another way - in the fall, 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). Diseases such as mosaic are caused by viruses. Blossom rot, when plants begin to rot, appears due to errors in watering and care.

Loosen the aisles

Therefore, before transplanting, they need to be well watered.

​When growing, the optimum temperature should be from +20 to +25 ° C. If the temperature is below +13°C, you need to cover the peppers with a special material or film. If you see lilac shades on the fruits, this will indicate a violation of the temperature regime.

When the ambient temperature rises to thirty-four degrees, it is necessary to do a little shading so that the flowers do not fade.

Prevention and treatment of diseases

Otherwise, bell peppers are hardy and resistant to germs and insects, often even used as a crop that disinfects the soil before planting cucumbers, tomatoes and other agricultural plants.

Very often, pepper is used to improve the soil before planting other plants, a high content of essential oils repels insects, cucumbers, tomatoes, and watermelons grow remarkably after pepper.

The flowering process in pepper lasts until the very frost. Do not allow the plant to overheat during flowering. The norm of temperature indicators is + 24- + 26 degrees.​

The seedlings are grown, now you need to think about feeding. Peppers are fed every ten days 2-3 times. The first time feeding is done when the seedlings have two leaves. And if a pick was previously carried out, then they are fed after two weeks, not earlier. To do this, use mineral fertilizers or compost, but the plant does not tolerate fresh manure. And if you want to protect the plant from diseases, then a phytosporin solution will be useful for this: 1.5 liters of water and 0.5 teaspoon of the solution. Protection is carried out along with the procedure for enriching the plant with mineral elements. Seedlings are planted in open ground when the plants begin to form buds and have about 10 leaves, this usually happens in May towards the end of the month. Peppers are responsive to care. If you put your soul into them, they will amaze with their productivity and rich taste. Dare!​

To protect plants Need more often, a couple of days after watering. These procedures provide air access to the roots. But since the roots of the peppers are close to the surface, loosening should be shallow - no deeper than 6 cm.

Water your peppers water is better that has settled, or rainwater. Optimum temperature water for irrigation is from + 24 ° C to + 26 ° C. Before flowering, you need to water once a week, and in the heat - 2 times. The rate for irrigation is up to 12 liters per 1 m2. During flowering and fruiting, it is worth watering 2-3 times during the week. At the same time, the irrigation rate is up to 14 liters per 1 m2.​

Weeds near the pepper must be removed by hand, otherwise the root system may be damaged. In order for the pepper harvest to please you, you must also remember to care for it. It is necessary to prevent the appearance of pests. Sweet pepper is stored for a very long time, and taste qualities it is not lost. Pepper is also used to improve the soil before planting other plants, the high content of essential oils repels insects, after pepper, cucumbers, tomatoes, and watermelons grow remarkably. At home, you can easily plant seedlings that will give a bountiful harvest even when grown on a windowsill. If there is a summer cottage, then sweet, very tasty and full of vitamins pepper can be quite simply grown in greenhouse conditions or on open ground.

We harvest

The plant has been grown, but now, for the purpose of good pollination, it needs a slight shaking during flowering. When fruits are formed, flowering slows down. Pepper stalks should be tied up during fruiting - this way you can protect them from breakage.

Pepper seedlings will please you with a bountiful harvest, if at times hardening is done by the sun's rays, as well as aeration of the soil (weeding). Therefore, periodic loosening will not interfere.

When transplanting from a cup, the plant is removed along with all the earth in it. This is not difficult to do if the soil is well moistened and the cup itself is soft enough. With such a transplant, the root system remains intact. The plant is carefully placed in the holes dug in advance, sprinkled with earth, and abundant watering of the entire garden is carried out. The most convenient for this culture is a two-row planting, when the plants are planted in a checkerboard pattern, and the distance between the rows is approximately 45 cm.

Sweet pepper is a popular garden crop, most gardeners everywhere are engaged in its cultivation. True, it is not always possible to get a good harvest. Although in summer middle lane there are many warm days, but the nights often remain quite cool, therefore, due to the lack of heat, it grows and develops slowly. The only way out in this case is the cultivation of this crop through seedlings, which must be sown as soon as possible. As a rule, they start it in February. Experienced gardeners when choosing a day for sowing, they are most often guided by lunar calendar, because the influence of the moon on plant growth has been known for a long time. According to the lunar phase calendar, February 10 - 12, 23, 25 and 28 are the most favorable for sowing sweet peppers this year.​

from black rot

15 days after planting, they should be the first time

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For landing it is better to choose

The first feeding should be done when 1-2 leaves appear on the pepper seedlings. You need to mix 3 grams of superphosphates, 1 gram of potash fertilizer and 0.5 grams of ammonium nitrate in one liter of water. After 14 days, you need to re-feed your pepper. At the same time, the dose mineral fertilizers should be doubled.​

Soil preparation

Planting seedlings if the weather is planned to be cold should not be done, and when frost occurs, all fruits should be immediately plucked. You can also remove the entire plant by hanging it in a dry place for further maturation.

Bell peppers begin to be harvested at a time when the fruits reach maturity, that is, the color characteristic of this variety appears on the surface. It is necessary to collect the fruits carefully, picking each one with both hands, preventing the branches from breaking. Such a collection is carried out once in ten to twelve days, the fruits should not have time to turn red, and the seeds should ripen. If this condition is not met, then the bell pepper will begin to yield crops with a delay, and their abundance will greatly decrease.

Seed preparation

There is no need to create specific conditions for growing sweet bell pepper, expensive agricultural equipment is also not needed.

When the fruits are ripe, carefully pick them up, as they are very fragile. If, after harvesting the first crop, complex top dressing with mineral fertilizers is carried out, then a secondary crop awaits you ahead.

Sowing seeds

On the sixtieth day, seedlings can already be planted in the ground. The ideal time for planting pepper seedlings in open ground is the first half of June, because by this period the danger of frost is reduced to almost nothing.

If the need arises, peppers can be tied up, but this is rarely required.

It is carried out, as a rule, in two stages: first they prepare the soil, and then they begin to prepare the seed.

Seedling picking

, Before planting seedlings, it is necessary to pickle the seeds with potassium permanganate according to the scheme indicated above, and do not plant peppers in the garden after nightshade.

feed with complex mineral fertilizers

cool cloudy day. Plants should be carefully removed from the boxes, being careful not to disturb the roots. Optimal planting of peppers peat cups and planted in the ground with them together - then the peppers will hurt less.

The soil under the pepper needs to be loosened. Loosening is carried out to a not very great depth (up to 5 cm), since the roots are located in top layer. In addition, it is necessary to hill and weed the plants.

As we can see, it is quite simple to grow sweet peppers correctly even at home, if it is not possible to do this in the country. All care conditions are as simple as possible, harvesting is carried out approximately four months after planting in the soil.​

Transplantation in open ground

You can store pepper for a very long time, from this it does not lose flavor, beneficial properties, which greatly distinguishes the plant from other crops.

You can plant seedlings of bell pepper at home. This is usually done when it is not possible to take advantage of greenhouse conditions or in the absence of a summer cottage. The harvest in this case will not be very plentiful, for a small family this is more than enough.

Pepper has the property of pollination, in this regard, do not plant bitter and sweet peppers next to each other. This can lead to the fact that bitterness can be transmitted to sweet.

It is necessary to plant a plant in one row, keep the distance between plants - 30 - 40 cm, and between rows - 45 - 60 cm. It is undesirable to plant sweet pepper in hot weather, this will cause the leaves to dry out and the plant will wither.

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For the formation of new shoots in young plants, 18 cm high, you can pinch the growth point.

And provide the necessary conditions for growing sweet peppers.

Consider the necessary conditions for growing sweet pepper

Temperature conditions for growing sweet pepper

Pepper is a heat demanding crop. Seeds begin to germinate at a temperature not lower than +13°C, but only in some varieties there are single shoots. However, at this temperature, the processes of swelling and awakening of seeds to growth are extremely slow, and seedlings appear only on the 18-25th day after sowing, and sometimes even later. Only a temperature of +25°C ensures unanimous germination of seeds and emergence of seedlings in 7-9 days.

The optimum air temperature for 4-7 days after germination is + 14-16 ° C during the day, + 8- 10 ° C at night, and then during the day in sunny weather the temperature is maintained at + 25-27 ° C, in cloudy - + 18-20°C, at night it is reduced to + 13-15°C. Particularly sensitive to temperature changes are plants in the "infant" age up to 50-60 days. In the future, pepper grows and develops best at a temperature of + 22-30 ° C.

Pepper plants are very sensitive to sub-zero temperatures. They die at frosts of -0.3-0.5°C. Extremely hot weather is also unfavorable for them, especially in combination with a lack of moisture in the soil and air. At temperatures above +35°C, plants are inhibited and buds and flowers fall off. Particularly unfavorable conditions summer heat during the flowering period.

Temperature conditions are closely related to the intensity of illumination. With low illumination (cloudy weather, night), the air temperature should be lower than on clear sunny days.

Under the influence of the climatic conditions of the homeland, pepper plants have developed a very high demand for soil and air moisture. This can be explained by the relatively limited spread of the root system and the large need for water for transpiration and crop formation.

How to properly water sweet peppers

The need for water varies significantly depending on the age of the plants. In the first period of their life (before the beginning of fruit formation), no more than 8-10% of the total water consumption is required. In the future, this figure increases significantly.

When growing pepper on clay soils, it is advisable to maintain soil moisture at a level of 80-90% of HB (the lowest moisture capacity). On loamy and sandy soils, irrigation should be carried out with a decrease in humidity to 70% HB in a layer 30 cm deep.

Watering is carried out regularly. Optimal Humidity soil and air enhances fruit formation, increases the commercial quality of fruits, reduces the incidence of plants.

The critical period of water demand is long, from the beginning of the appearance of the first buds to fruit set, 1.5-2 months. Seedlings grown with a lack of moisture - undersized, weak, with a small number of leaves - do not take root well. Yields are low, the fruits are small, deformed, prone to blossom end rot.

Plants react negatively both to the drying of the soil and to its waterlogging. In the first case, they suffer from an excessive increase in the concentration of salts in the soil solution. With waterlogging, the activity of growth processes decreases due to a lack of oxygen in the soil. Waterlogging of the soil has a particularly unfavorable effect on young plants (the first 3-4 weeks after germination). Under such conditions, organic acids and alcohols accumulate in the roots, which leads to a deterioration in the supply of nitrogen and the synthesis of amino acids.

Similar phenomena also occur when cold water (below +15°C) is used for irrigation in hot weather, when the air and soil temperature rises above +30°C. In such conditions, severe wilting of plants is often observed.

Pepper is very picky about air humidity. The insufficient content of water vapor in the air, especially in hot weather, is the cause of excessive inhibition of plants and even the fall of flowers and young ovaries. Favorable for pepper is considered relative humidity air at least 70%.

Pepper is very photophilous. When shading, buds fall, ovaries, yellowing of leaves, vegetative organs become fragile and very brittle. With a lack of light in most plants, the reproductive period of life does not begin, the fruits do not set.

For the normal development of plants, a short (12-14-hour) day is required. Moreover, different varieties begin to respond to a short day only from 20-30 days of age. A short day accelerates the development of plants, causes an earlier onset of flowering and early fruit formation. It does not affect plants over 60 days old. The action of the shortened day is manifested only in conditions of high air and soil temperatures. Late-ripening varieties respond more strongly to a shorter day than early-ripening ones originating from temperate latitudes.

Essential Soil for Growing Sweet Peppers

Pepper plants are also very demanding on soil fertility. They grow very poorly and bear fruit on heavy, clayey, cold soils with high level ground water. The increased acidity of the soil is also unfavorable for them. The optimal reaction of the soil solution is considered to be within the range of pH 6.0-6.6.

The highest yields of pepper are obtained on sandy or light clay chernozems. A rich supply of humus and a high content of mineral nutrients in an easily accessible form provide plants with maximum productivity. Therefore, on infertile soils, abundant application of organic and mineral fertilizers is practiced - pepper reacts very quickly and actively to them.

Prior to the formation of fruits, when the root system is not yet powerful enough, pepper needs increased doses of phosphorus fertilizers, which accelerate the growth and development of the root system, as well as the formation of generative organs. The greatest demand for nitrogen is manifested in the period before flowering and during the formation and ripening of fruits, when, in the event of a lack of this nutrient, the lower leaves die off. The critical period in potassium intake is from fruit set to fruit ripening. The culture relatively evenly throughout the growing season needs calcium. The deficiency of this element in the soil causes the death of leaves, a decrease in yield and a deterioration in its quality.

Plants respond favorably to the introduction of microelements into the soil - boron, manganese, zinc, iodine, molybdenum and others.

Pepper responds well to the introduction of humus, but shows a negative attitude towards fresh manure. Therefore, poorly decomposed organic fertilizers must be applied under the previous crop. Biggest Harvest best quality obtained by the joint application of organic and mineral fertilizers.

It should be remembered that an excess of mineral nutrients in the soil adversely affects all vital processes of the plant organism. Excess nitrogen (both in mineral and organic form) activates the growth of the vegetative mass and can significantly delay the formation of fruits. A excess phosphate and potash fertilizers, on the contrary, can slow down the growth of the leaf surface at a young age of plants, which also leads to a significant decrease in yield. Therefore, when growing pepper, it is necessary to create the most optimal ratio of mineral nutrition elements, taking into account the fertility of the soil and the planned harvest in accordance with the specific environmental conditions. It should be remembered that the lack of nutrient salts is easier to make up for with additional dressings than to eliminate their excess.

Bell pepper. Care

The optimum air temperature in the greenhouse during the day in sunny weather should be + 24-28 ° С, in cloudy weather + 22-24 ° С, at night + 18-20 ° С. Air temperature +30°C and above causes active growth plants, however, pepper flowers are not pollinated and fall off. From the remaining flowers, medium-sized deformed fruits develop. Differences in night and day temperatures and high humidity have a bad effect on pepper, so greenhouses should be regularly ventilated.

Pepper requires sufficient soil moisture and air. This culture does not tolerate even short-term drying of the soil. Peppers are watered 1-2 times a week with warm water under the root, spending 1-2 liters of water per plant. Waterlogging is not allowed. If the air humidity in the greenhouse is high, pollen becomes unviable, pollination and fruit set do not occur. Therefore, watering plants should be carried out in the morning.

How to properly feed peppers

Feed the plants every 2-3 weeks. For 10 liters of settled warm water, take: 25-39 g of ammonium nitrate, 30-40 g of superphosphate, 10-20 g of potassium sulfate. For 2-3 m2, 10 liters of fertilizer solution are used. After top dressing, in order to avoid leaf burns, it is necessary to water the plants. clean water. The root system of pepper, compared with the ground part, grows less actively and is usually located at a depth of 20-40 cm. This must be taken into account when loosening the soil. Regular loosening is carried out until the plants in the row are completely closed. Loosen carefully, trying not to damage the root system.

Plants of medium-sized varieties and hybrids reach a height of up to 1 m in film greenhouses. Pepper shoots are fragile and break easily, so it is necessary to tie up plants. Each skeletal branch is tied up separately. For low varieties, special shaping is not required, it is enough to remove excess barren shoots and side shoots below the branching of the main stem. This helps better ventilation and illumination of the leaves of the lower tier and the crown of the bush. It is also recommended to remove leaves below the branching of the main stem after closing the crown of the plants.

Plants of tall varieties and hybrids in greenhouses can reach a height of up to 1.5-2 m. As a rule, the leaves of such hybrids are large, the plants branch strongly, thickening the plantings. All this leads to shading of plants. Pepper is a light-loving crop and the more the plant is lit, the higher the yield. Therefore, plants need to be shaped. After the formation of the 9th-10th leaf (depending on the variety), 3 lateral shoots of the first order usually appear on the plant, of which the 2 strongest are left. The third side shoot (or the remaining side shoots, if there are more) is pinched onto one leaf (one fruit). Subsequently, skeletal branches of the bush are formed from the left 2 side shoots: at each of their next branching, a more developed shoot of the next branching order is left as the main (i.e. replacement shoot), and the second shoot, forming a fork-shaped branching, is pinched after the first leaf. Periodically remove all barren shoots (stepsons), as well as all side shoots and leaves growing below the branching of the main stem. Be sure to cut off the lower flowers and ovaries that form before the first lower branching of the main stem. The skeletal branches of the plant are tied to a trellis wire and periodically twisted.

Shoots of medium and vigorous varieties and hybrids are pinched a month before the end of the growing season. This limits the emergence of new ovaries and accelerates the ripening of already established fruits.

Sweet pepper is a thermophilic culture. Growing a full-fledged pepper by sowing seeds immediately in open ground is problematic even in the southern regions. The plant has a long growing season, so seedlings must be grown to harvest a good harvest.

We cannot control the weather outside the window, but we can create optimal conditions for growing seedlings under the power of everyone. After transplantation, peppers successfully take root in open ground, fruiting begins a month earlier - you are guaranteed to have time to harvest.

How to choose a variety of sweet pepper

When choosing a variety, consider a number of parameters:

• The length of summer in your area. Choose early and medium varieties if the summer is short. If warm weather is guaranteed for 2-2.5 months, varieties with an average ripening period will do. In the southern regions, it is possible to grow late-ripening varieties.
• The shape of the fruit is also important. Cylindrical and cone-shaped peppers with thick walls are good for salads, cubic peppers are best for stuffing, small peppers are best for pickling.
• Fruit Color: The darker, the sweeter the taste.
• Bush height. Low-growing and medium-sized plants are planted on beds under film shelter, tall ones are usually grown in greenhouses.

Terms of planting sweet pepper for seedlings

To obtain good planting material, timely is necessary. If sown too early, young peppers will overgrow in pots, then the lower fruits will begin to set. This takes strength from the plant, they may not take root in the open field, normal fruiting will be delayed.

How to calculate the time of planting sweet pepper seedlings:

• Varieties of early ripening should be sown 60 days before the intended transplantation into open ground,
• later - for 70-75 days.
• The best time for sowing sweet pepper for seedlings is the end of February-beginning of March, if you plan to plant immediately in open ground.

Take into account the subsequent place of growth. In a heated greenhouse, young seedlings are planted by the end of April, in greenhouses and film greenhouses - throughout May, and planting in open ground should be carried out in the first decade of June.

Also note that without a pick, the peppers will be ready for planting two weeks earlier.

It can be carried out in early February, but sweet pepper seedlings will need additional lighting. Use LED or phytolamps. Daylight hours should be 12 hours.

Preparing sweet pepper seeds for seedlings

To soak or not to soak, to process or not to process sweet pepper seeds before planting, everyone decides for himself. But experienced vegetable growers recommend showing a little patience in order to speed up germination and choose the highest quality seed. Alas, to increase the shelf life, sweet pepper seeds are often dried out - but this must be indicated on the packaging.

To get friendly shoots, it is necessary to carry out the selection and processing of seeds.

How to select the best seeds

Prepare a brine solution (30 g of table salt per 1 liter of water), immerse the seeds in it and stir well. See what happens in 5-10 minutes. Weak seeds will float to the surface, and high-quality, healthy ones will sink to the bottom. The latter should be washed well with water, laid out on paper and allowed to dry.

Disinfection from pathogens

The next step is disinfection. You will need a weak solution of potassium permanganate (per 1 liter of water 1 g of powder), in which you should hold the seeds for 15-20 minutes. Then rinse and dry slightly.

Strengthening germination

Can be used folk remedies: take 2 g of wood ash for 1 liter of water. Infuse the solution for a day, then keep a bag of seeds in it for about 3 hours.

Soaking can be replaced by bubbling - seed treatment in water, oxygenated. To do this, you will need an aquarium compressor. You need to take a large glass container, fill it 2/3 with water (temperature about 20 ° C). Lower the compressor so that its tip is at the bottom and turn on the appliance. When bubbles appear, lower the bag of seeds there and let it stand for a day.

seed hardening

Seedlings should have good immunity. Resistance to changeable weather conditions, diseases will help increase the hardening of seeds. Hold the seeds in warm water until swelling, then move them to the bottom shelf of the refrigerator and stand for a day, then proceed to sowing.

Soil preparation for sowing sweet pepper

The soil needs to be nutritious.

The following options will work:

• The most reliable option is a special mixture for growing pepper seedlings. Such soil has already been treated against diseases and pests.
• You can prepare the soil mixture yourself. Take 4 parts of peat, 2 parts of sod land, 1 part of humus and rotted sawdust, 0.5 parts of river sand and add 2-3 tbsp. spoons of wood ash.
• Coconut substrate - can be easily found in flower shops.
• Soil with hydrogel. Hydrogel balls are great for retaining moisture in the soil. Lay them already swollen.
• Peat tablets - very convenient option. For subsequent transplants, simply transfer the seedling with it to a container of a larger diameter.

It is recommended to add a little earth to the soil from the site where pepper will grow in the future. This contributes to the successful adaptation of seedlings after transplanting into open ground. Before entering into the soil mixture, this earth must be shed with a solution of potassium permanganate or calcined in the oven for 30-40 minutes.

What container is best to plant

As a container, it is best to use individual cups with a volume of about 100 ml. It is desirable that they are not transparent - exposure to sunlight negatively affects the development of the root system. You can make homemade cups, as shown in the video above.

Growing sweet pepper seedlings at home

How to sow sweet pepper for seedlings?

• The main condition is to plant immediately in separate cups so as not to disturb the fragile root system with a pick. Peppers after picking are very sick and stunted, fruiting is delayed.
• Planting depth 0.5-1 cm.

Preparing containers and soil for seedlings

Lay a drainage layer at the bottom of the container (pieces of foam, broken brick, expanded clay).

Fill the cups with soil ¾, compact a little, pour. Make a groove about 1 cm deep, place 1 seed in each cup. Lightly cover with soil.

Lighting and heat

For healthy growth, it is necessary to provide an optimal microclimate: cover the crops with glass or film. To protect the seedlings from drafts as much as possible, place the containers in a box, install a dense wire along its edges, stretch the plastic film on top so that it completely covers the ground with crops.

The cold will destroy the plants, direct sunlight is vital for them. Southern window sills, bathed in sunlight, are an ideal place for growing bell pepper seedlings. When the days are warm, you can take out the seedlings to the insulated balcony, loggia. Be sure to place a heater under the cups with seedlings.

How many days does sweet pepper germinate for seedlings? We maintain the correct temperature

Compliance with the correct temperature regime is an important condition for growing seedlings:

• Until the first shoots appear, it is necessary to maintain the air temperature within 25-27 ° C.
• Sprouts will appear in 7-14 days (depending on the variety). During this time, ventilate the greenhouse every 2 days and spray the soil with a fine sprayer.
• The cover can then be removed. Maintain daytime air temperature at 23-25 ​​°C, nighttime - 16-18 °C.
• The air temperature should not fall below 12 ° C, otherwise the plants will lose their leaves and may die.

From the lack of lighting, seedlings begin to reach out to look for a source of light. Older specimens stop growth, the root system may begin to rot. The optimal length of daylight hours for pepper is 9-10 hours. Light up during the daytime (from 8.00 to 20.00).

How to water

Abundant, but not often. The soil should be slightly moist, do not allow stagnant water. Watering is best done in the morning. Use softened water (thawed water, rainwater, or tap water, settled throughout the day), heat up to room temperature.

The roots need to receive oxygen - after each watering, loosen the soil with a carnation or a match, only slightly breaking the crust on the surface. Do this very carefully, since damage to the root system leads to inhibition of growth, fruiting may not occur.

How to prepare sweet pepper seedlings for planting in the ground

Seedlings that have grown strong need to be hardened off. 10-12 days before transplanting into open ground, take it out for some time to fresh air or leave a window open in the room.

It is useful to spray seedlings with herbal infusion (use onions, garlic, pine needles, marigolds, calendula flowers for infusion).

Thus, the seedlings will become more resistant to diseases and pests.

Immediately after spraying, seedlings should not be taken out under the sun, let the leaves dry. Droplets of water on the leaves can cause sunburn.

top dressing

Sweet peppers need to be fed. Do this twice: apply the first top dressing at the stage of appearance of 3-4 true leaves, the second - with the appearance of 5-6 leaves.

Organics can be added under the root: a solution of mullein (1 part of humus to 10 parts of water) or an infusion of chicken manure (1 part of dry manure to 20 parts of water). For foliar top dressing, use complex mineral fertilizers.

How to sow sweet pepper seedlings video

Disease protection

A slowdown in growth is a phenomenon that is possible for 2 reasons:

1. The roots are damaged after picking. If you are a beginner gardener, it is better to refuse this procedure.
2. Lack of fertilizer. In addition to stopping growth, in this case, pallor of the leaves is observed. It is important to feed the seedlings so as not to destroy them.

The plant loves moisture, but do not overdo it with watering. Excessive watering leads to black leg infection: the root neck becomes soft, darkens, the sprout withers and falls. The causative agent of the disease can be initially infected soil.

To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to ensure proper care:

• When watering, water should not fall on the stems. While they are very tiny, apply water through a pipette or syringe into the aisles.
• Do not keep under cover for long. Ventilate the greenhouse regularly until seedlings emerge. Make sure that there is no dampness near the stems.
• Provide warmth: spores of a harmful fungus become active in cold, damp soil.
• There should be no sudden changes in temperature, so as not to weaken the immunity of seedlings.

External characteristics of good seedlings of sweet pepper

Young peppers are ready for transplantation to a permanent place of growth in 60-80 days. Their height should be 17-20 cm. The thickness of a strong stem at the root should be 3-4 mm. A healthy plant should have 7-10 well-developed leaves, buds may be present.

Transplant in open ground with the establishment of real heat (late May-early June).

Stick to a 40x50 cm planting pattern, you can plant seedlings two plants in one hole if you want to use a piece of land more economically.

When and how to plant sweet pepper seedlings in the ground, we look at the planting patterns in the video:

Or maybe one of you has already planted these plants? Then let's talk about the next inhabitant of our windowsill - sweet pepper.

Sweet pepper is very beautiful with its tight fruits, bright, tasty, filled with vitamins. It is this that we miss so much on rainy days in autumn, and on harsh winter days, and during the period of spring beriberi.

Do you want to admire the pepper and eat it all year round? In this case, feel free to proceed with the landing pepper on his windowsill, as these plants are ideal for care and cultivation in the apartment.

Peppers on the windowsill of the best variety

Compact, undersized varieties of pepper are ideal for planting at home (they are the most unpretentious and persistent). The growth of this plant will reach half a meter and it will fit perfectly into the size of your window. The best varieties:

• Treasure Island. After 90-100 days, the pepper will invite you to taste its juicy orange-red heart-shaped fruits. Their mass reaches up to 60 g, the thickness of the peel is up to 7 mm.
• Firstborn of Siberia. The crop ripens in 108-113 days from the moment of emergence. The fruits are large, up to 100 g (peel thickness up to 6 mm). Bright red in color, these peppers are fragrant and delicious.
• Dwarf. Pepper variety with juicy, red fleshy cone-shaped fruits. Their weight reaches up to 83 grams (walls up to 9 mm). You can harvest already after 110 days from the time the sprouts appear.
• Watercolor. Glossy cone-shaped scarlet peppers will be ready for your table in 110 days. This one has small fruits, “one bite”, their weight reaches up to 30 grams, with a thin peel up to 2.5 mm.
• Moldovan gift. Large dark red peppers will delight you with a rich, sweet taste after 124-136 days. Fruit weight reaches 90 g, skin thickness up to 6 mm.
• Martin. fragrant variety, with red juicy fruits of which it will be possible to decorate the table after 130 days. Fruits are large up to 84 grams with thick (up to 5 mm in size) walls.

These pepper varieties are high yield, they will delight you with their attractive fruits all year round.

Seed preparation

To save future plants from infections, the seeds should be kept for 20 minutes in a 2% solution of potassium permanganate, then rinsed with cool water. And soak in nutrient solutions of epin or zircon (growth biostimulants):

• Appin. For 100 ml of water, take 2 drops of it.
• Zircon. Add 1 drop to 300 ml of water.

In a healing solution, the seeds should be kept for about a day at room temperature. Then place them in damp gauze and put them in a dark, warm place.

Keep the pepper seeds there for 3 days at a temperature of +20° C to +25° C. Periodically moisten the cloth with warm water (it must not be allowed to dry out).

As soon as the seeds hatch, you can transfer pepper on the windowsill.

Let's start landing

We need to prepare several containers in advance for pepper cultivation. Each pepper needs its own home, a separate wide and deep enough pot (so that the rhizome of the plant is spacious and comfortable).

Don't forget a layer of drainage (fine gravel, expanded clay, or broken little pieces of red brick will do).

You can plant seeds in one of the most convenient periods for you:

• The last days of February - the beginning of March. It is necessary to choose the most suitable time for landing (be guided by the weather forecast). If, a week after planting the seeds, nature decides to pamper us with very warm, sunny weather, the pepper may slow down its growth. In this case, at the beginning of its growth, it is better to keep the pepper at home on the north window for some time.
• Winter months. When planting seeds in winter, it is necessary to ensure that daylight hours are 12 hours daily. Additionally illuminate the pepper with fluorescent lamps.
• The plant germinates well when planting seeds in late July or early September. Again, keep an eye on the weather forecast (so that there are no too warm days ahead).

Preparing the soil

For peppers, it is better to purchase ready-made soil ("Terra-Vita" or "Ogorodnik"). This soil is already enriched with the necessary trace elements and does not contain harmful microorganisms.

If you decide to use ordinary garden soil, first ignite it with a saturated solution of potassium permanganate, then pour it with water. Or prepare enriched soil:

• Sod land 2 parts
• Humus 1 part
• Clean, sifted sand 1 part

Sod land is better to take from the place where it grows meadow clover. Ash must be added to any soil (2 cups of ash for every 10 kg of soil). Pepper is extremely sensitive to the salt content in the ground and the level of acidity. Add to soil dolomite flour or lime (for 1 kg of soil, take 16 grams of the substance).

You can use special hydrogels. It is designed for home gardening. When hydrogels are mixed with soil, they swell, absorb excess water, and along the way make the soil looser, retaining nutrients.

Planting seeds

To wait for the first shoots of pepper on the windowsill, you need to be patient. Peppers germinate after 1-2 weeks.

If the plant stubbornly refuses to sprout, increase the length of daylight hours (extend additional lighting from 7 am to 9 pm).

1. In small peat pots (previously filled with loose, fertile soil), plant two seeds each. Pour over and cover the top of the pots with cling film. Put them in a warm place at a temperature of + 25 ° C. Pots can be dug under adult, fruiting peppers in a lighted place (if you have already grown peppers before).
2. After the appearance of the first, tender sprouts, pierce the film with a knitting needle in several different places. When the peppers confidently start growing and acquire the first two or three leaves, the film can be removed. And start transplanting (picking) one young sprout into a large pot. We remove the weaker plant.

Pick. Transplanting seedlings into a more spacious dwelling (with shortening of the root). The shortened root begins to branch more violently, develop.

The rhizome after picking becomes stronger, wraps around and holds the earthen ball better, and itself homemade pepper on the windowsill brings more harvest. Dive process:

• the soil in the pot where you will transplant the pepper, fill it with plenty of water per day;
• before picking, make a depression in the center of the pot in the new earth;
• moisten the earth around the sprout abundantly an hour or two before the operation;
• carefully take it and lift it together with an earthen clod, shake it off the ground;
• very carefully shorten the spine by about 1/3 (you can pluck it with your nails);
• gently place it in the prepared hole in a new pot so that the central root does not bend, and the leaves are 2 cm above the soil level;
• compact the soil around the seedling with your fingers;
• water the transplanted pepper with warm water.

In order for the pepper to grow large, prolific, it needs to be transplanted and grown in small capacious buckets or large ceramic bowls.

Before picking, gradually accustom the young sprout to more severe conditions (gradually take it out into the fresh air, increasing the time of the walk).

But make sure that the small pepper does not fall under drafts and exposure to low, detrimental temperatures for it (below + 13 ° C).

Caring for our peppers

Operation	Pepper wishes	Adviсe
Watering	As needed	Peppers on the windowsill should be watered with settled warm water (water t ° + 30 ° C). Spray the pepper daily with warm water. To prevent the plant from overheating during the winter heating season, cover the battery with a damp cloth. Do not forget to constantly loosen the soil.
Lighting	In winter, daylight hours should be 12 hours	Periodically turn the plant on different sides to the window. Fluorescent lamps are suitable with the usual white spectrum. Avoid direct exposure to sunlight.
Temperature	Day +25° - +27° СNight +10°- +15° С	In the summer it is good to keep the pepper on the balcony, in the winter it is transferred to the south-facing windows. Beware of drafts and sudden temperature fluctuations.
top dressing	Fertilize once every two weeks after watering.	You can feed peppers on the windowsill with purchased nitrogen fertilizers for indoor flowers. Or make a nutrient solution (3 liters of water and 6 tablespoons of ash). As a top dressing, you can prepare decoctions of nettle, plantain, clover. This is very beneficial for peppers.

The plant may suffer from a lack of minerals. How to grow peppers in the most favorable conditions? Just monitor the condition of its leaves and apply in a timely manner necessary fertilizer with the right ingredients:

• the leaves curl, a dry edge appears at the edges - a lack of potassium (add potassium sulfate or potassium nitrate);
• dull color of the leaves with a grayish tint, the foliage begins to shrink - there is not enough nitrogen (ammonium nitrate, which contains 35% nitrogen, will help);
• the lower part of the leaves becomes purple, and the leaves themselves begin to cuddle up to the trunk and stretch upwards - there is little phosphorus (you need phosphoric acid 16-18% percent);
• the leafy crown acquires a marble color - the pepper on the windowsill lacks magnesium in the diet (magnesium is needed in sulfate form).

You can not use potassium salt, potassium chloride (their composition with an excess of chlorine is harmful to pepper roots). But excess nitrogen is not terrible for pepper.

We are waiting for the harvest

Most domestic pepper varieties are self-pollinating plants. By the way, they can also be pollinated. So try to keep different varieties peppers apart.

When the first fruits appear, do not overload the plant - leave up to 4-5 fruits on it.

Getting our own seeds

For this, we select red, ripe fruits. We cut the pepper carefully in a circle of the stalk and very carefully remove the seed pod, holding it by the stalk.

We devote the next 4 days to drying the seed at a temperature of + 25 ° C to + 30 ° C. And we separate the seeds. Store them in a paper bag in a warm, dark place.

The maximum shelf life of seeds is 5 years.

We transplant the plant

It is necessary to transplant pepper on the windowsill once a year. He wants new, fresh land for a richer harvest (after all, he has already taken everything useful from the old soil). Change the earth completely to fresh.

Transplant the plant carefully, trying not to injure the root system with an earthy clod.

And after two years of the life of the pepper, it already needs to be changed. He is a biennial plant and will readily pass the baton to younger and stronger peppers.

Have a rich harvest!

See you soon, dear readers!

Pepper seeds, without pre-treatment, can germinate up to 2–2.5 weeks. Only very fresh ones sprout quickly, for example, last year's harvest. And so, germination decreases with each year of storage, and by the age of four it goes to zero.

Preparation of pepper seeds for sowing seedlings

For sowing, the most full-weight healthy seeds are first selected. To do this, they are immersed for 5 minutes in a 3% solution of sodium chloride. Bad seeds will float on the surface, good seeds suitable for planting will sink to the bottom.

The next step is to prepare the seeds for planting. To begin with, they are soaked for 5 hours in warm water, then wrapped in a paper towel or gauze and placed in plastic bag and put in a warm place until sprouting.

Germinated seeds are sown only in moist soil, as they can die in dry soil.

You can prepare the seeds for planting in another way. It's called bubbling. This requires an aquarium compressor. Pepper seeds are placed in a jar, filled with water at room temperature, then air is supplied to this jar from a compressor. In general, it is done as in an aquarium, only as fish - seeds. This method is considered more effective than simple soaking. After a day, they are pulled out of the water and dried. Bubbling is carried out a couple of weeks before sowing.

To prevent pepper diseases, planting material disinfect. For this, effective and low-toxic biological products are on sale: Alirin-B, Albit, Baktofit, Trichodermin, Fitosporin. You can simply soak the pepper seeds for 15 minutes in a dark purple potassium permanganate solution, and then rinse well. Only swollen seeds are treated with manganese.

You can also speed up seed germination. For this, growth stimulants are used, such as Novosil, Ribav-extra, Zircon, Epin, Ecogel. When treating seeds with these drugs, it is important to strictly observe the dosage, otherwise you can achieve the opposite effect. Growth stimulants are usually treated twice. The first time at the seed stage, the second time when two true leaves appear.

Another way of pre-sowing processing of pepper planting material is using a solution of wood ash. This treatment reduces morbidity and activates the immune system. Two tablespoons of ash are dissolved in 1 liter of water, then pepper seeds are placed in this solution (in a gauze bag). Then, after 5-6 hours, they are removed and dried without washing.

A day before planting, it is useful to treat pepper seeds with complex micronutrient fertilizers, such as Mikrovit, Cytovit. Seeds are kept in a solution of microelements for 12–24 hours, then dried without washing.

Carefully study the inscriptions on the bag, it happens that the seeds have already been prepared for sowing. In this case, sow them dry.

When processing planting material, do not strive to apply all the processing methods described at once - it is better to experiment, starting with the simplest.

When to plant pepper seedlings

In order to correctly calculate when to sow pepper for seedlings, you need to decide in advance where the pepper will grow - in a greenhouse or in open ground. It is also important to decide on the method of growing seedlings - with or without a pick, and also at what time it will be planted in a permanent place in the ground. Some gardeners sow pepper seeds as early as mid-February, but with such an early sowing time, it is simply necessary to take care of the backlight. The majority of those who like to grow pepper in greenhouses on solar heating, hotbeds, under the simplest film shelters, begin to sow pepper in late February - early March.

For supplementary illumination of seedlings use fluorescent lamps, since ordinary incandescent lamps are of little use for this.

Planting pepper seedlings

For growing seedlings, a mixture is prepared from peat, humus, soddy land (in a ratio of 6:2:1) or peat, soddy land and sand (2:1:1), or humus, soddy land and sand (3:3:1) . It is not bad to add a glass of wood ash to a bucket of the mixture. Naturally, you can prepare the mixture in a different way, as long as it is fertile and fairly loose. It is desirable to steam the mixture, and then keep it in a warm place for a week and a half before sowing so that it “comes to life” and microorganisms begin to actively act in it. A good option is ready-made soil mixture for peppers.

Each variety is sown in separate containers and must be signed. It is better to save seed bags so that, if necessary, you can clarify some details and features of the variety.

Usually pepper is grown with picks, sowing two months before planting in place. Peppers do not tolerate transplanting well because their root system recovers slowly from damage and as a result they are delayed in development for 7-10 days. Therefore, it is advisable to sow the seeds immediately in individual containers. small size(about 6*6, or 8*8cm). In this case, you can sow them 45-50 days before planting in a permanent place. If you are afraid that not all peppers will sprout and the place will disappear, sow two seeds at once in individual cups and then, if both sprout, then you can simply pull out one weaker plant.

When sowing in common containers (boxes), pepper is sown in rows with a distance of 3 cm between them, 2 cm is left between plants, planting depth is 1 cm. drying of the soil, and the cotyledon leaves will carry the seed coat on themselves, which will prevent them from developing.

After sowing, the soil is slightly compacted, watered with warm water, the containers are covered with film or glass so that the soil does not dry out and is kept in a warm place (23–26 ° C) until germination. If the ground is too cold and damp, the seeds may rot. If all these conditions are met, then the seeds that have undergone pre-sowing treatment will sprout in 3–5 days. It's okay if shoots appear in a week, peppers are generally a thoughtful culture.

As soon as the first sprouts appear, it is necessary to remove the film or glass and move the seedlings to the window, to a bright and cool place (16–18 ° C), then the seedlings will not stretch. After five days, it must be returned to a warm place and in the future to maintain a temperature of + 20- + 25 ° C during the day and + 16- + 18 ° C at night. It is advisable to follow these recommendations in the first days of plant life, otherwise, if too high temperature and high humidity seedlings will grow pampered, with a weak root system.

The place where the seedling box is located should be well lit. With a lack of light, peppers lay buds later - not after the 8th–9th leaf, but, for example, after the 12th. In order for the seedlings to be strong, even, they are regularly turned over to the sun.

You need to water the seedlings only with warm water - moderately, but enough, without drying out the soil, otherwise the growth of peppers will stop, the stems will become woody, and the fruits will be with thin walls.

Picking seedlings of peppers

In the phase of 2 true leaves, seedlings grown in a common box are dived into separate containers about 10 * 10 cm in size. Larger pots are not needed, since seedlings grow slowly before laying flower buds, and besides, the development of the root system of plants lags behind from the development of the aerial part - it is very small, does not fill the entire volume of the pot, so the earth in it can turn sour. They make a pick like this: they hold the seedling by the stem, carefully, trying not to shake the earthen ball, place it in the hole to the cotyledon leaves, and crush the soil.

The pepper does not like transplantation (picking), but a kind of transshipment into a pot bigger size, in which the root ball does not suffer, tolerates easily.

Seedling feeding

About a week after picking, when the plants take root, they can already be fed with a weak solution complex fertilizers containing micronutrients. The second such top dressing is carried out at the beginning of budding, when the bushes begin to grow actively and they need more food. Solutions must be warm, about 30 ° C. If you feed organic fertilizers, then very carefully, otherwise the plant will begin to "fatten". If the leaves of the seedlings are pale green, then they lack nitrogen. In this case, you need to feed with a solution of urea (1 tablespoon per 10 liters of water).

If the seedlings grow too rapidly, "fatten", then this indicates an excess of nitrogen. Use superphosphate (3 tablespoons per 10 liters of water) - fill it with warm water and let it brew for a day.

In order for the seedlings to develop the root system well, you can use the drug Kornevin.

Before the start of budding, a simple “operation” can be carried out, which is capable of raising the crop by almost a third: the main stem is pinched over the fifth or eighth leaf, the pepper begins to branch actively, which means it will lay more fruits. There are opponents of this method, they prefer to form a bush in two stems and so lead it to its full height periodically tying it up.

Seedlings are planted in a permanent place at the age of 55–65 days, when they begin to form buds. It is important not to outgrow the peppers at home in a small container, otherwise they will stop growing after transplanting into the ground. If it is not possible to plant them in a permanent place on time, you will have to transfer the seedlings to large containers.

So that changes in growing conditions do not become too much stress for the plants and they do not stop growing, two weeks before planting in the ground, seedlings need to be hardened off: lower the temperature, reduce watering, if it is already warm enough, take them out into the open air little by little . A day before planting seedlings for better survival, you can spray it with "Epin" or "Zircon".